St Peter's, Hersham - Annual Report 2007, PCC Report

Introduction

The St.Peters Parochial Church Council (PCC) in the Diocese of Guildford which is a part of the Church of England, is a charity which is excepted from registration with the Charity Commissioners, although the Charities Act 1993 does regulate the way in which the PCC must report to its local congregation and the public at large. The Report and the accounts are presented in the format required from 2002 when additional sections of the Act became operable, and as amended by the Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities (March 2005).

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Membership of the PCC between April 2007 and April 2008

Members of the PCC are either ex-officio, elected by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting in accordance with the Church Representative Rules, or are co-opted.

The following served as members of the PCC:

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Responsibilities of the PCC

The PCC has adopted the vision statement on behalf of the Parish:
“Growing Christians to worship God and serve His world”

The PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent, the curate, and the readers to promote in the parish the whole mission of the Church - pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. It ensures payment of the Parish’s contribution to parish ministry and diocesan costs via the Parish Share, and it has the responsibility for all the Parish’s assets, including its buildings, St Peter’s Church, the Church Hall, St Peter’s Lodge and Vauxmead.

Members of the PCC are elected each year on tri-annual rotation by nomination of two parishioners. New PCC members are briefed on their responsibilities by the Chairman Revd. Nick Whitehead.

The PCC has adopted the vision statement on behalf of the Parish: "Growing Christians to worship God and serve his world".

To assist them with their responsibilities, the PCC has appointed the following Sub-Committees and Teams:

• Teams for Worship and Prayer, Mission Support, Pastoral Care and Christian Development are well established. It is hoped that in the near future we will re-establish teams for Outreach and Communication.
• Standing Committee (sets the PCC agenda and transacts business between meetings)
• The Stewardship Team
• Treasury Team
• Building Committee
• The Children’s Representative, Lynne Watson, has continued to ensure that the PCC has a Child Protection Policy and that the Church takes seriously its responsibility for the care and nurture of its children. She has been co-opted to the PCC since September 2002 and assists the PCC in drawing up procedures and policies on child protection.
• A coordinator for the disabled, as required by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and on the advice of the Guildford Diocesan Advisory Committee, was appointed by the PCC in April 2001, but this post is currently vacant. We therefore wish to appoint a replacement.
• The PCC has agreed the terms of a Public Relations Policy in order that it may respond appropriately to requests from the media for interviews, should they arise. A copy of this policy is available from the Parish Office.

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Electoral Role and Church Attendance

The average church attendance on Sundays in 2007 was 159 (132 over 16 years of age and 27 under 16 years). The number on the electoral roll at April 2007 was 185. (By the end of the year the number was 185). Children under 16 are not included on the Electoral Roll.

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The Work of the PCC, Progress and Achievements

The PCC met on seven occasions during the year to manage the regular business of the parish, such as the appointment of officers, expenditure and budgeting, the balance and type of our social events, risk management, data protection, equipment needs, property matters, and issues raised by Teams (reported elsewhere).

The Churchwardens, Ian Rose and Andrew Strong meet regularly with the Vicar to talk about the life of the church, particularly its managerial and administrative needs; they set an example of committed attendance at worship, and willingly hoover up important tasks not assigned to others.

The PCC has not yet found a way of keeping the church open during the day regularly but hopes to repeat last year’s temporary opening during the summer months.

Thanks are due, of course, to all the members of the PCC for their dedication, not only in attending the regular PCC meetings but also participating in the Awaydays. In line with its stated strategy for the year, the PCC explored ‘Bringing Worship to Life’, attended Bishop Ian’s evening on the Eucharist, and participated in the parish Creativity Day in late September.

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PCC Strategy for the Coming Year

Over the year-end the PCC has received reports from our architect, John Deal, on the condition of the Church hall and Church (Quinquennials). In particular, the roofs of both buildings will require some attention over the next five years, of a more or less urgent nature. The PCC will be considering how best to: allocate the funds at our disposal, manage these and other maintenance costs over the next decade, and apply stewardship principles to our physical assets.

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Relationships with Local Groups and Organisations

Members of our congregation make a wide range of contributions to local organisations and are an invaluable Christian presence in the community as a result. Just two examples - reading to children in schools, helping with the local youth club – this is done without publicity or fuss.

NSCCP

The North Surrey Community Counseling Partnership is based in the front office of the Church Hall. We are pleased to have this link with a charity working to provide an affordable counseling service to the local community. From time to time it is a valuable source of specialist information for the Church, and we have also made use of the day courses it runs. The Vicar resigned, as a trustee, from NSCCP with effect from July 2007; one member of the congregation (Peter Metcalf) is still a trustee of the charity.

