Minutes of Meeting – 13th October 2026

Our Lady, Mother of the Church – Parish Pastoral Council

Minutes of Meeting held 13^th October 2026 in the Church Hall

Present – Val Lawrie, Norma Mitchell, Audrey Parfinowska, Kevin Higgins, Andy Cooper, Gerry Higgins, Fr Malachy, George Kerr

Apologies –  Fr Francis, Angela Allan

Opening Payer by Fr Malachy

Matters Arising from previous PPC meetings

The Minutes of the previous meeting dated 12^th May 2026 were accepted.

PPC 13^th October 2026

Feedback from the Joint Parish Meeting with St Cuthberts held on 22 Sept 26. Gerry spoke to the notes taken at the meeting. Items covered were –

Finance, Pastoral Services, Social Events, Sacramental Services, Lenten Stations of the Cross, Safeguarding, and potential Parish Pilgrimage.

It was agreed that George Kerr (GK) (Parish Administrator) would update the Newsletter with all upcoming dates of Masses/Services.

Please see attached Notes from that meeting.

Feedback from the annual Archdiocesan Administration and Finance Meeting at the Gillis Centre on 23^rd September 2026 – from George and Kevin

Finance

• the Archdiocese is strongly encouraging all Parishes to use the OPAS – (Online Parish Accounting System). George (GK) is now able to download all Royal Bank of Scotland transactions onto a spreadsheet, and send to Audrey for her records. This could also help with the Annual Budget and the Annual Audit Assessment. George volunteered to do this month by month.  Audrey to seek meeting with the Gillis Centre for further information.
• Finance Meetings must be held 3-4 times annually and their meetings Minuted.
• Contactless payment options being trialled in 2 parishes. There will be costs to this and additional administration involved.
• Asset Register – information required by the Archdiocese. Audrey to investigate assets within the church, but suggested the threshold was too high for our Parish.

IT

• All parishes should be moving towards STANED email addresses for security and backup.
• Backup of shared documents to be put onto the Archdiocese Sharepoint – GK to run trial
• Clarify support services from Jera IT with regards to software and computer equipment

GK – Archdiocese  Kevin – to discuss with Carla

• Intranet site set up and available for volunteers and clergy giving property advice, finance documents and information
• IT equipment required by parishes should be purchased through the Archdiocese to ensure value and quality.

Compliance – Parishes should be using only approved contractors who have public liability insurance.  The Archdiocese holds an approved list of contractors. Kevin to follow up.

 Our Lady’s PPC Minutes

Finance

• Audit feedback – there are no significant areas for correction
• Finance at Our Lady’s have accepted and are content with the 40%/60% split for the ongoing expenses between Our Lady’s (40%) and St Cuthbert’s (60%) parishes.
• Newsletter should contain the Charity Number
• Finance Committee Meeting held end August – annual parish budget received and endorsed. Budget set at £8000 this year for fabric and maintenance and other one-off expenditures, -approved by Fr Francis
• Anthony (Gift Aid) to review the number of Gift Aid envelopes required
• The Parish currently not receiving many on line donations
• Audrey would like to capture all costs for the Church Modifications over the last few years – Kevin to provide the necessary information to Audrey
• George to address the congregation around February time to encourage using Gift Aid if they can.

Fabric and Maintenance (Kevin’s Notes)

Kevin confirmed that during 2026;

1. The fire alarm system and the fire extinguishers had both been inspected by professional companies and passed successfully.
2. All required inspections of Gas and Electrical systems at the church have also been professionally inspected and passed successfully.
3. The windows of the church have been cleaned (both externally and internally) on two occasions this year.
4. Apex Roofing visited the church in September, to conduct a Maintenance Inspection of all church roofs and gutters. As a result of this visit it was agreed that balloon gratings would be installed by Apex Roofing, which protect the gutters from gathering debris. It was also agreed with Apex Roofing that the next Maintenance Inspection would be conducted in September

2028.

