AGENDA

1. Apologies

2. Meeting of Parishioners for election of Churchwardens

3. Minutes of 2004 Annual Parochial Church Meeting Matters arising

4. Annual Report and Accounts

5. Report on the Goods, Fabric and Ornaments of St Mary’s

6. Coventry East Deanery Synod Report

7. Presentation of Revised Electoral Roll

8. Election of 3 representatives to Coventry East Deanery Synod

9. Election of 8 Representatives to serve on PCC

10. Reports from Parish Groups

11. Election of Electoral Roll Officer

12. Election of Independent Examiner

13. Any Other Business

Diocese of Coventry

Annual Report 2004

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Mary’s presents its annual report and accounts in respect of the year to 31st December 2004. The PCC is a charity exempted from registration with the Charity Commissioners.

Background

St Mary’s PCC has the responsibility with the incumbent, the Revd Malcolm Tyler, for promoting the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical in the ecclesiastical parish of Walsgrave-on-Sowe in the Diocese of Coventry. In addition they have maintenance responsibilities for the Church Hall situated in Athol Road, Walsgrave.

Membership

Members of PCC are elected by the APCM in accordance with the Church Representation Rules.

During the year the following served as members of PCC.

Incumbent:
The Revd Malcolm Tyler Chair; ex officio

Other Ordained Staff:
The Revd Frances Tyler; Member of Coventry Diocesan Synod, ex officio

Readers
Sue Morton, ex officio
Tony Thistlewood, Vice Chair and Secretary ex officio
Lorraine Baker, elected member

Wardens
Stephen Baker (until APCM 2004)
Barbara Hancox
Sheila Thistlewood (from APCM 2004)

Representatives on the Deanery Synod
Stephen Baker
Sheila Wick (Serving until APCM Bill Wooff (until APCM 2004)
Sue Morton
Karen Hauler-Davies (from APCM 2004)

Elected Members
John Aspden (from APCM 2004)
Lorraine Baker
Betty Dakin
Karen French
Mervyn Hancox Treasurer
Lynn Hanna
David Kirkwood (from APCM 2004)
Ann Rushworth (from APCM 2004)
Sheila King (until APCM 2004)
Claire Stanley (until APCM 2004)

Committees

The PCC operates through a number of committees or groups which met between full meetings of the PCC.

The following committees operated during the year:

Standing Committee Finance Committee Mission Group
PLASMA Group Worship Group

Church Attendance

The electoral roll was revised during February and March. Numbers reported to the APCM in March were 134, of whom 50 are not resident within the Parish boundaries.

The average Sunday adult attendance counted between February and April was 79. The average attendance of those under 18 counted over the same period was 24.

Review of the year

The full PCC met 10 times during the year with an average level of attendance of 80%. PCC were grateful for the help of Paul Hauler-Davies as Minutes’ Secretary from May 2004.

During the early part of the year PCC spent much time on the Deanery Synod’s Options for Change exercise. We were visited by Roger Manning and Lesley Johnson from the Deanery Pastoral Committee who asked us various questions about life at St Mary’s and our vision for the future. This information, together with information from other churches in the deanery was collated by the Pastoral Committee with a view to making proposals for a strategy to reduce the number of paid clergy in the deanery over time. The proposals were put to PCC’s, whose comments were sought, prior to a discussion at Deanery Synod where they were accepted. The proposals which directly effected St Mary’s were eventually modified into one proposal which essentially suggested that the vacancy at St Philip’s Potters Green be filled for a period of three years, during which time the local churches (i.e. St Mary’s, St Chad’s and St Philip’s) look to working together more.

PCC also discussed the concept ‘Growing Healthy Churches’, out of which came the idea to hold a mission week-end in September. The theme of World Awareness was chosen and Karen Hauler-Davies was asked to co-ordinate the event. On the Friday evening several church members took part in a Fair Trade Fashion Show which was fairly well attended. On the Saturday the church was open much of the day for people to find out about various organisations involved in global issues as well as to watch a number of displays. In the evening the Coventry City Salvation Army Band gave a concert, the proceeds of which were shared between the Church and the Salvation Army. On the Sunday morning there was a service for World Peace at which Mark Bryant and Dr Madeline Sharpe spoke. Karen undertook a massive amount of work organising the week-end and PCC were very grateful for this. Significant numbers of people visited the church over the week-end and were inspired by the event.

