Liturgy

Start of Term

With the start of the University Term, “Holy Half Hour” (Exposition with confession available) will resume 6:30pm-6:55pm on Wednesday 7 October (and will be a regular feature most Wednesday evenings between now and Christmas). The Sunday evening sung Student Mass begins again on Sunday 11 October at 6:30pm.
Events Group

Fundraising Committee

The Parish Fundraising Committee meets on Thursday 1 October at 8:00pm. Earlier in the year we were able to announce the successful completion of fundraising for the recent £300,000 stonework and Harry Clarke window restoration project. But there remain many smaller projects, both in our own parish and further afield, which will require funds in coming years.

If you can help with fundraising, or can help organise the social events which both bind together the community and express solidarity with those in need of support, please come along to our meeting.

Announcements

Shared Harvest

Our annual Shared Harvest takes place after the 10:00am Mass on Sunday 27 September.

Produce that members of the Parish have grown or made will be on sale in the Parish Room; please be generous in enjoying sharing the fruits of our labour! Proceeds will support Patrick Laing’s project to build new classrooms in Peru in the summer of 2016.

Patrick writes: In August 2016 I will part be part of a group heading to Peru to build 3 classrooms in a deprived area called Iquitos. This is going to finish an ongoing project started in 2011 by St Leonard’s School in which a clinic, classroom and toilet block have already been built. Whilst there I will be working with the parish community and clergy. To fund our work we need to raise £4000 each. I would like to thank the parish for all of their support so far.

PPC

Pastoral Council Meeting 28 May 2015

Minutes of St Cuthbert’s Parish Pastoral Council Annual
General Meeting

28th May 2015

 1. The meeting opened with prayer.

Present:  fr
Ben Earl, Cliona Kear, Gil Bolton, Mary Bolton, John Marsland, Susan Penswick, Margaret
Doyle, Andy Doyle, David Hughes, Margaret Harvey, Dominic Goodall, David
Crookes, Judy McLean, Sarah Milner, Margaret Davis, Andrew Davis, Michael
Laing, fr David

2.
Apologies: Marianne Fleming, Mandy Hamilton,
Frances Simmons, Alison Purvis

3. Minutes of
the previous meeting were accepted.

4. Matters
arising: – None

5.
Election of Officers: Chairman – David
Hughes – proposed by Gil Bolton and seconded by Michael Laing.  There was no nomination at this poiunt for
the position of Deputy Chairman.

6.  Financial Report:  A copy fo the Financial Report was distributed.  There is a cap pf £8,000 for Gift Aid on
small donations.  The Deposit Account
stands at £43,606 and the Current Account at £33,059 which includes £4,000 of
restricted funds which is the money raised for Belpahar.

7. Reports from sub-committees/groups:

a.             
Building committee report to St Cuthbert’s
Parish Pastoral Council

Period ending 28th May 2015

Choir loft balustrade. 

 Details for fixing the balustrade extension have been drawn up and the
architect is getting costs for the work. ongoing

 Works carried out since the last PPC.

 Making good of internal decoration around the church and presbytery
was carried out in March.

 The installation of the shower to the first floor bathroom is
complete.

 Repairs to the church roof were carried out as planned.

 A replacement boiler serving the presbytery had to be installed due to
the continual failing of the existing one.

 Proposed work.

 Porch and narthex. 

Next stage is to design the cupboards and obtain prices.

External decorations to church and presbytery.

 Other maintenance continues as and when required.

 Gil Bolton

Chair Building Committee.

St. Cuthbert’s Fundraising Committee

Report to PPC period ending 28th
May 2015

 

Events since the last PPC

 Update on funds raised:

 The book sale raised £544, and the auction of tables raised £50.

The total outstanding at March 2015 was £24k.

The parish has recently received a legacy of £26k, the finance
committee will decide whether or not this can be attributed to the stonework
project thereby clearing the remaining debt.

The committee has decided that now is the right time to take a break
from major fundraising initiatives. 
Some events will continue, with the main emphasis on the social aspect
of events.

