St. Matthew’s Church, 2019/2020 Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council with financial reports for the year ended 31 December 2019

Administrative Information St. Matthew’s church is situated in the village of Salford Priors, . It is in the Church of and is part of the Heart of England Group of Parishes in the Deanery. The Group includes the parishes of Bidford on Avon, , Exhall with Wixford and .

The correspondence address is: Mr Roger Huggins, Parish Administrator, Birch House, Grange Lane, Harvington, WR11 8NL

The PCC is a charity excepted from registration with the Charity Commission.

PCC members who have served from 1 st January 2019 until the date of this report was approved are:

Chairman Revd Peter Walker Vice-Chairman Mr Roger Huggins Churchwardens Mr Peter Penney Mrs Fran Foster Deanery Synod Rep Vacancy Elected Members Mr Andrew Clarke Treasurer Vacancy Secretary Mrs Sheila Penney Mr Greg Hallett Mr Kevin Harrison Mrs S Brunsdon Mr Mike Davies

Structure, governance and management 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.

Objectives and activities It shall be the duty of the incumbent and the parochial church council (PCC) to consult together on matters of general concern and importance to the parish. The functions of parochial church councils shall include—  co-operation with the incumbent in promoting in the parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical ;  the consideration and discussions of matters concerning the Church of England or any other matters of religious or public interest, but not the declaration of the doctrine of the Church on any question;

1  making known and putting into effect any provision made by the diocesan synod or the deanery synod, but without prejudice to the powers of the council on any particular matter;  giving advice to the diocesan synod and the deanery synod on any matter referred to the council ;  raising such matters as the council consider appropriate with the diocesan synod or deanery synod. In the exercise of its functions the parochial church council shall take into consideration any expression of opinion by any parochial church meeting.

It also has maintenance responsibilities for St Matthew’s Church and Churchyard.

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Rector’s Report - Revd Peter Walker

Staff Revd Peter Walker (Rector); Revd Michael Godfrey and Revd Fritha Middlemiss (Assistant Ministers); Mrs Judith Meehan (Reader); Mrs Sarah Folkes (Family Link Worker); Mrs Jayne Bourne (church cleaner); Roger Huggins (volunteer Administrator).

Church Attendance At the Annual Meeting in April 2019 it was reported that there are 57 parishioners on the Church electoral roll, 34 of whom are not resident within the parish. The average weekly October attendance at St Matthew’s was 65. Church attendance on a “normal” Sunday is now about 52 . Both Salford Priors Academy and Dunnington school hold special festival services in church at Easter, Harvest and Christmas and Dunnington School holds a Leavers’ Service at the end of the academic year in July. On these occasions the church is filled with children, parents, grandparents and carers.

PCC - Roger Huggins (Acting Secretary) The PCC has met 7 times over the past year with 70% attendance of elected members. Unfortunately we have been operating without a PCC Secretary, so this job has fallen to the Administrator, but it is hoped that this can be remedied for next year. Many topics concerning the running of the church have been discussed including arrangements for employing a Family Link Worker, and a House for Duty Priest as well as the way forward seeking funds for the proposed extension to the church building. We are very grateful to John Alexander-Head for his considerable help in applying for grants on our behalf. Fran Foster has been appointed as our Parish Safeguarding Officer and she is organising and co-ordinating all the safeguarding documents, training and DBS checking for the parish. The drop in income has been a cause for concern and steps are being taken to try to boost the giving by advertising the situation more widely. 2 Ministry Team - Roger Huggins We welcomed Amy James and Mick Cocker to the team this year to bring us up to full strength. The Family Fun Day was once again a big success but the WoK in June continues to be a concern with very few volunteers willing to get involved during the week. The Saturday Big Breakfast Car Wash is the exception, so we will be thinking through how to improve the week overall. The team had a very lovely “Away Day at Home” in the Church Room in October where we followed through building an Action Plan from our Vision Statement. This was a “self-led” event and we enjoyed a lovely hot lunch together prepared in the Church Room kitchen. Following that day we rejigged our service pattern from January with Village Praise being replaced by a second Family Service and the 4th Sunday Holy Communion being modified to be a Family Communion with shorted liturgy and more explanation of what is happening. “Breathe”, the contemplative prayer sessions, continue on one Wednesday evening most months and is popular with a small group form St Matthew’s and beyond. The team continues to plan and lead Family and Village Praise services most months and works with the musicians to provide lively and spirit lead worship.