During the year PCC also took the decision to use only fairly traded products (where possible) and we have encouraged all our users to do the same. Fairly traded products may now be ordered regularly at Church.

We were also pleased to admit children to Communion prior to Confirmation on Easter Day. Each of the children had been prepared during Lent and they have since taken their place in Church at Communion without any fuss.

Criminal Records Bureau checks have been undertaken on all who work with young children at St Mary’s as well as all bell ringers over 16, PCC members, servers and those who handle money. It is likely that such checks will need to be carried out every 2 or 3 years in future.

Following a noticeable deterioration in the effectiveness of the sound system at St Mary’s, PCC have asked various companies to quote to improve the system. We are currently awaiting a second company to visit but hope to improve the system by the end of the year. This will also include a facility to play CD’s over the system, something we have not been able to do easily before now.

Church records were inspected by the Area Dean, Richard Hare this year. They were found to be in very good order and we passed the inspection with flying colours!

Special events during the year included a strawberry tea and Songs of Praise, the Wedding Preparation Day in February (for those preparing to be married at St Mary’s), the Bereavement Service in November and Bishop Colin’s visit in October. All were well attended. The Christmas Fayre in November was well patronised and raised over £1,600 towards the redecoration of the church itself. Harvest gifts were shared between Norton House and Coventry Cyrenians whilst toys collected at the Toy Service in December went to Valley House and the Wood End Family Project. Money collected through the Annual Christmas Card was given to CRASU.

Whilst all of this was going on PCC had to deal with the continued problem of vandalism at the Church and the Church Hall. We have made over 20 insurance claims during the year for the Hall and Church and have asked the advice of numerous agencies – including our insurers. PCC have applied for a faculty to protect four of the windows on the south side of the Church, which we hope will be granted soon. We have also received quotations for an enhancing our security and we await a visit from an ecclesiastical lighting company to advise us on external lighting.

During the year the following number of occasional offices were conducted at St Mary’s

Weddings 20
Funerals in Church 17
Funerals at the Crematorium 26
Burials of cremated remains 8
Baptisms 34

Members of the congregation and ordained staff have continued to take Holy Communion to members of the Parish either in Residential Homes or at home during the year and it was particularly pleasing to join with the Beavers singing Carols at St Martin’s Nursing Home.

In addition classes have visited the Church from two of the four Primary Schools in the Parish and services have been held at Christmas and Harvest for Walsgrave School. Alison Liggins, Malcolm Tyler, Gill Giles and Jane Collins have continued to represent the Church as Foundation Governors at Walsgrave School, Malcolm and Alison being on the interview panel which appointed the new Head teacher, Mrs Kim Docking, who took up her appointment in January 2005. Malcolm and Frances regularly lead collective worship in school assemblies at Walsgrave School and Malcolm was invited to lead the Harvest Assembly at Pearl Hyde School in October.

During the year PCC had set three priorities namely to take part in the Mission Weekend in September, to review the security of the buildings and to restructure the Pastoral group. A World Awareness Weekend was held in September as mentioned above. The security of the building has been an ongoing problem. The introduction, by the police, of covert cameras and surveillance sadly produced no lasting effect on the levels of vandalism. PCC are continuing to monitor this and currently are investigating the external lighting of the building. Restructuring of the Pastoral Group has continued only slowly. A course offered by the diocese for those considering the development of Pastoral teams failed to take place but Karen French, Karen Hauler Davies and Eve Stuart have helped with Baptism Preparation and visiting in the year.

This year PCC have set the following three priorities:

1. to discuss and produce a clear vision statement. PCC will canvas the views of the congregation and then discuss a vision statement possibly at an ‘away day’.
2. to improve the security of the church buildings and to raise the necessary funding for internal improvements.
3. to increase contact with other local Christian congregations, particularly St Philips and Walsgrave Baptist Church.

For and on behalf of PCC

Malcolm Tyler

Following major work in the Church Centre in 2003, 2004 was a relatively quiet year in terms of re-decoration. The problem with the slight step between the entrance and the foyer was at last remedied and the bill for the carpets paid!

