1) LiveSimply prayer
2) Apologies for absence
3) Progress reports – Substantial actions
Simply: Outdoor worship space and garden
Sustainably: Reduce carbon footprint by 10%
Solidarity: Connect2 Bangladesh
4) Progress reports – Supporting actions
5) Events diary
6) Date of next meeting
Those present: Julian Arnold (Chairman), Linda Samuels, Mary O’Mahony (Mary O’M), Mary Ingledew (Mary-I), Teresa Wells, Roger Wright. Victoria Simpson had sent her apologies.
Action summary
Roger to ask Fr Bryan if the first LiveSimply Mass weekend could be moved from 16/17th February to 9/10th February. [done – OK]
Roger to check hall availability for Sunday evenings after the Easter holidays then to advise Julian. [done]
On recent of hall availability, Julian to muster volunteers to attend an initial meeting in the small hall after a 9.15am Mass.
Roger to print 300 copies of Kainmari leaflet addressed to parishioners, once date of Kainmari Curry Night (KCN) has been agreed.
Roger to send Teresa words of LiveSimply song and music for LiveSimply hymn. [done]
Julian to talk to Mrs Esaias at the school about how LiveSimply could be involved in helping her develop the Forest School.
Roger to supply Julian with details of National Forest tree planting scheme and for him then to place an order through Roger as a trial.
Mary-I will investigate waste management and recycling issues in relation to what is already being done and then recommend siting of containers and appropriate signage.
Mary O’M will follow up on the liturgy issues, especially with regard to the various groups who might be able to contribute.
The meeting mainly consisted of reviewing progress from information gathered recently, and discussion flowing from each topic. Discussion notes are shown in blue.
Garden
Joe Falzon is leading this and he said on 14Jan:
Now that the Christmas period is over we will be getting back to planning the Garden. I'm arranging a meeting over the next couple of weeks to delegate tasks to the lead group and to gather ideas prior to putting together the project plan. The aim is to have some initial plans and ideas ready in February to put forward to the group. I'd like to be in a position to be clearing the area in March/April and then start putting the garden together soon after. I will give you a more detailed update as soon as I can.
Planning team
Joe Falzon
Mel Deasy
Teresa Wells
Mary Hutchinson
Ann Said
Others who came to initial meeting or are very keen to be involved later
Llew Thomas
Andrea Crosland
Patrick Driscoll
Mary Ingledew
Anne Jackson
Energy
Austin Barradell is looking into this and said just after Christmas:
I’ve looked, in detail, at the Good Energy quote and modified the assumptions and rates to reflect our current situation. Unfortunately, we are locked into contracts until August/December this year so the opportunity to switch is a little way off yet. Having said that I think that we can get a better financial result for the Parish and reduce CO2 by doing so, although not necessarily through Good Energy.
It seems that Cooperative Energy offer some very competitive prices and claim that last year they supplied 100% ‘green’ electricity to their customers. As part of the Cooperative movement they also have an ethical approach to things which I think sits nicely. Of course, we also need to reduce energy consumption overall and hopefully we can achieve progress there as well. Here, I’m thinking particularly about improving the thermal efficiency of the Presbytery.
I’ve done a note for the Finance Committee which meets on 14th and once they’ve pronounced I’ll update you.
He subsequently sent Roger his report which is comprehensive and quite technical. The FC approved his recommendation to change as the opportunity arises later this year but this obviously means we can’t complete that action until the end of 2014.
He also explained why no provision had been made for natural lighting on the new roof – but it hasn’t been ruled out for a future phase. As part of the work, the Counting House roof light has been replaced with a double or triple glazed unit and the roof in general has better insulating properties.
Did anyone see the ridiculous item about us in The Pilgrim? We were totally misquoted. The Editor has apologised but still thought what he'd interpreted was reasonable (that is to say we were expecting to reduce our carbon footprint by 10% by planting a garden!).
We also got a mention in this week's Catholic Herald.
Connect2
An encouraging start has been made on this. We’ve registered with CAFOD and had all the introductory material.
Mary O’M visited the school in December to talk to Anna Bosher which resulted in immediate interest and 26 letters written by Year 7 to the community of Kainmari.
CAFOD asked us to prepare a leaflet about our parish to describe us to the community.
