Minutes of the 2nd Parish Assembly

Parish Priest: Fr. John Sim
Assistant Priest: Fr. Adrian Yeo

Members of Parish Pastoral Council and PPC-Executive Committee
Members of Parish Organizations and Ministries
Members of the General Congregation

In summary –
The Parish Assembly is the voice of all persons in the parish in providing feedback on pastoral concerns.

First Concern: To address common complaint of lack of access to information and parish activities and resources.

Action Taken: To form a Publicity Ministry in the church to take care of publicity / communication of the church. Parishioners talented in mass media communication were invited to volunteer their services and to form Publicity Ministry.

The Publicity Ministry: The ministry have taken off very well and John Png reported that the team has done the following –

Second Concern: The demographics of the church includes many elderly parishioners. There was a need to reach out more to the senior citizens in the parish.

Action Taken: A senior citizens support group was formed, and parishioners above 50 years of age were invited to join. The group has taken on the name of “Vintage Care”.

“Vintage Care”: Vivienne Lim reported on behalf of Vintage Care –

Third Concern: The need for more faith formation programmes for parishioners and to revitalise the faith environment.

Action Taken: Screening of faith formation videos in the parish hall. Introduction of the CaFE programme in the parish.

CaFE: Jeanette Kong presented on behalf of the Faith Formation Group –

Fourth Concern: To reach out to people in need within the parish and people who need support.

Action Taken: Plans are in the pipeline to conduct a survey to find out what special support groups are appropriate for our parish e.g. bereaved persons, single parents, parents of children with special needs, etc. Plans are also in the pipeline to seek volunteer doctors, counsellors, etc within the parish in order to create a self-sustaining network / database of volunteers within the church.

Fifth Concern: To improve the pastoral care and gospel sharing environment within the church.

Action Taken: Plans are in the pipeline to introduce Cell Groups / Small Christian Community concept within our parish. These were presented under the next item on Vision and Work-Plan for 2006.

The priests in the parish and four PPC members (Angelo Png, Anthony Gabriel, David Kwek and Richard Toh) are members in the PPC-Exco. The Chairperson of PPC acknowledged and thanked the Council for work done in 2005.

Devotions to Our Lady in May. Praying the rosary and procession in the parish will be a faith witnessing of the community for evangelization.

Cell Groups (also called Small Christian Communities)
David Kwek explained that the pastoral plan for Cell Groups serves to:

The parish has a few existing groups in neighbourhoods. The plan is to encourage others to join existing groups or form new Cell Groups. The concept of Cell Groups is not a new development in the church, but actually dates back to the early Christian communities (Acts 4, 11). The concept of small Cell Groups meeting weekly or monthly is a way for parishioners to reach out to one another. The Church has a population of 8,000 and she is not able to provide pastoral care for every person in the parish.

PPC will work with the Singapore Pastoral Institute (SPI) in 2006 to introduce cell groups and provide training developed by ASIPA for Small Christian Communities. Details of the awareness programme and training will be announced next year.

Vivienne Lim informed that this planned initiative is timely because the Archbishop has recently requested parish priests to encourage the formation of Small Christian Communities in all parishes.

Support Groups for pastoral care of parishioners in unique circumstances that may require specialist support or particular attention.

Ada Tok explained that a need for Support Groups was a result of interviews of parishioners, the parish Secretariat and what other churches have set-up.

Priests of the parish.

Recorded by:

Josephine Cheong
Secretary of PPC

Vivienne Lim
Chairperson of PPC

Confirmed by:

Fr. John Sim
Parish Priest & President of PPC

It was noted that there are two small groups of parishioners that gather regularly in Bishan and Braddell View Estate for Bible sharing, pray together, community bonding and take on a mission to reach out to others in the neighbourhood and beyond.

The Bishan neighbourhood group started in 1989 with the encouragement of Fr. James Yeo and the name list of Catholics from the Legion of Mary.

The group has increased its numbers from 20 to 90 families now, but some are unable to meet regularly. Fr. Louis Loiseau is the Spiritual Director for the group.

Suggest a group to support parents of children with special needs with specialist teachers working with parents to help the learning experience of such children, and in particular for catechism classes.

Children with special needs need not forego the Sacraments if the parish consider a programme for this special need.

Activities for Children in Church
Organize activities for children in the church premises on weekdays since the church premises are largely unoccupied – and also because it is good for children to relate to church through play and joyful experience.

Suggest that Vintage Care can have some activities with the children in our parish so that both groups can enjoy each others’ company.

A suggestion that a programme is required on Sundays for kids from 3 – 4 years old. This could also serve as an incentive for parents to stay on after Sunday mass to get to know each other, have fellowship and spiritual sharing.

The Our Father in Latin
Several parishioners noted that the Our Father is being sung in Latin during Sunday masses nowadays and requested for it to be in English so that the people can participate with understanding in the Lord’s Prayer.

Fr. Adrian Yeo explained that it is a form of witnessing that the Roman Catholic church belongs to the Latin rite and is a universal church. The instruction in the Roman Missal of the Church calls for the Creed and the Our Father to be said or sung in Latin. The Universal (Catholic) Church hopes to one day be able to profess our faith in one voice in the Creed and call Our Father in Latin. Catholics who attend masses anywhere in the world can then pray in one voice.

After Vatican Council II, Latin as a language was omitted in the Mass in countries where the congregation did not understand Latin. The Church has now instructed that the mother tongue of the Roman Catholic Church must be in Latin, Sunday masses is an appropriate moment to remind all of us of our heritage. Later, the congregation will be taught to profess the Creed in Latin.

It was noted that parishioners desire to relate to the prayer of Our Father, which seems to pose difficulty in Latin. The people requested the Church to accommodate this need from time to time.

Parish Pastoral Programmes
Query was raised as to whether a master plan of church activities is being maintained to avoid overlap of programmes and activities. It was highlighted that the parish is not lacking in activities, but instead sometimes it is hard to attract more parishioners to participate in the activities. The church should also see how we can reach out to the disinterested parishioners.

David Kwek explained that PPC is conscious of the not overburdening church organizations and ministries with activities or with an overlap of programmes. It seeks to introduce possible solutions and suggestions to fill gaps for new pastoral needs, e.g. Vintage Care and a parish media communications team. PPC is conscious not to introduce programmes that are already in existence. Existing ministries and organizations are important for parish life. PPC’s plan for the formation of Cell Groups/Small Christian Communities is to fill identified gaps in the parish’s pastoral care. Indeed there is no one easy answer as to how the church can reach out to all 8,000 parishioners as different programmes attract different people.

Fr. Adrian Yeo highlighted that people have different interests, and that is the reason for there being various church groups. He suggested that having a good lecturer/speaker in programmes could attract some people.

Fr. John Sim said that faith is dynamic, and we all need to grow in faith without end. There is no graduation. The Church must remain open and seeks to provide the pastoral needs of the people. He informed that the Singapore Pastoral Institute is using Church of the Risen Christ for their Bible courses and other workshops. The Church should not limit the number of courses or workshop but should be open for whoever is interested in deepening their faith and relationship with God.