October 26th 2024
St Albert’s Parish Meeting 20 Oct 2024 Minutes
Present Fr Dermot, Fr Thomas, Fr David, Fr Andrew and 38 parishioners.
Opening Prayer: Fr Thomas
In the light of the Synod on Synodality, could laity in the parish participate more fully in sharing in parish initiatives?
- Lay people are very involved already. They take responsibility for the readers and eucharistic ministers at Sunday Masses, the coffee afterwards, the music at the 10 and 12 and the student Mass, the children’s liturgy and the altar servers at the 10. Together with the parish priest, they organise safeguarding, they sit on the finance committee, run the Justice and Peace group, organise the charity fund-raising projects during Advent and Lent, run the Albertus Institute and the book group and the Lay Dominicans, the Prayer Group, parties, Taizé evenings and all the student events and the Thomistic Institute.
- As the Synod approaches its ending, people are struggling at this time, wanting to engage more with activities; it would be good to encourage people to take the initiative and encourage newcomers to get involved or start projects, in keeping with the Synod experience.
- Fr Dermot pointed out that this must begin with knowing each other, coming to coffee and so on and building up community.
- A weekend at the Whitchester Christian House near Hawick was suggested- it can be booked but about 28 people are needed to make it viable. Enquiries will be made about availability and hopefully this can happen sometime in the Spring.
- Fr Thomas noted that there is an Advent Day of Recollection on Saturday December 7th with Fr Richard Ounsworth, which will include two talks, a Holy Hour and lunch organised by the Lay Dominicans. This is open to all parishioners.
- The “Meet Jonah” evenings last Lent were much appreciated, with talks from Frs Matthew and Thomas, conversations at tables and parishioners bringing food. Timothy Radcliffe’s Conversations on the Road to Emmaus was mentioned as a possible topic for another series. The sociability of the evenings was appreciated. Fr Dermot noted that as Advent is very full already, these could be in Lent.
How can we better welcome those who attend Masses online?
- Could those who attend our masses online be acknowledged by the celebrant at the beginning of Mass, and could those online be included in the Sign of Peace?
- Fr Dermot showed via the viewing statistics that mostly people don’t watch the Sunday Mass but the 5.15 Masses during the week- there are 66,000 views of these per month. The streamed Masses were particularly important during Covid. The recorded Masses are the 9am Sunday, 5.15 Mon-Fri, and the 12 noon on Saturday.
- Will Becoming Dominic be available online? The film-maker, Graham Pritz-Bennett, is still negotiating its distribution.
- Could the Holy Ground talks be livestreamed? Technically more difficult in the Garden Room; consent is given for the Chapel on the understanding that only certain places are visible. This year half of them are at Old St Pauls. Academics give their time free in such situations on the understanding it’s a one-off for local use; recording is for the whole internet. The speaker would need to consent.
- Could the Taizé evenings be streamed/recorded? Yes, potentially in the same way as Masses.
- The online viewers to the Masses should be seen as key and not an ‘appendage’
Are music organisers remembering to use the list of favourite hymns?
- The music organisers for the 10 and 12 have the lists and they use them
- It was said that often the 12 o’clock Mass has hymns the congregation doesn’t know.
- The response to the survey was quite poor- 11 responded from the 12 o’clock Mass, and 8 from the 10. From this survey the list was compiled.
Could the lunch-time Mass be brought back a couple of days a week?
- In the consultation about stopping the lunch time Mass most of those in favour of a 7.30am Mass respondents said they would come to the Mass three times per week or more, whereas most of those in favour of a lunchtime Mass said that they would only come once a week.
- Not having a lunchtime Mass has improved the Dominican friars’ community life as it makes a common lunch feasible.
- It was noted that as a time for Mass 7.30am and 5.15pm don’t work for many people because of childcare.
- On the other hand it was noted are lunchtime Masses elsewhere nearby, whereas the only Mass at 7.30am.
- A lunchtime Mass is still held on Holy Days of Obligation.
- Fr Dermot noted that a Friday 12.30 Mass could be held as on Fridays the Dominicans eat in the evening. It would fit well with the CSU’s shared baked potato meal at 1pm.
Could we revive our planned discussions about evangelisation, e.g. why Catholics leave the Church and why they return?
- The 2022 Scottish Census showed 51% say they do not belong to a religious body or denomination.
- The Church of Scotland is losing its place as the largest Christian body in Scotland to the Roman Catholics among those born after 1974.
- A lot of younger people are not anti-religious but simply don’t know much about religion but are interested to discuss it with those who do.
- Fr Andrew- bringing back people who have lost their faith is particularly difficult- happy to organise something on these topics
- The Diocese of Portsmouth has a booklet on this and other resources are available
- It was suggested there be 4 talks on this, starting with the details of the Scottish census info, perhaps including Steven Bullivant’s book as mentioned in a previous assembly.
- It was noted that other sectors (e.g. organised sport) are also suffering from losing the interest of teenagers. In traditional Irish music older children teach the younger ones- kids keep other kids engaged.
- In the first Synodality meeting discussions, it emerged that young people had not understood some of the jargon.
- The CSU could have multi-generational meals and talk to younger kids
- The 10am Mass children’s liturgy organisers would welcome students helping.
- Fr Thomas raised the importance of safeguarding in this context.
- The main thing is that there must always be two adults with PVG status present throughout with the children at these events.
AOB
Visiting the Synagogue and Mosque/ inviting them to St Albert’s?
- Discussions are underway- probably after Christmas. Bringing people together over food generally works- positive response from Rabbi.
Could prayer requests for those who are ill and anniversaries be included in the Newsletter?
- Fr Dermot said that privacy is an issue here; deaths are included but illnesses are not for this reason. People can be included in intercessions, aloud or in silence.
What other activities might be flagged up to the students?
- The Albertus Coffee House on 20th November in the Library in no. 24 on energy justice
- The Holy Ground talks
- The party on 12th November and the other fundraising events for St Theresa’s School of Nursing in Zimbabwe.
The meeting ended with a prayer from Fr Dermot for those parishioners who have died recently.
