Annual Report For the year 2017

The PCC of St Mary Islington is registered as a charity under the name Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiascal Parish of St Mary, Islington. Registered charity number: 1131900.

Our address: St Mary's Church Office, St Mary’s Vicarage, Upper Street, Islington, London N1 2TX

This report was approved by the Parochial Church Council at its meeng on 19 March 2018.

The Revd Simon Harvey,

Vicar and Chair of the PCC

The Annual Parochial Church Meeng, to be held on 22 April 2018, will also consider a supplementary report which will include:

● Minutes of the last APCM ● Electoral roll report ● Report on the proceedings of the deanery synod ● Report on the fabric, goods and ornaments of the church

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Introduction

I commend this annual report to everyone who is interested in the life of our parish. We have set out, inevitably briefly, the way that we have worked for public benefit by the use of the assets entrusted to us. Between the facts and figures, read with imaginaon and you’ll see that St Mary’s endeavours to live out a gracious and enthusiasc response to the calling of God.

Our church is invesng money and energy in the work on our buildings and property which will bring substanal benefit for generaons to come. Having wholeheartedly embarked on the Heart of Islington pr oject in the previous year, 2017 was a me of geng to grips with all its challenging complexity. I must make special menon of the huge contribuon of Anthea Nicholson. Her leadership and tenacity in co-ordinang the Heart of Islington project has been hugely significant.

As the mid-term of the long lease of our buildings to our partner charity, Mary’s, approached, we have been looking to the long-term future of our local social acon. The PCC is united in believing that our calling is to love God and to love our neighbours and that these two commandments are inseparable. So we’re looking to see greater integraon of our worship, prayer, pastoral care, evangelism and our praccal service to the people of Islington. And we’re not alone in this. Healthy churches are finding that in the meeng points of integrated ministry there is scope for making unique contribuons to wider society as well as growing in faith.

Despite a good planned giving campaign, we find ourselves with a smaller income than our plans for regular spending permit. The PCC made a responsible decision to use reserves to meet a projected budget deficit in 2018 and to make savings on spending. This meant that when our Resource Manager took up the opportunity of new employment, we were not able to make a replacement appointment. We will need to be creave about the way that we resource our church in the future and to ensure that we have adequate staffing to support our vision.

I have found it an immense privilege to work on behalf of the parish not only with the members of our church but in the wider public arena. We held the funerals of two young murdered men, JJ McPhillips and Lee J Hatley and I have been deeply impressed with the work of Michelle McPhillips in addressing knife violence. We held a vigil following the Finsbury Park terrorist aack and have worked with community leaders from the Muslim and Jewish faiths to promote community relaons. The residents of St Mary’s Path Estate have been threatened with the redevelopment of their homes and the church has offered a safe place for them to organise and to find a voice. I’m acve in our local school and in serving the neighbourhood as chair of the local safer neighbourhoods policing panel.

All these convince me even more that our God is not just God of the church. The whole earth is his and our calling as a parish church is to proclaim him in word and acon, in our building and in our lives. To him be the glory.

Simon Harvey

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Our purpose

We are a parish in the Church of England and a registered charity. Our charitable objects are defined simply: Promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church.

So our focus is really specific - to provide for the worship of God, evangelism, pastoral care and making Islington a beer place for all its people. We do this by working at the heart of Islington, where we have had a church building for over a thousand years, and in our neighbourhood centre. And we also have established links with partner charies and organisaons - Mary’s (SMICP), St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, and a very wide range of local and internaonal mission partners.

We aim to follow Jesus Christ by loving God and loving our neighbours and to seek the Kingdom of God wherever we can.

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What we do

Worshipping God

We were really busy in 2017. But we have always sought to begin with prayer and worship. We stop. We listen. We look around and ask ourselves quesons and seek the mind of God. It’s as the community of worshippers gathers on Sundays and throughout the week that we draw inspiraon, challenge and encouragement for our work in the wider world. And there’s a daily rhythm in our praying too. Our church is open seven days a week to enable people to find peace and to relax in a calm environment and to pray. And we begin each day with public morning prayer in the chapel.

Combined church aendance at our Sunday services averaged 174 adults and children.

