The Sacred Heart Parish Pastoral Council meets four times a year to co-ordinate the work of the parish. Everyone is welcome to attend and speak at the meetings.
The next scheduled meetings are on Thursday September 30th 2010, Thursday December 2nd 2010, Thursday March 3rd 2011 and Thursday June 16th 2011. All meetings take place at 7.30pm in the parish hall and are usually finished by 9pm.
The President of the council is our parish priest, Father Ted Mullen. Here is his annual report to the 2010 annual general meeting.
- Not so much a report as a few observations about the life of the parish
- The life within the parish comes from a genuine desire to serve God and one another
- The quality of our worship is inspiring and uplifting
- People feel welcome and part of the parish family
- We have an outward focus as well to other denominations and faiths, with a strong thrust on justice and peace both locally and globally
- We are open to change and new ways of doing things
- We are forward looking and not anchored in the past
- We have a family atmosphere where young and older one respect one another and are happy to work together
- We try to be an inclusive community
- We try to be a community of different ministries working for the good of the whole
- We try to be builders of the kingdom
- We are eager to learn about our faith and enrich our relationship with God
- And, hopefully, we are not complacent but open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and relish living in the present for the sake of the future.
Here is the report given by outgoing chair of the council, Brian Davies.
Since the last AGM the Parish Council has met on three occasions, in September, December and March. In 2009 the main parish focus was our Jubilee Year the first half of which had already successfully happened when we met a year ago. Since then the celebration of our parish feast (The Sacred Heart) and of the Jubilee Mass and Party for Christ the King were much appreciated by parishioners and guests. Other high points were the Parish BBQ (August) and Concert (November). Altogether it was a very full and memorable programme. It's remarkable that the only casualties were the Parish Retreat and Christmas Bazaar. It was agreed that we should return to the idea of a Parish Retreat or Reflection Day but it will require more careful preparation.
Most of the Task Groups that were set up have been integrated with existing groups which now in most cases have increased membership. The amount of activity is clear from the range of reports at this AGM. A number of senior members of the parish have been retiring from these roles after long and dedicated service. There remains the perennial challenge of seeking to replace them with younger parishioners. It is therefore the more heartening to hear that a Young People's Worship Group plan to organise regular events.
Last year the Blagovest Concert had to be cancelled due to restrictions by the Border Agency. We await confirmation that visas have been granted for this year. They would be coming to us on Thursday 9th Sept and we would again be looking for hosts.
The Living Faith talks in the Autumn on the theme of Reconciliation were certainly appreciated by those who came but average attendance was down to 39 compared with over 60 in earlier series. The leaflet for this year's talks is being circulated. The slightly better representation at meetings of BCT and at Rugby Inter Faith Forum has been sustained.
There was a Parish Visitation by Bishop Kenney in January. While being entirely positive about what he found in the parish he encouraged closer collaboration with the other parishes in Rugby. A group of us took the opportunity to explore with him what could be done about a youth-worker for Rugby. No money would be available from the diocese but there would be nothing to stop us employing a youth-worker ourselves.
In February the parish was able to share in Fr Ted's celebration of 40 years of ordination and made a presentation. The parish indicated how delighted it was to have him as its parish priest and in turn he expressed how delighted he was to be here. We have been rewarded with some very honest and courageous preaching showing that even the study of Canon Law can have a positive outcome.
In the run-up to the General Election we held a meeting with the two Catholic candidates for Rugby. About 40 people were able to challenge them with the ideas that had been presented in our bishops' Choosing the Common Good. There might have been a concern that this would pre-empt attendance at the public meeting organised by BCT with the other candidates but in fact over a hundred turned out for the event at the Crescent School.
We continue to be grateful to John Howes and Paul Francis for their faithful role in leading the music for the liturgy and to John for his work on the parish website (sacredheartrugby.org).
The parish is also glad that Clare Claydon & Caroline Warburton have organised a couple of play sessions for children and a further one is planned for July.
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