Communications
Effective communication is of central importance to the life of our community – communication between the many people and committees, groups and teams within the NICCC and with other people and groups. The more people who know and understand what is going on, the stronger our community will be. When things don’t turn out as well as had been hoped, the problem can usually be traced to a communication breakdown. Most complaints turn out to arise from inadequate communication.
Although NICCC does not have a written communications strategy, a number of initiatives have been taken to improve communication about the ministry and pastoral activities of the NICCC. These include weekly parish bulletins, this website, and occasional parish newsletters.
The main formal communication tools and teams in our four parishes are:
Weekly parish bulletins
Tighes Hill / Carrington Parish communications
NICCC website team
Newcastle Parish newsletter team
“Aurora” / “Australian Catholics” / CathNews
Weekly parish bulletins
Every week, our Parish Priest issues Bulletins for the Sunday Masses in our four Parishes. The Bulletins usually contain a personal message from our Parish Priest, hymns for Sunday Masses, and other items such as notes about significant feasts coming up, rosters for this week and next, notices about Parish groups, requests for prayers for sick and deceased community members, etc.
Download recent Weekly Bulletins, including the Parish Priest's personal message and notices about Parish groups.
Tighes Hill / Carrington Parish communications
Aim
To ensure that new and existing community members are aware of and consulted regarding activities and plans within the Church.
Contact
Lawrie Ph: 4962 1219
Meetings
After Mass on the second Sunday of February, April, June, August, October and December.
Activities
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Announcements are made at the conclusion of Sunday Mass;
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Bi-monthly community meetings;
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Welcomers greet people as they arrive for Mass; and
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Cards are given to people who use the church for weddings, baptisms, funerals sending best wishes from the parish community.
NICCC website team
Aim
One of the aims of the website is to improve communications within the NICCC and between the elements of the NICCC and the office. Besides improving our knowledge of what is happening in the community we are confident that it will improve the efficiency of the office and possibly lead to greater participation. Another aim is to reach out to all Catholic members of our community regardless of whether or not they are regular attendees at our services to make them feel welcome in our community. We are hoping also that the website may be useful to other Christian denominations in our region.
The aim of the website team therefore is to ensure that the information on this website is always current, accurate, comprehensive, relevant to our vision and well presented in a useful form.
Contact
Harry Ph: 4961 5352
Meetings
To be decided.
Activities
During 2008, a small team began developing this website with help from a large number of parishioners. A new NICCC website team will be formed to take ongoing responsibility for regularly checking the content and making amendments where necessary, to ensure that the website remains current, accurate, comprehensive, relevant, and well presented.
The website is to be administered through the NICCC office. A designated member of staff will have the responsibility to make any changes or additions. People wishing to make changes, additions or deletions should do so with the approval of that person.
Purpose of NICCC website
The intended purpose of this website is to support efforts to live up to the NICCC Vision by improving the availability of current information about the parishes within the NICCC to parishioners and other interested people. Establishing and maintaining the site is part of the City Region’s response to calls at the 2007 Diocesan Assembly and elsewhere for improved communication.
We will be interested to see, once the website has been in operation for a reasonable period, whether it has caused a change in the number of basic phone questions to the office personnel and the Parish Priest, and whether it has increased awareness of parish activities among young people and people who do not have a close association with our Mass Communities.
Newcastle Parish newsletter team
Aim
To help build and sustain a sense of community in the parish by increasing the quality, range and flow of information and news available to our parishioners and visitors.
Contact
Delys Ph: 4963 4822
Meetings
As required to set and achieve publication deadlines.
Activities
The Newcastle Parish communications team commenced in July 1998. This team keeps the whole Parish in touch and informed by publishing the Newcastle Parish Newsletter three times a year and distributing it at St Joseph’s and St Mary’s churches and in the two parish primary schools.
Download the Newcastle Parish Newsletter:
Our planning meetings are held at a local coffee shop and proof-reading meetings at the CRCC. The small editorial team relies on the generous contributions of parishioners for items of interest and photos in order to generate a worthwhile newsletter. Fresh ideas (and recruits to the editorial team) are always welcome.
“Aurora”, “Australian Catholics”, and CathNews
As well we distribute the Aurora and Australian Catholics in the NICCC area. Both these publications are free.
The Aurora is our Diocese’s monthly newspaper. It provides news, features and views for the Diocesan community.
Australian Catholics recognises that the Catholic Church and Australian culture in general has changed drastically over the last few decades. It is issued five times each year and seeks to promote a viable and vibrant Catholic identity for today, and show that there is still a place for life-affirming values such as love, peace and justice.
In addition, many of our parishioners receive headlines about Catholic news items, each with a link to the full story, in their E-Mail inboxes each weekday morning from CathNews. This is a free service.
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