Esker/Dodsboro Parish Pastoral Council
Progress Report June 2007

It is now just under a year since we last spoke to you about the Parish Pastoral Council’s work, and a lot has happened in that time. In particular, we have focused on the issue of child protection, as well as pastoral development in Adamstown, meeting with other parish groups and youth endeavour. 

For any new parishoners, the Parish Pastoral Council of Esker, Dodsboro and Adamstown is a structure mandated in Canon Law. Its current members were nominated in an open process of reflection and discussion in January 2005. All full-time members of the Parish staff are ex-officio members, which includes the parish priest as President. There are a further 9 lay members, including our Chair, Maria Murphy and Vice-Chair, Jacinta Mitchell, with a total membership of 13. 

All our work continues to be guided and underpinned by the Mission Statement which is:
Mission Statement as approved June 9th 2005

The aim of St. Patrick’s Parish is to create an environment
 in which the Spirit of the Lord lives, enabling all the members of the parish
 to grow in the love of God and one another
 and to respect the gifts and talents of each one –
 Clann Dé le chéile [God’s Family gathered together].

There has been much talk of the importance of civic life in our community in recent times, and rightly so. In seeking to faciltate others in making our mission statement a living reality, we have a rich opportunity to show how central parish life is to a sense of community, where we all enable each other’s talents and gifts to flourish for the sake of our parish community.

Since last November our main areas of activity have covered the following:
 a. Child Protection
 b. Pastoral Development in Adamstown
 c. Meeting with other parish groups

Child Protection
• When we spoke to you last year, we had made a submission to the Archbishop on the Ferns Report.
• Over the last 12 months, the following has been done:
 o 3 parishoners agreed to take part in a diocesan training on the development of a Child Protection policy: Joe Maher, Ann Jones and Theresa Tornsey.
 o At the request of the Pastoral Council, they drafted a Child Protection Policy which the Council considered at its March meeting.
 o The Council adopted the policy with a number of amendments, and also appointed Joe Maher to the position of Child Protection representative. Ann and Theresa will co-operate with Joe as members of the Child Protection Team. They will speak with you in due course in more detail on the policy itself and where the parish goes from here.
 o But the important things to note here are:
   We as a parish have a child protection policy.
   We have appointed a Child Protection Representative and a Child Protection Team who will look after this crucial area of our parish work.

Meeting with other parish groups:
 o The Council met with all those involved with the baskets, envelopes and money collection on behalf of the parish, and is in the process of meeting with those adults involved in music for the liturgy.
 o Between now and the end of the year, the Council intends to meet with all groups who are involved in various aspects of parish life, and to hold an Open Day highlighting their work.
 o The aims of these meetings are:
   To thank these groups for all that they do on behalf of the parish.
   To explore the ways in which the Pastoral Council can help them in that work.
   To enhance all our efforts in making our mission statement a vibrant, living reality.

Pastoral Development in Adamstown
 o As you are aware, Fr. John Hassett was apppointed to our parish team last year with special responsibility for Adamstown.
 o A summary of the key points here are:
   The Archdiocese was awarded patronage of one of the new primary schools in Adamstown.
   A series of meetings are being held for the new residents of Adamstown to welcome them to the parish and to facilitate them in finding key information points. Meetings have already taken place in April and May.
   The provision of spiritual space in a variety of forms is proceeding apace, including both the Community Centre and Civic Commercial Centre.
   It is hoped that Fr. John will be resident himself in Adamstown by the end of this year.

Those are the most substantive areas of the Council’s work in the last 12 months, in terms of the amount of time and effort we have given to them. I will briefly go through the other activities that the Council is involved in on an ongoing basis:

1. Distribution of a Welcome Leaflet to newly built estates
 • The leaflet contained key information and contacts that would be of interest to parishioners, as well as the Parish Mission Statement on the back.
 • A special prayer of the faithful at masses followed up each leaflet drop on the following weekend welcoming any residents from those estates who had come to mass.

2. Service for the elderly and sick
 We organised a service for the elderly and sick on Saturday June 9th.

3. Youth endeavour

The Parish is sponsoring 2 young people to go to World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney. Brónach has already spoken to you about this project.  We look forward to your support for all the fundraising efforts which take place over the coming months.

I think that it is fair to say that we have accomplished quite an amount in a relatively short space of time, just over a year. There is undoubtedly much more to be done. But we pray for your support and co-operation as we endeavour to do that. We on the Pastoral Council particularly value the importance of listening, reflection, consensus and action – listening to one another and to you, the parishioners, reflecting on what we have heard, discussing it, agreeing on the way forward, and acting together on that consensus. We look forward to the journey ahead with you.

If you have any queries or would like to contact us - see Parish Groups on this website.