St. Margaret s Church, Parochial Church Council Yatton Keynell Annual Report For the year ended 31 st December 2014 Priest in Charge Revd Jonathan Philpott Team Vicar Revd Sarah Evans Churchwarden Pamela Rawlins
Contents Composition of PCC 2013-2014 Pg. 2 St. Margaret s Goals Pg. 2 Church Warden s Report Pg. 3 Children s work Report Pg. 6 Financial Statements & Highlights Pg. 7 Composition of the PCC 2013-2014 Revd Jonathan Philpott (Priest-in-Charge, Chairman) Revd. Sarah Evans (Team Vicar) Pam Rawlins (Churchwarden) Judy Dix (Secretary) Alan Foreman (Treasurer) Kirsty Stovell (Deanery Rep) Andy Stovell (Lay Chair) Elisabeth Ford Fiona Redmond Kathryn Upton Anita Parsons (Appointed Auditor) By Brook Ministry Team Assistant Curates - Revd. Velma Oxley, Revd. Gillian Parkin Licensed Lay Ministers - Alison Flint, Len Scott, Margaret Greening, Mike King, Mary Pope, Diane Ross-Smith, Pam Tayler, Tim Woodward - St. Margaret s Goals St. Margaret s support the Bybrook Benefice vision and mission stated below but specifically in 2014 our growth plans focussed on To be a welcoming church To partner in the local community through outreach To encourage children s work through Sunday School, Edward Bear and The Ark 2
Bybrook Benefice Values and Mission At the end of 2014, a new Vision Statement was launched by the Ministry Team and Team Council, to help us to understand our calling as Christians. Based on Matthew 28:16-20, the statement is: Worshipping. Growing. Sharing. Because of this understanding, as a group of churches, our desire is: To love, serve and worship God To love and serve one another, our local community, and the wider world To live and share with others the good news of Jesus Christ Because we know that we are loved by God. In our mission, we aim: To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom To teach, baptize and nurture new believers To respond to human need by loving service To seek to transform unjust structures of society To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. Church Warden s report Pam Rawlins My report follows the same format as last year, in line with our Growth Plan: 1. Having a church building we can be proud of 2. Being a worshipping church family 3. Reaching out to the community through the life of the church and education 4. Supporting the administration of the Bybrook Benefice and Deanery 5. Carrying out the statutory offices of the church, such as Weddings, Christenings and Funerals 1. The Church Buildings We have continued to work on our Quinquennial repairs. The next report is due in Spring 2015 but an early inspection of our roof showed that apart from a few slipping tiles all seems to be fine. The year was marked by two challenges; the first was an overflow of water into the bell tower during the clearing of the valley guttering, fortunately this just needed drying out. The second was more of a shock, when the church was broken into. The burglars got in through an extremely small window, which you would think only a child could fit, but they didn t take anything and did only minimal damage, despite using power tools on the safe. Insurance cover paid for a new safe, repair to the window and damage to the South Aisle door. Our new welcome area is working well. Following a fire inspection, an additional fire extinguisher was added and a full health and safety review is planned for 2015. Our Café Church Leaders, Wanda 3
Hall and Lynn Thompson once again obtained a four star Food Hygiene rating. We improved the porch lighting and next year we are looking to put in an AV system and loop for the hard of hearing. As predicted the growth in our children s numbers meant we outgrew the Bell Tower and now the Sunday School uses the Barn at the Bell Inn for its activities, thanks to the generosity of landlord Mark Hayward. Outside, our contractor Jim Bruce Scott has continued to do a good job of keeping the churchyard tidy and we are exploring with the Parish Council the possibility of a memorial garden to commemorate WWII between the old and new churchyard. Fortunately the price of oil has dropped and because we have been paying regularly, we are in credit to help us through the coming months. Last July we had a Cheese & Wine at my house to get together and thank all those who help with the church one way or another. The wine and cheese were kindly donated by Alan Foreman and Stephen Slade and it was an excellent occasion enjoyed by over 50 guests. Without people who do the