Annual Report for 2020

ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2020 Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council for the year January – December 2020 St Michael’s Church is part of the Diocese of Coventry and is in Warwick and Leamington Deanery. The correspondence address is: St Michael’s Church, Church Lane, Budbrooke, CV35 8QL. Email: [email protected] Website: www.stmichaels-budbrooke.org.uk PCC members who have served from APCM 2020 until the date this report was approved are: Rev’d David Brown (Chair), Rev’d Mary Lodge (ex-officio), Rev’d Martin Davies (ex-officio), Richard Lyttle (Vice-chair), Andrew Cowie (Treasurer), Karen Young (Secretary), Ruth Grinbergs (Churchwarden), Stephen Poole (Churchwarden), Ben Davis, Val Roy, Royston Young, Sue Stanton, Luke Thomas, Grace Poole and Mike Wood. There are currently two Deanery Synod representatives. The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. Since APCM 2020 the PCC has met four times (October, November, January & March). The electoral roll: Due to the various suspensions of public worship, the electoral roll St Michael’s remains largely unchanged since our last Annual Meeting in October 2020. There are 100 members, of which, 68 are resident in the parish and 32 non-resident. 5 have joined the roll, 3 have left, one having moved away, one sadly deceased and the other ineligible since ordination. Vicar’s Report WHAT A YEAR! A year ago (I write this in February 2021), the worrying noises of a new virus in China starting to spread to other nations still seemed distant and few could have imagined the extraordinary impact COVID-19 would have. New words have been added to our vocabulary, Social-distancing, lockdown, R Rates and we have had to come to terms with worshipping online, and when we could meet together with limitations on singing or needing to wear masks. It has been a challenging time in the backdrop of the impact of COVID-19 upon our households, our families, our communities and nation. And yet, amid this extraordinary upheaval, we’ve been adaptable, agile and managed change upon change upon change 2 | Page St Michael’s, I want to say you can be proud of how you have responded. In so many ways, St Michael’s feels stronger as a result. We have always been willing to try new things but 2020 launched us into on-line ministry in a big way. Amazingly, our new website was up and running just a week before lockdown. Without it, we would have been simply unable to do things like the Wednesday Word, or the Daily Devotionals – but through it we have seen around 3000 individuals visit our website. This timing shows, above all, it is God’s Grace that has brought us through. We have seen signs of his Grace in so many ways. We’ve had a sense of God’s guidance through the whole period I think we can be encouraged about all that has happened as we navigated this crisis. This could never have happened without so many playing a part, getting stuck in, sharing ideas, giving vision, contributing and participating. The PCC have boldly and creatively managed the finances of the church with wisdom. Staff have adapted sacrificially, some reducing their working hours, others their working practices but, above all, so many of the church family have stepped forward and risen up to take on new roles and responsibilities. We have held together well as a church community, and our digital reach through the new streaming platform is expanding. Our ministry patterns are clearer, more focused and more fit for all that is to come. With the emergence of our new smaller church communities, each with vision and hopes for growth, God is preparing us for his “new-normal”, and we can build from here with genuine hopes for growth on every front. I thank each and every one of you. We would never have wished it this way but, if one outworking of the Covid crisis has been to transform the church and make us fitter to reach this generation, then some good may have come out of such a dark time. It’s right, though, to pause and recognise the wider picture. Many of our church family work in caring professions or education, others have had to isolate for extended periods of time, some have known grief and loss as loved ones have fallen ill – all of this a microcosm of the great shaking our nation, indeed our world has faced. We applauded on our doorsteps to honour those on the front line of health care, scenes that unified us, but behind those same doors lies fear and uncertainty. The false Gods people have placed their trust in, wealth, success, health and more have been stripped away. Into this comes the chance to proclaim the love and victory of Jesus Christ. Archbishop Justin Welby said he hoped the church would emerge more humble and more bold. Let us humbly, but unashamedly offer to every member of our communities our saviour. 3 | Page I spent the latter couple of months of 2020 dwelling in John 20 & 21 in my prayer times. This became the sermon series for the beginning of 2021, the riches within those verses speak into both our present and our future. In them, we see: - The risen Jesus can enter the locked down rooms and bring his peace. - If we feel like we’re in a long and endless dark night, there is the promise of a new day. - If we don’t have vision for what is to come, we risk going back to what was, only, like the disciple’s attempt to fish, it will be fruitless. - Like his instruction to fish from ‘the other side of the boat’, Jesus will give us instruction as to how to reach out in this new normal. - As we recognise it is Jesus, let us run towards him, passionate and unashamed to be counted as his people. - Jesus invites us to the intimacy of a meal with him. We ache for communion and we ache to be together, house to house. As we can, let’s use our gardens, our homes as places of encounter with Jesus “at the table.” In the context of their meal, he would restore Peter. What other restoration might we see? - 153 fish were landed. It was an enormous catch, let’s commit to pray for revival. - The nets held despite the weight. We must prioritise patterns of discipleship that transform us and all who practise them. St Michael’s, we’ve shone through 2020, take heart, draw strength and let’s shine all the brighter for King Jesus in 2021. David Brown Review of the Year Worship Who among us had even heard of Zoom a year ago? Yet, once lockdown hit, like parishes across the land, we were looking for creative ways to enable gathered worship to continue. Our buildings were closed but the church was very much alive. From the beginning of the crisis, people found their niche and helped us navigate the changes. Luke Thomas took hold of the technology, working wonders in the background to make our Zoom services smooth, and free from technical distractions, so we could adjust to meeting God in this strange new way. 4 | Page Mary Lodge, week by week, prepared our liturgy and (supported by others), prayers. How often did our services seem to find the Words our hearts were trying to express? Steve, Liz and our other worship leaders worked on settings to get the best out of the limitations of laptops and microphones. We worked hard to include those who couldn’t access the services online, every week printing and delivering a copy of the service and sermon. How good it was in the interlude between lockdowns to meet in King’s Meadow together and then St Mary’s. This time of more public meeting coinciding well with Martin Davies’ ordination and new chapter of ministry. Other leaders have risen up to, giving our new communities vision and impetus, forming teams reflecting the 5-fold gifting of Ephesians 4. Even if the late year restrictions of lockdowns and tiers have frustrated our communities momentum, the alternating pattern of larger and smaller gatherings have helped us keep connected in a time of separation. I would suggest this balance is one factor in why, November apart, we largely bucked the trend of declining online participation after the initial enthusiasm. We estimate 80-90 of All Ages join us live, with others then catching up later in the day and week. Zoom has been fantastic for keeping the church family together, but we have not stood still either. Our forays into broadcasting always had a wider reach. This began with Tim Hetherington’s Easter Hope and Blessing video, with 250+ and 750+ views respectively, and some wonderful testimonies as a result. When combined with posts on Social Media, participation has also grown. Peter Brown’s evangelistic “Wednesday Word” had 400+ listens, showing there is a willingness in people to listen to a Gospel message, something that should further increase our confidence to be witnesses. Even more people joined our Crib Service, helped by the work Grace Poole did in connecting with our local schools. Overall, provision within a service for children and youth has been harder in the absence of regular groups. Whether activity bags to build a mix of resources to help families pray at home, or All Age input in our services, the creative approach taken has been appreciated though we long for the days when we can meet together again.

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