St. Eval Parochial Church Council Annual Report and Financial Statements Year Ended 31St December 2019

St. Eval Parochial Church Council Annual Report and Financial Statements Year ended 31st December 2019 Incumbent The Reverend Helen Baber Curate, The Reverend Tess Lowe PCC members who have served from 1st January 2019 until the date this report was approved are: Rector The Reverend Helen Baber: Chairman Deputy Chair (Lay) Mrs. Joanna Scoffham Churchwardens: Mrs. Susan Martin (Until November 2019) Mrs. Rosalie Moncaster Treasurer & Mr. Christopher Moncaster Gift Aid Officer Health and Safety Mr Christopher Moncaster Safeguarding Mrs Joanna Scoffham (Children) Secretary Mrs Susan Martin Electoral Roll Officer Mrs. Sandra Backway Elected Members Mrs. Sandra Backway (Co-opted) Mrs. Pat Kent Mrs. Gillian Lovegrove Mrs. Vera Martyn (until 7th April 2019) Mrs. Shirley Osborne (Gate Keeper) Mrs. Joanna Scoffham Mr. Richard Wilson The method of appointment of PCC members is 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. The PCC met four times during the year. St. Eval PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent in promoting the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical in the ecclesiastical parish. It also has maintenance responsibilities for the church, churchyard, church room, toilet block and grounds. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) is a charity excepted from registration with the Charity Commission. The church is part of the Diocese of Truro within the Church of England and is one of the four churches in the Lann Pydar Benefice. The other Parishes are St. Columb Major, St. Ervan and St. Mawgan-in-Pydar. The Parish Office, which is shared with the other 3 churches within the benefice, has now been relocated to the Rectory in St Columb Major. The church is situated within the perimeters of the old St. Eval Aerodrome with the closest village community a mile away. There remain important links with the Royal Air Force as the church has been adopted as the spiritual home of the RAF Coastal Command and Maritime Air Association (CCMAA). The RAF St Eval Coastal Command Association has now been disbanded. Review of the year. The pattern for our services remains as in previous years 1st Sunday Evensong at 6pm, 2nd Sunday Holy Communion at 6pm, 3rd Sunday All Age Worship at 10am, 4th Sunday Holy Communion at 6pm. On the 5th Sunday a Benefice Service is held in one of the four Churches. St Eval hosts a Benefice service of Holy Communion every Tuesday at 9.30am followed by coffee, with an average attendance of 10. For those unable to attend Church, some members of our PCC are part of the team within the Benefice who take Communion to their homes. During the summer months, Evening Prayer was said in the Church on the third Thursday of each month at 6.0pm. We continue to have an All Age Service on the 3rd Sunday of the month at 10am. This is taken by our Worship Leader, Ros Adams, but despite her providing an excellent service we struggle to attract many families. The exception was the Christingle service where we had a congregation of 60. During Lent members of the congregation joined with others from the Benefice and Deanery and completed some of the more southerly walks in Nigel Marns` book, A Cornish Celtic Way. During Holy week the walks chosen were those mainly within our Benefice boundaries. Later in the year walks further afield were undertaken. The Battle of Britain service on Sunday on 15th September was attended by a congregation of 94. Harvest Festival with a sale of goods was held on the 6th October with a congregation of 32 The Service of Remembrance held on Sunday 10th November attracted a congregation of 180 The Benefice Advent Carol Service on Sunday 1st December had a congregation of 42 Several members of the congregation are involved in Benefice activities including Open the Book, Messy Church and Chill and Chat Our Open the Book teams are drawn from the four parishes of the Benefice including some members of the Methodist Church. They visit St Columb Academy and St Mawgan School on a Monday afternoon. The Open the Book programme has a three-year rolling cycle, and we are presently in our eleventh year delivering the Year Two programme for the fourth time. The eldest children when we started will now have left university! Electoral Roll. There are 28 members on the roll. This is a reduction of 22% since the previous electoral roll. Outreach and Fund Raising Our main fundraising event of the year was our annual Flower Festival. This took place over 3 days in June and the theme was ‘Nursery Rhymes’. To date is was our most successful Flower Festival. It was extremely well attended, and