Untitled Document

Annual Parochial Church Meeting
2008

DIOCESE OF COVENTRY – PARISH OF WALSGRAVE

ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING 2008 – 20th APRIL

At 11.15 am ST MARY’S CHURCH CENTRE

AGENDA

1. Apologies

2. Meeting of Parishioners for election of Churchwardens

3. Minutes of 2007 Annual Parochial Church Meeting

4. Matters arising

5. Annual Report and Accounts

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

7. Coventry East Deanery Synod Report

8. Presentation of Electoral Roll

9. Election of 3 Representatives to Coventry East Deanery Synod

10. Election of 8 Representatives to serve on PCC

11. Reports from Parish Groups

12. Election of Electoral Roll Officer

13. Appointment of Independent Examiner

14. Any Other Business

Index.

St Mary’s Walsgrave
Hall Lane
Coventry
CV2 2AW

Diocese of Coventry

Annual Report 2007

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Mary’s presents its annual report and accounts in respect of the year to 31st December 2007. 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 Pennie Hartopp (until September 2007) ex officio
The Revd Frances Tyler Member of Coventry Diocesan Synod, ex officio

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

Wardens
Barbara Hancox
Stephen Baker (until APCM 2007)
John Aspden (from APCM 2007)

Representatives on the Deanery Synod
Stephen Baker
Sue Morton
Sheila Wick

Elected Members
John Aspden. (until APCM 2007)
Betty Dakin (from APCM 2007)
Karen French
Mervyn Hancox (from APCM 2007) Treasurer
Derek Hudson (until APCM 2007)
Jean Hudson (from APCM 2007)
Keith Lashley (from APCM 2007)
Kerry Tutchings (from APCM 2007)
Mike Wakeman

Co-opted Member
Mervyn Hancox (until APCM 2007) Treasurer

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
Mission Group
Fund raising Group
Worship Group
Quinquennial Group
PLASMA

Church Attendance

The electoral roll was revised during February and March. Numbers reported to the APCM in March were 122, of whom 44 are not resident within the Parish boundaries.

The average Sunday adult attendance counted between February and April was 72. The average attendance of those under 18 counted over the same period was 13. Over the same period the average adult attendance on Wednesday morning was 14.

Review of the year

The full PCC met 9 times during the year with an average level of attendance of 70%.

Perhaps the most interesting meeting that PCC had this year was with the then Archdeacon of Coventry, Mark Bryant, now Bishop of Jarrow. Mark encouraged PCC to think about things that were done well at St Mary’s and towards the end about things that were a worry. We felt that as a church we did welcome people well and were generally encouraging. Mark suggested one or two strategies (such as the sending of cards at wedding anniversaries or anniversaries of death) to further this work and hoped we would develop this welcoming ministry more generally.

Finance has been a considerable worry to PCC this year as it has been for several years. We tried to encourage a greater generosity through a general letter to the congregation but sadly this had very little real effect on the levels of giving. PCC acknowledge that some further effort will be needed this year to help improve our financial position. PCC did however debate the issue of charitable giving at some length following the discussion at last year’s APCM. Despite the financial difficulties of such a decision, PCC decided that charitable giving was a high priority within the annual budget and agreed to give away the budgeted figure for 2007. It was also agreed that charitable giving be decided upon earlier in the PCC financial year and that other ways of giving to charity be looked at for the future.

PCC have received several reports on a potential Church Hall development. A small working group was set up consisting of PCC members and others from the local community to look at the potential for developing the Church Hall site. An offer from a developer to buy the Church Hall was rejected after advice from the Diocesan Solicitor. Essentially PCC is unable to convert a capital asset such as the Hall into a liquid one without permission from the Charity Commissioners. PCC feel that though the Church Hall is far from wonderful it is one of the few community buildings in Walsgrave and members wish to maintain the facility. Since then efforts to improve the facilities have been investigated but little is currently forthcoming. Financing such a project would be a considerable undertaking and funding is very scarce at the moment.

PCC appointed Richard Wood as architect during the year. Our previous architect was no longer on the list of architects qualified to undertake Church work so the new appointment was necessary. Richard is currently preparing faculties for some outstanding work on the tower and roofing and will then proceed with work to do with the interior re-plastering.

Having advertised for a new Verger in 2007, PCC appointed Barry Walker to the post in January 2008. Leo Spooner, our long standing Verger had resigned the position because of poor health and Sheila Thistlewood also stood down shortly afterwards. Our thanks go to Leo, Sheila, and also to Mike Wakeman who stood in for Leo as Verger on several occasions.