cleaning, polish the brasses, act as sides-people, sacristan, play the organ, ring the bells and arrange the flowers our church wouldn't be such a lovely place to be in, so thank you to the whole team. Because the church membership is growing our annual giving has gone up a bit but without additional fundraising activities such as monthly Cake Sales, Café Church, Safari Supper, Village Fete and the Christmas Market we wouldn't be in such good shape. So I want to call out our continued thanks to our regular fundraisers, especially Margaret Dyke and Gillian Parkin who stand outside in all weathers selling cakes. Thanks to Lynn Lawton for organising the Safari Supper and all those who hosted people. Finally to the Café Church team Wanda Hall, Lynn Thompson, Anne Payne, Charles Russell, and more recently Anita Parsons & Judy Dix. Thanks also to Mike King who re-edited and printed a new history book of St Margaret s - on sale in the church for just 1.00! 2. A Worshipping Church Family This year has seen a change in our church leadership with Revd. Sarah Evans moving across to lead the Middle Cluster of churches (Grittleton, Castle Combe & Slaughterford) and Revd. Jonathan Philpott taking over our Cluster (Yatton Keynell, Kington St Michael and Biddestone). We were sad to loose Sarah but feel that the clustering is working and gives the ministers a better chance of developing closer relationships with fewer churches. We also want to thank Len Scott for continuing to lead our Food for Thought service which we have renamed Morning Praise. Work with children has continued to grow and we are grateful to the team of mothers and fathers who support Jonathan and Tracie Philpott at the Ark children s group, Edward Bear and U 5 s that are 4
a feed into our congregation. Special thanks go to Julia Childerhouse for providing music and organisation of the children s Sunday School and Kirsty Stovell for her support with Edward Bear with Tracie Philpott who does a fabulous job. 3. Reaching out through the Life of the Church Our aim is to extend the life of the church into the community and through education. We are enjoying a good relationship with Bybrook School, The Parish Council and The Bell Inn (see above). There have been many opportunities over the year to engage with the wider community such as Cake Sales outside the post office, Café Church, Easter Monday walk, Coffee morning for Christmas Market in April, Valuation morning in May, Wrong Way round Cycle ride and Village Fete in June, Safari Super, Cream Teas in August, Harvest BBQ, School Harvest, Carol Singing at the Market Cross, and Christmas Market and finally Bybrook Blokes quiz. Our giving extended to Operation Christmas Child, Fisherman s Mission, Children s Society, The Royal British Legion, Embrace and Somerset Flood Victims. 4. Supporting the Administration of the Benefice and Deanery The Parish Office, under the management of Claire Campbell is working well and this next year the Diocese is exploring new ways of organising around larger hubs of worshipping communities. The church has continued to be used as a meeting place for the Benefice and we have also hosted wedding preparation days. Thanks go to Kirsty Stovell our Deanery Representative, Judy Dix our Secretary who does an invaluable job of keeping us in order, and Alan Foreman who stepped in as Treasurer last year and is doing a wonderful job. We also increased our quota to the Deanery, while payments to the Benefice have been kept the same as the previous year and we received a small refund. 5. Statutory Offices and Special services On 17 th June we welcomed Bishop Lee who led a lovely Benefice Confirmation service. And this year we had five Baptisms, four Weddings, (including that of Jonathan s brother) and a Renewal of Marriage Vows. We held funerals for Tommy Green, Carolyn Singer and Dorothy Smith. Revd. Gillian Parkin led a lovely memorial service for Carolyn, who had been a stalwart of the Benefice Choir. A former Team Rector of our group, Revd. Nicholas Bradbury assisted by Mike King and Alison Flint conducted a moving service in which we said goodbye to Dorothy, a founding editor of the Honeycomb and long-standing PCC member. 5
