Annual Parochial Church Reports 2019
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(Youth Alpha at St John’s) Annual Parochial Church Reports 2019 Charity Number 1155185 2 Annual Vestry & Parochial Church Meeting Tuesday 13th October 2020 · 8.00 pm via Zoom Agenda Annual Vestry Meeting Minutes of Annual Vestry Meeting 2019 p 4 Election of Churchwardens (2) Annual Parochial Church Meeting Apologies Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting 2019 p 4 Matters arising Electoral Roll – accept new Roll Reports Vicar’s Report p 7 Wardens’ Report p 7 PCC Secretary’s Report p 9 Safeguarding Officer Report p 9 Parish Hub p 10 The Link p 11 Supporting Mission p 11 Deanery Synod Report p 12 Legal Documentation p 14 Trustees Annual Report & Financial Report p 16 Independent Examiner’s Report Questions arising from the Reports Appointment of Treasurer and Secretary Appointment of Safeguarding Officer Election of PCC members, (6 for 3 years) (At Copthorne, for the sake of continuity, if not otherwise elected, the PCC Secretary & Treasurer are co-opted positions.) Election of Deanery Synod Members, (3 for 3 years) Appointment of Sidespersons Appointment of Independent Examiner Any Other Business 3 Copy of the record of the Minutes of The Annual Vestry Meeting held in the church at 10.00am Sunday 24th March 2019 The meeting was conducted by Wim Mauritz (Vicar) in the presence of 62 parishioners. The Minutes of the Vestry Meeting of Sunday 18th March 2018 were unanimously approved. Proposer: John Edwards, Seconder: Sandra Cramp It was unanimously agreed that Section 3 of the Churchwarden’s Measure 2001, shall not apply in relation to this parish until such time as a further meeting of the parishioners may resolve otherwise. Therefore, Mr David Hornsby (proposed by Barbara Riches and seconded by Angela Vevers) and Mrs Monica Polley (proposed by Sue Williams and seconded by Gillian Hodsdon) were unanimously elected and duly appointed wardens for the coming year. Wim thanked Sue and Monica for all their hard work over the past year. There being no further business, the meeting closed. Cathy Sexton, PCC Secretary, 24th March 2019 Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting Held on Sunday 24th March 2019 At 10.10am in church Attendance: The meeting was conducted by Wim Mauritz (Vicar) and attended by sixty-two parishioners. Apologies: Received from: Jeanette Cheeseborough, Vicky Grant, Penny Harpham, Eddie Redfern, Carol Watson 4 MINUTES: Formal business: Apologies as noted were accepted. Proposal: That the Minutes of the APCM 2018 be accepted. Proposed: Mike Livesey Seconded: Jeremy Vevers Unanimously agreed. There were no matters arising from the 2018 reports. Electoral Roll – It was unanimously agreed that we accept the Roll of 118 members. Proposed: David Wheatley Seconded: Geoff Truesdale REPORTS: Annual Report 2018 It was unanimously agreed that all reports – Annual Report, Wardens and Secretary’s, Safeguarding officer, Parish Hub, Link, Supporting Mission, Deanery Synod, Trustees and Financial Reports - as previously circulated were accepted. Proposed: Andy Harpham Seconded: Angela Vevers Financial Reports and Accounts: The surplus on the General fund was due to one off donations without which the account would have balanced. However, the reserves are still not at the level recommended by the Charity Commission. The funds for The Link have a surplus of approximately £23,000 but this fund obviously went down due to building Phase 1. Fund raising and grants from Copthorne West will be sought to go towards building Phase 2. Questions/comments on the accounts: How would the West Copthorne money work? A small amount of money from the Holly Farm development goes towards buildings in the village – not just the church – and then three payments of £72,000 available when the 1st house, 75th house and 150th house are completed have been set aside for the Church, the hall and the Scouts. They will not necessarily get £72,000 each the division of the monies will be decided by the council. There are no losses or gains on the endowments. Is this something that needs to be chased at the Diocese? Yes and will be followed up by Chris Philips. There is a difference between the Charitable giving and summary note 4. Is the difference the accruals? Yes, that is what the difference is 5 Adoption of Accounts Proposal: That we adopt the accounts as presented subject to the final report of the Independent Examiners Proposer: Geoff Truesdale, Seconder: Mike Livesey All agreed. Chris was thanked for all his hard work over the past year. Appointment of Treasurer and PCC Secretary It was unanimously agreed that Chris Phillips be appointed Treasurer It was unanimously agreed that Cathy Sexton be appointed PCC Secretary