 Full
Attendance at Naas Forum Meeting
There was a full attendance of clergy and lay
representatives from parishes in Ballymore and Omurthy Rural
Deaneries at the Forum meeting for West Glendalough in Naas
on Monday, 28 May, 2001.
The meeting was the final in a series of joint
rural deanery meetings held as part of the consultative process
to discover what church members see
as priority issues in preparation for the Diocesan Forum on
24 November 2001.
Each meeting followed a similar pattern. In
Naas the meeting opened with prayers led by Canon Leslie Crampton
Rector of Athy and Rural Dean of Omurthy. This was one of
his last engagements in the United Dioceses before his institution
as Rector of Geashill in the Dioceses of Meath & Kildare
in June.
David Meredith who has been engaged to act
as facilitator at each meeting then explained the background
to the process. He said, "For some time it has been felt
that a special event should be held to discuss priority issues
facing the United Dioceses. The Archbishop invited a number
of people to form a Planning Group to assist him with organising
it. It was decided that a wide consultation process should
be part of the preparation and this is what we're engaged
in to-night. Each parish was asked to discuss at their Easter
General Vestry what they considered priority issues for the
dioceses and to elect four representatives to attend rural
deanery meetings at which the views of the parishes would
be considered."
The meeting then broke up into groups of ten
in which participants presented the ideas from their parishes.
At the end of the evening each group presented what they considered
the three most important diocesan issues to the meeting on
a large sheet of paper. These were displayed on the walls
and the members voted for the top three issues.
Amongst issues raised were the need to think
and plan for growth; the need for a new model of parish and
ministry with a parish office and secretary to free clergy
from administration; archdeacons to be free of parochial work;
auxiliary clergy to work in their own parishes; clergy talent
to be shared; team ministries to be established; greater lay
involvement; worship to be more user friendly; inter-parish
youth activity with paid leadership and diocesan and central
church administration to be more transparent and accountable
The issues raised at all the Forum meetings
will be collated along with those sent by individuals to the
Forum Co-ordinator, Mr Geoffrey Perrin, and the results will
be considered by the Planning Group in its preparations for
the Diocesan Forum in November.
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