Facing the Future

Sunday 28 April 24

Parish Meeting Sunday 4pm in the Garden Room
to review the Parish Response which will be sent to the deanery.
Read the Parish Response here; paper copies available on the narthex table.

Sat / Sun  20 / 21 March 24

A  'Drop in' session after Saturday and Sunday Masses for people who would like to comment but have not sent anything in.

Sunday 31 March 24

We will have an opportunity to respond to ‘Facing the Future’ orally after Masses on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st April and a more extended meeting the following Sunday 28th April afternoon, time to be announced. 

Sunday 24 March 24

We have a bit more detail on the timeline, and the process that the parish will feed into.  Our parish input goes to Fr McManus, who is Dean for the Sheffield Deanery, which covers the eighteen parishes listed under Sheffield on the Parish Statistics sheet. He has overall responsibility for marshalling input from this Deanery.

Each parish is to submit ‘a report of their observations or conclusions (to a maximum 750 words) concerning the four questions put to us by the bishop’. Each parish may provide an annex to their report of any notes, letters and emails received during the period which are applicable to the consultation.

These parish reports will be (i) included in their entirety in the report sent to the bishop from the Sheffield Deanery, provided they conform to the 750-word limit, (ii) be circulated among the priests of the Deanery who will use them and their own experience to produce a Deanery report. The Parish reports and the Deanery report will together constitute the report sent to the bishop.

The parish reports must be submitted in early June to allow the consolidated report to be prepared and submitted by the end of June.

Sunday 10 March 24

Message from Fr John

My dear friends in Christ,

Last weekend at Mass we heard an important message from our bishop about the future of the Church in the diocese of Hallam. After Mass, everyone present was given a booklet containing the bishop’s pastoral letter and other information he wants us all to read. Copies of this booklet are available on the table in the church entrance and its contents are on the page of our parish website entitled, ‘Facing the Future’.

We are asked to consider prayerfully Bishop Ralph’s message and its implications for every member of the Church, every parish and the whole diocese. You are invited to respond with your questions, ideas and any thoughts you wish to share. Thank you to those who have already done this. Please respond by email or letter to the parish office. We plan to hold open parish meetings, probably after Easter, to work out our parish response to Bishop Ralph.

The future is always uncertain for us, but not for God. What we can always be certain of is that, ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’ John 3:16. God’s eternal love in the redemption of the world by Our Lord Jesus Christ is our constant source of faith, hope and love. May this be a source of joy and hope for us now and always.

May the remaining weeks of Lent lead us to a joyful celebration of the Easter Triduum. God bless you.

With love and prayers,
John

In the church foyer

Copies of the Facing the Future Consultation document, which includes Bishop Ralph's  Pastoral Letter, supporting pages and questions, are available to take from the table.

Online

Here are links to all the documents.

1. Pastoral Letter 3 Mar 24

2. Pastoral Statistics Analysis

3. Facing the Future

4. Parish Note

The combined documents are available as a booklet here.

Sunday 3 March 24

Bishop Ralph's Pastoral Letter was read out at Masses.

In the church foyer

Copies of the Pastoral Letter together with supporting documentation and questions are available to take from the table.