Parish Conultations - Paper About Them.

Cheltenham Churches Together

What are the Pastoral priorities for Cheltenham?   Simply posing such a question challenges us to think about how the three separate parishes in Cheltenham could reach agreement on anything, let alone something as important as this.  And this first Cheltenham-wide Pastoral Newsletter, which is being distributed this Easter in all three churches, is a first small step.  St Paul talks about the church being like a human body with hands, feet, eyes etc.  It is only by meeting and listening to each other that we can discover the full richness of God’s creation in all its diversity. Individual musicians, each playing a different instrument, are good, but together they can become a wonderful orchestra.

As long ago as 2003, Bishop Declan asked all parishes to set up a Pastoral Council (if they hadn’t already got one) and in February 2007 Bishop Declan asked us (laity and clergy) to let him know what we thought the pastoral priorities for the diocese should be.

He asked some very pertinent questions to encourage discussion; just a few are listed below to indicate the scope of the consultation exercise:

Do our liturgical celebrations help or hinder people making connections between faith and life?
Are parishes/deaneries still the best way of helping us form Eucharistic community?
How do we bring about God’s intent of peace and justice, love and compassion?
What is it that we actually do that reveals Christ to others?
How do we speak of God to those who hold a secular view of the world?

The Seeking the Face of Christ consultation exercise can be distilled down to just three questions:

What do we think God is calling us to do in our lives, in our parishes?

What should be included in our pastoral guidelines?

What are YOU prepared to do in your parish to help make this a reality?

After presentations, parish meetings, questionnaires and other methods (and more meetings!), the diocese has now reached the stage of producing draft guidelines. These are just that – draft guidelines – they are a work in progress not the finished article.

Under three main headings - Prayer, Mission and Communion, the document identifies 12 themes and for each theme it:
Summarises what people said
Identifies what needs to be done
Lists Specific Actions
Asks some pertinent questions to gather feedback

What Next?

A questionnaire is being handed out in all three parishes and a series of open meetings has been arranged to discuss the subject in more detail.

Part 1: Thursday 27th March @ 7:30pm OR Friday 28th March @ 10:30am
Part 2: Thursday 3rd April @ 7:30pm OR Friday 4th April @ 10:30am

All meetings take place in the Old Priory and are open to people from the three parishes.  By holding two sessions at different times, it is hoped that most people will find a convenient time.  Even if you can only come to just one meeting you will be very welcome.

The conclusions from these meetings and the responses to the questionnaires will be analysed and then members from the three Pastoral Councils will meet together to identify common priorities and opportunities to work more closely together.  The deadline for replying to Bishop Declan is 30th April 2008.

The full text of the Draft Guidelines is available to download here: www. Individuals or groups can also make their own submissions.

Fr Alan’s Corner

Dean