Annual Report 2017 St John the Baptist, Holland Road St John the Baptist Holland Road Annual Report for the Year Ended 31 December 2017 Administrative Information St John’s Church is situated on Holland Road in Kensington and is part of the Church of England in the Diocese of London. It forms part of the United Benefice of Holland Park. The correspondence address is St George’s Church, Aubrey Walk, London W8 7JG. The Parochial Church Council constitutes a charity and this year was registered as a UK charity (no. 1169173). The PCC members who have served from April 2017 until the date this report was approved are: The Rev’d Dr James Heard Chair The Rev’d Neil Traynor Associate Priest (from 1 July 2017) The Rev’d Peter Wolton Associate Priest (Curate until 3 July 2017) Mrs Jenny Davenport Churchwarden and Vice-Chair Mr Jamie Priestley Churchwarden and Hon. Secretary Mr George Pasteur Hon. Treasurer Ms Kristin Corbet-Milward Ms Jessica Leslie Mr John Sen Mr Robin Price Structure, governance and management The appointment of the churchwardens conforms to the Churchwardens Measure 2001. They are ex officio members of the PCC. The PCC members are elected as set out in the Church Representation Rules. All church attendees are encouraged to register on the electoral roll and stand for election to the PCC. Objectives and Activities The PCC has the responsibility for promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The PCC also has maintenance responsibilities for St John’s Church, and the surrounding land. Achievements and Performance The average weekly attendance, counted during October 2017, was 44, with an electoral roll of 21. 2 Four wedding blessings were carried out in this year. The PCC met four times during the year. Evangelisation St John’s is committed to the Gospel imperative to 'make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matthew 28:19), and to meeting the challenge of engagement in active evangelisation amongst all the peoples of the parish it serves. Ecumenical links As a catholic parish of the Church of England, St John the Baptist Church honours our Lord's High Priestly prayer that all Christians may be one as He and the Father are one (John 17:21), and seeks to foster its local relationship with Christians of the great communions of East and West in furtherance of the full and organic unity of the Church. To this end we play our part in the membership of the Kensington Council of Churches. 3 Report of the Priest in Charge by James Heard The year 2016 has been a year of consolidation. We continue to grow together as a United Benefice in which both churches – St John the Baptist and St George’s, Campden Hill – offer differing and complementary services each Sunday. We also continue to work together very effectively, with six joint churchwardens meetings per annum, a joint PCC meeting once a year, as well as our nurture courses, which have included people from both churches. The second series of Why Me? talks, given during Lent at St John the Baptist, have included people from across the United Benefice. Many thanks to Fr Peter who organises these. It has also been very encouraging to have seen more faces from St George’s at St John’s. Many thanks go out to those who have supported St John’s phase 2 building project, which will totally transform the entrance, and provide small but well equipped community space. The full £455,000 has been raised and so the work will be starting very shortly. The vision of the PCC is to enable the church building to be used daily for community activities. Following extensive discussions in 2014-15, a joint Mission Action Plan 2016-2020 (MAP) was launched. Rather than the MAP sitting on a filing cabinet gathering dust, we have one or more areas brought to the attention of each PCC. Our list of sub- groups include: charities, pastoral visitors, children and youth, stewardship, music, finance, building and communication. Our charities committee, led by Angela Lascelles, have been wonderfully active with a number of events throughout the year including a quiz evening and a harvest supper. In addition, a number of the youth and parents did our first ever ‘sleep out’ to raise money for the homeless charity Glass Door. More information on each charity can be found in the community space notice board at St George’s. We had John and Judy Barrett, from All Saints Fulham, provide our pastoral visitors with some training. They are able to offer home communion, pop in for a chat and cup of tea, as well as send cards to families on the anniversary of baptisms. We had a variety of courses throughout the year as part of our United Tuesdays nurture programme. During Lent we used a film, The Mystery of Everything, and 4 book, as a springboard for discussion about the relationship between faith and science. The summer term included eight sessions looking at the Christian mystics. Each session had an experiential element of guided contemplative meditation, a talk by a variety of speakers and a chance to ask questions and discuss. For the autumn term, we had a course on ‘Exploring Faith Through the Arts’. This drew in speakers from the United Benefice as well as others. It included reflection upon fine art, architecture, and music. These sessions were very well attended with between 20-30 at each. The courses and the Bible studies have been some of the most fruitful things we do as a United Benefice and has deeply enriched our common life. We had 14 baptisms throughout the year and one confirmation, for which we went to St Paul’s Cathedral. This is a great place to get confirmed. Do speak to me if you and/ or your children are considering confirmation in 2017. Many thanks are due to our churchwardens, Jenny Davenport and Jamie Priestley, for their support and encouragement over the last year. Thanks also to our wonderful Treasurer George Pasteur, particularly with the extra work required in gaining funding from Trusts. It is very encouraging to see our church finances in good order. Victoria O’Neill, our Office Manager, is a star. She is the ‘hub’ in the office who holds together so many elements, most of them unseen, of parish life. It includes responding to enquiries about church/ community space hire, counting and banking the weekly collection, applying for Gift Aid, sending in annual returns to the diocese, calling the plumber or electrician to fix things. The list is much longer than this! Many thanks go to our ‘ministry team’ of Fr Peter, Clare (our Licensed Lay Minister) and Margaret, our children’s worker. In March, Margaret started a new job as the St Alban’s Children’s Enabler. This has meant that she is now only able to help on Sundays and other occasional events. Our children continue to adore her, as we do too! Having enjoyed so much the Christian mystics course, I shall end with a quote about prayer and our identity as God’s beloved children: Prayer begins with the realization that I am loved by God as I am. God’s love is based on nothing and, therefore, is the most basic and secure fact in my life. I simply let myself be loved by God. This is not so much an activity of mine but a passivity in which I let God’s love soak in and permeate my whole being. -- adapted from ‘As Bread That Is Broken’ by Peter van Breemen 5 Churchwardens’ Report by Jenny Davenport and Jamie Priestley Churchwardens’ report 2017 was an eventful year. We had: a fire, a major building project, a new sound system, an activity programme designed to encourage more visitors, the departure of our Eritrean congregation and the growth of the clergy. To take these one at a time: The Fire The blaze happened some time on the night of the 6/7thth February. We were first alerted by a phone call from the nursery in the crypt, telling us that the Church was full of smoke. Jamie Priestley arrived at the same time as the firemen at about 9 am. The Church was filled with smoke, so that it was impossible to see more than half- way up the aisle, and all over the Church were fragments of burnt material. The firemen quickly established that there was no live fire and once the smoke cleared we were left to inspect the damage. The curtain behind the high altar, installed we believe in the late 1920s, was completely destroyed, there was some damage to the reredos and soot throughout the Church especially in the Chancel. The fire brigade judged that the fire had been intense but short-lived, explaining why no wooden structures, including the high altar, were exposed to heat long enough to ignite. We are blessed indeed that the fire did no worse damage, in particular that the crucifix between the curtain and the reredos appears to be completely untouched. Various specialists have given quotes for repairs and Ecclesiastical Insurance have agreed to fund the works, which we hope to start in April 2018 once a faculty has been granted. This will give us the opportunity to restore the reredos, clean the chancel and do some cleaning in the rest of the Church. 6 There will also be some allowance for clearing up the smoke damage to the organ.