Church Interior Modifications Project (Kevin’s Notes)

Kevin confirmed the current status;

1. The Archdiocesan Trustees had previously approved a Preliminary Project Application from our parish, and had agreed to a substantial contribution towards the cost of the project, but required our parish to contribute at least 15% of the total cost. The PPC had decided at the previous meeting that this contribution might come from Grants and Fund-raising.
2. Since the previous PPC meeting, we have been successful in obtaining a Grant of £16,000 from the Benefact Trust. A further Grant application to another Trust will be submitted in November (though there are no guarantees that this will be successful).
3. Adams Napier Partnership are project managing on behalf of Our Lady’s PPC. Four contractor companies have been invited to submit tenders for this project.
4. In order to progress the project we are required to submit a Project Application Form, together with 3 tenders from the tendering process, to the Archdiocesan Trustee meeting scheduled for 19 November. This information must be submitted 10 days in advance of the Trustee meeting, via the Director of Property at the Gillis Centre.
5. Subject to the Trustees continuing to support the project, it is anticipated that work on the interior church modifications will commence in the Spring of 2027.
6. Kevin also noted that there was a continuing and urgent need for a Fund-raising effort to be initiated within the parish to support this important project. The Project Application Form to the Trustees next month will need to include reference to the parish’s plans for Fund-raising for the project.

Val to arrange a meeting with Fr Francis and others to discuss fund-raising plans and potential volunteers asap.

Health and Safety (Kevin’s Notes)

Kevin provided the following update;

1. A Fire Risk Assessment was conducted at the church by a professional consultant from Thomson & Inglis, in June 2026. The report from the consultant following his visit was very favourable, and reflected the efforts which were made over the past two years to address safety matters in our parish.
2. An observation had been received from a parishioner at the previous PPC meeting, that the church car park was being used by non-parishioners, and that this had the effect of limiting car park space availability for parishioners attending weekday masses. Kevin reported that since then, he had sought advice from the Archdiocese, and had produced ‘polite notices’ which could be placed behind the windscreens of vehicles to advise them that this is a private car park. Additionally, the registration of such vehicles was to be recorded so that, if necessary, ‘repeat offenders’ might be approached. The notices and the record sheet have been located in the church foyer since early July this year, but so far have been used very rarely.
3. At the request of parishioners, a new aluminium Wheelchair Ramp has been purchased, and is stored near to the front door of the church. The ramp is suitable for use by manual or electric wheelchairs, and will replace the old timber ramp which has been removed. Kevin stated that the ramp is easy to assemble and fold, but also recommended that, due to its weight, it should be moved and installed by two persons.
4. A Fire Evacuation Exercise was conducted at Our Lady’s on Sunday 4 October. The whole congregation were successfully evacuated to the Assembly Point in only 2 minutes and 22 seconds. Following a debriefing session of the parish volunteers involved in the Exercise, a ‘lessons learned’ summary was circulated and will be used for future Evacuation Exercises which should be conducted annually. The next Exercise is planned to be in October 2027.

Safeguarding Update

Val – Current training- young people in the Parish to take on this role?

Parish Website (Kevin’s Notes)

Due to time constraints at the meeting, there was no discussion on this item.

• Since the meeting, Kevin has been in contact with the website development consultants

 supporting our website, with a view to reviewing and improving it.

AOB

Ecumenical Carol Service – Gerry to liaise Fr Francis for potential date/s for this service

Ecumenical Stations of the Cross – Gerry to liaise with Fr Francis for potential date on his return from abroad

Remembrance Sunday – Tony will read a poem after the Remembrance Sunday Mass (8^th November). Fr Francis to approve the poem

Staining of External Walls at entrance to the church – Norma and Blanca to organise and arrange plants/planting to cover the unsightly area

Christmas Day Mass – a parishioner has contacted the Parish Council to say that Christmas Day Mass last year was very short of all volunteers.  It lacked Readers, Pass keepers, Altar Servers and Sacristans.  Also the church was very cold.  

Action – Fr Francis to alert those involved.

Succession Planning for the PPC – in light of some PPC members stepping down from their positions,  this item will be on the Agenda for discussion at the next meeting.

Closing prayer by Fr Malachy

Date of the next meeting – Provisional date of Tuesday 16^th February, 7pm 2027

END