Fabric Report - Churchwardens (Peter Penney & Fran Foster) The electrical wiring installation had the five-yearly inspection in April 2019 which indicated no problems. The Quinquennial Inspection took place on 16 th April 2019 which stated that apart from repointing the lead flashings to the tower parapet and localised repairs to the porch roof there are no major matters needing to be dealt with. In November it was agreed by the PCC that the extension to the south east corner of the church be abandoned due to shortage of funds. This was despite the possibility of receiving up to £25,000 in grant aid. Following this decision other development possibilities were investigated which resulted in the PCC deciding at its March meeting that, in view of its agreement to extend the Family Link Worker’s contract for a further two years, building development would be shelved. Instead cost-effective schemes for upgrading/rebuilding the existing toilet facilities in the churchyard would be undertaken. We wish to take this opportunity of saying a big thankyou to Mike Davies, Glen Simmons and Darren Orchard who, on a rota basis, daily lock and open the church and to Jane Bourne for keeping the church beautifully clean.

Worship Music Group - Amy James

Cup Cake Café - Debi Harrison

Community Group - Stephen Foster The group meets every Thursday at the Salford Priors Memorial Hall. The first meeting of the Group was in June 2009 and Community Group meetings (as we now call them) have taken place each and every week, with a few breaks for holidays, ever since. The Group numbers reduced recently with unfortunate deaths of 2 of our octogenarians, and it is 11 years since any home outreach visits took

3 place in the village. The Group have built relationships where they support and encourage one another and provides a sense of belonging and identity. Members are journeying together weekly in search of truth and meaning in a society where meaning seems hard to find. It works towards establishing a new community or congregation including those who have never been involved in church (un- churched) or once were, but left for whatever reason (de-churched). This is another “fresh expression” of church. Some of the Group now attend services at St. Matthew’s and others attend Tewkesbury Abbey on a regular basis.

Youth & Family Work:

‘JAM’ - Sarah Folkes & Fran Foster JAM has continued in the Church room and has had links to baking/food each session. Alongside the baking, Fran and I work together to plan the story, other activities and resources. When planning, Fran and I try to match the Bible story/ theme with our children’s work and so there is a direct link when the children come back into the service to show what they’ve been learning about. We have our usual Church families with between 8 and 14 children who regularly come along and have grown with at least 1 new family intentionally joining us. Some parents stay whilst others sit in the service to hear the sermon.

Messy Church - Sarah Folkes During the summer, there were ‘Messy Family Fun’ days. These were:  Circus skills workshop (with Andy Kennedy from YWAM) with 30 children plus their grown ups. The theme was: families who play together, pray together.  Pottery workshop (with Jon from Eastnor Pottery) with 40 children plus their grown ups. The theme was: All creatures great and small  Bellboating day (at Fladbury Paddle club) with 44 attendees. The aim was to work together and to have a new experience  Pizza making (led by Sarah) with 24 children plus their grown ups. These sessions were enjoyable and fun ways of meeting new people and developing relationships with local families.

Saplings—Sarah Folkes This is our new fortnightly stay and play group launched in September 2019. This happens on Monday mornings between 10-11.30am in the Church Room. This has been well received by parents, carers and children and has grown through word of mouth. Themed crafts are set up with a selection of toys, puppets and dressing up. At 11am we have a snack followed by 15 minutes of energetic song time. It’s clear that there was a need for this group in the village and there are plans for growing it further (an older ‘Bake through the Bible group’ and maybe alternating sessions to allow room to grow). We have made links with Salford House Care home and these visits have been beneficial to the children as well as the residents.

“Fresh Expression” - Stephen Foster This was a monthly event (3 rd Sunday) for young people (aged 11 to 18) of

4 Salford Priors called Fresh Expression. The event was aimed at building relationships with them and starting them on a journey to Christ. The event had been running for six and a half years. We started to get excellent assistance from Dan Lodge of Youth for Christ in the latter half of 2019. Dan helped us to run the event and brought his own games. The extra pair of hands meant Dan could also engage in conversation with the young people while Fran ran the kitchen providing free food and drink and Stephen could engage with the young people with their choice of music. Unfortunately Dan had to relocate in 2020 to the North of England but in January we used his Youth for Christ video message with a theme of we’re all “broken” – which fitted in well with Stormzy’s “Blinded by your Grace” which we played every month without fail throughout 2019. The group averaged a consistent level of 14 through 2019 via word of mouth invitations and Facebook posts. There had been some progression with the event using the Youth for Christ “Rock Solid” Evangelistic material aimed at 11 to 14 year olds.

