Attendees: Father Bryan (FB) – left at 8.30pm, Mary O’Mahony, Madeleine Howell, Owen Clutton, David McCabe
Apologies: Doreen Hairs
Father Bryan opened the meeting with a reading from Just One Year by Timothy Radcliffe, describing the struggle for Christians in modern-day Bethlehem.
We then discussed the concept of Justice and Peace and how it is one example of where Christians have to move out of just participating in the sacraments. It was agreed that this was not an easy thing to do, especially living in a secular society.
David asked those present to fill out a contact details form, and also a form to show each member’s personal ranking of various J&P issues that the group could become involved with. These will be collected and added together to form a group ranking for action. David also handed out an “introductory pack”, containing a diary of J&P events throughout 2008, a summary of Catholic Social Teaching, a list of 116(!) J&P actions that we can all take, and some other information.
Hull Parish
We agreed that nothing had really progressed on this front since the second J&P meeting last year. It was decided that David would ask Father Bryan for the details of the Hull parish and Owen would write a letter (or E-mail) to the Parish Priest to find out what the situation was and how we could help, if at all.
If fund raising was considered appropriate then we could organize some sort of Parish event, either socially, a straight request for money (a special second collection?) or even a donation of unwanted Christmas presents!
This could tie in with Poverty Action Sunday on 3rd February.
Action: David to get contact details for Hull PP from FB; Owen to write letter/E-mail.
Other Parish abroad?
This led us onto a discussion as to whether we should adopt a Parish abroad. If so it was strongly felt that there should be some connection with our own Parish to increase the congregation’s engagement. We discussed contacting Father Raj who was part of the Parish a few years ago. We also discussed asking Parishoners to let us know if they have connections with Parishes abroad.
Action: David to discuss with FB.
CAFOD/Fairtrade
We agreed that we would like to become a CAFOD and Fair Trade Parish:
CAFOD Parish contacts usually promote CAFOD Fast Days by displaying Fast Day materials, publicising it in the Parish newsletter, handing out Fast Day envelopes after Mass and sometimes reading out a two minute appeal for CAFOD at Mass.
It was decided that we would wait for the next meetingbefore asking someone to volunteer for this role.
Fair Trade Parishes serve Fair Trade tea and coffee at all parish events and meetings, agree to promote Fair Trade more via posters, a stall or regular event, and organise an event once a year in Fair Trade fortnight (This year 25th Feb-9th Mar).
We thought it a good idea if we held a stall in the Social Centre once a month after Parade Mass. Noting the problems we might have with storage Madeleine agreed to contact members of the Petts Wood URC to see if they would be interested in running the stall.
We also discussed the restocking of the Social Centre with Fair Trade products, athiough these would be more expensive.
Action: Madeleine to contact URC members, David to discuss with FB/others re restocking of Social Centre supplies.
Homelessness
We discussed the needs of the Manna Centre and how they are grateful for mugs, second-hand towels and men’s clothes and even furniture, which they would collect. It was suggested that we might set up a temporary or even permanent depository in the Social Centre to collect items such as these. This would also tie in with Homelessness Sunday on the 26th January.
Action: David to discuss with FB.
Date of next meeting was confirmed as Tuesday, 12th February.
The J&P group will meet on the second Tuesday of each month, excluding August and December.
Meeting concluded at 9.15pm