The major problem throughout the year was vandalism. The buildings were attacked on at least 12 occasions. These attacks were mainly on the Centre rather than the Church but sadly the stained glass and leaded lights in the Lady Chapel were broken on several occasions. In an effort to deal with the problem, covert cameras were installed by the police for a two month period. On the one occasion when the building was vandalised and the cameras were present, no photographic evidence was available to identify the attacker. The cameras were subsequently removed as they were needed elsewhere. PCC decided to apply for a faculty to protect all four external windows on the south side of the Church. This has been returned by the Diocesan Advisory Committee with an alternative suggestion but PCC hope the protection will be in place as soon as is possible after the faculty has been granted.

Routine maintenance has been carried out at the Church Centre throughout the year. The organ has been tuned and maintained and the fire extinguishers, burglar alarm and clock serviced. Ad hoc repairs have been carried out as necessary by various members of the congregation for which PCC are grateful.

The sanctuary lamp in the Lady Chapel was repaired in the early part of the year with money collected from the funeral of Jean Veasey. Three new palls, for use at Communion services, were purchased in November to replace some older ones which had seen decidedly better days and a new crib set purchased with some of the money donated at Kath Fear’s funeral. We also purchased new tablecloths for use in the Church Centre and 50 mugs for use on Sundays and other occasions. Sadly the mugs have chipped badly and we have recently bought new mugs to replace them which we hope will be stronger. PCC were also glad to receive the gifts of a wheelchair and walking frame during the year both of which are very useful.

The churchyard was regularly tidied by a group of Social Services trainees and other maintenance work including the pruning of the large cedar tree was carried out by Coventry City Council.

Two new notice boards were erected in the Churchyard, one following some vandalism in the previous year and replaced under insurance, the other purchased by PCC to match.

No significant work was carried out at the Church Hall in 2004, though several windows were replaced because of vandalism. PCC decided to replace some of the broken windows with polycarbonate since which time damage to the building has been fairly minor.

As in previous years the grass on the land adjacent to the Hall was maintained by work teams organised through the Probation Service. Early in the year large amounts of graffiti were removed from the hall by one of these teams. The brickwork was then re-pointed free of charge by Hall Brothers following damage to the mortar by the power hose used.

Barbara Hancox and Sheila Thistlewood

In May, Synod met at St Alban’s church, where the standing committee presented its draft proposals for “Options for Change”. These were submitted to individual churches for PCC response.

At our second meeting in July, at Willenhall, the revised “Options for Change” document, as commented upon by PCC’s, was presented and voted upon. The document was passed by a majority with a number of further amendments.

In the third meeting, at St Philip’s Potters Green in September, we heard about the Diocesan Pilgrimage and also received a presentation from the Diocesan Youth Team, who spoke about the role which young people could play in today’s church. Their message was quite stark - “use us or lose us” – but ultimately they failed to provide any practical suggestions as to how the team might benefit individual churches in the Deanery.

Children and their role in the church also formed the theme to our final meeting of the year, in November, when we convened at St John’s Westwood Heath to hear from Penny Frank, the Diocesan Children’s Officer. This was a joint meeting between the three city Deaneries, but an interesting presentation was somewhat marred by the inadequacies of the room in which we convened. It was decided to cancel the proposed January meeting, there being no pressing Deanery business.

Also in November, the Deanery called a special meeting at the Heart of England School, Balsall Common, attended by Clergy and PCC Treasurers (or their representatives), at which the Parish Share amounts for 2005 were set.

Please note that this year, under the new rules for calculating Synod representation by Parish Churches, our total number of representatives is reducing from four to three.

Stephen Baker

The positive response to our recent stewardship campaign initially seemed to put us in the position of being able to balance our income against expenditure and whilst it was fairly close, we did unfortunately have to draw on our reserves again at the end of the year .
I would like to thank the current members of Finance Committee, Phyllis Abbott, Jean Hudson and Malcolm Tyler for all their help and support and thanks also to Claire Stanley who stood down during the year for the very best of reasons !
We now face the same financial problem again for this year , exacerbated by our Parish Share which we pay to the Diocese being increased by 4.59% to f31,666. Anything therefore that you can do to improve our situation, whether it be a small increase in giving or changing from envelopes to payment by standing order to make the day to day budgeting more straightforward, would be much appreciated and perhaps enable a positive outcome for the current year .

