THE PARISH OF WITH ANNUAL REPORT 2019 The most significant event of 2019 was our becoming the Parish of Heath and Reach with Eggington. We are still working through how we work together, looking at where roles and responsibilities lie, synchronising policies, e.g. Safeguarding, Anti-discrimination and so on. So far we have held three PCC meetings involving all current members of the St. Leonard’s and St. Michael’s PCCs but from this APCM the organisation will be somewhat different.

There will be one PCC for the Parish of Heath and Reach with Eggington which will have overall responsibility for the parish, and will submit data such as the financial accounts, Electoral Role numbers, Statistics for Mission as one parish. Day to day responsibilities will be delegated to two sub-committees, one for St. Leonard’s and one for St. Michael’s. Members of the PCC will be elected at the APCM.

A working party is putting together a Mission Action Plan for the whole parish.

St. Leonard’s Report

We were all saddened when Br. Bede died after suffering a long and painful illness. He had been unable for a while to function in his office of church warden which left the burden resting on Val’s shoulders. We are very grateful to her. For personal reasons she has decided not to put herself forward for a final year as church warden. We have been fortunate in finding a “willing” volunteer to take over, Kim Anwyl who joined the PCC in place of Esther Dickinson. Esther is still involved in the planning of Family services and is taking over as Safeguarding Officer.

The functions of the Pastoral Committee and the Standing Committee have been subsumed elsewhere. Tricia Humber has continued in her role of Reader and also to represent us on the Deanery Synod (see report) as Lay Chair and on Churches Together as secretary. Noel is also involved in the latter, although no longer as Chair. The Social Committee continues to do a great job raising funds and bringing St. Leonard’s to the attention of the wider community.

There are many on-going outreach activities. Seasonal Lunches miss Bede’s expertise but will resume with the help of the Axe and Compass. Men’s Breakfasts are very popular. A small group make home visits as requested and others take Holy Communion to the housebound. Under Jill Thomas’s guidance we took part in the Christmas Tree Festival. Coffee mornings continue to thrive. The magazine reaches 300 or more families in the parish.

We are pleased that we have been able to welcome new people to St. Leonard’s. The Sunday 11 o’clock service is regularly attended by 40 people, with 10 attending the Tuesday evening Communion and 7 or 8 at the twice-monthly Sunday 8 a.m. service. Morning Prayer is said at the Vicarage during the winter months but is not so well attended. The Church is open daily.

We convened a village meeting to look at the feasibility of Heath and Reach becoming a Dementia Friendly Village. So far, despite a good meeting no local committee has been formed and plans have stalled. A Dementia Friendly service has been devised and will be trialled in the Care Homes by Noel and Tricia.

We have recruited additional Chalice Assistants and readers. There are a large number of people involved in ensuring that services in church and activities in the hall and elsewhere support the life of St. Leonards. Our thanks go to the Sacristans, Choir, Organists, Musicians, Chalice and Service Assistants, Intercessors, Readers, Coffee makers, cleaners; Home visitors, Home Communion givers, Magazine editors, contributors, deliverers, Coffee Morning and Seasonal Lunch helpers, Social

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Committee members, SLAP. Indeed, our thanks go to everyone who contributes by their presence as well as by their help.

We continue our involvement with St. Leonard’s Lower School. Governors’ appointed this year were Corinna Washbrook and Kim Anwyl. Charlotte Boyce left when her term of office ended.

A significant event in the church was the concert to raise funds for the refurbishment of the organ.

The refurbishment of the porch has been put on hold because of lack of funds.

A prayer tree dedicated to David Young, a former priest here, has been donated by his wife Rosemary in his memory.

In the church hall new doors have had to be purchased. We now use the Community Payback group to clean the Hall which they do on a Sunday. This saves us a significant amount. Any in between cleaning is done by Corinna Ashbrook the administrator. A reduction in fees and a strong marketing drive by Corinna is beginning to pay off. The Community Payback team will be re-painting the inside of the hall. Sadly Little Fishes has had to close due to lack of anyone to take over from Gemma who has done a great job for the last few years but cannot continue. Hopefully new volunteers may come forward.

Corinna continues to make her unique contribution and is a great asset to us. We are indebted to her for her passion and commitment and her willingness to take on just about anything asked of her.

And finally, thank you to Noel and to all PCC members who enable all the above to happen.

St. Michael’s Report.

