St. Edmund Campion Parish, Maidenhead

Holy Family Parish

Joining together

• 5 churches
• 3 parishes
• St John's convent
• Culham chapel

• Creating a new parish is more than an administrative exercise
• In building a new parish we must bring the people with us
• Create a shared identity whilst retaining community identity
• Address concerns and worries
• Setup a Transition Group with broad representation to discuss and plan
• Canonical requirements

Transition Group

Nov 23 to Sept 24

• 27 people representing all faith communities
• 10 meetings
• Developed a common understanding and vision
  • Mission statement
  • SWOT analysis
  • Working groups
    1. Liturgy and Faith Development
    2. Mission and Outreach
    3. Parish Community Development
    4. Governance and Finance
    5. Communication and Administration
  • Cross cutting – Children and Young People
• Cohesive working groups
• Common agenda
• Collaborative working
• Single purpose
• Generating enthusiasm and momentum

Communicating with our parishioners

Updates on work and progress

• Posters showing representatives
• Regular update letters from Fr Liam
• Talks at each Mass over a weekend in July, on progress – with opportunities to meet, question and feedback
• Individual meetings and correspondence with every group currently involved in parish work

1. Liturgy and Faith Development

• Altar
• Creative liturgy
  • Healing masses
  • Blessed sacrament exposition
  • Special wedding anniversaries
  • Inclusion – ethnic groups
  • Mass of the deceased
• Music
• School liturgies
• Sacramental preparation
• Faith development programs
  • Prayer groups
  • Talks
• Welcome booklets
• Seasonal liturgies
• Annual retreat
• Workshops / movie night
  • The Chosen
• Mass schedules

2. Mission and Outreach

Internal Mission

• Increasing the number of parishioners involved in the work of the parish
• Contacting those who have not returned since COVID or left for other reasons to invite them back
• Supporting groups and events within communities
• Supporting ongoing formation
• Youth involvement
• Courses and talks
• Supporting people to attend mass - transport

External Mission

• What are the needs in our communities
• Inter faith dialogue
• What activities are already happening in our communities that we could support
• Develop opportunities for volunteering
• Explore the opportunity to assist with transport to and from churches and prolonged buddying with volunteers

Key Actions:

• Understanding "Mission" needs
• Understanding the resources available
• Development of an implementable plan

Need to develop internal mission before looking outwards

3. Parish Community Development

Purpose

• Development of a cohesive and engaged community, spanning across the individual churches

Actions

• Share the work of the Transition Group to date with the community
• Understand where we are now
• Inspire, identify, and develop our plan for the next three years as the Holy Family Parish in relation to:
  • Building a larger community
  • Social events
  • How do we develop a cohesive wider community and identity?
  • How do we maintain local identity?
  • What can we do to build relationships across existing church communities?

4. Governance and Finance

• Biggest concerns of parishioners were regarding finance and governance
• Different histories, cultures and demographics
• All do the same thing in different ways
• Set up of Holy Family parish Finance Committee
• Transitional arrangements
  • Alignment of accounting policies and practices
  • Alignment of Gift Aid
  • Local financial sub-committees
• Addressing repair requirements
• Recommendations and timeline for further integration
• Appoint Chair of PPC
• Inauguration of PPC
• Appointment of members
• Terms of Reference – is there a Diocesan document?
• Working to understand the roles of the transition group and the PCC

5. Communication and Administration

Delivered

• Mission Statement, Strapline, Vision and narrative
• Visual Identity for the new parish
• Regular letter sent from Fr Liam to all parishioners in all current parishes / churches following each meeting
• Posters identifying members of Transition Group for each of the existing parishes/churches
• Church presentations on the story so far – July 2024
• Secured url - holyfamilyparish.org.uk
• Gather and act on feedback from parishioners

Actions

• Inspire, identify and develop our plan for the next three years as the Holy Family Parish
• Develop the role of parish administrators
• Communication accessibility
• Parish website development / parish calendar
• Understand the needs of different groups within the parish
• Centralised methods of communication e.g. telephone / answerphone
• Develop different communications methods
  • Social media
  • Newsletters etc

Actions and Timelines

Community Readiness

Holy Family Parish – by Pentecost 2025 or earlier

PFC in place and active	September 2024
Reviewed financial practices in place by March 25
PFC in place and active	December 2024
Understanding of key mission needs and resources available	December 2024
New website and Parish identity	March 2025
Sacramental preparation and faith program development plan in place	March 2025
Parish community development plan	March 2025

Actions

Canonical Readiness

• Gather financial records – budget and current balance – All in Xero
• List property portfolio – Being actioned
• Up-to date inventory and Parish Sacramental records – Being actioned
• Declare legacies and state the intention of the donors – To be done
• Establish how many bank accounts there are in the current Pastoral Area – All in Xero
• Propose Finance Council, with approved statutes – September 2024
• Propose Parish Governing body with approved statutes – December 2024
• Propose name for the new Parish – The Holy Family Parish
• Propose a church building to be the Parish Church – St Joseph’s Maidenhead
• Propose a date for amalgamation – By Pentecost 2025
• Archive all previous Parish Sacramental Records – Being actioned
• Create new parish sacramental records – Being actioned