Mervyn Hancox

As many of you will already know, I have handed over my stewardship duties to Jean Hudson and I hope you will support her as much as you have supported me.

May I take this opportunity to thank everyone for their generosity during 2004 and a special thank you to Les Dakin for all his help with the banking.

Detailed below are the figures for the year 1st January to 31st December 2004

Gift aided giving £23,104.86

Non gift-aided giving £ 3813.59

Tax refunds £ 6,517.33
(includes fourth quarter
Oct - Dec 2004 received
on 6th February 2005)

Phyllis Abbott

Members
Margaret Davoll Karen French
Sue Morton Carole Osselton Freda Richards

Charitable giving totalled £2000 for 2004 plus a donation of £52 from the World Awareness Weekend held in September 2004; and less a £100 overspend from 2003 charitable giving [from an error in donation to the Luweero project - £300 donation made instead of £200].

Members of Mission Group met 3 times in 2004. We received 21 requests for help from a wide variety of organisations and individuals and reported this to PCC on 10 November 2004. PCC approved our recommendations for 2004 giving as follows:

1) Vio - Home of Hope, Romania [Global Care’s Sponsor a Child project] £200
2) Global Care’s Home of Hope Apartments Appeal – a special donation of £52 from the World Awareness Weekend
3) USPG – Archdeacon Stephen Taylor in Brazil £400
4) Coventry Myton Hospice Appeal £500
5) ETHIOPIAID – Addis Abada Fistula Hospital; helping treat complications arising from untreated obstructed labour £200
6) Luweero Medical Centre, Uganda – continued support c/o Nobby Clarke, St James’ Church, Fletchamstead £200
7) Gurkha Welfare Trust – helping ex-servicemen and their dependants £200
8) Yeldall Christian Centre's– supporting their work with ex-offenders, in particular the homeless, alcohol and drug addiction. £400

TOTAL £2152

See Mission Board in the foyer for the latest information, including newsletters, thank-you’s and photos/cards. Please continue to pray for Global Care and Vio and the other Home of Hope children and staff in Romania; Stephen in Rio de Janeiro; Nobby here in Coventry and Gladys and the children in Luweero; the staff transforming lives at the Addis Abada Hospital; for the Coventry Myton Hospice fund-raising team; the work of the Gurkha Welfare Trust and the Yeldall Christian Centres.

We are always happy to welcome newcomers to Mission Group – we are friendly and chatty and enjoy meeting together. So, if you can spare a few evenings over the year and want to know more about Christian action in the UK and overseas, join us.

Sue Morton, for Mission Group

As in previous years the Worship Group has met regularly to select hymns for the 10 am Sunday service and other principal services of the year. Members of the group are Reg Amos, Sheila Wick, Margaret Davoll, Sylvia Bandy and me. We use a booklet provided by the Royal School of Church Music which suggests hymns for each of the Sundays of the year.

Worship for All on the first Sunday of several months of the year is devised by those leading the services and has covered a variety of themes in the year and involved different members of the congregation. PCC did decide however that Worship for All services need not always be non-eucharistic and so we have occasionally held a eucharist on the first Sunday of the month.

Clergy, Readers and Wardens decided that the pattern of evaluation for worship that they had hoped to follow was not feasible. Instead they agreed to follow themes for short periods of the year where that seemed appropriate (e.g. Lent or Advent)

PCC chose to repeat the pattern of services at Christmas that we have now offered for several years. Attendances at the Carols into Communion and Christingle Service on Christmas Eve were high and this pattern continues to be popular.

Malcolm Tyler

Lynn Hanna agreed to take over this rota from Barbara Hancox in April 2004. Having produced the rota's until Christmas Lynn found herself too busy to continue so I took on the task between January and March 2005. Jean Hudson has now taken over the production of the rota from April 2005.

A large number of people are prepared either to read or lead prayers at our main Sunday service. If you would like to join the team, please speak to Jean who will happily add your name to the list of volunteers. Help is always available to those who feel the urge to help with leading intercessions. Please speak to Jean or to any of the clergy or Readers; we will be happy to help if we can.

