Called to be a People of Hope Parish Consultation Continues

12 July 2009

The latest stage of our diocesan pastoral guidelines, ‘Called to be a People of Hope’ is underway.  Canon Bernard Massey, who is coordinating the parish consultation, has written to all parishes with an update.

‘Called to be a People of Hope’ promised that a committee would be formed to review existing deanery and parish structures and make recommendations to Bishop Declan by Autumn 2009.  The committee is chaired by Canon Bernard Massey.

Canon Bernard Massey wrote to all parish priests in our diocese on 8 July.

He said: “I am writing to give you a brief update on how the work is progressing for the group tasked by Bishop Declan to review parish and deanery structures. You will recall this was promised in our pastoral guidelines ‘Called to be a People of Hope’.

“I wrote to you on 28 April asking you to complete a consultation document and many parishes responded by the 25 June deadline.  However if you have not yet had an input into this process I would appreciate if you could get any responses in to our committee member Mrs Caroline Williams at Alexander House, 160 Pennywell Road, Bristol BS5 0TX or by email to called@cliftondiocese.com as soon as possible, and certainly before 21 July.

“Our review committee had read all the current responses and recently held an overnight meeting to start the work of analysing all your comments.  We will have another similar session planned for 21 and 22 July again hence we need all replies by this date.

“So far we have been drawing up a series of guiding principles and criteria as to how parishes can or should work together.  It has been very heartening to see the positive way that parishes have approached these issues.  The group has also been impressed by the amount of common ground on ways forward that is found in the responses.”
Our diocesan pastoral guidelines ‘Called to be a People of Hope’ can be downloaded from the multimedia panel on the right. 

The practical guiding principles and factors sent to all parishes by Canon Bernard on 28 April together with the reply form can also be downloaded from the multimedia panel on the right. 
You can also email your reply without using the form.  The final deadline is Tuesday 21 July 2009.

You can email questions about ‘Called to be a People of Hope’.  Background to ‘Called to be a People of Hope’.