The Parish Pastoral Council held its fifth Zoom meeting during lockdown on 24th August; we began as usual with an opening prayer.
We reviewed the arrangements for Mass after several weekends with the church open. In general things are going well. We operate a first come first admitted policy and whilst this is not ideal, having explored other options it will remain the policy for the foreseeable future.
The seating arrangement for the church has been meticulously calculated to allow the maximum number of parishioners in the church for any service and we cannot allow this capacity to be exceeded. Given that the numbers attending Mass are steadily increasing, which is wonderful to see, this does present the possibility that the church may on occasions be full and the last to arrive will be unable to be admitted. This is a situation we would wish to avoid but regretfully may occur in the coming weeks or months.
In general there is more space at the 6pm Saturday Mass and plenty of space during the week. Our advice is to arrive in good time. We will of course continue to Live Stream all Masses on YouTube.
Our financial position remains a concern, as more people return to mass we have seen an increase in the offertory collection which is very welcome but still far short of pre-lockdown levels. Do not forget you can donate via JustGiving at any time, visit the website and click on the JustGiving icon on the home page.
Fr Peter brought the meeting to a close with a final prayer with special mention of those people suffering from, or being affected by, the Coronavirus in any way.
The next Zoom meeting of the Parish Council will be in a month’s time on 8th October 2020.
We would be pleased to hear from members of the parish on any subject. Please speak to any member of the Council, drop a letter into the sacristy or contact Gerry via odonnellgerry@outlook.com.
The PPC members are, Fr. Peter, Sue Carr, Pauline D’Mello-Maplesden, Brenda Eydman, Roque Fernandes, Bernadette Hallett, Bridget Hanlon, Penne Hutton, Peter McFall, Erica Thurbon, Gerry O’Donnell, Elsie Ofili and Colin Wilding.