9 attendees: OC = Owen Clutton, JA = June Adams, RW = Roger Wright (Secretary), DB = Di Betts, GT = Geraldine Thompson, IS = Ian Stewart, AM = Angela Martin, ML = Miguel Laino, MM= Mary O’Mahony.
Agreed actions shown in bold red type.
1. The meeting started with the JPIC diocesan prayer and thought for the victims of the recent terrorist atrocity in Manchester.
Apologies for absence: Nick Babb and Peter Lowe.
Miguel Laino was welcomed to the meeting.
2. Minutes of last meeting
Any outstanding matters would be discussed as part of the agenda.
3. Traidcraft
The next stall would be held on 01-02 July and a rota agreed at the next meeting. DB reported that the last stall had sold £257 worth of goods.
4. Manna Centre
Nick Babb had prepared an item for Briefly following the successful donations of clothes and toiletries on 13-14 May. Six 240 litre wheelie bins of items had been collected by the Manna Centre driver on Monday 15 May.
MM explained, for the benefit of ML, the purpose of the Manna Centre in serving the needs of the homeless and how St James’ had been a long supporter of this charity.
5. Parish Project
Plant sale
£418.52 was raised for St Helen’s at last weekend’s plant sale. DB had circulated thanks to all those who had helped in one way or another. OC said that special thanks were due to DB and GT for the extraordinary amount of effort they had expended to make the event a great success.
Funds raised
MM ran through the amounts raised at each event and offertory collection for St Helen’s. The total now stands at £10,387. The amounts can be seen on the parish website at www.stjamespettswood.org/crbst_1195.html and on the notice board in the church entrance.
IS asked about how the money was transferred to such a project. OC explained that it was done in tranches depending on circumstances, using secure bank transfers to Fr Alex, for example, who was well known by Fr David. The importance of reporting back to the parish and general governance of the process was emphasised.
The final donation for St Helen’s would be a second collection to be held on 01-02 July.
Next project
OC continued to wait for a response from Fr Joe Cremona of the St Catherine of Alexandria Parish in the Philippines concerning how he would propose to use the funds raised by St James’. He had been told that we would prefer to support his efforts to provide technical education to his parish and community. Details received from Fr Joe can be read at www.stjamespettswood.org/crbst_1275.html.
It was observed that this type of overseas project belong to the parish and the J&P Group are simply initiators and facilitators in conjunction with Fr David. Every group and section of the parish is encouraged to support a project and feel part of it. A good example was the offer that Suzanne Horner had made to involve the Brownies. It was suggested that Beavers could also take part.
ML and IS made points about the impact of gift aided donations. There seemed to be difficulty for new parishioners in finding out about the parish scheme. RW suggested that the as yet unpublished parish information booklet would probably alleviate such problems in future. The scheme is outlined on the website at www.stjamespettswood.org/giftaid.html.
6. Foodbank deliveries
DB would take over deliveries to the new Foodbank centre St Barnabas church from Wednesday 31 May (Monday being a Bank Holiday). MM would take over this duty in July. RW would send details of the address to DB and MM.
The food collection scheduled for 15-16 July would especially important as it is designed to boost supplies for the summer holidays when many children suffer as a result of not having free school meals. RW proposed that flyers should be distributed for two weekends ahead of this collection.
7. Liaison with other J&P groups
RW had received a request from Duncan Aitkins, deacon at St Theresa’s in Biggin Hill, about starting a J&P group in his parish. He invited RW to attend the inaugural meeting to give an idea of the way the St James' group works. He further suggested that parishes might convene to discuss how the deanery could promote J&P issues. MM had agreed to accompany RW to the meeting although no date had yet been agreed.
The general feeling of the meeting was that while occasional liaison and cooperation with other groups, e.g. for talks or similar events was a good idea, the activities of any J&P group is related to the needs of, and engagement with, other organisations within a particular parish. The meeting decided that at this time there is not the scope within the fairly small group to take on more commitments. Whilst those present did not feel closer liaison would be advantageous at the present time, the decision could be reviewed at a later date.
8. Parish notes
RW reminded all those present that as members of the J&P Group, they were included in Fr David’s invitation to attend the volunteers’ thank you reception in the Community Centre on Saturday 03 June at 7.00pm.
MM is unable to attend the Parish AGM on 21 June. Fr David had asked all groups to present a report on their activities of the last year and plans for the future. OC agreed to prepare notes and give such a report.
9. Any other business
IS noted the overlap of J&P and SVP activities, suggesting that it would be a good idea to encourage temporary relationships from time to time.
IS spoke of his concern about the immediate threat caused by man made climate change. There is a tendency for this over-arching world problem to slip down the agenda of politicians and the media. It therefore seemed right to remind Catholics that we should be taking personal action rather than leaving it to someone else. He was the author of a talk which could be presented to the parish and enquired how this might be brought about. ML was equally concerned, saying that public reaction tended to cite more obvious world problems, wars, famines, terrorism, etc. He also suggested that his contemporaries were more interested in obtaining a simple fix for the next five minutes of their lives than worrying about a problem which seemed unsolvable. RW noted that in 2008 he had initiated a parish group to report on how St James’ could reduce its carbon footprint. This did not result in any great changes although in 2011 he had introduced the LiveSimply award scheme, a big part of which was reminding us about the effects of living in a consumer society. As a result, the parish did switch some of its electricity supply to 100% renewable sources. This subject will be revisited at the next meeting.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at 9.20pm.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 28th May 2017 at 7.45pm.