Knights of Saint Columba
Accrington Council 188
Minutes of meeting held on Friday August 16th at 7.30p.m. 2012
Opening: The GK opened the meeting according to the new ritual for small councils
.
Minutes of last meeting held on July 20 were accepted and passed as a true record.
Matters arising.
1. Parishes in Hyndburn, working together, have decided to organise Masses for the sick and
disabled in their own churches as distinct from the district Mass organised previously. The
involvement of the KSC will no longer be required other than within our own parishes to provide
transport etc.
2. The Interfaith Forum, which had been funded by the now defunct community Empowerment
Network, is being reformed as part of the Community Voluntary Services (CVS).The first
meeting is planned for October 18th in the old St. James’ School Accrington from 10am until 12,
noon. It was agreed the function of the Forum needs to be defined and become less of a ‘talking
shop’ and more a vehicle for faith communities to work together on areas of common interest.
Correspondence.
In
SPUC correspondence related to a membership drive. The first event is planned for October at
St. Anne’s. This work is important as the recent parliamentary question by Lord Alton
indicated that out of the 6 + million abortions carried out since the Act was passed only 149
were to protect the life of the mother.
Out
Several Bulletins to various groups.
Secretary’s report. John had nothing to report/
Chancellor’s report Paul had little top report other than the Mullen brothers were both in reasonable
health.
Treasurer’s report. Brian had been to see one of our members to establish his wish to continue as a
member of the KSC. He indicated he has very heavily family commitments and a lot of Parish work and
was finding these very time consuming. Brian urged him not to give up altogether on his KSC
membership. Brian has paid the Head Office subscriptions and the new purple collars. He is to transfer
monies from the General Account to the Benevolent Account.
Action convenor’s report. Paul reported on the Provincial visit to Liverpool Cathedral on October 6th but
a survey of members present proved that no one was available to attend. The Clitheroe KSC have once
more organised a sponsored walk for SPUC around Clitheroe. Brothers congratulated them on this
initiative but regretted our inability to encourage at least one member to take part. Our distribution of the
Funeral Leaflets in the Great Harwood churches was a success and John McManus will seek approval
from Fr. Tierney at St. Mary’s Clayton le Moors to distribute the leaflets at his church.
Arrangements for our October Action Planning Meeting were discussed and two strands of thought arose.
A. Hold a Buffet Supper at the Peel Park Hotel as we did last year on Friday October 19th providing
the room is free.
B. Hold the meeting in the community room in St. Anne’s Church on Wednesday October 17th.and
get an outside caterer to provide the buffet.
A final decision will be made at our September meeting
Deputy GK’s report on membership Charlie reported that four Brothers were now eligible for Full
Knighthood. This ceremony is organised by Province who will be informed of the potential members
awaiting elevation from our Council.
He also reported that he had approached several potential members and all had agreed to consider joining
but none actually had.
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Overall our recruitment techniques are pretty poor and support given by the clergy was patchy. Frs
Clarke and Stamp are fully supportive. It is clear we do not have a mission statement (the recent eColumba did provide this but was received after our meeting).After some discussion the following ideas
were suggested: Notes and leaflets about the KSC are to be prepared
 Province is to be approached to provide a speaker from their Membership Group to speak at
masses about the aims and objectives of the KSC and appeal for men to join the order. It was
suggested the first event should be at St. Anne’s
 The GK to identify the marketing material, banners, flags etc. held by other councils within
Province and the availability of display boards.
Discussion. “If the Olympics can inspire a generation how can the church do the same?”
Over 70,000 volunteers help in the smooth running of the London Olympics but to attract people to work
for the church is much more difficult. Questions were asked about the depth of religious
instruction/education given in Primary and Secondary schools. RE teaching seems equally superficial. It
was pointed out that local clergy worked hard with Mount Carmel to support the Catholic nature of the
school. It was noted that that the Catholic side of social legislation was seldom ever highlighted. The
BBC is particularly notorious for adopting an anti-catholic stance with the humanist view point
seemingly given precedence over any other.
Other forms of the media seem to emphasis the perceived notion that the Church seeks to restrict all the
freedoms gained by society over the last fifty or sixty years. No definite conclusion was reached in our
discussions except to promote our Christian values in the example to the way we live our lives.
Close of meeting. The meeting closed at 8.30 with prayers for our deceased brothers.
Date of Next Meeting/ Our next meeting will on September 21st in the Presbytery at St. Anne’s.
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