In February the priests of the diocese met with the bishop. The bishop announced some proposals for linking parishes. He stressed that these were not set in stone but were the basis for further consultation.
The bishop asked every parish to consult on these proposals. Here at St Wilfrid's we did this by means of a questionnaire. A summary of the results can be found here.
Bishop Malcolm also asked every deanery to hold an open meeting to look at the proposals. Ours was held at De Lisle School on the evening Pope Francis was elected. It was a very positive and well-attended meeting. A full report of the meeting can be read here, and a short summary here.
Every thing has now been sent to the diocese, and circulated to the parishes of the deanery. I attended a meeting of deans at the Cathedral recently, and following this meeting a small sub-group of deans started to look in detail at our responses, and the responses which had come in from all over our diocese.
I am very impressed with the way in which the parish and deanery have contributed to this consultation. Please continue to pray for all who will have to make decisions based on our input.
