About Our Church
* GetInvolved*
Sunday Service
Activities
Info
* Church At Large*
:-)
|
| Minutes for the Church Council Meeting
|
| On: Wednesday 13th September at 20h00
| At: St Marc's Church Centre
|
| Present:
| Alan Golton (Assistant Chaplain), David Bailey Mark Lewis (Churchwarden), Alison Coulavin (Synod Rep), Val Golton (Synod Rep), Elizabeth Cherhal (Secretary), , Richard Sheppard (Treasurer), Penny Vincent-Sweet, Gloria Ugonwalli
| | Excused:
| Jon Bateman, Marie Colbert, Stephen Coffin (Chaplain)
|
In the absence of the chaplain, David Bailey chaired the meeting.
| Minutes:
| | 41.
| Prayers and Apologies (please inform David or Secretary)
| | 42.
| Approval of last meeting's minutes
The minutes were approved with corrections of minor typos.
| | 43.
| Any matter arising from these (& not otherwise on the agenda)"
Matters arisong were:
- Prayer teams: it was suggested that a meeting be called of all “prayer team” members. This suggestion will be put to Joseph and Maureen.
- Rota: the wardens will discuss with Stephen how best to organise it so that it does not entirely incumb to Stephen.
- Future events:
- Summer activities: 2 walks were cancelled but the visit to Maurienne was enjoyed by all those who went. (about 20 people).
- Harvest: Alan has had invitations and posters printed, invitations are currently being given out.
- Visit of Bishop David, we do not as yet know what his plans will be. Maybe it could be arranged he meet with the council.
- On 21st Oct the fish and bing evening has now turned into a beans, burgers and bingo evening.
| | 44.
| Treasurer’s Report
Richard reported that we were still fairly solvent. As was expected giving was down during the holidays, but we received 21,1K$ (which currently only converts to 16KE). For the time being our finances are fine, but we must bear in mind that we will soon be getting an appeal for a building fund (St Marc’s needs quite a lot of work doing to conform to security regulations). The finance comittee should meet soon to decide on donations. Material for a graph is given to Stephen every month, and he should decide when the next presentation should be given in church.
| | 45.
| Welcome meeting: recommend this be postponed from Sep 24th (when it clashes with 40th wedding anniversary) to 15th or 22nd October.
After discussion it was decided to postpone the meeting until the 22nd October. Therefore there will be only one meeting instead of two.
| | 46.
| "Cathedral Sunday" - see e-mails already circulated from Bishop & Dean - do we want to support this & if so how?
The Bishop is appealing for money to intensively restore the cathedral in Gibraltar. He asks as a minimum for each church to make the 15th October “Cathedral Sunday” and donate the collection to the fund. Some members of council objected that many people in St Marc’s are not anglicans and even some that are are not specially concerned with a cathedral sitting on a rock at one end of Europe. If we want to fund diocese work, we need to contribute to a full time Archdeacon for France. Mark said that on the other hand Gibraltar is a stopping place for thousands of immigrants, and if those people were greeted by a strong christian community this would surely be important. Would we prefer a mosque on the rock of Gibraltar? Also, perhaps the cathedral is of architectural value and should be preserved anyway.
It was decided, rather than the 15th Oct, to use the collection of the 8th Oct, when Bishop David will be here. Half will go to what the Bishop wants it given to, and the other half to the cathedral fund. If not much is given, the finance committee will decide whether to give more.
| | 47.
| Feedback on the letter sent by Stephen to everyone
A few snippets of feedback:
- Dante Thomas has volunteered to take over the adult Sunday school
- The Agus would like to set up a home group in Le Versoud.
- We should pray about the setting up of groups.
Generally it was thought that we may have to wait a week or two for people to get past the rentrée.
| | 48.
| Past & future dates (any feedback?)
- Ladies supper 22nd September.
- Need to provide refreshments for the confirmation service. Ask for volunteers to bring nibbles. Ask for “confirmees” and their families to provide drinks?
- Next men’s supper planned for 17th November.
| | 49.
| Howard & Dona Diehl expect to arrive Friday 22nd September
Howard and Dona will be living in the Quarless’ appartment, left vacant for 1year. John Pavey will meet them. Someone from St Marc’s needs to provide welcome for their arrival.
| | 50.
| Update on new English Language Church
The first service has been held. There were about 70 adults and 22 children. Only 4 families came from St Marc’s. Advertisement had been made by CEP at the “forum des associations”. It was thought that we also should have a stall in it next year.
| | 51.
| Any other matters (please inform Elizabeth & David of any matters you wish to raise)
Elizabeth raised a problem that had occurred in the crèche. A non member of our church, who is/was (?) a muslim in fact had volunteered to help . The general opinion expressed in the council was that this person should be made very welcome in church services, and to any events organised, such as the ladies supper, but that to help in the crèche, we need church members known to the parents. It may not be necessary to sign the statement of faith, but references should be given. Following this discussion, it was stressed that we need a new “crèche rota organiser”, since Reagan Brown has gone back to the states. It was thought that ideally this should be the parent of a small child. It was also stressed that efforts should be made to encourage African parents to bring their children to the crèche, even if this meant them staying in it for a week or two to get them used to it. Gloria reported that she had spoken to some parents about their children disturbing the service, and that her remarks had not been taken very well. It was decided to organise a meeting of all crèche helpers and as many parents of small children as possible to see how the crèche could be best organised.
This meeting should take place on the 15th October after the service.
| | 52.
| Closing Prayer
The meeting ended in collective prayer.
|
|
