St Denys Church Annual Report - 2019

Colmworth is a village situated nine miles north of . The Parish of St Denys, Colmworth extends for five miles and has 390 residents. It is included in the Benefice of Wilden with Colmworth, , and , in the Deanery of the Diocese of St Albans.

The Parochial Church Council is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of St Denys Church and churchyard. It is a corporate body established by the Church of . It has a gross income under £100,000 and is not a registered charity. It operates under the Parochial Church Council Measure and is excepted, by order, from registering with the Charity Commission.

Revd Tim Wilson was licensed as 0.8 interim Priest in Charge of the Benefice at St Nicholas Church, Wilden, in January 2019. His appointment was for two years. In July 2019, at a service at St Mary’s Church, Keysoe, he was licensed in addition as interim Priest in Charge of Keysoe and Bolnhurst. Revd David Miller (retired clergy) and Geraldine Skinner (Lay- reader) were also commissioned by the Bishop of Bedford for this wider ministry, and we are very grateful to them all for the support and care they provide and the busy schedule of services they cover between them at the five churches

Aims and Objectives Our primary object is the promotion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the doctrines and practices of the Church of England. We co-operate with the incumbent of the Benefice of Wilden with Colmworth, Ravensden, Keysoe and Bolnhurst in promoting the mission of the church (pastoral, social and ecumenical) in the Benefice and in the ecclesiastical parish. The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to join our parish community at St Denys and thereby belong to the Benefice community. There is at least one Holy Communion service held in the Benefice every Sunday, with a variety of other services including Morning Prayer, All Age Worship and Evensong. Services at St Denys Church include 9.00am Holy Communion on the first Sunday of each month, 10.30am All Age Worship on the third Sunday, 9.00 Morning Prayer on the fourth Sunday and a short Holy Communion service at 11.00am on the third Wednesday. On a 5th Sunday the service is traditionally a combined Benefice service which is rotated between the churches of the Benefice and has also been held at Colmworth Chapel .

The Church Building St Denys Church is a perpendicular church which was built in the 15th century and is Grade 1 listed. The church tower houses six bells which were restored in 1985 and are considered amongst the nicest in the area. The bell-ringers used to meet on alternate Thursdays with regular teaching sessions, trying to encourage the participation of teenage children. Sadly, numbers have declined and they have been unable to attract new ringers and these teaching sessions have come to a halt. They still manage to find six ringers who ring before the All Age Worship service and before special services. Several times a year the bells attract visiting groups of ringers. In the chancel is a nationally-famed monument commissioned by Lady Katherine Dyer in memory of her late husband, Sir William Dyer, who died in 1621. She wrote the poem inscribed behind the tomb and this is believed to be one of the earliest recorded poems written by a woman. Both the village school and the post office have closed and, although fewer than one in ten villagers worship regularly in the church, the church building is an important focal point of the village; the main entrance to Colmworth Country Park passes the south door and Friends of St Denys has considerable support from villagers to raise funds for church restoration.

During 2019 there were three funerals, two baptisms and one wedding in church. Doug McWilliam organised a Messy church service in April and Easter services were busy and well-supported; on Maundy Thursday evening 20 people sat round tables for a simple meal and informal communion and on Good Friday there was a large congregation, including the Benefice Junior Choir, who joined in a service which was followed by Hot Cross buns. St Denys Feast Day was celebrated on October 9th with a Holy Communion service followed by refreshments. Apart from church services it is used for a variety of events: as a venue for a concert (organised by Friends of St Denys) and a jigsaw puzzle evening. The History Society held a dinner followed by their AGM. Activities included an Easter activities event for children and a Darkness to Light party organised at the end of October. Harvest Festival also took place in October and was followed by Harvest Lunch. December activities included an evening of carols with mince pies and a Messy Church morning to help decorate the church for Christmas. Fund-raising events organised by the PCC also included a Scrabble evening and a Hanging Basket workshop. Our main fund-raising event was a very successful Garden Party held at Manor Farm and we are very grateful to Bernie and Vivien Bulkin for letting us use their garden once again.

The nave is used monthly for community lunches and Coffee-Stop, both of which are usually organised by Heather Smith. During her illness other members of the church community stepped in to help and we are very grateful for their support. The village Garden Club still makes use of facilities for refreshment and the church was open for Hike and Bike Sunday although the day was very wet and we didn’t have many visiting cyclists. The church is now open daily during daylight hours allowing access to the local community and visitors to the Country Park. A significant number of people have signed the visitors’ book over the past year, including several Americans who came to visit the Fielding graves as part of their research into Mormon history.

We are still trying to determine the most critical issues for church restoration so that we can start applying for grants. After meeting with Iain Frearson, church architect, it was decided that a structural survey was inappropriate at the present time and should be carried out in conjunction with repairs because of the difficulty of getting scaffolding into the church. In the meantime the nave roof has been patched several times during the year and Margaret Seabrook, along with a local resident, David Netherway, has been on the roof regularly to check on the condition of the single-ply membrane. There is further deterioration in the parapets and stonework supporting the windows and significant attention needed to both the chancel and nave roofs. A bat ecologist inspected the church last year and returned in July and advised us that we don’t have a significant bat maternity roost in the church. We have noticed less of a problem with bat excrement this year.

The PCC fully supports the Friends of St Denys and we are very grateful to the team for all their sterling efforts to raise funds for church restoration and repair. Much of the churchyard maintenance was carried out by Pat Knight and we are very grateful to him. We also appreciate the support and time given by the cleaners and flower arrangers who help inside the church.

