“Go therefore make disciples of all nations”
Matthew 28:19
Our Parish Goals
The following goals were developed out of the responses to the Parish Member Engagement Survey, carried out in 2020, and are organised under seven themes that describe the type of parish people wanted to be a part of.
A Welcoming Parish
- To build on the welcoming experience and to ensure that it is a consistent and positive experience for everyone at the start of all Masses and parish events.
- To ensure that new parishioners and visitors feel welcomed and valued.
- To provide opportunities for parishioners to come together outside Mass, creating a stronger sense of community and belonging both within and between all age groups, and enabling parishioners to get involved.
- To become an outward-looking parish that encourages exploration of our faith for anyone who wants to know more.
A Spiritual Parish
- To help people understand that faith is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to help them to develop that relationship.
- To provide regular faith-building and learning opportunities for adults throughout the year with a mix of styles, times and commitment levels.
- To introduce new and different elements in Mass, building on the differing styles of each Mass to cater for the varied demographic in the parish.
- To put prayer and meditation in the centre of our parish life, encouraging everybody to pray even in small, simple ways and reinforcing the concept of the domestic church.
- To provide more opportunities for group prayer in different styles and settings and at a variety of times.
- To ensure that those who are going through the process of preparation for the Sacraments are more “visible” to the wider parish community.
- Revisit the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the parish to give a people a renewed understanding and appreciation.
- To provide support to all married couples, regardless of how long they have been married, by building on the marriage preparation course.
- To increase individual confidence so people feel able to talk about matters concerning faith
An Active Parish
- To help people to recognise their talents and skills, that is the obvious ones and the ones yet unrealised, and how those can be beneficial to the parish.
- To create a culture of engagement where parishioners know that their talents and skills are appreciated and that getting involved in parish life is easy, accessible, and rewarding. Promoting and understanding that we are all Church – we are all forming the ‘Kingdom of God’.
- To ensure a mix of groups, activities and roles are available to meet the needs of as many parishioners as possible and that all groups in the parish are represented, truly welcoming and open to new ideas.
- To improve communication to and from parishioners about groups, activities and roles.
- To ensure that anyone who undertakes a ministry is fully briefed and trained in the role
- To become a parish where participating and getting involvement in parish life, even in small ways, is something everyone wants to do.
A Family Parish
- To explore opportunities to fill gaps and expand on the provision for children across all age groups in the parish.
- To ensure that adequate support is given to families whose children do not attend a faith school.
- To enable and encourage more families to be involved at Mass
- To organise and promote relevant events aimed at specific groups within the parish and to involve those groups in the organisation.
A Supportive Parish
- To create a culture where every parishioner shares in the responsibility of being welcoming, encouraging, supportive and open to others in the parish.
- To support people becoming ‘closer’ as a community – following the period of pandemic isolation and social distancing and beyond – learning from our experiences during lockdown.
- To improve the visibility of all the support groups and channels available within the parish.
- Engage more with other churches and the rest of the community and give parishioners opportunities to become involved in outreach activities.
- Improve communication about all the community and outreach activities that do take place.
- To build a consistent, all-encompassing communication model to handle parish communications, within the parish and outward.
- To improve parish communication to ensure that all parishioners have easy access to information about all activities and liturgies, and to encourage and facilitate involvement and participation.
- To create a mechanism for dialogue within the parish where opinions and ideas can be expressed and acknowledged, solutions found and, if necessary, action taken.
