Vestry Meeting and Annual General Meeting of the Parochial Church Council

Post date: Mar 20, 2013 9:27:06 PM

About twenty members of the congregation attended these meetings in church on Sunday 17 March, chaired by our new Vicar, Amma Sue. She opened with prayers and welcomed everyone to the Vestry Meeting. There being no other nominations, Graham Tipper and Jim Saunders were re-elected as churchwardens and Debbie Chadwick, Sue Nelson, Bill Shaw and Karen Walsh were re-elected to serve on the PCC. As no-one has yet come forward to be PCC secretary, Jim will continue to take this on in the meantime.

Most of the AGM focussed on the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2012, ably prepared by our hard-working treasurer, Stewart Woodward. Graham outlined the positive aspects: income and expenditure were in balance, the Parish Share had been paid in full and planned giving had increased slightly. However, the bad news was that we had had to pay out £10,000 for the removal of asbestos and other work in the boiler house and the really bad news was that we are now faced with repair costs in excess of £40,000 for this area and repairs to the east end of the church. As this will exhaust our funds, we will need to launch an appeal.

Happily, Amma Sue lifted the feeling of gloom with her inspiring words for the future. We are all individuals with differing gifts and talents to be valued and our parishes will continue to be worshipping communities with their own distinctive ways and traditions. At the same time, we should embrace the possibilities which the United Benefice offers. In short, “…we will need to have the courage to explore new ideas, the wisdom to discern from our past, and the obedience to walk with Christ.”

Graham and Jim