people of all ages found it of interest. As usual the refreshments were a hit. It raised a sum of £1664 which together with donations and Gift Aid came to a grand total of £3000. In August we held the opening of the newly refurbished Church Room, incorporating Tower Tours, which proved popular. (Full report elsewhere) We welcomed people with cream teas and home-made cakes. The sun shone and people enjoyed beautiful views from the tower. We raised £240 for Church funds. The weather was not so kind when we hosted an evening in the Church with St Merryn Ukes in October. They were very entertaining and despite the wind and rain, we had an enjoyable evening and lovely refreshments. Considering the weather was against us, we still managed to raise £146 Other fund-raising events throughout the year were Monthly Whist drives £590 4 Quiz Nights held in the Merrymoor Inn £500 Bingo Night held in St Merryn £434 A wide range of booklets are also sold in the Church to help raise funds. These include a Guide to St Eval Church, RAF St Eval, The Cross story and From the Air Church Maintenance The last of the Quinquennial Inspection’s three most urgent repair works was cleared with the repair to the west door latch and opening mechanism, after which the door was repainted inside and out. The toilet external light was replaced, and the door repainted. A missing roof tile on the west facing roof was replaced, but more were blown off during the winter gales. These have also been replaced. The gales also brought down the guttering on the West side to the vestry and work to repair this is ongoing. After one gale a large quantity of rusty metal fell inside the tower. On inspection it was found that metal brackets holding up the 1st floor level had detreated and posed a risk of further falls landing on bell ringers. A hammer was taken to the rusty metal and all loose material removed. A check was made on the security of the 1st floor beams and it was confirmed that previous work to strengthen the support beams was still good. Problems with the church amplifier were investigated and it was found that the microphones had badly detreated due to damp storage conditions. Two new microphones were purchased and are now stored in the amplifier compartment. The infra-red heater above the West door became detached from the wall due to the supporting bracket rusting away. The heater has been removed and work is in hand to manufacture a new bracket. Ground Maintenance The Parish Council have paid for all the upkeep of the both new and old part of the graveyard and the hedges during the year. Earlier in the year, extra work was done by the contractor by spreading soil and filling in the sinking graves, some of which were very badly needing attention. Since the completion of the church room, outside storage units have been made to accommodate wreaths and the soil from the graves and grass cuttings. Holes in the churchyard have appeared, believed to be voles, and have been reported to the pest control man. The contractor who looks after the area around the RAF St Eval memorial stands has continued to keep the grass cut and the memorial clean. Unfortunately, people still drive over this area especially when wet. He also cuts the area where the signs are at the entrance to the church grounds. The grass in the car park area continues to be cut voluntarily. Safeguarding The care of disadvantaged and vulnerable persons lies at the heart of the Benefice remit and we encourage everyone to be alert to possible issues as we work with the local surgery, the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service, (known as ‘ThirtyOneEight’), the police and the diocesan safeguarding team. To maintain our awareness of safeguarding our officers undergo training as part of their induction, and this is followed up with additional training over the year. Over the past year some safeguarding concerns have been identified within the Benefice and, with the above bodies, have worked extremely well together to resolve the issues. It is disappointing, and a matter of some concern, that Adult Social Care have not been able to support us in these situations. There have been no instances where Child Protection procedures have had to be instigated. Last November, Bishop Philip held a `Celebrating our Safeguarding Co-ordinators` occasion. In the Bishop’s sermon he identified God as the first Safeguarding Coordinator, so we have quite a lot to live up to. We reflected on the work we do with a short service of thanksgiving and some social time with the Bishop and each other. Rector’s report I have great faith that we will do what God requires of us.

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