Schools, Nurseries & Playgroups

• The parish continues its good working relationship with local county schools. The Curate and Vicar take assemblies at Bell Farm and the Curate and several parishioners are on its governing body.
• The relationship with Burhill School is also close, the Vicar being Vice Chair of Governors. Parents and children attend four services in church annually at Easter, Harvest and Christmas, with a leavers’ service in July.
• Classes from both schools regularly use the church as a learning resource to explore Christianity aided this year by members of the congregation.
• The Vicar and Curate are regularly invited to talk at Harvest and Christmas to the children at Burhill Playgroup and Nursery.
• We occasionally take assemblies at Rydens School, where again, several parishioners serve on the governing body.

Uniformed Youth Organisations

We maintain links with the Scouts, Cubs, Guides, and St. John Ambulance groups in the Parish, hosting their annual Carol Service. The Curate represents the Church at St. John ceremonies and the Cubs have been guided around the Church as part of their work towards one of their badges.

The Diocese of Guildford

Cathedral Link

We are seeking someone in the congregation to maintain this link - passing on publicity and other material about cathedral events and attending services on our behalf from time to time. The Curate acts as Cathedral Chaplain several times in the year, providing pastoral and prayer support to people visiting the Cathedral.

Other Diocesan links and responsibilities

The Vicar became Rural Dean of Emly Deanery in June 2006 and should serve for five years. This entails overseeing and chairing three Deanery Synod meetings each year and regular meetings of the clergy (Chapter). He has immediate pastoral oversight of the parishes in the Deanery, with special responsibility during vacancies; he meets with the Bishop and other Rural Deans from time to time.

The Vicar is a specialist subject (baptism) tutor on the Diocesan Pastoral Assistant’s Course.The Curate is Deanery Treasurer and David Mealor is Deanery Synod Secretary (a minor takeover!)

Guildford Diocesan Ministry Course

We have close links with GDMC which trains Readers and Ordained Local Ministers. We have had Readers from our parish training on the course, and the Vicar is one of the Doctrine Tutors. Students also come to Hersham on placement from time to time. We have been praying that our parish might have a new candidates on the course to supplement our Ministry Team. Sue Gray is now in the second year of her OLM training. We will not, however, stop praying for other vocations (will we?).

Revd. Canon Hazel Whitehead is Diocesan Director of Ministerial Training, responsible for the training of all those in Reader and Ordained Ministry in the Diocese.

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Fabric of the Church, the Church's interior and other buildings

Church Buildings

• Our Architect, John Deal, undertook a full survey of the Church Hall. This revealed a number of items of work that needed to be undertaken, not least of which was a fairly urgent need to replace most, if not all, of the tiling on the church hall roof. Other major items included the refurbishment of the windows and the kitchen. Whilst the latter two were fairly obvious and probably could have been carried from existing funds, the re tiling of the roof came as an unpleasant surprise.
• Before embarking on contracts to refurbish the hall the PCC asked John Deal to expedite his quinquennial survey of the church itself and in particular to review the state of the roof tiling here also. Since that report we have asked A. E. Harris- the roofing contractor- to replace some missing and cracked tiles on the church roof as revealed by the quinquennial report and whilst they were on the roof they also looked at the condition of the tiling generally. Whilst re tiling of some or all of the North Transept was revealed as a fairly urgent requirement the remainder looked in a fairly satisfactory condition for the immediate future. The PCC are in the process of developing a phased plan of work to keep abreast of these repairs, the majority of which it is hoped will be met from funds already available or to be accumulated from funds over the next few years.
• The most urgent work required by the quinquennial report has now been put in hand e.g. attending to dangerous grave stones, the rodding of the drains and gullies. In the not too distant future new soakaways will be needed to take the rainwater from the church but following the rodding of the drains and the clearing of gullies, the drains are still able to cope with even the largest rainstorms.
• A programme of maintenance and repair has also been undertaken in St Peter’s Lodge following a survey of the condition of the building.
• Sums continue to be set aside each year in PCC Designated Accounts to create funds to which future maintenance costs of the Church, the Vicarage internal decoration, the Church Hall and St Peter’s Lodge can be charged. The amounts accumulated to date, but not yet expended, for each building can be seen in the Annual Accounts under “Unrestricted Fund Details”. Whilst it is expected that a significant proportion of the work referred to above will be financed from these reserves it is likely that some additional fund raising might be required in due course.

Plans for 2008

• · The PCC will be undertaking a major review of the list of works required on all our buildings and putting into practice a phased plan for this work.