The past year has been dominated by finding the cause of the vestry wall cracking and moving, this we were able to do thanks to a grant from the Beds & Herts Historic Churches Trust. The cause was found to be subsidence due to poor foundations. We then had to obtain tenders for the repair work and trying to find funding for it. We were very lucky that the Eggington Town Lands Trust were able to help us plug the shortfall so that we could instruct a builder to commence work. At the moment, he is due to start work on or about the 6th April.

The next surprise we had was our neighbours at St Michael’s House are also suffering with subsidence in part of their property. After extensive exploratory work, the experts have stated that it is due to a sycamore tree in the churchyard taking the moisture from the ground which has caused the clay to shrink. They are stating that the tree must be felled and the stump treated. According to our insurers, the Ecclesiastical Insurance Company, they will pay for the damage (which is not being claimed) but they do not cover the felling of the tree, the cost of which is likely to be well in excess of £3,000. We are attempting to negotiate and hopefully, if they want it down then they can pay for it to come down. Whether we are successful, we wait to see.

On a happier note, we had two weddings last year and we have two again this year. They all are having their receptions at , to whom we thank for the introductions. We have a small but hard working group of people, to whom we are very grateful, who spend a lot of their time in hedge trimming, grass cutting and generally working hard to keep the churchyard looking nice and tidy. This is appreciated not only by our little congregation but also by the villagers. More hands would certainly be appreciated.

As a church, we are continuing to reach out to the local community. This we are doing by holding a monthly service in the White House Nursing Home and by holding various fund raising activities such as quiz evenings, cream teas and a social evening at the local Curry Garden Restaurant and this has

2 encouraged the village to hold a hog roast and plant sale. All of these have helped to bring the village closer together, but, unfortunately has only made a small difference to our Sunday congregation even though all functions are well attended. The services that are well attended are our carol service, the Christingle, the Midnight Communion and in the last two years, our Remembrance Day Service.

Hopefully the forthcoming year will see the vestry repaired, the issue with the sycamore tree sorted and all the events we have planned to come about and are well attended and that we all stay healthy.

Deanery Synod Report Deanery Synod met three times during 2019 to provide opportunities to share information from individual parishes and the Diocese at large; to hear from invited speakers; to discuss reports and feedback from General Synod, our Diocesan Synod and, where appropriate, to provide comments to the Diocesan Synod on behalf of the Deanery.

A continuing focus during the year has been our Deanery’s Mission Action Plan (MAP) or Mission Support Plan (MSP) as we have called it, centring on LONELINESS (in all its guises), an issue which faces all our communities – large and small, rural or town - with the Deanery working to

Source resources and expertise

Clarify e.g. DBS, legislation

Assist sharing of ideas and experience

Resource training and provide

Financial support (as appropriate)

As we go into 2020, we will continue to develop and explore how we can work in our various groupings, parishes and contexts to support our engagement and wider activities with those in need of help.

We had an inspirational talk in November by Sharon Partridge-Underwood, Project Worker: Central , Home for Good - a Christian charity working with children in care. They seek to find a home for every child who needs one. She spoke movingly about the challenges of placing older children and siblings as well as her own experiences within her family and asked members for continued pray for the children and their carers and help to raise awareness of them and the charity.

Planning got underway for how the Deanery might get involved in Lambeth 2020 (Bishops from around the Anglican Communion will be in the Diocese 14th – 20th July tbc). We will be hosting Bishop Errol Brooks, who is the Bishop for the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba. Helen and Jack Mindenhall at Toddington will be hosting the Bishop and his wife and John Wallace will be acting as their driver. Some activities have been organised by the Diocese; others will be Deanery-centred. Further details will be issued in the coming weeks.

Safeguarding is now a standing item on our agendas to ensure that all parishes continue to have appropriate policies and officers in place and that all those who need appropriate training have been able to do this.

Revd Bernard Minton came to the end of his term as Rural Dean in May with Revd Nicola Lenthall (, & ) taking on the role.

