Cluster Pastoral Council Update
Update from the Cluster Pastoral Council – 31 October 2024
The new Cluster Pastoral Council (CPC) held its first business meeting last week. You’ll remember that the purpose of the Council is to take the lead in supporting Fr Alex and the cluster parishes in turning his vision for the cluster into reality. Here’s a quick update on what we’re doing to get us moving forward.
First, we’ve agreed some short term actions as we approach Advent and Christmas.
The new liturgical year kicks off on the first Sunday of Advent and we’ll be having a “name badge Sunday” then. CPC members Libby Marshall and Chikondi Talbot are going to work with Fr Alex and others in the cluster to turn this into a real opportunity to show how we want to reach out to others and welcome them – an essential part of our mission. We’re also going to be talking around this time about the forthcoming RCIA programme and what we could all do to invite people to participate in it.
A sub-group of the CPC (Jacinta Flockhart, Anne Henry, Georgina Rosair and John Whitlock) will work with Fr Alex (and others) on the preparation of a Cluster Advent Reconciliation service and any Cluster support required for the Christmas liturgies.
Separately, the same group will start to consider how we might organise longer-term liturgy planning, and developing our liturgy experience.
We’re also setting in hand some other work which may take a little longer to show visible results.
We’re commissioning a short piece of work, to make recommendations on the Parish Council part of the new structures, and on improving our communications. We have somebody to lead this work, but we need a small team to make it happen. Could you be a part of that, or do you know somebody who might? Please see below and get in touch if you could help.
Also on the theme of communications, we’re going to be producing a simple “welcome booklet” with an updated list of ministries and contact points to make it easier for new (and not so new) parishioners to know who to contact about sharing of their time and talents, in line with the first point of our vision.
The CPC is having a half-day “awayday” in mid November, to reflect on the vision. This will feed into the preparation of a short term pastoral plan to discuss with parishioners at large at a Cluster gathering, probably in early spring. We're also planning a one-day retreat for the CPC, in February next year, to remind us what this is all about, and that our work has to be grounded in prayer.
We’ll report back again, and say a bit more about the Council itself, its members and its intended role, after our awayday in mid November.
Working group on structures for parish councils and improving communication – could you help?
It was always foreseen that within the new structure we would relaunch the Parish Pastoral Councils. Now that the CPC has been formed we’d like to get this under way. The Cluster Council has commissioned a short piece of work, which will run over the next few months. This will have two main areas of focus:
- Looking at structures for Parish Councils and how these best work alongside the Cluster Council;
- Looking at how we can be better communicators. This will ensure we keep Parishes updated with what’s going on across the Cluster, but also ensure the Cluster Council hears what the views are in our Parishes.
To allow the Cluster Council to get on with its priorities, we are looking for a small group to take hold of this initiative. Danny Friel, who led the work on structures that led to the establishment of the CPC, has agreed to lead this, but we need a small team of others who can work with him, consult, and produce some recommendations which we can implement fairly quickly.
We are not looking for any significant experience, other than people who are members of one of our parishes and have an interest in how we grow as a faith community. If anyone has specific communication experience, that would be an added bonus, but it’s by no means essential. If you think you might be able to help with this, please speak to Fr Alex or send an email to the usual cluster address (southedclust@btinternet.com).