2.

DIFFICULTIES THAT HAVE ARISEN

Mgr. Klyberg has recently had a serious motor accident and has decided that
Parish of The Virgin Mother he will generally only celebrate public Masses on one weekend per month.
of Good Counsel, Hythe Until recently he regularly celebrated all three Masses on the Marsh.
Canon Cronin has limited availability. Both, as retired priests give time volun-
tarily and on occasion are both away at the same time.
The two priests at present in place from SOLT under contract with the
diocese are due to be replaced in the next month or two.
Damage by theft to the copper roof to St Monica's at Dymchurch for the
third time this year has rendered the church unusable for one Sunday and it
will be several weeks before repairs can be completed.
Extra-ordinary Meeting of the Parish Counsel 3. SURVEY RESULTS
18th January 2011 In 2007 a survey was carried out in which all parishioners were asked to partici-
pate. It raised the strong possibility of a reduced number of clergy available to
The subject of the meeting was the Parish Mass schedule for Sunday Masses serve the parish in the future and asked parishioners to make a choice of which
and the difficulties with maintaining the present schedule. Mass they would attend if their "normal" Mass were to be no longer available.
In 2007 there was concern that with an average total Mass attendance of 510
Present
the dropping of a Mass might overfill one of our churches. The average Mass
Chris Harvey (Chair & Dymchurch) Fr Fred Alexander
attendance in 2010 was 424 (excluding Easter) with 322 of these attending at
Sharon Barrett-Legg (Vice Chair) Deacon Ray Partridge (Properties)
Hythe and 102 at the Marsh churches. This large drop in attendance is a reflec-
Jerry Wells (Liturgy) Susanne York (Social Events)
tion of reductions being seen throughout the diocese. It is clear from the 2010
Rachelle Pumphrey (Littlestone) Ann-Marie Meade (Lydd)
figures that there will be no overfilling of churches if there were to be a reduc-
Ann Taylor (Other organisations) Peter Perry (Housebound)
tion in the number of Masses in the parish. The most telling statistic in the 2007
Deacon Ray Partridge presented a paper that examined the present situation survey was the small number of people who claimed the 7pm Mass in Hythe as
with regard to Mass provision and the availability of priests. A summary fol- their normal Mass (24) compared to the numbers actually attending (49). It is
lows. clearly the Mass of “last resort,” for many. Recalculating the 2007 figures by
proportion to the 2010 Mass attendance figures shows that the only difficulty
that would arise by dropping one Mass would be at Hythe at the 9.30am Mass
1. THE PRESENT SITUATION
The parish is served from Hythe by two priests from the Society of Our should the 11.30 Mass be dropped. In all other cases the building capacity
would be adequate. The way the 2007 survey questions were phrased did not
Lady of the Blessed Trinity (SOLT). They are assisted by two retired
allow for more than one Mass being dropped so no calculations are possible for
priests, Mgr John Klyberg, and Canon Jeremiah Cronin.
that eventuality.
At present the parish and convent together are provided with nine Sunday
Masses. There is a parish Mass on Saturday at 12pm. This is a total of ten
4. PROPOSALS
Masses over the weekend.
The principle constraints are -
The approximate building capacities are Availability and capability of the clergy.
Hythe 140 + the Choir Capacity of the buildings.
Dymchurch 80 Canonical norms that permit priests to say only two Masses on Sunday
Littlestone 120 except I In an emergency. This has clearly been honoured in the breach in
Lydd 60 the parish for many years but should not be the basis for planning
On the basis of these three constraints the proposal would be: -