Events planned:

A garden party with a barbecue is planned for 28 June.  This will now be a celebration of what the
parish has achieved in clearing the debt from such a major project.  There will be a shared table approach to
providing the food for the barbecue, although we will need to provide drinks
(in particular soft drinks as the event is during the day and more people may
be driving). The committee discussed live music –Alison choir lead will be
approach for ideas.

The Gala is on 11 July and Martin Donbavand will be starting the
provision of hot food early in the morning. 
Donations of bacon are very welcome. 
The Justice & Peace Group will be asked to decide on the
recipients of the money raised, due to the on-going problem with getting
funding to our twin parish in India.

Although the Lumiere event is confirmed for November, we are still
waiting to hear if an installation will be near the church.  If an installation is near the church we
will look at providing refreshments as the previous Lumiere was very successful.

There will be a quiz in St. Oswald’s institute in November.  Donations for a raffle are welcome.

Membership of the restoration Committee.

Prior to the meeting of 30th April the committee advertised
for new members however there were no volunteers.

Chair:

Gil has now stood down as Chair of the Committee.  He will continue as a member of the group,
and the committee thanked him for his work.

Next meeting:  1 October 2015 @
8pm.

Gil Bolton – Outgoing Chair Restoration Committee

c.  Catholic
Society:

Sunday evening Mass is very well attended.  Around 20 at Lauds.  The dinners are popular.  The Choir is taking off and there is a new
choral scholar.  Close to 60 are down for
the Lindisfarne Retreat.  There will be a
big push for new members at the next Fresher’s Fair. 

Cathsoc
Fundraising:

How to manage the Accounts?  Should families donate to Cathsoc?  Should a Grant be sought?  There are 90 Alumni on the database – is
there a rich patron amongst these?

d. Churches Together in
Elvet & Shincliffe:

 

The
group last met on 5th May.

This
year’s Pilgrimage to Holy Island will be on Saturday 20th June.

 We
are looking to have a joint celebration of St Oswald’s Day in early August to
which all the Churches in Durham will be invited.

 A
short series of talks on Social Issues will take place in November hosted here
in St Cuthbert’s.  We are also looking to
offer a venue and service to the whole of Durham for the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity in 2016.

 Lent
2016 is likely to see us revisit aspects of the Passion and Art for a series of
weekly reflections.

 The
next meeting of the group will be on 22nr September here at St Cuthert’s.

    Justice and Peace Group Report 2014-15

 The group has met together three times in the past
year.  Our aims are

  • to raise awareness of Justice and Peace issues
  • to raise money for CAFOD

We meet after Sunday Mass.  We continue to maintain links with members of
the Justice and Peace Groups at Durham Martyrs, in order to share ideas and
build up links between the groups.

 We have been very concerned about the lack of
progress in getting money raised for Belpahar to the intended recipients.  We have given much thought to a replacement
good cause. The group would like to recommend to the Parish Pastoral Committee that
the parish ceases to support India and instead supports NEPACS and the Colombia
initiative currently supported by the Durham Martyrs Justice and Peace group. A
worker on the Colombia project, Siobhan, will be visiting Durham and give a
talk at an open evening (probably at St Joseph’s Parish room) on 7th
July.  We have asked Fr. Ben to
investigate the legal position over the use of the money raised but not sent to
India

 We
are continuing to build on our CAFOD virtual village.  The young people of the parish collected very
week in Advent and raised £476.55 enough for a camel, two goats and some chirpy
chickens.  A two dimensional model of the
virtual village was displayed in church during Lent (made by Judy MacLean).

 Miner’s Gala day raised £770 which was split between
CAFOD and the Building Fund.

 Our Fair Trade stall continues to run twice a
month.  We
hope to re- launch the stall with additional products when the new storage
facilities and counter are in operation.

 Our annual Shared Harvest took place in September and
raised £128.77 for CAFOD. 

