| St. Joseph’s, Sunderland - Parish Profile 2005 | PARISH GROUPS | |
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The parish has existed since 1873. The current building was completed in 1907. Originally the parish catered for workers in the heavy engineering industry including shipbuilding and coal mining. These industries no longer exist. Today the largest employer in the parish is Sunderland Royal Hospital. We have a large retired population and a significant number of parishioners are unemployed. A significant number of our parishioners are not active in the Church. In the past 3 years our congregation has been swelled by the arrival of families from the Philippines and India who occasionally have their own celebrations. It is sad to say that a few our parishioners are not happy with all these new parishioners and that they have their own celebrations occasionally. Our Indian and Filipino parishioners feel very happy here and feel that they have been warmly welcomed. . Our population is probably 4,000 and 540 attend Mass. A proportion of our Mass attendees do not live within the parish boundaries. In the past the parish had up to 6 priests; today we share our one priest with Holy Family, Grindon.
St. Joseph’s School has 320 pupils with increasing numbers which have necessitated 2 extra classrooms. A recent bid for a new school was turned down by the Department for Education & Skills.
Liturgy We express our communion as a parish by having the whole range of liturgical ministries, which are open to everyone and we try to arrange appropriate training. These include Welcomers, Eucharistic Ministers, Readers, Lay Leaders, Music Ministry, Altar Servers, and Children’s Liturgy. We use audio visual aids to illustrate our liturgies where appropriate and we try to keep up to date with the latest developments. Approximately 60 children attend our Children’s Liturgy on Sunday mornings. We have services of the Word and Communion in the absence of the priest during the week. We find that liturgies that are prepared for special occasions, outside of normal Mass times, are attended by the same core of parishioners no matter how well publicised who are generally the older parishioners. We have three prayer groups within the parish.
Mission We try to be a welcoming parish and our parishioners are encouraged to welcome strangers who are visiting us, as well as new parishioners. We are developing a welcome pack for new parishioners. We have a coffee morning after Mass every Sunday. Our web site and our newsletter, which is on the web site, are comprehensive and informative. We would hope that good liturgical celebrations, particularly on special occasions, would help visitors to feel welcome.
Witness We make every effort preparing people, particularly parents, for the sacraments, using a modified version of Journey in Faith with four sessions produced by CAFE, with the help of Catechists for Baptism & First Communion. Many of our parents are not Catholic or are not practising Catholics and our Journey in Faith is conscious of our mission to share the faith with them in a meaningful way. While we see parents during sacramental preparation once the children have received the sacraments we do not see the most of the families again until the parents bring next child for sacramental preparation. We try to make funerals family and non-catholic friendly. We have an active Youth Group which is open to the wider community and takes children from Year 6+.
We have good relations with the other Christian traditions in the community and are member of West End Churches Together, which organises joint services at various churches. Attendance from St. Joseph’s is poor. WECT is struggling at the moment due to the lack of clergy in the other traditions. We have a number of Indian Orthodox families within the Indian community who use St. Joseph’s regularly for services.
Service We have the following groups which are active within the Parish; SVP Legion of Mary, Justice & Peace, Fairtrade, Amnesty, Angelus Lunch Club, Hospital SVP and Hospital Chaplaincy. The SVP, Legion of Mary and Justice & Peace Group are small in number and of the older generation. We recognise that most of our younger parishioners are already busy with family and work. The housebound are visited regularly by Eucharistic Ministers. We have a Bereavement Group and School Governors. We also have a Parish Pastoral Council which is made up of three sub-committees; Faith, Evangelisation and Worship; Social and Community; Finance and Property.
We care for people regardless of race, colour or creed & if God wants to use this for his Mission, so be it.
Three Strengths Our three strengths are liturgical celebrations; a committed core of parishioners; and the influx of Filipinos and Indians who are an example to us.
Three Areas for Development Our three areas for development are parish visiting before and after sacramental preparation; better communication both within our community, and with the wider community; better relations with our schools and development of our Youth Ministry.
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Legion of Mary Justice & Peace Fairtrade Amnesty Angelus Lunch Club Hospital SVP Hospital Chaplaincy Malayalam Prayer Group Indian Prayer Group
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