Children s work report Edward Bear Tracie Philpott Attendance has risen from an average of 12, up to 30 during the year with churches in the team being represented. With this increase we've started a rota of helpers to supply refreshments, enabling Tracie and Kirsty to concentrate on the activities. During the year activities have included a series on What s in God s Big Book, these have included God makes everything, (The Story of Creation), how to live God s way (10 commandments), Songs and Music, (Psalms), Stories (Naaman), Messages from God (Jeremiah), All about Jesus and Letters (Onesimus & Philemon). In September we had an Edward Bear service to say goodbye to children going on to school and we presented them with a bible. St. Margaret s Sunday School Julia Childerhouse January 2014 started with a distinct group of about 9 children aged 4-10, and a new regular venue of the Barn at the Bell Inn across the road from St Margaret's. We began by looking at some fundamentals of faith - God loves me and knows my name, He has plans for me. God fills us with his Living Water, his Spirit. We all sin and fall short of God, but Jesus rescues us. We then went on to look at the Armour of God, as explained in Ephesians 6 - lots of fun was had as we explored what it means to wield the Sword of the Spirit, to put on the Hard Hat of Salvation and the Shoes of Good News, and to wear the 'stab vest of right living'! We also thought about how the Shield of Faith and Prayer helps us protect not just ourselves but also each other. This led smoothly into the Autumn term looking at Superheroes of the Old Testament, and how we can learn from people of faith as we journey with God. Numbers have grown a bit over the year - most weeks we have about 12-14 children, who have developed into a tight-knit group who support each other in friendship as well as faith. The children are also learning what it means to serve and support the wider family of God, and are finding places to show this. In the coming year, we have some challenges ahead as the age gap grows between the younger children and those coming out the other end of Primary School, and we will aim to encourage and support each child individually as they develop their faith, and as they find their own place in the church family. We are so grateful to Mark and Andrew allowing us to use The Barn - it is a great venue for largescale activities and for breaking into smaller age-related groups for more focused study. And I would like to thank all those on the team who lead the different sessions, and to all those who pray for the younger members of our church who are so keen to develop their faith and understanding of our gracious God! 6
Financial Statement & Highlights Alan Foreman Special thanks goes to Mary King for her continued help and support in financial matters together with Phil Hall for his continued support in the collating and banking of collections. During 2014 the Nationwide and National Savings accounts were closed leaving our general account and appeal account with Lloyds. Total Assets in the General Account at the end of 2014 totalled 5664.34 compared to 8594.28 for 2013. The Appeal Account stood at 15,384.63 compared to 9729.31 in 2013. Total Assets across both accounts have therefore increased by 15% from 2013 to 2014. Planned giving through envelopes and bankers orders and occasional one offs was 7273.63 for 2014, 7318.69 for 2013 and 5,075.43 for 2012. The 2014 gifts are slightly down on 2013 but did include a 2000 gift at the end of December 2013. Collections in Church have increased by 20% to 2,481 for 2014 reflecting the increase in size of congregations. Our payments relating to the work of the Church include our Diocesan quota of 6,192 and Benefice Parish Share of 1,380. Whilst the Benefice payment will remain the same for 2015 we have agreed an increase in the Diocesan quota to 6,552 (5.8% increase) for 2015. There was a substantial reduction in the cost of utilities for 2014 including water and electricity. Whilst oil costs appear to have increased we are now holding a substantial credit with our oil supplier that should cover all of the 2015 bills. We are now considering alternative suppliers through Parish Buying. In addition one of the unused electricity meters will be removed in 2015. During 2014 3,000 was repaid from the CBF Loan and 1,000 from the Bristol Diocese Loan. It is the PCC s intention to repay the remaining loans of 5,200 and 2,000 in full in 2015. Tremendous fund raising activities have taken place in 2014 and include The Cake Stall 1,728, Café Church 3,005, The Christmas Market 2013 2,000, Safari Supper 600, Wrong Way Round Bike Ride 1,112 and Summer Fete 800. 7
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