Malcolm Tyler

After several years Eve Stuart has decided to stand down as Sacristan. I have now been joined by Sally Vigeon. Between us we prepare for services on a Sunday morning and at Easter and Christmas. This means polishing the silver, counting the wafers and filling the cruets with wine or water. We also launder the linen after each service and the altar cloths as necessary.

This year Church has purchased three new palls for use with the chalices at Communion services.

Barbara Ellis

Thank you to all members of the church cleaning team who give so generously of their time to help keep St Mary’s looking so clean and tidy. Your efforts are much appreciated, not only by members of the congregation, but also by visitors who always comment on what a beautiful church St Mary’s is - it will be even more beautiful when it is redecorated and re carpeted!
My particular thanks go to Gill Giles who volunteered to help me clean the brasses and to Jean Hudson, Lyn Lloyd and Hannah and Will Morley-Brown who volunteered to fill the places left by retiring members.

Alan Robinson

Members of the coffee club meet in the Octagon at 10.45 am, usually on the first and third Wednesday of each month, for tea or coffee and biscuits.

They generously and willingly donate £1 per morning which is divided between a local charity and the church. As an additional service to some of those who are also members of the “Over 55’s”, a light lunch is available for a small extra charge.

During 2004 a total of £752 was donated of which £583 was for charity and £169 to the church to help with the redecoration of the interior. Two of the meetings were organised by members of the church to support the Parkinson's Disease Society and Brookview Care Home. In addition the Friends of Cloister Croft organised a special event for Coventry Myton Hospice which raised a total of £245.62 including a donation shown below, of £36 from the Coffee Club.

Around 15 members attend regularly and we would like to thank them for their generous support. Our particular thanks go to several non-members for their generosity.

Edna and Alan Robinson

Thank you to all those who prepare drinks every Sunday morning after the 10 am service. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Thank you too, to David Greenhalgh and Kath Wagstaff for volunteering to fill the places left by retiring members.

Alan Robinson

We have had an uneasy year in the bell tower this year. Following Ron Abbott’s resignation as Tower Captain in January 2004 PCC felt unable to appoint a Tower Captain to replace him as no ringer from St Mary’s was over the age of 18.

Several of our young people have continued to practice at Stoke St Michael’s on Wednesdays under the instruction of Jonathon Hughes, their Tower Captain.

We have managed to provide ringers on most Sundays of the year here at Walsgrave.

In December all the adult ringers who ring at St Mary’s met with the Churchwardens and I to find a way forward from the bad feeling which had developed during the year. We managed to find a way forward which lasted sadly only a few weeks. Ron then decided not to ring again at St Mary’s.

Practices continue here on a Monday evening under adult supervision and Steve Colley from Hinckley, who had rung here on many occasions acts both as Steeple Keeper (to keep an eye on the condition of the bells) and as instructor on alternate weeks (he is able to come only every other week). On the other week Jonathon Hughes, from Stoke, leads the band.

During the year an account which was held in Ron’s name was passed into PCC hands. This money has been designated to be used only for bell maintenance or in the tower and following its receipt two companies were instructed to undertake a survey of our tower. Fortunately both said the bells were in reasonable to good condition. Some small work has been put in hand but the more major task of providing a ladder to the ringing chamber (for Health and Safety reasons) will take place later on in the year.

As ever, if people would like to learn ringing please turn up either on a Monday or have a word with Malcolm, the church wardens or any ringer. You will need to agree to a Criminal Record’s Bureau check as all ringers at St Mary’s over the age of 16 are now routinely checked but his is a simple process and usually takes less than a month.

Malcolm Tyler

We have a great group of young adults at St. Mary's. We are working with new material and they seem to be enjoying it. The Lazers group are always willing to join in discussion and add lots of comments and ideas. They all seem to have a very good understanding of God and will always ask questions on any thing they are unsure of. The material we have at the moment has plenty of things for the group to discuss and join in with. It is really very rewarding working with these young adults.

