10 attendees: OC = Owen Clutton (Chairman), GT = Geraldine Thompson, DB = Diana Betts, MM = Mary O’Mahony, PL = Peter Lowe, RW = Roger Wright, JA = June Adams, AM = Angela Martin, BF = Breda Ford, FB = Fr Bryan (part)
Apologies were received from:
Agreed actions shown in bold red type.
1. Minutes of last meeting
There were no comments from the last meeting except for special thanks to DB and GT for their great effort and success with the Traidcraft stalls last year.
2. Overseas project for 2014
At the last meeting, members agreed that the Jesuit project in Zimbabwe (Zambuko House) should be supported. Various points were made:
The first offertory collection would be on 17-18th May, the weekend of Confirmation at which Bishop Lynch will preside.
Fr Bryan will appraise the Bishop, asking him to say a few words to encourage the parish in this project and hopefully benefit the first of its collections.
RW will put photos on the website after OC has checked with the Jesuit coordinator who is Paul Chitnis.
OC will arrange to have photos displayed on the notice board in church.
FB will make a preliminary announcement about the project the weekend before. This may be accompanied by short talks given my members of J&P.
It is possible that members of parish groups will sponsor aspects of the project, as the Craft Club had done for "You Touch Africa" in making blankets to send to Tanzania.
Three collections are planned for this year (18 May, 15 June, 07 Dec) and a fourth in 2015.
John Murphy of "You Touch Africa" had been in touch with OC. He had offered to speak at Mass in order to thank the parish for its support in 2012. There would be no collection. It was agreed that this might even assist in the launch of the Zambuko House project.
OC would discuss possible dates with FB.
3. Southwark JPIC Spring Assembly (17th May)
This will take place at Holy Innocents so it was hoped that some of the J&P group might attend. The theme is “Solidarity with the Poor” and will commence at 10.30am, ending by 4.30pm. PL may be able to attend for half of the day, GT and DB may attend, RW is planning to attend.
4. Guides LiveSimply Lenten Lunch
This will take place on Palm Sunday, 13th April, after Parade Mass. There was slight concern that the hall would remain full of people after 11.30am coffee/bar making set-up difficult. OC suggested that most people not involved would probably have left by 1pm although a few may linger after that.
Several members hoped to attend, and offer support if needed: AM, PL, OC, MM, BF and RW, and possibly DB.
5. Bromley Borough Foodbank
DB, GT and RW had delivered the donations collected on 22-23 March which amounted to 240kg. Adding the ad hoc donations left in the porch each week, the total collected this year came to 272kg.
FB suggested that we ask the Foodbank organisers to send someone along to speak at Mass so that the parish can be thanked personally as it were.
RW will ask if this is possible.
6. Fairtrade
DB showed the certificate which signifies the parish has Fairtrade status. She had applied for this from CAFOD. It was handed to Fr Bryan for display in the church entrance and also by the serving hatch in the hall.
It was suggested there should be a tea caddy in the kitchen signifying Fairtrade to remind users. The kitchen always orders tea and coffee through DB’s Traidcraft channel.
82 Real Easter eggs had been ordered (including 3 large ones), with a total value of about £350. Volunteers to help with the collection of eggs in the coming weekend were agreed to be:
6pm DB
9.15am AM (GT would have eggs and float waiting in the repository)
11am PL and OC
There were still 26 eggs to be collected.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at 9.05pm.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 23rd April 2014 at 7.45pm.