During the year Mervyn and Malcolm attended a deanery meeting to decide upon the levels of Parish Share each Parish should be expected to pay in 2008.

PCC again were grateful that the issue of vandalism which had taken up so much of its time in previous years seemed to be a thing of the past.

With some sadness we bade farewell to Pennie Hartopp and her husband John in September. Pennie had served as Curate at St Mary’s since January 2006 and she and John had become part of the fabric of St Mary’s. We miss their input but continue to wish them well in Pennie’s appointment as Team Vicar at St Mark’s Godalming.

Following Pennie’s departure we welcomed Hilary Iredale to St Mary’s for four months. Hilary, from St Matthew’s Rugby, was an ordinand on placement. Like Pennie, Hilary soon established herself at St Mary’s and we shall miss her too. Her contributions to our worship and activities were much valued.

In particular Hilary was able to contribute to the Emmaus Course which ran in the autumn of 2007 and the early months of 2008. Although the participants were few in number, the course was appreciated by those who were able to attend.

Special events during the year included the Wedding Preparation Day in February (for those preparing to be married at St Mary’s), a Quiet Day in June (led by Sue Morton and Tony Thistlewood), and the Bereavement Service in November. All were well attended. The Christmas Fayre in November was well patronised and raised over £1,200 towards the redecoration of the church itself. Harvest gifts were donated to the Coventry Cyrenians and Norton House whilst toys from the Toy Service in December were donated to the Coventry Haven. During Lent two groups met on Wednesday (one in the morning and one in the evening) to discuss the Lent book Life Attitudes. This course was more difficult than the previous one, entitled Life Balance, but was valued by participants. It has been decided to follow the Lent course based on the film Chocolat for 2008.

There were two concerts held during the year at Church, one organised by Gary Croshaw featuring the Coventry City Salvation Army Band in September and one in April by the Lachrymae Ensemble who played lute music by John Dowling. Both were well attended and raised considerable sums of money for the Church.

Money collected through the Annual Christmas Card was donated to the Children’s Society.

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

Weddings (including 2 blessings of marriage) 15
Funerals in Church 20
Funerals at the Crematorium 12
Burials of cremated remains 2
Baptisms 31

It was also pleasing to admit five children to Communion on Easter Day following preparation undertaken jointly by Malcolm Tyler and Pennie Hartopp.

Members of the congregation and ordained staff have continued to take Holy Communion to members of the Parish at home during the year and it was particularly pleasing that the Beavers were able to sing Carols at St Martin’s Nursing Home again.

In December the Stoke District Scouting Carol Service was held at St Mary’s. Church was full to bursting and it was fitting that the collection at this service was donated to Send-a-Cow, the charity supported by the family of Bill Hanna, a former Scout leader who had died earlier in the year.

Classes have visited the Church from Walsgrave Primary School, and Sir Frank Whittle School. Services have been held at Christmas, Harvest and Easter for Walsgrave School. A leaver’s service was also held for the Year 6 children in July. Alison Liggins, Malcolm Tyler and Lorraine Baker have continued to represent the Church as Foundation Governors at Walsgrave School. Gill Giles decided to stand down as a Governor at the end of her term of office in August and has been replaced by Gillian Tompsett. Malcolm regularly leads collective worship in school assemblies at Walsgrave School and was asked during the year to lead the Harvest assembly at Pearl Hyde School.

It is likely that this year PCC will need to continue to work on the refurbishment of the building as well as on the levels of giving.

For and on behalf of PCC
Malcolm Tyler

Index

Report on the Goods,Fabric and Ornaments of St Mary's 2007

As last year, PCC have asked that costs for work mentioned be included so that a greater appreciation of the maintenance costs at St Mary’s may be had by members of the congregation.

It is wonderful to report that the Church and Hall suffered very little at the hands of the vandals in 2007; there was only one major incident at Church in which the leaded lights of some of the church windows were damaged. Although this led to a costly repair (£840) the majority of the cost (£790) was reclaimed on insurance. A small amount of lead flashing at the Church was also repaired under insurance.

Routine maintenance including some minor work required by the Quinquennial Inspection has been carried out at the Church and Centre throughout the year. The organ has been tuned and maintained (£175), the fire extinguishers (£47), burglar alarm (£328), and tower clock serviced (£203). Ad hoc repairs have been carried out as necessary by various members of the congregation for which PCC is grateful. The radiators were serviced free of charge by John Hartopp.

