Parish Action Plan 2019 -2020
St Mary’s and St Joseph’s Catholic Parish
PARISH VISION STATEMENT
‘Christ is life, we exist to bring his life to our part of God’s creation’
PRAYER
We ask all to pray for the work of the parish that we may bring God’s word to the world and build his kingdom. We encourage parish groups and individuals to use the parish prayer.
VISION
‘Christ is life, we exist to bring his life to our part of God’s creation’
We have developed a short vision statement that sums up the purpose of our parish, it reminds us that we find life in Christ and that as his disciples we exist to bring his life to our world.
Review of 2017-2018 Action Plan
During the last year we have been able to achieve many of the objectives that we set ourselves to enable us to play our part in bringing Christ’s life to our part of God’s creation.
We have:
In 2019 – 2020 our aims are:
YOUTH MINISTRY
We aim for excellence in all of our weekend masses and look to encourage greater participation. We want our churches to be welcoming to the stranger, with highest quality liturgy.
ENGAGEMENT
2017-2018 Action Plan - Review
Last year’s action plan. Aims we achieved are underlined below, we would still aim to pursue some of the other aims where we can gain support for this.
WEEKEND MASSES:
Use key ‘engagement’ events throughout the year, eg. Christmas, Easter, sacraments, Pilgrimage, November – blessing of graves etc. to let others know ways of finding out more about Christ’s message.
Communication – be better at telling people what we do and how to get involved.
• Be better at making links between people and courses/groups etc.
• Publish a parish ‘what’s on’ timetable/ calendar.
• Develop the web site
• Update newsletter
• Updated mailing list of all who have had some involvement in the church.
• Use mail shots to advertise church courses and events.
• Expand Facebook following
• Signage in both churches and the Grotto.
Buildings
• Ensure parish complies with relevant health and safety requirements.
• Rationale for the use of buildings.
• Future maintenance / development commitments.
• Identify how the buildings support our mission.
St Mary’s and St Joseph’s Catholic Parish
PARISH VISION STATEMENT
‘Christ is life, we exist to bring his life to our part of God’s creation’
PRAYER
We ask all to pray for the work of the parish that we may bring God’s word to the world and build his kingdom. We encourage parish groups and individuals to use the parish prayer.
VISION
‘Christ is life, we exist to bring his life to our part of God’s creation’
We have developed a short vision statement that sums up the purpose of our parish, it reminds us that we find life in Christ and that as his disciples we exist to bring his life to our world.
Review of 2017-2018 Action Plan
During the last year we have been able to achieve many of the objectives that we set ourselves to enable us to play our part in bringing Christ’s life to our part of God’s creation.
We have:
- Written a parish vision statement.
- More people are singing with the choir at the 10:30am mass, now 12 members.
- A welcoming team has been established at the 10:30 mass.
- Run two well attended Alpha courses.
- Updated the website, it is now bright and welcoming.
- Continued to develop our use of social media, with almost 300 people following us on Facebook.
- Ensured parish complies with relevant health and safety requirements.
- Found new purpose for some of our buildings.
In 2019 – 2020 our aims are:
YOUTH MINISTRY
- To fully support the development of a Youth Ministry in the parish.
- To continue to develop the confirmation programme.
- To engage parents in the life and message of the church through the baptism, confirmation and First Holy Communion programmes.
- Grow the children’s liturgy and encourage more people to help.
- Support the development of the Priory Club
We aim for excellence in all of our weekend masses and look to encourage greater participation. We want our churches to be welcoming to the stranger, with highest quality liturgy.
- Establish welcoming teams at the 7:00pm vigil and 5:30pm Sunday Mass.
- Continue to grow the number of people who are involved in music in our masses.
ENGAGEMENT
- Create a programme of attractive / simple liturgies outside of mass.
2017-2018 Action Plan - Review
Last year’s action plan. Aims we achieved are underlined below, we would still aim to pursue some of the other aims where we can gain support for this.
WEEKEND MASSES:
- Music – expand the choirs and encourage more musicians.
- Altar servers – encourage more of our young people to serve.
- Provision for children – establish a crèche for infants and develop the children’s liturgy.
- Readers and Eucharistic ministers – encourage more parishioners to serve in these ministries.
- Welcoming team – establish teams who ensure that a friendly welcome is given at the start of mass, to act as an information point and that all aspects of the church environment are comfortable and ready for mass.
- Social team – to provide a welcoming environment for socialising after mass.
- Encourage all parishioners to invite others to hear the message of Christ.
- Run a series of Alpha courses for those who wish to find out more about Christ.
- RCIA course for those who wish to become Catholics.
Use key ‘engagement’ events throughout the year, eg. Christmas, Easter, sacraments, Pilgrimage, November – blessing of graves etc. to let others know ways of finding out more about Christ’s message.
Communication – be better at telling people what we do and how to get involved.
• Be better at making links between people and courses/groups etc.
• Publish a parish ‘what’s on’ timetable/ calendar.
• Develop the web site
• Update newsletter
• Updated mailing list of all who have had some involvement in the church.
• Use mail shots to advertise church courses and events.
• Expand Facebook following
• Signage in both churches and the Grotto.
Buildings
• Ensure parish complies with relevant health and safety requirements.
• Rationale for the use of buildings.
• Future maintenance / development commitments.
• Identify how the buildings support our mission.