7 attendees: PL = Peter Lowe, TW = Teresa Wells, MM = Mary O’Mahony, GT = Geraldine Thompson, JA = June Adams, Owen Clutton (Chairman), RW = Roger Wright
Apologies were received from: Diana Betts, Angela Martin, Caroline Price
Agreed actions shown in bold red type.
1. Matters arising from previous minutes (23 January 2013)
TW explained that the last batch of food taken to the Foodbank had been donated from St Augustine’s in Tunbridge Wells where her brother was involved in a night shelter and those items were not required there. A chart showing the weight of Foodbank collections had been displayed on the notice board. A parishioner had donated £20 and asked for food to be bought and taken to the Foodbank.
2. Connect2
RW mentioned a few aspects relating to the Kainmari launch weekend which seemed to go well and parishioners had been keen to take one of the 350 leaflets. MM explained there had been difficulties in selecting children from school with whom Fr Bryan was to have a short chat on the sanctuary. As a result this didn’t take place but we might try on another occasion.
GT noted that there were many other children who don’t attend St James’ and would like to be included in the Connect2 project. She also suggested that letters or drawings from a younger age group might be produced. MM will take this into account. MM had tried to arrange a meeting about LiveSimply liturgy issues but only one person, Joanna Longhurst, had attended following MM’s email to several people. She had also spoken to Kate Charlesworth since, but she got the impression that because people didn’t know her they decided not to attend. RW suggested that if MM gave him the names and the email he would contact them again. RW expressed the view that it was only through the liturgy we could promote LiveSimply to the whole parish. They might choose to avoid events, tree planting, etc. but all regular Mass-goers would take part in the liturgy when offered.
Some information was given about the Kainmari Curry Night. A team was being assembled by Julian Arnold, including members of J&P, and an initial planning meeting was to be held after 9.15am Mass on 03 March.
3. Traidcraft stall
GT reported that the stall is now showing a small profit and the response from the parish has been very encouraging. Fr Bryan’s reminders from the pulpit and before the final blessing were very effective and small queues are now forming after each Mass. Last time only one box of product was leftover. 71 of the Real Easter eggs had been pre-ordered for collection on 09/10 March. Luxury chocolate seems to be the best seller! At the March sale the Brownies will sell the pre-ordered eggs on their own stall.
RW noted that we had entered Fairtrade Fortnight. He passed round quite colourful posters which he had downloaded. TW would help to display these in the porch area. It is hoped to make the curry night as Fairtrade as possible. Even the drinks could be Fairtrade as a brewery in Westerham has produced a beer to commemorate the ending of the slave trade. It conforms to the standards because the sugar used is Fairtrade. The main chef for the curry night will be told to order as many ingredients as possible through our Traidcraft channel.
4. Bromley Night Shelter
OC had received a leaflet from John Warren of St Joseph’s J&P Group about the night shelter run by Bromley Churches Working Together. The shelter runs from December to March and John wondered whether there might be a possibility of setting up one to cover Petts Wood and Orpington. Discussion concluded that we weren’t in a position to pursue such a venture with PW Churches Together because of the many other demands and projects we were trying to run.
5. One World Week
This will be from 20-27 October and there will be a display in the Methodist church during the first weekend (19/20th). The display will be advertised and open to the public and Fr Bryan hoped that J&P will be involved in the event. On the Sunday there will be an ecumenical service at the Methodist church. More details are available on the OWW website.
Fr Bryan had written about this in an email, the text of which is shown below:
One World Week will be celebrated by the churches here in PW on the w/e of October 19th/20th. It will be based in the Methodist church and will comprise:
1. An exhibition of all our church’s involvement in social/international concern, from 10am-1.0.pm on the Saturday morning. (19th) Maximum publicity will be given to this and we would hope for several thousand visitors throughout the morning, shoppers, etc., and coffee will be served. Each church will mount its material in their hall- hopefully this will be manned by appropriate people from each church. We might even have continuous DVD etc......
2. Ecumenical service on the Sunday (20th) in the Methodist Church at 4.00pm, with a high quality speaker from Christian Aid. (Pauline [RW – Juliet?] has booked her but the name escapes me) followed by a high tea for everyone in their hall.
This venture is particularly exciting I think because:
a) We will have a platform/showcase for our many varied activities, J and P, Livesimply etc.....We will need plenty of visual material, maybe handouts etc....
b) It will bring the Methodists much more ‘on board’ (their new minister Juliet is absolutely delighted that we have chosen her church!)
c) It should be a fantastic outreach opportunity, bringing in the wider public etc.......
I thought it appropriate to flag this up now and perhaps J&P and LiveSimply will wish to discuss things at meetings before October. And of course we can talk together.
6. You Touch Africa
OC had received a report from Fr Arbo about progress with the Makomu Hospital project in Tanzania. RW passed round a copy of Fr Arbo’s report which is on the parish website. (It is only possible to display it with Microsoft Document Imaging software as this is the format Fr Arbo sent it.) OC will request more information about how much of the St James’ donations have now been spent. It was suggested he should contact Matt Gibbs of "You Touch Africa" for this.
7. Any other business
RW noted that it will be the turn of the J&P Group to do the church cleaning on Saturday 16th March from 10–11am. There will be a list of jobs displayed on arrival. We don’t want a situation where only one person turns up, so RW will send an email asking for people to commit to this duty.
RW passed round examples of certificates obtained when buying from one of the three LiveSimply tree planting schemes. TW will create an artificial tree for the church porch/corridor on which will be displayed three different varieties of leaf. The words of dedication for each tree will be on the leaves. RW explained that people can either fill out an application form or email him.
With regards to the LiveSimply garden Joe Falzon will make a schedule of requirements so people can decide to sponsor certain parts, such as a plant, some paving, an item of furniture, etc. The garden will be in the corner of the parish garden where the compost heap is currently located.
The IF campaign, in which CAFOD is a major partner, started in January with a big rally. 100 major charities are involved. There is a CAFOD short talk which explains how we must ensure that all peoples have enough food. OC noted his concern that the government is planning to spend some the International Aid budget on defence aspects. No one was aware of announcements from current International development secretary, Justine Greening.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at approximately 9.00pm.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 27th March at 7.45pm.