Everybody Welcome

It is not so much 'getting people to do things' that matters but rather the encouragement of a sense of generous responsibility in the hearts of all our parishioners. This is your parish and your family, so we are responsible whether we choose to accept it or not.

Some families and individuals have great difficulties in making themselves available to help in any capacity because of family and work commitments, but this is not impossible - it just takes a little changing of schedules and re-adjustment of priorities, which sometimes can be done.

The value of doing things together is not just in getting a job done but more in the family feeling and sense of belonging that events or activities undertaken together bring about. Many people who have come to our parish from outside are at least feeling that they do belong here and have made good friends because of their taking part together.

Some people want to help but don't know how or what to do - Mrs Costello (Tel. 631506) is always available to chat to you about this and hopefully point you in the right direction. It would be good if one person offered to be a 'key person' for a particular activity, e.g. cleaning the centre, or cleaning the church, preparing the liturgy for various services, looking after the grounds or whatever. In this way, there would be someone you could get in touch with and offer your services to.

The value of occasional or one-off activities is huge -there will continue to be periodic 'blitz days' for cleaning the church and centre even though they are cleaned regularly, cutting the hedge or other such projects. There are also bookings of the centre for such purposes as blood donation which would need a team of volunteers to prepare the room the night before and put it back together once the transfusion service have left.

The involvement of young families is vital if they are to feel that they are really part of our family, but they also need to be willing to offer themselves to do things, and not think that they are 'Just too busy'. They also need to be made to feel welcome by those who have been doing particular activities in our community for a long time, rather than being shut out because they are not able to come along when it suits others because of their family commitments.