1.1 - If we are unable to realistically conduct more Masses, how can we continue to welcome new people to our parish?  To enable more people to attend, we will need to expand our church facilities. Currently, we have to either turn people away or use temporary outdoor seating to accommodate everyone. But we are a missionary church, and must do everything possible to avoid turning people away!  —— 1.2- Why are we using the foyer when the pews are not full in the church? Can’t we just make better use of the spaces in our pews? Yes we can make better use of the pews in two ways: (1) with volunteers to help usher parishioners to pews that have space; and (2) by parishioners in the pews shuffling along so those at the entrance can easily see where the spaces are. Many people are too embarrassed to ask others to move, especially if they are a little late to Mass, which is why we need more volunteers to help greet and direct people to a seat.  —— 1.3- Why are we trying to have special masses (such as Confirmation), at the same time as our Sunday Mass? We know there will be many visitors and the church will be overloaded. Are the participants regular Sunday attendees? It is important that these Sacraments are supported and witnessed by our parish and parishioners. However, for safety reasons, this year we have made the tough decision to celebrate these as additional Sunday Masses. This does risk a disconnect with our parish community and those moving forward in their faith. Regardless of whether participants in our Sacramental programs regularly participate in parish life, we want to celebrate, support and welcome these members of our church community.  —— 1.4- Will we be able to continue celebrating different ethnic Masses in our churches? Yes, we hope to be able to continue to celebrate our special cultural Masses such as Indonesian, Spanish, Filipino. —— 1.5- There has been suggestion that some Masses would be dropped at St Teresa’s Church. Is this still on the table? And if so, which Mass(es) would be dropped? At the moment there is no consideration or discussion about discontinuing Masses. —— 1.6- We heard that if a priest needs to say more than 3 Masses in a day, he needs permission from the Bishop. Does this mean we are simply offering too many Sunday Masses (7 Sunday Masses + Saturday night Vigil)?  Should we reduce 1-2 Masses and focus on being at full capacity in all our churches? There are many aspects to consider here that require careful discernment: the capacity of our churches, the preference and necessity of parishioners’ Mass time and location, and how we care for our priests. Also, as a missionary parish, we want to always have space in the pews to welcome new people to Mass. —— 1.7- Why doesn’t St Bernadette’s have a Sunday Mass?   St Bernadette’s church does have a Sunday Mass that is celebrated as a vigil on Saturday evening. It is our smallest church with seating for only 210 people.  The other two churches have more than double this capacity. With an average of 2,300 parishioners attending Mass each Sunday, we need as much seating capacity as possible. We do not have another priest regularly available each Sunday to hold an additional Mass without the Bishop interceding.  We will continue to monitor attendance patterns, but for now the Saturday Vigil Mass offers a convenient alternative for those who prefer St. Bernadette’s church. —— 1.8- How does St Annes Manurewa work it - 4 Masses, 1800 congregation = 450 per Mass in a  Church Capacity of 450? We don’t know, that was what was reported to us.

2.1- Why do we run the sacramental programmes in a small location?  Doesn’t seem to make sense! While the current location (Bishop Joyce Centre - BJC) is physically smaller than St Teresa’s church hall, the BJC is where volunteers and staff work to produce resources to run the sacramental programs, where the internet, projectors and printers are located, and where it is logistically a much easier location to teach these programs. —— 2.2- Could the children be prepared together for sacramental programmes, then make their sacraments at their home Church? Our children come from across the parish to prepare for the Sacraments and we believe it is important for them to celebrate with the cohort they have prepared with as they have built relationships with them and journeyed with them.  Ideally if we had the space we would celebrate these Sacraments with all children in one Mass so all the children of the parish would celebrate the Sacrament together.

