Parish Pastoral Council

Background

Our Parish Pastoral Council (PPC), which generally meets every six weeks on a Tuesday evening, is constituted, is constituted in accordance with the Statutes For Parish Pastoral Councils (the Statutes), as promulgated by the Archbishop in April 2008 for the Archdiocese of Cape Town, with the objective of collaborating with our parish priest in a consultative and advisory capacity in the mission of the parish.

The Statutes

The Statutes provide that the PPC comprises the parish priest who is President of the Council, our deacon, elected members of the parish, representatives of approved parish associations and religious and secular institutions together with parishioners appointed by the parish priest.

The Statutes highlight the following matters as falling within the competence of the PPC:

• Fostering an identity with the local church
• Liturgical
• Catechetical Instruction
• The Catechumenate or RCIA
• Evangelisation
• Apostolate to the Unchurched
• Basic Christian Communities/Small Faith Sharing Groups
• Family Life Apostolate
• Social Apostolate
• Youth Apostolate
• Community Activities
• Vocations
• Ecumenism
• Justice and Peace
• Additions to and Maintenance of Existing Immovable Property.

PPCs are presided over by the Parish Priest who is ex officio President of the Council. The Executive of the Council comprises the President, Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Secretary of the Council.

Any parishioner who is aged 18 or more, has received the Sacrament of Confirmation and enjoys a good reputation is eligible for election to the Council for a period of two years and may be elected for a further period of three years following which he/she is required to step down and is generally not eligible to stand for election for a further three year period.

The Council has a consultative role in collaborating with the parish priest in an advisory capacity in furtherance of the mission of the parish.

Strategic Plans - Divine Renovation

At the end of 2018, we conducted several facilitated workshops were run to evaluate our parish strategy and explore Divine Renovation. All parishioners were invited to attend and we had a group of about 18 people attend the workshops. As a prerequisite to participating in the workshops attendees were asked to read the book ‘Divine Renovation’ By Fr James Mallon.
In these workshops we set the course of our parish and decided to apply the methodology and approach of Divine Renovation to our own circumstances on Constantia Catholic.

We brainstormed the vision and mission for our parish and we identified 7 main focus area of parish life.

• Worship
• Evangelisation
• Discipleship
• Community & Fellowship
• Ministry & Care
• Social Justice
• Youth

Our three-year plan is to change from being what Fr mallon calls a ‘maintenance’ church to a ‘missionary’ one.

Our ultimate mission – given to us by Jesus in Mathew’s gospel (Matthew 28:19-20) known as the Great Commission is "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

If we are to achieve this we need to develop a fervour for our faith, we need to become true disciples and then only can we take up the great commission and become evangelists (to evangelise is to announce the good news). From the time of Pope Paul VI to Francis we have been told that there needs to be a New Evangelisation. We need to rediscover our beautiful faith, our living faith; we need to satisfy our hunger and come to know Jesus as the loving Word; and we need to build a community of growing, maturing beleivers commited to a lifelong process of discipleship learning, who are discovering their God-given talents, prepared to serve and eventually to become apostles.

Outreach

To develop specific objectives and action plans with a view to focussing outreach initiatives on identified needs and, in particular, needs within our own community. Rev Richard Aguirre, is charged with managing and developing this objective.

Buildings & Maintenance

To develop short term specific objectives to address identified needs and issues; to plan and construct a wheel chair ramp; to develop an integrated facilities plan including: inter alia, consideration relating to the provision of more suitable catechism classrooms, a library, a redesign of the area behind the sanctuary and the provision of an automatic garden sprinkler system. James Wagner will champion this strategic objective.

Parishioner Knowledge of Faith & Spirituality

To develop specific objectives aimed at providing parishioners with educational resources concerning the Church and its beliefs; opportunities to develop their spirituality through the provision of training programs, lectures, homilies, workshops and liturgical events; and action plans designed to encourage the development of home-based spirituality. John Burke has responsibility for this strategic objective.

Parishioner Responsibility For Church & Faith / Increasing the Lay Apostolate

Develop specific objectives with a view to encouraging parishioners to become more involved in the parish through participation in the various parish ministries thereby ensuring a dynamic and efficient parish which provides not only for its own needs but which is fully committed to evangelisation. John Burke is championing this strategic objective.

Vocations:

To develop specific objectives and action plans with a view to highlighting the crisis which the Church faces with the decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life; encouraging young people in particular to heed the call to priestly and religious vocations and, through prayer, to invoke the Assistance of the Holy Spirit in addressing this serious need.

See The Year of The Priest for inspiration on the priesthood as demonstrated by St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, universal patron saint of priests.

Community Spirit

To develop specific objectives and action plans designed to develop a strong community spirit among parishioners.

Communication

To develop specific objectives aimed at improving communication within the parish by enhancing the weekly bulletin, assisting in the development of the parish website and by the effective utilisation of modern technology and media tools.