The leaflet and the letters were sent to CAFOD HQ and Grace Cowley emailed to say:
Just wanted to drop you a line to say thank you for the material you’ve put together for Kainmari – it all looks so good and I know the people of Kainmari will really appreciate it. Thanks also for enclosing a copy of your leaflet about Kainmari for me – it’s not often I get to see this sort of thing from parishes so really helpful, thanks.
Your plan for the coming months sounds very good and I hope it all goes very well. It’s so encouraging that the school have got so on board too.
We have also produced a leaflet about Kainmari to distribute to our congregation when we launch Connect2 here.
A Kainmari Curry Night is being planned but finding a date when the hall is available, on Saturday with time to set up, had proved difficult, the earliest possible appearing to be 15th June.
Linda (or Mary) pointed out that one of the children had written to the PW Residents Association Gazette about how the school was supporting CAFOD and it was a really nice piece.
There was much positive discussion about the idea of Kainmari Curry Night. Julian thought that the problem of hall availability should be solved by holding the event on a Sunday evening. As long as it starts reasonably early (say 6pm) this shouldn’t prevent families from attending. He will organise a meeting of people interested in organising the event. The meeting will probably be held in the small hall after 9.15am Mass. One of the attractions of this type of event is that it will involve different groups of the parish, and there was great confidence in being able to attract a good turnout.
Supporting actions
I emailed everyone who had been spoken to in relation to their possible involvement and have received some replies.
Live Simply
Ecumenical nature walk and picnic
Doreen Hairs said:
Firm Believers are generally up for things so can you tell us a little more about an Ecumenical nature walk and picnic? Presumably in summer months. All sounds very worthwhile.
Someone, a visitor, asked me recently to commend those involved for the wonderful posters in Church, saying how effective they are in making us think. I thought you'd like to know.
Roger will reply giving her some information about the Harvest walk arranged by Southwark CAFOD which took place in October from St Francis de Sales, Hartley. He also has a contact at the Friends of Jubilee Park who should know someone we could use as a nature guide. Also the National Trust warden would probably help if we wanted to take in the woods.
Loaves and fishes picnic – on hold
Liturgy
LiveSimply weekend Mass dates agreed with Fr Bryan – see calendar at end.
Susan Scripture had been very supportive and had been given the dates which are a mixture designed to take in Parade Mass and baptism Sundays. St John Bosco at Reading (1st LiveSimply award winners) have a Mass of Creation each year, and Fr Bryan would like this to take place at Harvest Sunday.
Brownies/Rainbows are sticking the LiveSimply hymn into front of hymn books – Suzanne Horner even volunteered to copy and guillotine the master for us.
We need one of us to coordinate each one:
Check to see if there’s anything we can tune into (e.g. uniformed group input, children singing, report on Kainmari, etc)
Make sure Susan is reminded and LiveSimply hymn will be included at 11am.
Organise banner carrying (servers, but use others as well if possible)
The LiveSimply prayer will be included in Briefly each week we use it.
It seemed sensible to launch Connect2 at one of the LiveSimply Mass weekends and the most suitable time to do this was agreed to be 9/10th February. Mary O’M will coordinate things and it is hoped to have involvement from the younger members of the congregation. Perhaps two children from school at each Mass could say a little about the letters they wrote to Kainmari. Linda suggested it would be nice if the children at Children’s Liturgy could be taught a song. Teresa will look into this, using the LiveSimply song for younger children, which is sung to the tune of “if you’re happy clap your hands”. This could be sung at the Offering and Fr Bryan might ask the Year 6 pupils a couple of questions for them to answer at the microphone about the letters they wrote. Older children could become involved through their uniformed groups as it is Parade Mass Sunday. Bidding prayers should include reference to Kainmari and any particular issue affecting the village at the time.
Live Sustainably
Forest School
Roger wasn’t sure on progress for this as there hadn’t been any communication with the school except via Linda, who said:
Maybe we can liaise with the PTA and ask for extra help. If we say we have a group ready to be involved and would welcome additional support from parents then we could email school and say we have a group ready to go and ask what needs doing and when. Did you think confirmation children might help? Many of them will still have siblings in the school and still have a fondness for St James’, having recently left.
There was some discussion about how this LiveSimply action could help and still retain its identity as an outreach activity. The most likely participants would be parents of school children and therefore identify their input as a PTA activity. However, Julian thought we could achieve the objectives of providing help as well as acting on behalf of LiveSimply and the church. He will speak to Mrs Esais about what is needed and when.