In 2017 we connued investment in our music worship. Jakub Tomášek, who was appointed to the role of Music Worship Leader in October 2016, leads a flourishing choir and band every Sunday. He also founded a children’s choir at St Mary’s Primary School which sang at 2017’s Soul in the City Fesval, and also at the 150th Scripture Union Anniversary Service. Moreover, he seeks to involve people who are less confident singers as well as expand the range of contemporary music on offer at our Sunday morning services.

Cloudesley, an endowed charity which makes grants in Islington to churches and to meet health

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and poverty needs, celebrated its 500th year anniversary with a service of worship in the church. As part of these celebraons, we received a commemorave grant of £5000, which the PCC has allocated to the purchase of a new piano for worship.

Worship at Christmas has been especially popular. In recent years we have put on addional services. Even so, our outreach into the community has led to record aendances. Christmas services aendances have more than doubled in the last seven years.

We seek to be relevant and faithful in our preaching. We believe that something really excing happens when a radically diverse community meets together and opens the Bible to learn. In many ways, the diversity at St Mary’s ought to be a problem. We don’t all think the same way. Our lives are very different in some respects. But there’s a wonderful openness in our worship that allows us to meet together with different preferences for music and prayer, yet focussed on God. We think that the Holy Spirit moves here in a special way. During 2017, two people were encouraged to preach for the first me.

Our children’s ministry is growing well. Where there were once only a handful of children, we now have a large number of children worshipping with us each Sunday, led by a capable and generous team of volunteer leaders with Tim Broadbent heading up this vital work.

In December, we welcomed HM The Queen as principal guest at the 150 year jubilee service to celebrate Scripture Union. Scripture Union began in Islington and today works in over 120 countries around the world. Children from St Mary’s Primary School, led by Jakub Tomášek, contributed to the worship, which was televised and broadcast on BBC Songs of Praise.

Some models for the growth of churches encourage monoculturalism in which groups of

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like-minded Chrisans with similar life experience get together and forge deep relaonships. But we want to do something bigger than that. So our weekly meeng of worship ministers keeps on challenging us to see if we can more and more reflect the diversity of our parish, especially in the leadership of up-front ministry. We’ve made parcular efforts to see if we can enable younger adults to take part.

Through 2017, we gathered for worship two or three mes every Sunday. We opened our worship meengs to a number of people who brought us encouragement in special “Barnabas Spots” and interviews.

Our focus remains outward-looking. We try to preach in ways that will resource people for their life as the church dispersed in the world around us. We’ve built on the popular ‘this me tomorrow’ spots which allow us to recognise and pray for the daily life and work of church members. And we try to make our worship accessible to people who may never have worshipped before, offering welcome and hospitality. Even as we worship God together, we seek to serve the community around us, welcoming families who bring their children to bapsm by including them in the regular worship of the church.

Jesus le his followers at his ascension with the commission to help other people in their discipleship. Two thousand years later, we seek to fulfil this commission by providing a range of ways that people can draw close to God, learn from each other and develop their gis and confidence.

Eleven adults and children were bapsed at St Mary’s in 2017. There were no confirmaons in 2017.

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Encouraging discipleship

We help people grow in their Chrisan faith. We seek to share the good news of Jesus Christ by what we say and do, to help those who don’t know him to become his followers.

We also see the growth as faith as an ongoing process. Growth comes as we learn, develop our gis, pracse our spirituality, and deepen our experience of community.

And we don’t just want to think about life inside church or the mes when we gather as a church. So we’ve redoubled our efforts to equip people for their whole-lives. That means helping people apply their faith wherever they are - at work, at home or out and about in their communies.

We have confidence that as our church disperses into the wider world, that God works with them and through them for the benefit of others.

We ran a number of courses in 2017:

● Lent Course - Receiving Christ ● Meditave Prayer ● The Big Silence Retreat ● Thy Kingdom Come prayer iniave

Our Children’s and Youth Minister, Tim Broadbent, led residenal trips to Carroty Wood and Lee Abbey, which provided opportunies for young people to learn, gain confidence and to enjoy surroundings very different from North London.

Our home groups and prayer triplets allow people to grow deeper in their faith through shared study, support and prayer. We regularly promote opportunies to parcipate in learning in a variety of courses and conferences.