Pastoral Care The PCC is indebted to Heather Smith who organises most of the pastoral activities in the parish and to the team who supported her when she was ill. The community lunches and Coffee-Stop continued monthly along with a walking group which met weekly. The social committee which Heather initiated has done a great job with organising the fund-raising events and helping with activity events in church.

Administrative Information St Denys Church is situated in Church Road, Colmworth, The PCC met six times during the year. PCC correspondence address: Kate Abrahams, Woodfield, Road, Colmworth, Beds MK44 2LZ. Tel: 01234 378132 Email: [email protected]

PCC members (2019-20) Rev Tim Wilson – chairman Mrs Margaret Seabrook - Treasurer Mrs Kathryn Abrahams (churchwarden, secretary from Sep 19) Mrs Heather Smith (Deanery Synod rep, resigned April 19) Mrs Elizabeth Wootton Mr Doug McWilliam (Parish Safeguarding rep and Deanery Synod rep from April 19) Mrs Lorraine Knight (churchwarden – resigned Aug 19, secretary – resigned Aug 19) Mr Neville Jephcote (resigned as secretary – April 19)

Independent auditor: Ensors Accountants LLP Church Electoral Roll

All those who attend our services are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC. At the end of 2019 there were 43 names on the Electoral Roll, of whom 15 were non-resident. A new electoral roll was prepared this year and the names added included Zoe Payne, Justyn Cassell, Helen and Frederick Brown and Sarah Miller

Bell-Ringing Report – 2019 Humphrey Chetwynd-Talbot

Ringing has continued throughout the year before All Age worship services and special services and a team rang at the VE day Remembrance celebrations in November. Standards could be improved if we could muster enough ringers for practice. Unfortunately, some of the ringers work too far from home to be able to make a practice session and our joint arrangements to practice with have also failed. Of more importance perhaps is our loss of ringers, with two regular ringers soon to be unavailable. We are therefore urgently in need of new recruits for ringing and anybody potentially interested would be most welcome.

Friends of St Denys Report – 2019 Felicity Evans

The Friends of St Denys have had a busy year fund-raising for the Colmworth Church Restoration Fund. Their most successful event has been the “Cars and Bikes with Character”, held on the first Sunday of every month from April to October, with a free event in December to present a cheque to the Vicar and Church Wardens.

This year the presentation cheque was for £6,823.01, a tremendous effort with their best month of all being September, serving 345 bacon butties and raising £1,526.11.

Other events held throughout the year were an Ensemble of Friends Concert in June, Race Night in September and Barn Dance with Auction of Promises in November. They also had a stall at the Manor Farm Garden party in July selling Christmas Cards and giving out information. From monies raised another £1,676.99 was added, making a total of £8,500.00 donated to the Church in February 2020 from 2019 fundraising.

Safeguarding Report – 2019

Mr Doug McWilliam was appointed as Parish Safeguarding rep last year and has been working closely with the local Safeguarding representatives of the other two Parishes in our Benefice to ensure compliance with the duty under section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016. Since July 2019, when we began working with Keysoe and Bolnhurst too, Doug has also been meeting with their Safeguarding representatives. All are working together towards ensuring that all members of the five PCCs and others with responsibility have DBS clearance and are undertaking training.

GDPR Report

Over the past year good progress has taken place within the benefice of Wilden, Colmworth and Ravensden along with . Lorraine Knight has been appointed as Benefice GDPR data controller to support Reverend Tim Wilson. All churches have received a GDPR pack containing documents outlining procedures to follow and what it means to them as church wardens or GDPR representatives for their individual churches, this pack also has a GDPR audit checklist to make the process simple to apply and identify any areas of improvement related to their individual church including, dates/timelines from the ‘Keep it or Bin it’ policy published by the diocese. With the exception of St Nicolas Wilden, who have completed a full audit, the next step for all churches is to identify their GDPR representative and arrange a meeting with Lorraine Knight GDPR data controller to go over the audit check list.

Financial Report – year ended 31 December 2019 – Margaret Seabrook

The accounts are presented as Receipts and Payments Accounts as in previous years. Ensor LLP will finalise the accounts as a Balance Sheet

I am delighted to report that the PCC fulfilled all our financial commitments for 2019. For a very small parish this is a tremendous achievement. Regular giving and collections were up by just over £3000 from 2018 and fund-raising events were up by £1000. The PCC and the social committee ran a variety of fund-raising events including the main event, the garden party, kindly hosted by Bernie and Vivien Bulkin. The jigsaw evening was a big success with Easter activities, community lunches, a games evening and scrabble evening being some of the other fund-raising events. A huge thank you to those who give regularly and also give their time to all the events. Our biggest expense, the Parish Share, £13180 was paid in full.

£6072.83 is held in reserve at the Central Board of Finance Investment fund. This would cover the running of the church for approximately one quarter of one financial year.

Trust Summary

The trusts are held within the Central Board of Finance Investment Fund. All three are for church and churchyard upkeep . Trust income received in 2019:

Church Land Charity –£706.52 Infield Bequest – £70.20 Wynne Bequest - £80.24

The total investment interest from the trusts was £835.90 as shown in the receipts and payments account.

The Restoration Fund (restricted) Friends of Denys very kindly donated £3000 in the financial year and they have already made a tremendous donation of £8500 in early 2020 from their 2019 fundraising. This money is very much appreciated. Restricted restoration funds stand at £22032.30. The Bell fund - £1342.30 and the Timothy Matthew tomb fund at £50 making a total of £23424.60 in restricted funds at 31 December 2019.