It was unanimously agreed that Eddie Redfern be appointed Safeguarding Officer. Elections PCC Nigel Cramp, David Hornsby, Chris Wheatley and David Wheatley stood down as laity members. David Hornsby joined the PCC as Church Warden. Lesley Dawson and Jan Leftley were unanimously re-elected and Andrew Taylor, Eric Trevett and Sue Williams were unanimously elected. Sidespersons The following were unanimously re-elected for 2019: Peter Chatfield, Julie Coker, Sandra Cramp, Jaqi Davis, Margaret Forde, Andy Harpham, Penny Harpham, Jean Hedges, Gillian Hodsdon, Audrey Hornsby, Ros Livesey, Paul Mallard, Paul Simmons, Maralyn Smith, Chris Wheatley, David Wheatley and Margaret Wilkins. Any Other Business Sandra gave a vote of thanks to David Wheatley for all his hard work on the Office and the Link. Wim thanked everyone for all their work throughout the year and for making him and his family welcome in the Parish. There being no further business, the meeting closed at 10.35am. Cathy Sexton, PCC Secretary 6 Reports From the Vicar: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22 v 36-39) In 2019 we launched our new vision of: “GROWING IN LOVE for God & each other”. We believe, that as local church in Copthorne, we are invited to play our role in reaching out in God’s mission to our local community. We are passionate about sharing the Gospel with everyone, demonstrating God’s love and kindness and to nurturing & developing each other as followers of Jesus Christ. We are also keen to increase our response to those in need, our awareness of injustice issues and our care for God's creation locally as well as globally. In all these activities and aspirations, we're praying to see God's kingdom come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. These Annual Reports show how much our church continues to flourish as a community of love, welcome and worship. Reading through them I am especially encouraged by the growth of our mission and evangelism activities. Our average church attendance saw an increase of 26%. More than 85 people attended our different Alpha Courses (incl. Youth Alpha). And weekly the ‘Open the Book’ storytellers visited our local schools, telling and acting out different bible stories. Besides these we had numerous social events, special services, other gatherings and activities all contributing to the mission of the Church. I am incredibly grateful for everyone’s contributions. There are so many people engaged in serving our church community in large ways and small, visible and often invisible - and I would like to express huge thank you for all those groups and individuals who do so much in the life of the church and the wider parish. In all this we want to honour God’s faithfulness and remind ourselves that we can continue to trust Him as we look forward to the years ahead as we grow in love for Him and each other. Wim Mauritz Church Wardens’ Report This past year has been a year of encouraging growth and consolidation. We are encouraged to see new members across most of our services, as well as having well attended Alpha courses, social events and working parties. We have achieved much during the year and some highlights of the year are as follows: We have launched a new website which is more secure and looks much more modern and appealing, to connect with potential new members and keep us all up to date and informed. 7 Alongside the launch of our new website we have adopted a new vision of “Growing in Love for God and each other” – this expresses our desire to be a growing, outward looking church which cares for our community and all of God’s creation. In July we welcomed Alex Wheeler as our Assistant Curate to assist Wim on a part time basis. Alex has contributed significantly to our Church in those few months leading various services and focusing on pastoral care for the congregation and those facing bereavement. It has been a delight to welcome Alex to St John’s. During this year we also said a farewell to Barbara Riches as Parish Administrator following many years of dedicated service to the Church. We sincerely thank Barbara for her significant contribution to life at St John’s as Administrator and wish her well in her retirement. Following Barbara’s retirement, we welcomed Maralyn Smith to the role of Church Manager. In this new role Maralyn is covering most of the administrative tasks and additionally managing church staff (other than clergy). We have introduced the ChurchSuite software to St John’s which, in time, will be central to our administration and communication as well as us helping us to remain fully GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant. For 2020 we want to continue to see a growing church and part of our vision is to become self-sufficient.