 We continue to collect

  • inkjet
    cartridges which are recycled and raise money for CAFOD.
  • old and used
    stamps for St Cuthbert’s Hospice. 
  • Old spectacles
    are also collected and recycled. 

We also tried to collect second hand toys on
Prisoners’ Sunday in November, but we had a limited response to this this
year. 

 The parish contributes to the diocesan scheme to
support asylum seekers in the North East. 
We now collect toilet rolls and biscuits.  Contributions flood in very month prompted by
a reminder in the bulletin (approximately 50 toilet rolls and 20-35 packets of
biscuits per month).

 We are also raising money to twin the parish
toilets.  This is done through Tear Fund
and it costs £60 to twin a toilet.  We
have so far raised £43.

 The group organised a carbon Fast in Lent where
parishioners were invited to reflect on the need to
live more simply, reduce our ecological footprint and be in deeper harmony with
all life on God’s earth.   The young people of the parish collected
weekly donations for CAFOD as the government had agreed to match all
contributions made in Lent.  We raised
£414.37.

 We would like to thank everyone at St Cuthbert’s for
your wonderful support and for your prayers.

 Amanda Hampshire

May 2015

f. Liturgy & Music:

Since
the last meeting of the PPC the Liturgy & Music Group prepared for the
services for Holy Week and Easter.  As
has been our practice for the last few years we compiled a single booklet
comprising the principal Triduum services and this seemed to be very well
received.  The numbers of those attending
seemed to be up on 2014 and fr Ben invested in a live relay of the Easter
morning Service into the Parish Room so as to avoid the problem last year when
some people actually walked away from the Church as there was no room.  There were some issues with the sound quality
but those who came to the Parish Room were appreciative of the initiative.

We
continue to deliberate as to how to increase the number of people on whom we
can call for the many Lay Ministeries which support our celebration of the
Mass.  In particular, we always struggle
to encourage welcomers and ushers and in recent months a number of servers have
stepped down from active duty.  However,
all Ministries would benefit from an increase in numbers and a “refresh” of
personnel.

Our
next meeting will be on 16th June.

 

g.  Diocesan Meetings: 
Council of Laity – March 2015

 

Pope John 11 Award Mary
Hughes and Tony Joy

 

The John Paul 11 award
originates in Ireland and is being launched in the Diocese on 8th
October – the Papal Nuncio will attend the launch.  The Award is aimed at 16-18 year olds and
there are Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. 
Young people collect evidence of their work in Parishes (such as
reading, serving, cleaning) and social awareness and reflect on how what they
have done relates to Gospel values and what it means to be a baptized
Catholic.  The award recognizes what
young people are already doing as well as encouraging new involvement.  Their evidence will be assessed by YMT.  The award is not academic and assessors will
be helping people to present their evidence rather than marking presentations.

 

The team is currently
visiting schools to tell them about the award scheme and will be looking for a
co-ordinator in each parish and award leaders in each school and Deanery.  A handbook will be producted for
co-ordinators and a training session organized in July.  The award will be run from parishes where
young people are not in Catholic schools and the team welcomes ideas on how to
teach everyone (e.g. in very rural areas such as Northumberland).

 

Update from the Synod on Family Life – Deacon
Peter Lavery

 

More tha  750 people in the Diocese responded to the
first consultation and a report was compiled and sent to the Bishop’s
Council.  The level of discussion at the
synod is evidence that views were listened to and not watered down.

 

The next stage of
consultation is called “The Call, The Journey and the Mission”.  The first section had a very tight deadline
and was completed by the Diocesan team based on the 750 contributions received
for the earlier consultation.  There is a
questionnaire for the clergy about the pastoral response to difficult
situations and a further document with 6 questions which is for discussion in
parishes with a summary of the discussion to be returned to Peter by
mid-May.  This discussion strongly emphasizes
the celebration of marriage and the questions are predominantly positive but
Peter emphasizes that the questions are triggers for discussion and that all
views are welcome even if they do not directly answer the questions.

