Agenda for the meeting of the Pastoral Council on Tuesday 14th July 2026

1. Opening Prayer
2. Apologies
3. Minutes of the meeting of 21st October 2025
4. Matters arising not on the agenda
5. Parish Priest’s items:
    Weekend Mass times
    Christmas Mass times
    New Pastoral Council Handbook
    Planned Giving Campaign
6. Reports:
    Youth ministry
    Catechesis and evangelisation
    St Peter’s First School
    Charitable work
    Finance
    Safeguarding
7. Other items:
    Intercultural Mass update

Minutes of the Pastoral Council Meeting 14th July 2026

The meeting opened with a prayer

Present: Fr Benedict Skipper, Julian Kuzminski (Chair), John Lally (Secretary), Helen Marsh (Vice Chair), Cecilia Hubble, Liz Lally, Terry Monahan, Teresa Kehoe, Paul Hebblethwaite, Kasia Sliwa, Catherine Clubley, Gemma Reed, Michael Smith, John Newbold, Yvonne Rendell, Margaret Dance, Alexander Marsh; Steve Blakemore attending to give report from Justice and Peace Group

Apologies: Gemma Billig, Rosina Rutter apologised and offered her resignation from the Council

Minutes of the last meeting: Approved

Matters arising: JK raised the issue from earlier meetings of safe access to the choir loft. Work is planned to be carried out on various parts of the church.

Agenda:

Parish Priest’s Items:

1. Weekend Mass Times: Fr Benedict reported that it would be unhelpful at the present to reduced weekend Masses to 2: the priest lives on site and the numbers of parishioner attending justify offering three Masses. This is not a promise that there will not be changes. Sunday Mass times work well, but there have been queries about whether Saturday evening Mass might be earlier. Other options can be explored including, for example, seasonal changes to the Mass time on Saturday.
2. Christmas Masses: Fr Benedict may try the following pattern this year:
   4. Christmas Eve 4.00pm – Mass primarily for families
   5. Christmas Eve 6.00pm – Mass primarily for the elderly
   6. Christmas Eve 11.00 or 12.00 – ‘Midnight’ Mass
   7. Christmas Day 9.30am

This outline programme will be discussed with the Liturgy Group at their meeting in September.

3. Pastoral Council Handbook:
   1. Thanks were conveyed for feedback on the draft handbook from Council members. The Handbook has been updated and is now on the Parish Website
   2. It will be good to have a voice on this and future meetings for parish groups. Those currently identified are Charity/Ecumenism (YR); Youth (TK); Liturgy (ST, MD & JK, TM); Catechesis (TK, JL); Schools (CC, CH); S and C (?) (EL, GB); Finance (PH; Safeguarding (GR, MS).
4. Planned Giving Campaign:
   1. There will be talks on the new planned giving campaign at weekend Masses in September. Literature on the campaign will be available for parishioners in addition.
5. Reports from Groups:
6. Catechesis (JL): the 11^th RCIA/Journey in Faith course was completed at Pentecost, 4 new parishioners having been received into the Church at Easter. The course on this occasion had two leaders for the first time (JL and Maria del Pardo) and Fr Benedict was also involved as fully as his time permitted; these were very welcome enabling different perspectives on the faith to be given to the candidates. As usual, there were also a small number of parishioners attending the meetings. It is most important that we have that support as the candidates are joining a parish community. Now is the time for parishioners to make known to Fr Benedict and JL anyone they think might be interested in knowing more about the Catholic Faith in the course starting in October.
7. Schools (CC): Numbers in St Peter’s School are declining for a variety of reasons. Some potential families do not realise that the school is there; the birth rate is declining; traffic problems are creating difficulties of access to the school; and the idea persists in some families that to attend the school it is necessary to be Catholic. It is hoped that parishioners will talk about the school to other Bromsgrove families.

This year there has been a much stronger relationship with the Church and Parish. The parish priest has been going into the school regularly and is the Chair of Governors. The change of School Mass time to 9.15 has been vey helpful and more parents have been attending the Masses. Parishioners have been visiting the school on various occasions. An increasing number of pupils have been serving on the altar both at the School Mass and at weekends.

Moving forward, the current Our Lady of the Magnificat Multi Academy Company/Trust, will become, with the addition of many more schools, St Raphael the Archangel Multi Academy Trust.

Conversations have been held about sacramental preparation with TK as children’s catechist in the parish; the school Mini-Vinnies (modelled on SVP) have linked with the parish Live Simply campaign.

3. Justice & Peace/Live Simply (SB): The focus of the Justice & Peace group is largely upon Live Simply, a CAFOD scheme aimed at care for creation and solidarity with others around the world. The parish registered for the scheme in 2021 and applied for the CAFOD award for parishes and/or schools operating the scheme this year. Following assessment in April, CAFOD confirmed the award for the parish in May 2026. The 8.30 Mass on Sunday, October 4, in the Season of Creation, will be in celebration of the award.

Lydia Smart has led on initiatives for the award and recording the evidence and the award has been largely down to her hard work.

The scheme itself is divided into 3 areas: Live Simply, Live Sustainably with Creation and Living in Solidarity with People in Poverty. The parish has met each of these in different ways through improvements to the Parish Centre, an annual Mass for Care for Creation, ideas for parishioners on living simply, support for appropriate local charities and CAFOD, as well as CAFID campaigns.

Most recently the J&P group has begun to liaise with the parish school on Live Simply and are planning joint activities and new initiatives.

4. Finance and Property (PH): Prior to this year the finance team had ideas rather than projects. This has now changed in part following an audit by the Diocese, which recommended producing a finance mission statement. This has now been written and where there was no budget for 2026, one has now been established. The change was also in part because of the current challenges thrown up by the church property – the Church, the Parish Centre, and the Presbytery. Each of these is making significant demands on the parish finances which are predicted to reduce parish reserves by some £60,000 by next year. The painting of the Parish Centre and the repairs to the roof of the Church will start during the summer vacation. The Diocese wants parishes to be sustainable from normal resources rather than requiring significant fundraising activities similar to those in 2004-5.
5. Safeguarding (GR): Two parishioners have been appointed to act as Parish Safeguarding Representatives, Gemma Reed and Michael Smith. Both have experience of safeguarding in their schools; Gemma has now been trained for the parish and Micky is soon to do his training with the Diocese. The main and immediate focus is to get safer recruitment up to date and all relevant training completed with certificates saved for parish records. A date for a big push to get all identity and DBS checks completed has been arranged early in the autumn. Gemma and Micky will make themselves known to the parish as any issues should be taken up in the first place with them. While formal safeguarding operates according to Diocesan and national requirements, we must remember that safeguarding is the responsibility of all parishioners to keep children and the vulnerable safe. Full information is on the Parish website and will also be displayed on a noticeboard from the autumn onwards.
6. Intercultural Mass: It did not prove possible to get ready for the Intercultural Mass this summer as was hoped. The pan is that it will happen next year around the time of the Feast of SS Peter and Paul, so linking it with our Parish Patron Saint.