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The Deanery saw two appointments made in the Deanery:

All Saints, – Revd Cate Irvine (July): St Peter’s Priory, Dunstable – Revd Rachel Phillips (October)

Tricia Humber, Deanery Synod Representative

St. Leonard’s Church Hall In 2019 the regular hire bookings decreased, and the individual hires were the same as 2018. To gain more bookings the Parish Administrator has suggested some marketing to boost the use of the hall and income. Regular bookings During term time, the hall was booked out on average 20hours and 45minutes, during holidays this is reduced to 8hours and 30minutes. During term time this also includes Little Fishes (3hours 15minutes) which are given gratis as they are a church group. The average hours have gone down during term time (from>25hrs p/w), but up during holiday (from >6hrs p/w). The 2019 regular hirers were:  Little Luvvies children’s dance group – have decreased hall bookings by 2.5 hours a week during term time.  Little Fishes – a preschool and carer group.  Line dancing  Art Class  Perform children’s drama group.  Zest Pilates.  Tot Bop moved to the school from October 2019  Box fit.  Jazzercise exercise class  A boxing club whose usual accommodation is in Heath and Reach hired the hall weekly from October There was one new regular hirer (Boxing Club), however they will be moving to their own venue early 2020. Tot Bop left as they changed venue to the school, Little Luvvies dropped their afternoon booking as the hall could not be hired for the hours they wished. Future regular bookings starting in 2020 are a new yoga class and Ragdolly Anna’s. The hall would like to encourage more regular bookings where possible. SLAP have kindly worked round the bookings in the evenings which finish at 7.00pm. Individual hiring:  The hall had 32 one-off bookings, which is the same number in 2018. Maintenance  The front doors have been replaced with commercial quality aluminium doors. These are guaranteed for 10 years, and should last longer (installed 2020).  Community payback who maintain the cemetery are also now cleaning the hall when able – Tuesday when the art class are not in and Sundays when there are no bookings

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which would affect the group coming in, and where the community payback are not at another project.  Community payback will be painting the internal walls of the hall during the Easter Holidays 2020.  Mouse bait has been put down under the stage to deter annual mice visits, these need checking monthly. Marketing The hall hire charge has decreased from £18.00 per hour to £12.50 per hour to gain more custom, regular hirers receive 10% discount. The hall no longer charges for use of the kitchen. (as of 1st January 2020)

 The hall now has its own website www.stleonardshall.com  The hall is advertised on https://www.mycommunityspace.org.uk/ and https://www.hallshire.com/ both of which are free to advertise and the hall is receiving booking enquiries from both.  A new banner has been put out the front of the church advertising the hall for hire (2020)  A flyer advertising the hall has been sent out to all of the children at St Leonard’s school (2020) Suggestions for 2020:  Target the other local lower schools and ask if we can advertise the hall hire by flyer  Put up posters around the village  Look into more free and low cost advertising in Leighton Buzzard  Ask one off hirers for feedback using Survey Monkey or similar to determine where we can improve the service of the hall, and how they heard about us. Corinna Washbrook, Administrator.

Social Committee Report

The year started with a very successful 50/50 Auction with many thanks to Richard Page for his help. This was followed by the well supported May Fayre and Dog Show and then a very pleasant Cream Tea in the Church. The Jumble Sale was again quite successful with its new timings. The Christmas Bazaar was one of our most successful ever, however we are hoping for more support for the Christmas Social. Over the last year we have raised over £4000 for Church funds. Please come along to this year’s May Fayre on 9th May. Many thanks to the hard working committee members and all the people who help and support us throughout the year. Rosemary Forsyth

Addendum to Report September 2020

Since the preparation of this report the APCM has been delayed until October because of the Coronavirus Pandemic, and the consequent lockdown which brought all church and social activities to a halt. Noel, our Vicar, has gone above and beyond to ensure that we could continue to worship together and stay in touch with each other by instigating daily Morning Worship, Holy Communion services on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings all electronically via Zoom. These services have been tremendously well received and more than 50 people attend the Sunday morning service and 18 to 25 each morning service. Since July the churches have been able to open for private prayer and from August to hold services with suitable safeguards in place. We are very grateful to Noel for all he is doing. Electronic means of holding services might become an integral part of future

5 patterns of worship. St. Leonard’s church hall is planning to re-open in September, again with the required safeguards in place. Ann Gomersall, PCC Secretary

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Report on the Fabric of the Church

The Archdeacon’s visit was cancelled due to the lock down and the Quinquennial Inspection which should have taken place this year is on hold.

Necessary repairs to the church tower have been carried out.

The organ was found to be in need of major work which we were able to carry out thanks to a concert organised by Alan Gomersall.

A Prayer Tree has been gifted to the church by Rosemary Young in memory of her husband the Revd David Young.

We have received a gift of upholstered chairs which are in the church now.

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