[Subsequent thought – perhaps we could ask Fr Bryan to come at the start and lead us in prayers before the labour commences – a blessing on the venture.]
Walking to Mass weekend
No progress to report but there is a LiveSimply Mass weekend scheduled at a deliberately suitable date in September (14/15th). The event will need someone to really take hold of it this time and organise something a bit special.
[Parishioners James and Caroline liked the idea of a walk to Mass day (or leave car at home day) even though they live in Victoria Rd, Bromley Common and have a toddler.]
Roger felt that the 2009 event wasn’t as successful as he had hoped and this time more effort into the organisation and promotion was needed. Ideas included badges for children and for Fr Bryan to suggest that parishioners might consider walking to Mass during Lent instead of giving up something (or in addition to). We agreed to give Fr Bryan a list of environmentally friendly tips for parishioners to consider during Lent anyway.
Eco-friendly hall refurb
Roger had asked the Project Board for information about how environmental issues had been considered. Insulation, reclaiming tiles and natural lighting were possible topics but little definite details had emerged. Tile reclamation had not been possible but A+ manufactured ones were used. The flat roof had been re-covered with a long-life material (possibly with Polymer Modified Mastic Asphalt from what Austin had mentioned. This has a 50-60 year lifespan so could be considered as an environmental improvement).
Teresa explained that roof windows had not been incorporated partly because of planning consent and also construction difficulties caused by the need to keep the hall open (as well as extra cost).
Tree planting
Linda and Roger had communicated about this before Christmas which led him to buy a couple of trees (one each from different schemes). There are anonymous versions of the certificate for us to show potential participants. So we are ready to go and need to think about launching our scheme.
Roger to supply Julian with details of National Forest tree planting scheme and for him then to place an order through Roger as a trial. Julian will then make a family visit to plant his tree and bring back photos to assist with our promotion of this action. We discussed the idea of displaying the certificates in a tree shape or along the wall of the back corridor to encourage others to join in.
Recycling/waste management/cleaning materials
Recycling scheme - FB thought we were doing everything correctly but Roger suggested that Mary-I and he should still investigate then add notices (LiveSimply indicated) and acquire bins as appropriate.
Cubs are doing something and Teresa is very conscientious in the Presbytery but can we do more?
Teresa explained how the present system worked where cans/bottles/plastic is collected by the Cubs and taken to the Presbytery where it is put out for the normal household collection (sometimes 4-6 green boxes worth). Breda takes paper home to put out for her household collection. There was much discussion about waste food and how hall booking rules should insist that private hirers should follow the same procedure as we must use for parish events. Proper containers and signage would be needed and Mary-I will follow up all the various possible sources of compostable waste and material recycling.
Linda has suggested that we should also investigate the cleaning products used around the premises as part of our environmental watch. We need to audit all aspects including food waste and use of non-disposable crockery and utensils.
Mary-I has sent various links to C of E approach to environmental issues. There seems to be a lot more joined up thinking by Anglican churches than the Catholic Church.
Roger hadn’t got round to adding tips on environmental issues to website yet, as action plan says we will. There are other ways in which the website could be improved to keep people informed about LiveSimply and it would be useful to have these done ahead of any announcements or launches that we make.
Live in Solidarity
Younger parishioner contribution
This is under consideration by Mary O’M who will be contacting various relevant parish groups.
Shoe Rafiki
Victoria and Linda had reported that the scheme is no longer being run so this action has been curtailed.
Rich Man Poor Man dinner
Susan Lams unable to take this on at the present time but we should put it on the shelf for much later. Roger had been thinking of a fairly simple version which is to have a top table with silver service (perhaps food from Cook in PW) and everyone else has sandwiches. A raffle at the start selects those getting the posh meal. Obviously the event needs supporting material, speeches, entertainment, etc. This is the way they did it at St John Vianney, Tottenham.
Rainbows and Brownies
(bulbs – Sustainably; world issues – Solidarity)
Incredible enthusiasm from Suzanne who has taken on bulb planting for this coming autumn (when the new garden should be complete) and also sponsoring a child overseas as part of the Brownies world issues badge. She is also doing the hymn book sticking.
She has also asked if J&P will help by speaking about Fairtrade at one of the Brownie meetings. It’s a good time to do this because Fairtrade Fortnight is in February and we’ll have the Traidcraft stall one of those weekends.