Small Groups The three Homegroups have continued to meet this year, although more sporadically due to other commitments of members. The format of the meetings has been varied with study material on Prayer and The Bible being used very successfully by two of them. The third group has concentrated latterly on being a wonderful support and prayer group for those suffering from long term illness. It is hoped that a new Day-time group will be launched this year to accommodate those who prefer not to go out at night and also for young parents who are searching for God’s love and truth. Our thanks to the leaders and hosts of the groups which form a vitally important part of our fellowship.

Prayer & Retreats Thursday morning and Friday evening Prayer Groups have continued to flourish each week attended by a faithful few. “Pray for Schools” continues with a small group meeting twice a term, focusing on one school each term and sometimes actually praying inside the school buildings. “”Breathe” has been continued approximately once a month led by Mick Cocker and Julie Singlehurst using different methods of contemplative prayer. Some of our ladies again attended the two day ‘Colour’ conference hosted by Hillsong church at the Wembley Arena.

Communication “Heartbeat” magazine continues to be published monthly, edited by Neil Smart. Tim Jacques acts as our “local reporter”, collating information from St Matthew’s and the village to include in the magazine. Our website, managed by the Administrator is one place to go for up to date information about St Matthew’s together with the Facebook page ‘St Matthew’s Church Salford Priors’, maintained and managed by Sarah Folkes. Currently 148 people ‘like’ (up from 76 at the last APCM) and follow the page and 59 people (up from 30) are in the private ‘Messy Church’ group. The weekly diary dates are added, advertising what’s on and posting photos of what’s been happening. This

5 continues to be a useful tool to show members of the public who look up St Matthew’s that we are a lively Church with lots going on. The Heart of England Group website includes items for the whole group of churches: www.heartparishes.org.uk

Treasurer’s Report - Andy Clarke Income Planned giving was down by £4,351 in the year, collections and other giving was down by £4,579. Gift aid was not claimed in 2019 which amounted to £6423 the previous year. Gift aid for 2019 has now been claimed and received in 2020. Total receipts for 2019 were £40,333 against £59,637 for 2018. Excluding the late claim for gift aid this shows a real term fall in 2019 of around 21% in financial contributions to St Matthews. Expenditure Expenditure for the year was £65,977 which was £2923 less than the previous year. Shortfall The total deficit for the year was £25,634 This reduction in income relates directly to the drop in planned giving that the Church relies on to function. Many of our congregation generously choose to donate on a regular basis via monthly standing orders, this makes managing the church budgets easier as we have visibility of what our expected income is going to be over the coming year. At the beginning of 2020 St Matthews signed up to the Parish Giving Scheme. The advantage of this scheme is that we still get your full donation but PGS also claim the gift aid on our behalf every month. I would encourage anyone who still donates by standing order to switch to this system. It’s just a phone call to set up. All you need is the Parish code and your bank details. The telephone number and code are at the bottom of this page. This money is used not only to pay for ongoing support in our community and upkeep of services but also for our contribution to the Diocese. Unfortunately, over the past year the Church has seen a decline in this regular giving, either through church members relocating to different areas, or members of the church that have passed on. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage anyone that feels they are in a position to make a regular contribution to do this through the PGS scheme. This contribution can be as small or as large as you like, every penny helps and is very gratefully received. Events, Home Mission and Appeals A total of £1330.00 was spent on Mission and charitable giving Grants No grants were received in 2019. Parish Share St Matthews Parish Share contribution for the year was £27,849 In conclusion The deficit of £25,634 is currently being supplemented by funds that were designated for new building work. Sadly, we can no longer do the work that we originally planned for due to our financial situation but this situation is not

6 sustainable long term, we need your support. You can do this through the Parish Giving Scheme, details are below. Parish Giving Scheme Telephone: 0333 002 1271 Parish code: 110611148 Sign up takes around 15 minutes. For any other one-off donations, our Bank details are as follows: Account no: 01424298 Sort Code: 309826

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