Event 6 | St George's Maghull

Summer Schedule

The summer schedule comes to an end this weekend. Numbers have remained constant throughout the summer. There is some movement between the Parishes.
Fr Des (St Mary’s Parish) will remain on sick leave for the next few months and it has been decided that only one Mass will be celebrated at St Mary’s at the weekend on Sunday at 9:00am; this will be covered by local clergy.
A point was made from the floor that while numbers remained constant, which is positive, people who attend our Church who are not parishioners may not commit to volunteer within the Parish.
A further discussion followed on the new surveying process being introduced by the diocese and the increasing costs of keeping buildings in good condition.

Caritas

Noreen McGinnity shared information from the last Caritas meeting. A representative from Share Knowsley gave a presentation on how their organisation helps asylum seekers and refugees in the area. People’s opinions are greatly affected by the language the media and politicians use and she discussed how the problem was made to appear a bigger problem than it actually is. Asylum seekers are only 0.5% of the population. Share Knowsley offers practical support to all those who are seeking asylum to help make their quality of life better.

Web Site

Paul Symes thanks everyone for viewing the web site and offering articles for publication. The web site continues to get on average 600 views a month and is still getting a large number of enquires for the Sacraments through the contact pages.
Prayer Retreat resources have been well used and are going to remain on the site until Advent.
Updates – as promised at the last meeting the bereavement page has been updated and now has the ‘When Someone Dies’ booklet produced by ‘Help the Aged‘ to act as a source of information. The Health and Wellbeing Directory will be going live at the weekend, offering a source of contact points to services and charities in the area that people might want to contact. The safeguarding page is soon to be updated. If any other group leaders want to look at their page and send through any updates their pages will be updated. In the Parish meeting in March concern was expressed that not all the content on some pages could be viewed on a mobile phone: these pages have now started to be reconfigured and the font made larger to aid accessibility. This will be an ongoing process over the next few months.
New series of articles starting ‘Behind the Scenes’, exploring all the non-congregation-facing ministries that take place in the Parish; hopefully this will encourage more volunteers

Finance Update

George Aldridge gave a report. Collections are up on the same period last year, however the Parish is still working from a deficit position. Reserves have also declined over the past year.
Reporting of monies received for the Foodbank and ‘Save our Kitchen’ fund will have to be included in our report to the diocese but will not be included in the Parish final accounts.
Thanks given to people who have made personal donations to the Parish fund; they are gratefully received.
A question was raised as to whether the charitable donations made to the foodbank have affected the Parish income. Fr Chris confirmed that the Church income has in fact increased and thanked those Parishioners who give so generously to all the extra collections we have. This charitable support forms part of our Parish mission and outreach in helping those in most need.

Kitchen

Kitchen fund has now exceeded its target. Fr Chris thanked and congratulated all involved.
The future use of the social centre was discussed. The nursey company who had expressed an interest in using the social centre had said they were only interested in buying in it. The archdiocese is not going to sell the centre so this project will not be moving forward unless the nursery company will consider a lease arrangement. The diocesan estate agent will continue to look for shared usage projects to support the social centre.
Plans have been drawn up for the kitchen and they were shared and discussed at the meeting.

Church Heating

The surveyor was asked in July to make sure the quote for the new church heating system was in place for presentation to the trustees for permission for the September meeting but this deadline could not be met. The first trustee meeting that the quote can be presented at is the November meeting. There then follows a procurement process which must take place. Realistically it will be the springtime at the earliest before any work on a new heating system can begin. It has been decided to hire the same extra heating appliances that we had last year from the 1st October.
The surveyors’ department has insisted that the Parish has a feasibility study on the proposed new system to ensure that it will heat the church efficiently and effectively.

Mission

There are currently nine people enquiring about joining our community, They are following a short course on a Sunday morning.

Sabbattical

Fr Chris will be taking a sabbatical during October and November, including a 30 day retreat. Fr Lister will be in residence in the presbytery during most of that time and will respond to any routine calls for ministry.
Emergency sick calls when Fr Lister is not available will be directed in the first instance to Fr Philip Inch at Holy Rosary Parish; if he is not available then the other parishes to be contacted. All contact details will be displayed on the ‘News Page’ and ‘Sacrament of the Sick’ pages on the web site.

Safeguarding

Stuart Burke thanked everyone who has completed a DBS check and the process is now complete. The safeguarding web page will be updated in the near future where Stuart and Anna will share their phone numbers so people have easy access to them should there be a need to contact them quickly.