Foodbank and Manna Centre
J&P continue to run these and there are three dates agreed with Fr Bryan in 2013 for each collection. In addition, we pick up small quantities which people leave in the Foodbank box and take these down once a month. Just over a ton of food collected for Foodbank but sadly the quantity has been steadily dropping. J&P is also running the Traidcraft stall regularly through 2013.
|
19-Jan |
Traidcraft stall |
|
16-Feb |
Manna Centre |
|
09-Mar |
Traidcraft stall - Fairtrade Fortnight ends so needs more emphasis |
|
13-Apr |
Orpington Foodbank |
|
04-May |
Traidcraft stall |
|
15-Jun |
Manna Centre |
|
13-Jul |
Traidcraft stall |
|
20-Jul |
Orpington Foodbank |
|
21-Sep |
Manna Centre |
|
28-Sep |
Traidcraft stall |
|
09-Nov |
Traidcraft stall |
|
16-Nov |
Orpington Foodbank |
|
30-Nov |
Traidcraft stall |
Hall bookings and other events partial listing
|
|
YCL=Youth Club 12noon-2.00pm; 1HC=1st HC class 4.00-5.45pm |
|
Sat |
12-Jan |
YCL then 1HC |
|
Sun |
20-Jan |
Traidcraft stall |
|
Sat |
26-Jan |
1HC |
|
Sat |
02-Feb |
YCL |
|
Sat |
09-Feb |
1HC |
|
Sun |
10-Feb |
LiveSimply weekend (Parade Mass and launch of Connect2) |
|
Sat |
16-Feb |
YCL |
|
Sun |
17-Feb |
Manna Centre |
|
Sat |
23-Feb |
End of half-term |
|
Sat |
02-Mar |
1HC and WAP week starts next day |
|
Sat |
09-Mar |
WAP week starts today |
|
Sat |
09-Mar |
YCL and end of WAP week |
|
Sun |
10-Mar |
Traidcraft stall - Fairtrade Fortnight ends so needs more emphasis |
|
Sat |
16-Mar |
1HC |
|
Sat |
23-Mar |
PWFC weekend |
|
Sun |
24-Mar |
Palm Sunday; PWFC (Fauré's Requiem) |
|
Sat |
30-Mar |
Easter weekend |
|
Sat |
06-Apr |
Schools off |
|
Sun |
07-Apr |
LiveSimply weekend (possible baptism) |
|
Sat |
13-Apr |
Schools off |
|
Sun |
14-Apr |
Orpington Foodbank |
|
Sat |
20-Apr |
CWL 10.00am-4.00pm and 1HC |
|
Sun |
21-Apr |
Kainmari Curry night possible - booking reserved |
|
Sat |
27-Apr |
1HC |
|
Sun |
28-Apr |
Kainmari Curry night possible - booking reserved (FB & TW away) |
|
Sat |
04-May |
Church foundation stone laid in 1963 by Bishop Cowderoy |
|
Sun |
05-May |
Traidcraft stall |
|
Mon |
06-May |
Bank Holiday |
|
Sat |
11-May |
YCL then 1HC |
|
Sun |
12-May |
LiveSimply weekend (Parade Mass) |
|
Sat |
18-May |
1HC |
|
Sat |
25-May |
Start of half-term |
|
Sat |
01-Jun |
End of half-term |
|
Sat |
08-Jun |
YCL |
|
Sun |
16-Jun |
Manna Centre |
|
Sat |
22-Jun |
Ireland |
|
Sun |
23-Jun |
LiveSimply weekend |
|
Sat |
29-Jun |
Ireland |
|
Sun |
14-Jul |
Traidcraft stall |
|
Sun |
21-Jul |
Orpington Foodbank |
|
Sun |
28-Jul |
Possible opening of worship garden for feast of St James' (25th July) and building anniversary |
|
Sun |
15-Sep |
Walk to Mass weekend? |
|
Sun |
15-Sep |
LiveSimply weekend |
|
Sun |
22-Sep |
Manna Centre |
|
Sun |
29-Sep |
Traidcraft stall |
|
Sun |
06-Oct |
LiveSimply weekend (Creation Mass for Harvest) |
|
Sun |
10-Nov |
Traidcraft stall |
|
Sun |
17-Nov |
Orpington Foodbank |
|
Sun |
17-Nov |
LiveSimply weekend |
|
Sun |
01-Dec |
Traidcraft stall |