Alison Liggins

We are a mixed group of boys and girls aged between 6 and 8. We have just finished our creative badge and are now working on our Experiment badge. For our creative badge the children made paper mache piggy banks. We are growing beans for our experiment badge and keeping a record of what is going on in each stage. In the last year we have visited the Police station, Council House, the TA centre in Canley and many other places. We will be having a visit from slither into science soon as part of our badge work. They will be bringing in snakes and reptiles for the children to look at. We have about 12 beavers at the moment having said goodbye to six just after christmas as they went up to Cubs.

Alison Liggins

In cubs we are a mixed group between the ages of 8 to 10 3/4. We have been working on book lovers badge and are currently working on our Local Knowledge badge. We are looking forward to the district water weekend which will be held at Bosworth Water Park. During the water weekend there are many badges which the cubs can work on, such as campers badge and Athletes badge. We have recently been to CUSO. This is where the older Cubs go and look at what the Scouts do and what they will do when they move on up.

Alison Liggins

In an era when many young people are disinterested in joining formal youth groups and where service to the community has become unfashionable we are truly blessed as a Scout Troop.

We have a committed group of 13 young people who regularly attend our Friday meetings with enthusiasm. Also, in addition to myself, we have 3 adult Leaders: Dave Preston [Group Scout Leader], Gaynor Preston and Colin Hutton who are Warranted Scouters. In addition we have Mark Horne and Gary Marks as adult Helpers.

With Gaynor coming on board we have been able to develop a new and broader focus for Scouting in the Walsgrave area; we have been able to invite girls to join our previously traditional ‘Boy Scout’ Troop and have been able to welcome 5 girls to join the 8 lads.

The depth of adult Scouters and Helpers has enabled us to provide Scout meetings every Friday rather than 3 out of 4 per month when I was the only Warranted Scouter.

We continue to provide a wide and varied programme of activities; camping, orienteering, first aid, DIY skills, science skills, pioneering (constructing bridges, rafts etc using rope and timber spars), cooking, walking, map reading.

For the 4th year in a row we have been the District Raft Race winners.

We have competed in the District Scout Major Incident Journey where the Scouts demonstrated their knowledge and skills of map reading and compass, first aid and problem solving whilst covering an 8 mile hike.

We have had a very successful Night Hike around Kenilworth early this year where Colin introduced us to the wonders of GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology to supplement our more traditional map reading and navigation skills. We also organised a very successful Family Activity Day at Coombe Abbey where parents, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts were able to participate in a varied programme of games and food cooked over an open fire.

Over the coming year we aim to provide the young people with further challenging activities, to develop skills for their future adult lives and to get them to undertake community activities such as clearing part of the local canal system in association with the Coventry Canal Society. We will take part in SMIJ again, the District Water Weekend and mountain walking in the Snowdon area of North Wales. Camping will again be a part of our programme, giving the young people outdoors experience and testing again my increasingly old and weary bones.

Above all we hope to provide our young people with fun and excitement within a responsible and caring environment.

The support and continued interest in our activities provided by the Church community is very much appreciated. In particular the availability of the Church Hall remains vital to our efforts to develop young people in the Walsgrave and surrounding area and we thank you for retaining the building and allowing us to use it.

Bill Hanna
Scout Leader

Due to an increase in anti-social behaviour I started a Neighbourhood Watch group for a few closes on the estate. It soon became very clear that lots of other people on the estate wanted to be part of such a group. Over a few months our group expended to most of the estate. We hold meetings about once a month at St Mary’s. Behaviour on the estate has improved but we still have a long way to go.
Neighbourhood Watch is not just about fighting crime; it’s about looking after each other, being supportive when something happens and looking out for your neighbours. I find one important aspect is listening to people. In other words do as the Lord tells us ‘Love thy neighbour’ (even when they are the ones causing the problems because they need help too.) How we do this, we have yet to find out, but we will one day, with the Lord’s help.
Since starting we have held a coffee and wine afternoon in my garden (the carport came in handy when the rain started!) It was a pleasant afternoon. We also held a social around Christmas. In February DC Gould and Steve from the drugs team came along and talked to us about drugs awareness. The only thing that spoilt the evening was that there wasn't enough time. As a follow on, some of us will be going on a day course about drug awareness. In the future Inspector Prestwich will be coming to speak and hopefully answer some of our questions. We are going to have other speakers over the next year.
I work closely with the Area Co-ordination team who are working hard to improve the area. Many plans are afoot to make our estate a better place to live.
I have a lot of support from different people, especially Barbara Creswell from the Police Station who helped set up the group and gives much needed support, Steve Yardley, the Area Co-ordination Officer and our Community Policeman, Tony Sedgeley who attends all our meetings whether on duty or not. He is very dedicated and we have much to thank him for.

