The last Chaplaincy Council meeting took place on October 15th in the gatehouse of the English Cemetery. At each meeting short reports are received from the various officers of the chaplaincy in addition to a report from me in which I try and give a summary of the different aspects of my work. We revised the composition of the working groups to include a member of the clergy team. The idea is to improve the channels of communication across the chaplaincy. Fr Hilary is co-opted onto the Fabric and Funding working group, Mother Doreen onto the Outreach and Communications working group, Fr Philip onto the Liturgy, Education and Formation working group and Fr Mark onto Events and Fund-raising. We looked at ways we can improve our communications within the chaplaincy and further afield, making more effective use of social media and consolidating our mailing lists.

A proposal to work with the Ven. Paul Vrolijk on improving the financial situation was accepted. Paul is a former Senior Chaplain of Holy Trinity, Brussels and Archdeacon of North East Europe. Paul is now a full time coach supporting clergy and chaplaincies fufil their local mission. With Paul’s help we will be better able to address the financial difficulties which have beset us for far too long and plan more sensibly for the stable funding of our church.

We talked the current situation at Velez-Malaga church and the medium to long term prospects for its viability. We decided to use the period leading to Christmas as a time of discernment recognising that the 9:00am time was not a popular time for a service and yet it was our only option if we wanted to worship at Lux Mundi on a Sunday. We agreed that the coordinators of the working groups would meet online during November in addition to the last full council meeting before Christmas.

If you wish to make a suggestion or ask a question about some aspect of how the church works please do get in contact with one of the working group co-ordinators:

Fabric and Funding – Tristram Congreve

Outreach and Communication – Gloria Hall

Events and Fund-raising – John Gardner

Liturgy, Education and Formation – Fr Louis (pro tem)