Snippets from the PCC Meeting – 8th June 2021
The PCC’s meeting on 8th June was again held by video. Among the items discussed were:
Rural Dean
We were joined for the first part of the meeting by Revd Julia Cody who is the Rural Dean and also Vicar of Perton. As Rural Dean she will be responsible for supporting the parish though the vacancy and will also be able to act as a channel of communication with the Archdeacon and the diocese.
There is a process which needs to be gone through to fill the vacancy but that is likely to be on hold while a decision is made on the outcome of the deanery review for Shaping for Mission. She hopes that may not take too long and we may be in a position to advertise the post in the autumn. She said that it is clear that Pattingham with Patshull does need a minister but it is not clear exactly what the advertised post would look like at the moment.
Services
The pattern of 10 am services which was developed over the last few months will continue for the foreseeable future with various clergy from the local area taking the communion services. The service on the first and third Sundays will continue to be in two parts: the Family service or the Youth-led service as the first part and a Communion service for the second part.
We have reviewed the way those work and have devised a shorter form of Communion service to be used on those occasions and there will be a short break between the two parts to give those who wish to leave the chance to do so.
Easing of Restrictions
The meeting took place before the government’s announcement of the delay in moving out of Step 3 but there were, of course, rumours. We discussed our options if there was a delay and you will see elsewhere that the Celebration Tea Party for Maureen has now been postponed to 8th August and the Songs of Praise service and the resumption of evening services has been postponed to 25th July.
Most of the restrictions in church will have to continue but we have been able to make some changes now. The Memorial Book has been returned to its usual place by the Lady Chapel. We have also found a way to make service books or sheets available safely: they will be put out on the pews before the service; they should be left there afterwards and will then be collected and put away until the next week (which will give time for any virus to die).