ST BEDE’S
PARISH MEETING PRIOR TO VISITATION
PARISH PROFILE
1 Welcome and Prayer:
Our Diocesan Vision
Eternal Father,
we stand before you
humble in our brokenness.
Build us into the Body of Christ:
to make his life present
in the truth and justice
we work for;
his death in our courage
and compassion
before the mystery of pain;
his resurrection in the
hope we spread
to all whose lives we touch.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
2 What is this about? Jim O’Keefe
The rhythm of our how we practice our faith is fairly simple, really.
o We become members of the Church through our Baptism, we a formed by home, school, the faith community, our experiences of life, are nurtured by Worship – Scriptures, rituals, Sacraments and so on. We can get to know more about Jesus and how the person of Jesus can affect the ways we live.
o We grow in awareness of others and extend and deepen the network of our relationships as we get older (though the extent can gradually close down again as we get older, the depth may continue to get deeper…)
The first of these, in ‘religious’ or ‘Church’s, is broadly
what we mean by communion, the second is broadly what we mean by
For many of us, St Bede’s, our parish community is the place we feel we ‘belong’, it is just there…. Our Church as an organisation, however, is bigger than our parish boundaries, and as time goes on, we may need to appreciate what goes on in our local, local churches – our Deanery and our Diocese. Why? Because there is great richness and potential in knowing what goes on elsewhere.
3 So, what is tonight about?
Briefly – trying to find out what St Bede’s looks like under three headings, originally suggested by Cardinal Maria Martini, (a great Scripture scholar- now retired and living in Jerusalem):
How do we express ‘mission’?
Egs might be: Liturgy preparation group; Music ministry; Sacramental preparation courses, prayer groups, ministry of welcome etc etc.
Egs might be: J&P Activities, Journey in Faith activities, Youth Work, Work for Social Justice and Life issues, SVP, Legion of Mary etc etc.
Egs might be: Activities for sick and Elderly and needy, SVP, Bereavement groups, Mother and Toddler’s groups, Fundraising group, Lourdes group, Parish Pastoral Council, Finance Committee, School Governors etc etc
4 By the end of this meeting!!!
We need some idea about what we think about the above…..
We need a couple of sides of A4 summarizing what we think –which will include a brief history of the parish, some accurate statistics re population, practice etc). Some pointers as to what our strengths and areas for development might be
Strengths
Areas for Development
5 What happens next?
This all goes forward to help
fill out a Deanery Profile – which
in turn will help the Bishop – in
the case of St Bede’s and
Jim
O’Keefe St Bede’s
Visitation Meeting PPM