Church Hall

The hall has been used regularly as a Children’s Birthday Party venue again this year. Because of the Gems groups using the hall, many of the younger parties are booked by families who come to Gems – this is a great asset to the hall revenue for which we are very grateful. Several parties have been special 1st Birthday Parties where groups of parents, sometimes from ante-natal groups, join with others to have a hall full of little ones and their extended families.

Unfortunately, we have seen a decline in our regular evening bookings this year. Now that the Xcel Leisure Centre is up and running many people have returned there to teach keep fit and other forms of exercise classes. We were, therefore, very pleased to welcome a new Pilates teacher who is teaching on a Friday morning – several members of St. Peters attend her classes!

The hall continues to be the venue for the various Church groups including TAG, Fellowship and Gems. We again hosted the Lent Lunches and Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. In November several people organised a very successful Quiz Evening which was well attended and provided some keenly fought competition!

The usual array of dinners, talks and musical evenings continued to be held by amongst others, The National Trust and The Hackbridge and Hewittic Reunion. The Walton and Oatlands Choral Society held a musical soiree evening and many people were delighted to use such a well equipped kitchen to prepare the buffet meal that evening. Various scouting fund raising events have been held, Surrey Walks Club continue their usage and we made the hall available for a Children’s Cancer Trust photo shoot.

We are very fortunate to have the hall to provide much needed income and the people to look after it.

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The Identification and Management of Risks

The PCC continues to identify and manage the risks which arise in the day-to-day activities of St Peter’s.

As reported last year, the PCC undertook an update review of its approach to the consideration of risk, building on the risk assessment approach undertaken in 2002. A risk register has been developed categorising risks under four headings:

• Financial - Risks relating to the fiscal activities of the PCC and the management of the financial affairs of St Peter’s. These risks include those applicable to the best use of the PCC’s financial resources, the availability of funds and risk of fraud.
• Strategic and Operational - Risks relating to the way in which the PCC undertakes the activities of St Peter’s and the safeguarding of physical assets. Included under this heading are Child Protection and Health and Safety
• Governance & Regulation - Risks relating to external factors which affect the activities of St Peter’s and the regulatory environment in which we operate.
• Reputational - Risks relating to the image and perception of St Peter’s in the wider community.

The PCC holds a risk register that identifies the specific risks under each of these categories. It sets out the controls in place to mitigate these risks and the indicators which the PCC has identified to provide assurance that the controls have acted, and continue to act effectively to manage these risks.

Throughout 2007, the PCC has considered aspects of the management of risk at its regular meetings. The major areas of risk are brought to the attention of the PCC for review as a part of the standing agenda over the year and any changes required are minuted and actioned. The major areas on the standing agenda for consideration are the following:

• Annual budget
• Authority levels
• Bank mandate
• Financial reserves policy
• Heath and safety
• Insurance policies
• List of key-holders
• Public relations policy

During 2007, a special Health & Safety risk assessment was undertaken. This resulted in a number of small changes to the interior of the Church. There was also a training session for those who would be involved in managing an evacuation of the Church.

The PCC is pleased to be able to report that, in 2007, there were no major adverse risk events arising which were not reimbursed by our insurers or otherwise recovered.

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Deanery Synod Report

Highlights of this Year

• At the first meeting of 2007 the Rural Dean. Revd. Nick Whitehead, signaled that he hoped to discuss the nature of mission in Elmbridge and what the Deanery could do to help further the work. He reported that the rural deans’ consultation meeting at Salisbury was good training for him. The meeting went on to discuss women bishops lead by Hilary Cotton of WATCH the body that initially campaigned for women priests.
• At the November meeting there was a discussion of mission lead by the Rural Dean, Revd. Philip Plyming, Vicar of Claygate, and Revs. John Schofield. This was an excellent debate revealing similar attitudes across the different traditions represented in the deanery
• Deanery Evensong was at Christchurch Esher. The Preacher was Pat Jones, Partnership Development Officer within the diocesan Department for Social Responsibility.
• The year was marred by the sudden death of Ann Townend, the Lay Chairman. She did a great deal of work on church bodies including the Bishop’s council.
• The deanery provides the elected members of the diocesan synod and details of those meetings are published in the Wey.

Plans for 2008

• Parish meetings this spring will elect a new Deanery Synod for the next three years.
• The last meeting of the old Synod (Feb. 2008) will continue the theme of mission by considering the initiative of Walton parish to reach out to its large estates involving the Church Army and diocesan support
• The deanery evening service and election of new deanery officers will be at Holy Trinity Claygate on 8th June at 6.30 p.m.

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• This page was last updated on 5 May 2008.