Ann Rushworth

During the year Bernice Greenhalgh who has organised a volunteers rota here at St Mary’s for several years stood down as rota organiser. Despite several attempts via the newsletter to find a replacement no-one has been found to replace her. Fortunately the rota continues for at lease 6 more months.

If you would like to help out either by serving drinks on a Saturday evening (usually about once every 6 weeks) or by taking on the rota, please speak to Malcolm.

The duty on a Saturday evening usually takes around an hour and is a great help both to the ward staff and the patients themselves, most of whom are very appreciative.

Malcolm Tyler

Members of Plasma continue to meet to consider how we can pray for others and develop the spiritual life of our church. A Family of Prayer newsletter is published each month thanks to Carole Osselton. Fourteen of us continue to intercede after the 10am Sunday service, using the prayer card system.

The Parish Prayer Book is now in regular use. During the year, every member of the congregation and every street in the Parish are prayed for. All weddings, funerals and baptisms are included in our prayers.

There will be a Quiet Day on May 14th at St John’s, Wolvey. Our Lord’s Prayer will be the theme of the day

Tony Thistlewood

Our Group meets on Tuesday afternoons between 1.30 - 3 pm. We had to revise our time this year due to Walsgrave School changing their school leaving time.

We meet for an afternoon of fun. Mums, dads, grandmas, granddads and child minders come along with their children to enjoy an hour of activities. We have toys for our babies and younger children in the Octagon and also lots of books. The foyer is filled with toys, games, puzzles etc. We have a table to draw and colour at, a table for craft activities; this can be anything from painting!!! To cooking (I’m not sure who enjoys this most the child or carer). After a break for drinks and biscuits we gather together in the Octagon for Malcolm to lead a sing song. It’s surprising how young children are when they start to join in.

Once a year we hold a sponsored Butterfly Hunt (we hide butterflies around the building and the children collect them). This year the money was donated to Malcolm for his Peru Trek.

A couple of times a year Terry Tebbut comes along and takes portrait photos of the children.

45 children brought along mums, dads and grandparents to the Christmas Party. The party starts with a Christmas sing song, then food and drinks followed by of course Father Christmas. A fun but exhausting afternoon.

I would like to thank our helpers. Malcolm for his contribution. Val Webster and Pat Cox in the kitchen, Alison Liggins for the Craft Table and Sheila Thistlewood joint leader. Without their help our afternoon would not be so successful.

Sheila Thistlewood and Ann Rushworth
(Butterflies Leaders)

As in previous years, the hymns have been chosen by the Worship Committee. Very often comments are made directly to me which I don't really mind, but I would like to point out that I only play the selection jointly made whether I like them or not.

The organ has given us another year of trouble free service and for this I am grateful to our organ tuner, Mr John Burns who tunes and maintains it twice a year and will always respond if I want him for any problem which may arise.

My thanks again to Margaret who stands in for me when I cannot play for any reason.

Reg Amos

We have a very dedicated team of flower arrangers here at St.Mary's We're not professional by any means but as the weeks have gone by we have become more proficient.

Arranging the flowers is something we all thoroughly enjoy doing, whether it be for a special event such as a wedding or one of the church festivals or just an ordinary Sunday display. It gives us enormous pleasure and satisfaction especially when we get complimented for our efforts, it is very encouraging. In the beginning we were all rather nervous, but our confidence has grown. There is a great deal to learn yet eg. Special colours for Saints' days, accessories made available for every display and so on, but whatever our endeavours we always aim to please.

Valerie Elkin.

During the last 12 months the servers team has diminished drastically, whilst both Leo Spooner and myself have been committed servers for a goodly number of years, we still consider it a privilege.

To qualify, one only has to be over the age of 10. If you are dedicated enough and feel you might like to join our team, don't be shy, talk to me. I'm very approachable and I'm always around on Sunday mornings to answer any questions you may have doubts about.

Valerie Elkin.