A stair gate was also purchased for use by the crèche on Sunday mornings and a parachute for junior church (total cost £30).

PCC appointed a new architect (Richard Wood of DEK Architects) during the year as the previous architect was removed from the approved list. Richard sits on the Diocesan Advisory Committee and is currently working on outstanding issues from our Quinqennial report (the re-pointing of the Tower and the installation of emergency lighting.) Work on the re-plastering of Church has been held up at his suggestion until the heating issues in Church are resolved.

The churchyard was regularly tidied by a group of Community Services trainees (at a total cost of £366 for the year) and other maintenance work was carried out by Coventry City Council.

The area of land adjacent to the Church Hall was maintained by Derek Hudson this year and PCC is grateful for his hard work during the Spring, Summer and Autumn. The only damage at the Church Hall during the year was to the front doors. These were replaced under insurance.

Barbara Hancox and John Aspden

Index.

Coventry East Deanery Synod Report

The Synod met on three occasions during the year, once here at St Mary’s when I was licensed as Area Dean with Charlotte Gale also being licensed as Assistant Area Dean. The main speaker was John Hall, the Director of Social Responsibility in the diocese who spoke about his work generally.

Our second meeting in October was at St Philip’s when we had an engaging speaker from Christian Aid. This was an extremely enjoyable evening not least for an exercise we were encouraged to do in that we were encouraged to imagine ourselves as a member of a Bangladeshi family who had 30 minutes notice of an evacuation of their village. We could take 5 items with us – what would we take?

Working as a family of 5 or 6 people, we all took different things and had various scenarios thrown at us which meant we ‘lost’ some of our previous items. At the end of the exercise, we were left with only one or two things – sometimes of no use at all. It made us all think really hard about the perils so many have to suffer in such situations and was well worth doing. Our final meeting of the year in November was held at the hospital but was so poorly attended that we abandoned it after a short talk from Hugh Priestner the chaplain.

The other responsibility of the deanery is to allocate Parish Share between the parishes. This was done in November and the process will start again earlier this year to enable a more readily agreeable allocation later in the year.

Malcolm Tyler

Index.

Treasurer’s Report

I would like to open with thanks to Jean Hudson and Malcolm Tyler as members of the Finance Committee for their ongoing assistance and support.

This year has unfortunately been a repeat of previous years in that we have had to draw from our reserves to meet the running costs of the church which exceeded our income by some £4,700. There is a need therefore to increase our income and whilst the overall rate of inflation has only risen slightly, such things as price rises for gas and electricity which have a notable effect with a large building, have increased this pressure further. Our main source of income is the congregation’s giving and in 2008 we will therefore be providing everybody with details of our outgoings and asking them to review and hopefully increase what they give.

Mervyn Hancox

Index.

Quinquennial Group Report

The last inspection of our buildings was carried out in April 2005 and the architect appointed by the Diocese reported some 30 items which required maintenance or improvement. The members of the working group set up by PCC to manage these works are Barbara Hancox, Mike Wakeman, Malcolm Tyler and Mervyn Hancox who is the chair. John Hartopp was also a member until he and Pennie moved to Godalming.

The majority of the more minor items which could be carried out by volunteers or organised through local tradesman such as a full electrical test, the fitting of a disabled toilet alarm and cleaning out the gutters have been completed. Faculties are required for the next two major items to be done which are the tower and roof repairs and the installation of emergency lighting in the church and centre for which the services of an architect who sits on the Diocesan Advisory Committee have been retained to supply the specifications and make the applications. He will then be looking at the heating system which needs upgrading or replacing, as this may need to be done before the plaster repairs which are required in church.

There is still a long way to go before we can achieve all that is required and I would like to thank everybody who has and who continues to contribute to the Refurbishment Fund.

Mervyn Hancox

Index.

The Coventry Boot Fund-------------------------------------------------£50.00
Chris Wick Memorial Fund-----------------------------------------------£50.00
Parkinsons Disease Society-----------------------------------------------£50.00
Church of England Childrens Society--------------------------------------£50.00
MacMillan Cancer Relier--------------------------------------------------£50.00
St. Mary’s Church (Refurbishment Fund)----------------------------------£300.00
Carried forward to 2008---------------------------------------------------£3.29