A Pastoral Plan
for the Diocese of Portsmouth
2005
opportunity to stop and think about what our church/faith is all about and what needs to be done to help our
church in growth and mission. From the feedback of those sessions, the pastoral priorities of the Diocese have
been arrived at.
In July 4 representatives from Christ the King, Ellen McCarthy, Teresa Poole, David Jabbari and Marie
Panter, attended the Assembly at the University of Reading when Bishop Crispian introduced our plan for the
Diocese. We have since met with Fr. Gerard and shared our thoughts and responses to the Pastoral Plan. What
we want to do today is to report back to you on some of the proposals contained in the plan and in so doing, give
you a better understanding of them.
Centrality of the Sunday Eucharist – Bishop Crispian writes in the plan “The Sunday Eucharist, more than
anything else, establishes us as the gathered community of the disciples of Christ. In the strength of that
communion, we are both called and empowered to share in Christ’s life and in his work of transforming the world –
the building of the Kingdom of God.” The Diocese wants to ensure that Sunday Mass continues to be celebrated
as widely as possible and by as many people as possible. Celebration of the Word and Communion in the
absence of a priest will not normally take place on a Sunday after Easter 2006. If for any reason Sunday Mass
cannot be celebrated we are encouraged to participate in a liturgy of the Word or to spend an appropriate time in
prayer, whether personally or as a family. The development of larger pastoral areas will help to ensure that
everybody can receive the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day.
Larger Pastoral Areas – During the past few years, when change has become inevitable, some parishes have
had to amalgamate; other parishes have remained as separate parishes, but shared the services of one priest.
So effectively in some parts of the Diocese larger pastoral areas have already begun to surface. What the plan
proposes is a more structured approach to these larger pastoral areas. The larger pastoral areas will be decided
upon in July 2006, following careful analysis and assessment of existing situations, which will include listening to
each local community, learning from past experiences and collecting data. A team of clergy and laity who will be
responsible for planning pastoral action will serve these larger pastoral areas. Kathryn Turner, one of the
speakers at the Assembly shared her story with us. This is the gist of it:
Kathryn arrived in Holy Cross parish in Eastleigh in the Eighties. She felt at welcomed and at home there and
had no desire to go anywhere else. She was vaguely aware that there was another parish about 2 miles away
called St. Swithun Wells. The then parish priest of Holy Cross, Fr. Shaun Budden set up a liturgy group and
asked Kathryn to be part of it. It was then that she met people from St. Swithun Wells, together developing
liturgies for two very different communities. (Change 1). Some years later Fr. Shaun moved on and Fr. Paul
Beaumont came to the parish bringing with him different gifts - (Change 2) A little later Fr. Paul became ill and
was hospitalised. It was a worrying time, but the parish rallied round. In Kathryn’s’ words “They grew up” and got
on with what needed to be done in the parish. - (Change 3). Sadly Fr. Paul died and they became a parish in
mourning. Questions and rumours began. Would they be getting a priest? What would he be like and would
there be major changes? Eventually Fr. Michael Dennehy was appointed parish priest – (change 4). It began to
seep into their minds that Fr. Tony Sitti, who was serving the parish next door, Edward the Confessor – about the
same distance the other way as St. Swithun Wells – was going back to Thailand and would not be replaced and
that St. Edward’s was likely to be coming alongside them being served by Fr. Michael. (Change 5). Kathryn says
that there have been some very difficult times with the parishes coming together but also great joys, meeting
people with gifts, which compliment each other. Still there are more changes to come but Kathryn said “having
been part of her parish for 18 years and seen the changes there – a priest moving on – a priest dying – parishes
coming together – that they are looking forward to the future.
The catechists from CTK, St. James & William of York worked together last year in preparing our children for their
First Holy Communion. It was such a success that they have already started planning together for next year.
This is just one success story of a larger area working together, sharing skills and talents. Perhaps the point
should be made here, that although they worked together as a larger community, the children still came back to
their own parishes to celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist in the midst of their familiar worshipping
communities. Individual parish identity was not lost. Nor should it be in the future! The larger pastoral areas will
create more opportunities of this nature to share our gifts, talents, skills and resources thus ensuring that all God’
s children are served fairly and equally.
Do you remember when Father Nicholas Heap moved on at short notice and we were left without a resident
priest. The hurt, frustration and pain we all felt. Fr. Jim was already serving the parish of St. James & William of
York and was now having to serve yet another parish. It was extremely hard for all concerned. I would say that it
was then that great change began to happen at CTK. Change for the better; the Pastoral Council was more
effective then, than it had ever been because of the responsibilities they needed to take on in ensuring that our
community continued to function.
Stewardship – Everything we have and are is a gift from God. To enable us to reflect on how we recognise and
use our time, treasure and talents in the service of the Kingdom, the Diocese is piloting a Stewardship
programme in 7 parishes, CTK being one of them. The first thing we are asked to do is to recognise that we are
all gifted in one way or another and then to acknowledge our responsibility in sharing those gifts with others in
building up the kingdom of God. Fr. Gerard has already asked us to consider how we might be able to help in the
parish. We are very lucky here at CTK in that we do have many people offering their services, but you can never
have too many. If we have more people on board offering to share their time and gifts, this would enable more
time to be devoted to other areas of concern in the pastoral plan such bringing God’s healing love to all.
The above was read at last Sunday's Mass by Teresa Poole. This was followed with talks by Bishop Crispian,
Monsignor John Nelson, and Nicki Stevens, on Monday evening 26th Spetember 2005 the church was full with
people form all over the diocese, after the talks Monsignor John Nelson took questions from the audience,
more discussions meetings will take place round the diocese in the coming months.
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