 

Update from the Council of Priests:

 

The Council of Priests
has discussed Forward Together in Hope and the Synod on Family Life as well as
the Diocesan budget and admissions policy in schools.  The Council is looking at how to be more
effective including reducing the number of priests attending, having more
in-depth discussions and more joint councils with the Council of Laity and the
Youth Council.

 

Forward Together in Hope – Fr Jim O’Keeffe and
Tony Sacco:

 

Since the last Council
the team has been visiting as many parishes as possible – in one weekend Fr Jim
spoke at 8 Masses.  There were events in
Hebburn and Durham for the nominated Parish representatives and a pack of
material has been made available for each parish. 

 

The next stage will be
to make a detailed questionnaire available for each parish with specific
information relating to the parish. 
Thjis will be completed by the parish and returned by the first week in
Advent.  Each parish response will be
reviewed and there may be further questions or clarifications and the
representatives from across the Diocese will be involved in a scrutiny process
throughout 2016.  There is a DVD and
Powerpoint for use in parishes and the film is also available on the website.

 

8. Forward Together in Hope:

There is a DVD on the Diocesan website. 
The 2nd phase is just beginning with a 50 page questionnaire
in three sections – A Picture of our Community under 10 headings.

Margaret Doyle will draw up a timetable and there will be handouts at
Sunday Mass for everyone.

9. 
Heritage Open Days:

10th to 13th September.  fr Ben will confirm with the Council re our
participation and which day we will open. 
Volunteers will be needed.

10. Items from the Parish Priest: All items have been covered
above.  

11. Any other business: 
fr David

There will be a presentation after Masses at the end of September on
themes of Our Lady, Spiritual Life, married couples, praying, conversation

12. Date of next meeting: 22nd
October 2015 at 7.30 p.m. in the Parish Room

13.  The meeting closed with prayer.

 

 
Outreach

Home Mission Car Stickers

We have been sent a number of “Tree of Life” car stickers for Home Mission Sunday – while stocks last these can be picked up free of charge at the back of the church for you to display in your car and proclaim your faith in the message of the Cross.

Announcements

Gift Aid Statements

Envelopes containing Gift Aid statements are now available for donors to collect from the narthex. If you have any queries please contact Andy Doyle on 0191 378 3660 or andydoyle1066@sky.com.

Please also get in touch with Andy if you would like to start supporting St Cuthbert’s through planned giving (either in envelopes or by standing order). If you are a UK taxpayer, don’t forget to Gift Aid your offering – this enables us to claim back an extra 25% from the Government.
Forward Together in Hope

Forward Together in Hope

Many thanks to those who have been taking part in the series of Open Meetings as part of our parish response in the Forward Together in Hope programme of renewal in the diocese. The series continues in September, and all parishioners and members of the Chaplaincy are warmly invited to come along and consider aspects of where we find ourselves now and how we can move forward as a Christian community here at St Cuthbert’s and across the diocese. The remaining sessions are:

  • Wed 16 September 2015, 7:30pm: Leadership; Active Involvement; Outreach; Young People
  • Thu 15 October 2015, 6:30pm: University Chaplaincy
  • (Thu 22 October 2015, 7:30pm: Parish Pastoral Council)
  • Thu 5 November 2015, 7:30pm: Thoughts and Ideas
Information about the sessions already held can be found on the Parish Website at www.stcuthberts-durham.org.uk/ftih. For more information about the programme as a whole see hope.rcdhn.org.uk or contact Margaret Doyle on margaretdoyle1066@sky.com. Margaret would also be happy to receive any comments or suggestions you have, especially if you aren’t able to attend the open meetings.
Faith Formation

Living the Joy of the Gospel

For those who have requested a place, don’t forget Living the Joy of the Gospel – an ecumenical celebration at Durham Cathedral with the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool (fr. Malcolm McMahon OP) and the Anglican Archbishop of York (Dr John Sentamu), to celebrate our common call to proclaim and live the
Gospel with joy and hope – this Sunday 6 September, 3:30pm.
Announcements

Assisted Suicide Bill

From Bishop Séamus: On Friday 11 September the House of Commons will debate and vote on a Bill to legalise assisted suicide. This will put the most vulnerable people in our society at risk. Please contact your MP, urging them to attend the debate and vote against the Bill.