3.1- How is the Community of St John funded from our Diocese? For their work in our Parish, the community receives stipends for two priests.  This was the initial agreement with the diocese, based on what the diocese estimates the resourcing of the parish to be. —— 3.2- It was mentioned that our priests only have 2 hours of communal prayer instead of 3.5 hours now.  Why is that? The priests have a busy pastoral schedule, and travelling between sites takes up time too. They are currently finding the travel to get back together for their community life, including prayer time, would greatly reduce their availability for our parishioners.  They have temporarily sacrificed some of their communal prayer time, alongside community life like eating together, for individual time instead.  Note: unlike diocesan priests, priests who have joined the Order of the Brothers’ of St John Community, did this to be part of the Community and not to operate as individual priests.  This is why their current sacrifice of their community life is large, and cannot be the long term plan. —— 3.3- Will we always have the Community of St John? The Community of St John has committed to the Christchurch Diocese's Bishop to run the Holy Family Parish. This commitment is ongoing and open-ended, with the intention to stay indefinitely. Like all other religious communities (such as the Marist Fathers), the decision to stay is dependent on the community's ability to continue to supply priests, and balanced against other priorities the community has in the wider region. —— 3.4- Why isn’t Fr Philip counted in our priest team? Fr Philip has been the Tertiary Chaplaincy priest, and most of his time is given there. This is what his Diocesan stipend is given for. As he is part of the Community of St John we are fortunate that he is also willing to help with parish activities as he can.

4.1- How big is the Korean Catholic community? The weekly Sunday Mass attendance ranges from 180 - 200. —— 4.2- Are the children of the Korean Community integrated into our Parish Schools? The people who belong to this community come from all over Christchurch, so their children will go to whichever school the parents have enrolled them in near to their homes.  Historically, they had their own church in New Brighton and were named as the St Paul Chong Hasang Korean Catholic Community, until the earthquakes in Christchurch took their church. —— 4.3- Could the Korean Community use St Bernadette’s facilities as there are no Sunday Masses there?  This would take the pressure off the 10-11am Mass needing to be gone by 11:30am every Sunday. Their chaplaincy is currently renting the presbytery at St Teresa’s, and the discussion with them has been around the space at St Teresa’s.  If there is a need to negotiate around alternate space, this will be explored through discussions at that stage. —— 4.4- Will the Korean community be with us in the long term, or is this a generational group? The Korean Catholic Chaplaincy and other international chaplaincies exist worldwide, and last for as long as they are a good fit for their communities to connect with God. —— 4.5- Once other churches have been rebuilt around us, will the numbers in our parish or number of our Masses change? We will have to wait to see what the future holds.  We do know that any change always has other related changes, but the specifics are unknown to us currently.  What we do know is that our vision is to be a missionary parish where thousands of people are growing in friendship with Christ and finding their place in Him.  So we can plan for that. —— 4.6- How will the rebuild of the Cathedral in Barbadoes Street affect the Holy Family parish in regards to the numbers? We will have to wait to see.  We do know that any change always has other related changes, but the specifics are unknown to us.  What we do know is that our vision is to be a missionary parish where thousands of people are growing in friendship with Christ and finding their place in Him.  So we can plan for that. —— 4.7- What impact will fundraising for the Cathedral have on our Parish’s ability to fundraise for our Church? This is unknown, but we should expect there will be some impact.  That is why we are being realistic about what we believe we could fundraise based on the previous Diocesan fundraising drives and on our planned giving. —— 4.8- Could the offices at Our Lady of Victories be remodelled?  Could an upstairs be added? It may be difficult to add an upstairs to the existing Bishop Joyce Centre (BJC) building as the foundations were not laid for a two storey building.  But this is also currently being studied to consider whether remodelling would be a potential solution. —— 4.9- Do we need a principal Church? Yes, we believe we do.  Pastorally, it is important to have a central site for our major liturgical feasts, sacramental preparation, and sacrament celebrations.  As a missionary parish, we want to be able to do this together in a welcoming way where there is room for ourselves and our visitors, and also for those who may be coming into a church for the first time. This will also enable us to be the most efficient with the use of our resources, including centralisation of our administration. —— 4.10- Are we expanding St Teresa’s Church or Our Lady of Victories? We will expand Our Lady of Victories as it is in the centre of our parish, and it has more available land to use. —— 4.11- Could we sell the hall at St Teresa’s and build another one on the school site with classes at the top? This could be considered. The school, Catholic Education Office and Parish would need to collaborate on this idea and show how it is fiscally viable. —— 4.12- Can the Bishop give us another priest? There is a shortage of priests. In the Diocese, all parishes are moving to two or less priests. We all need to pray for an increase in men being called to the vocation of priesthood and encourage our young men to discern this.