Parish of St. James, Birdham with St. Nicholas, Itchenor ANNUAL
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Parish of St. James, Birdham With St. Nicholas, Itchenor ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL For the year ended 31st December 2015 Incumbent The Reverend Jonathan Swindells The Rectory Pound Road West Wittering PO20 8AJ Bankers St James HSBC 94 East Street Chichester PO19 1HD St Nicholas Barclays Bank plc East Wittering Branch PO Box 54 Chichester PO19 1HT Independent Examiner Mrs N Merridue Matthews Hanton Ltd. 93 Aldwick Road Bognor Regis West Sussex PO21 2NW Parochial Church Council of Birdham with West Itchenor Report of the Trustees Aim and purposes Birdham with Itchenor Parochial Church Council has the responsibility of cooperating with the Incumbent, The Reverend Jonathan Swindells, in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the church; pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The Parish has strong links as a united benefice with the Parish of West Wittering, and many activities are undertaken jointly. The Parish has two churches, St. James at Birdham and St. Nicholas at Itchenor. Each church provides its own members of the PCC, and has autonomous management of its services and worship under the Rector's authority. The Rector leads a Ministry Team of one licensed non-stipendiary clergyman, Revd. Jim Mould, one licensed Reader, Dr Sue Monks and two active retired clergymen and three other Readers, a Deacon and Youth Worker. In 2015 the Benefice welcomed a non-stipendiary training assistant curate. The PCC is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of both churches through separate Church Fabric Trusts. Objectives and Activities The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at our churches and to become part of our parish communities at Birdham and Itchenor. The PCC maintains an overview of worship throughout the parishes and makes suggestions on how our life together can embrace and involve the wider communities in which we are called to serve. Our faith is vibrantly expressed through our worship and lived out in service to the church family and wider community. Being faithful in prayer and alive to God's living word in scripture is a cornerstone of our work and witness and is reflected in the house groups, prayer groups and bible groups. In all this we continue to live out our faith sacramentally and Holy Communion is offered on the Lord's Day throughout the year. When planning our activities for the year, the incumbent and the PCC have considered the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. In particular, we try to enable all people to live out their faith as part of our parish community through: through being part of His body, the church, growing together as his people. To facilitate this work it is important that we maintain the fabric of both of the Church buildings as well as planning to improve the church's facilities. In 2015 significant progress was made in the planning of a new development to the church building ‘The Annexe' which will enhance the work and witness of the church of St. James. The project was re-launched at Pentecost 2013 and to date £350,000 has been pledged through the generosity of the church family, the local community, existing church funds and a significant grant from a local charitable trust. However, the total amount to be raised - £650,000 - remains a significant challenge and it is anticipated that to raise such an amount there will need to be skilled fundraisers recruited and that the church continue to define and refine a clear case through its existing outreach and Christian witness to both the local church and the wider community in order that the project justifies such funding. It has been encouraging to welcome new community based members to the team and to plan to phase the build in two stages and so ensure that the funds already used are seen to be enabling the project to gain traction and further funding momentum. In 2015 the Diocese introduced the Strategic Mission Plan. The strategy aims to bring the whole Diocese together as a family around our three common purposes: church growth, re-imagining ministry and contributing to the common good. The central structures and resources are there to encourage and facilitate local mission. Each Benefice is to identify one particular project or area of work they are going to major on in 2016 to address the area of the strategy where there are weaknesses. This will need to be practical rather than aspirational. This new strategy has at its heart the vision to know, love and follow Jesus and over 2016/17 the Benefice will adopt this as the key tool for mission planning. The Benefice supported the launch of the strategy through organising a Deanery wide act of witness at the Lighting of the Beacon on the eve of Pentecost. 1 Parochial Church Council of Birdham with West Itchenor Report of the Trustees Achievements and Performance Worship and Prayer The PCC is committed to offering a full worship experience in order that the spiritual lives of all members of the church and community are spiritually nurtured, deepened and fulfilled. For example, evening and Saturday prayers provide a quiet, intimate and reflective environment for the healing ministry. Sunday services include the Book of Common Prayer, traditional language and modern language Common Worship Eucharistic services as well as a variety of family services at both churches, Opportunities are provided for people to engage in other expressions of worship, of which CHURCH@6 (St. Nicholas) impacts significantly. Welcome and hospitality remain central to the mission of both churches and all are welcome to attend any services. The new pattern of worship at St Nicholas is now established and whilst some aspects are still being explored, such as changing the times of the Songs of Praise to 11am in the winter months it is now secure. Little Nicks continues to grow and more families and children have attended major services e.g. Mothering Sunday. It is hoped that both St. James and St. Nicholas will now have new hymn books in Easter 2015 to replace the existing 30 year old books which have a limited hymn selection. This will further enrich worship. The Sunday School at St. James presently does not have a leader and whilst the existing team does wonderful work with the children it is an area which is in need of greater attention and encouragement. Additionally all churches in the Benefice seen a significant drop in the number of families attending with children in order to gain a place at Bishop Luffa school. This is a Deanery wide issue and presently Bishop Luffa School has been undersubscribed in Year 7 for the last two years. This is an extraordinary sea change in the life of the Deanery and will significantly impact on the attendance. Further it will demand a fresh approach to mission and evangelism. Morning prayer on Tuesday at St. James continues to be grow. Evening prayer continues on Friday at St. Nicholas, Itchenor and is appreciated by those who come as a prayerful way to end the week. Significantly we welcomed the Reverend Sarah Manouch to be the assistant training Curate for the Benefice in June. Sarah has settled in very well in her new ministry and is appreciated by all the congregations she serves and is a respected colleague. The Rector is responsible for her training. Attendance for 2015 (2014 figures in brackets) The usual Sunday attendance, measured by the average congregations on the four Sundays in October, was 80 (77) adults and 18 (25) children at St. James and 30 (25) adults and 15 (11) children at St. Nicholas, although attendances much exceeded these figures on special occasions in both churches. At Easter, there were 112 (127) communicants, with a total of 156 (142) attending worship at St. James, and 92 (99) communicants and a total attending of 129 (149) at St. Nicholas At Christmas, there were 120 (108), communicants and 504 (330) people attending worship at St. James and 119 (60) communicants and 330 (254) people attending at St. Nicholas. During the year, there were 13 (19) Baptisms 9 (9) Weddings and 8 (9) Funerals in Church at St. James and 7 (2) Baptisms, 2 (2) Weddings and 9 (2) Funerals in church at St. Nicholas. Numbers for Feast Days and Occasional Offices fluctuate annually. Safeguarding The work of the Safeguarding Team continues to be a beacon of excellence and good progress has been made in ensuring the parishes continue to meet the demands of the Diocese in relation to safeguarding. Ongoing safeguarding training is in place and rigorously delivered and monitored. Youth Work Youth groups were well supported and Redlands Camp ran well if with fewer numbers. 2015 so a significant change in youth work as the Benefice engaged in a time of consultation to consider how effectively the church was engaging with children, young people and families through the existing model of a full time youth worker. As part of this consultation Ben Shaw left the post of Youth Worker. The Youth Work Management Group was tasked with much of this work and they are to be commended for their persistence and resilience in achieving the best possible outcome. 2 Parochial Church Council of Birdham with West Itchenor Report of the Trustees However Youth Work continues to be a priority within the Benefice and in March 2016 Alistair Ghinn was appointed as the ‘Church Mission Worker’ with particular focus on young people and families. Parish News Magazine The PCC does not have control or governance of this respected and valued publication.