You can send an e-mail to your MP via the Catholic Bishops’ Conference website (www.catholicnews.org.uk/assisted-suicide); postcards you can send are available at the back of the church. The MP for Durham City is Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods.
Outreach

Heritage Open Days

Heritage Open Days will be taking place all over the country from this Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2014. St Cuthbert’s will be taking part this year, opening the doors of the church to the public from 9:00am to 4:00pm (longer than usual) on Saturday 13 September. There will be a display of historic photographs and documents, the beautiful garden will be open to visit and refreshments will be available. That day also sees the Northumbria Historic Churches Trust “Steeplechase”.

Please do pop in and visit the church and have a cuppa! Admission to the church and garden is, of course, free, but proceeds from the refreshments will help our funds.

If you have a little more time to give, do join the team of volunteers who will be welcoming our visitors: please sign up on the lists available in the narthex.

More information on the Heritage Open Days is available at: www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/st-cuthberts-catholic-church-durham.
Announcements

Sponsored Steeplechase

Support our church and other
historic churches in the region by visiting as many of them as
possible between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 12 September. Money
raised in sponsorship is shared 50:50 between the parish and the
Northumbria Historic Churches Trust. A poster and sponsorship forms
are on the noticeboard and people seeking sponsors will be making
themselves known! If you wish to see the most up-to-date list of
participating churches, visit
http://northumbriahct.org.uk/steeplechase2.html.
Outreach

Mission Boxes

Thank you for supporting the Missions through the “red boxes”. Please bring yours in during August for opening and counting. The boxes will be available for you to pick up from the back of church shortly after.

To find out more about the “red box” appeal and Catholic Mission in today’s world, visit www.missio.org.uk.
Announcements

Human Trafficking in Europe

The Justice and Peace Groups of the Durham Parishes invite you to a talk by Sr Imelda Poole IBVM on Human Trafficking in Europe – Modern Slavery at St Cuthbert’s at 7:30pm (after the 7:00pm Mass) on Wednesday 26 August 2015. All are welcome.

Sr Imelda is currently working with women in Albania as part of the Mary Ward Loreto Foundation. She will also be speaking to the Catholic Women’s Network – Durham on Thursday 27 August 2015 at 7:00pm at 6 Albert Street; there will be a shared supper at that meeting.
Announcements

Two-week bulletin

The bulletin published on Sunday 16 August covers a two week period. Weekly publication of the Parish Bulletin resumes on Sunday 30 August. 

Please keep an eye on the Parish Website (or sign up for the e-Bulletin) for any changes to Mass times – e.g. because of funerals.
Announcements

Miners’ Gala

Many thanks to all who volunteered their time and talents providing refreshments at the recent Miners’ Gala. The sum of £772.30 was raised for NEPACS (supporting prisoners’ families) and Parish overseas development projects. A further £74.05 was raised for twinning our toilets with facilities in the developing world. Well done to all involved!
Community, Faith Formation

YCW Durham Informal Evening

YCW (Young Christian Workers) Durham invite you to an informal evening on Monday 10th August 2015, starting at approximately 6.30pm @ Ushaw College. 

As well as meeting YCW Durham members, the evening will include:

  • A small tour of Ushaw College
  • Food (we all bring some along for all to enjoy)
  • Guest Speaker – Sophia Stovall, Young Patrons Programme, Durham Cathedral
We are a group of people who meet up & use the gospels to reflect on the challenges in work & life and discuss topics of interest. We are under the national ‘YCW’ programme and whilst the word ‘Young’ is in our title, we don’t have an age limit!

We also hold regular socials. ‘Like’ our Facebook page – facebook.com/YCWDurhamUK – for updates on meetings, events & socials. You can also contact us on email: YCWDurham@gmail.com

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