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Seeking God’s Kingdom

St Mary’s wants to make a difference in the world. Our church’s historic story is one of huge impact - not just for our parish but naonally and two hundred years ago in West Africa and South Asia. These days, our role is different but we are sll an outward-looking church community.

Pay Kostkova led our annual Soul in the City community fesval with the theme of welcoming Asylum Seekers and Refugees, supported by the Council and local business and free to all. In 2017 this fesval was aended by over two thousand people.

We contribute the greatest amount of any single-vicar parish to the Diocese of London’s Common Fund among the seventy parishes in the Stepney Area. This reflects our commitment to supporng the Church of England’s presence in areas where ministry is difficult to sustain financially.

Generous contribuons were made to our mission giving partners. Our Mission Giving Commiee makes a vital link between the partners and the church and the PCC. The PCC made grants of over £20,000 in this way.

We supported:

● Mary’s (£50,000) providing a youth club, holiday playscheme, pre-school and opening our buildings for community use. ● Islington Food Bank (£1000) offering basic nutrion to families in crisis

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● Children’s Society (£500) fighng child poverty and neglect ● CARIS (£1000) offering bereavement support in Islington ● Keith Waddell (£4000) eye surgery work in East Africa ● Release Internaonal (£2000) supporng persecuted Chrisans in Pakistan ● Emergency Crisis Appeals (£900) responding to worldwide emergency appeals ● Working Chance (£1000) recruitment consultancy for women leaving the criminal jusce system ● Islington Migrants (£1000) working to help resele asylum seekers and refugees ● Hospice Care Kenya (£1000) caring for Kenyans living and dying with a terminal illness ● CARIS Cold Weather Shelter (£1000) providing beds and hot breakfasts in seven Islington churches ● Compassion UK (£600) sponsoring children in Hai and Philippines ● Bible Society (£1000) supporng beer biblical literacy ● Medair (£2000) helping people who are suffering in remote and devastated communies ● SGM Lifewords (£1200) providing Bible resources to Chrisans all over the world. ● Diocese of London Common Fund (total gi of £88600, of which £10300 is mission support to subsidise other parishes in the Diocese of London).

Our primary impact in Islington is through our partner charity, Mary’s. We invest our buildings and resources so that this independent charity can deliver and extend our local social acon. Mary’s runs a youth club, pre-school, holiday playscheme and hosts a wide range of community acvies in our church crypt and neighbourhood centre.

In 2017, the church derived no net income from the £50,000 rent of the crypt and neighbourhood centre from Mary’s, having made a grant of £50,000.

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We support the work of St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, which connues to flourish. The school achieved wonderful results in 2017, reaching the top 1% of schools naonally for progress across reading, wring and maths and achieving a ‘good’ Ofsted grading at inspecon. Our children made beer progress than any other primary school in Islington. Our vicar and youth minister regularly visit the school to lead assemblies. We have several members of the church, including the vicar, serving on the school governing body. Our music worship leader contributes to the teaching of music and our intern supports aer-school acvies.

In 2017, the PCC chose to parcipate in A Rocha’s Eco Church scheme. This will help us express our care for God’s world in our worship and teaching; in how we look aer our buildings and land; in how we engage with our local community and in global campaigns, and in the personal lifestyles of our congregaon.

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Caring for people

In a large and busy church it’s important that we remember personal and specific welfare needs. And we always remember that we exist for the benefit of others — for the tens of thousands of people who live, work and enjoy our parish — not only for the hundreds of people that worship with us.

Caring for people means providing services for joyous moments and in mes of sorrow and stress. We are aware of our limitaons and are always keen to help people access specialist support for housing, debt, medical and other needs.

We don’t underesmate the value of keeping the church building open every day. In the quiet, many people find opportunity to rest and recover and to pray. We see this as a posive and generous commitment to providing a unique environment for the benefit of Islington. And we’re grateful to the borough of Islington, which maintains the church gardens for public amenity.

In 2017, we conducted three weddings and nine funerals.

Our pastoral team meets every week and we consider bigger issues, as well as the specific requests that people bring to us. A prayer team is available at every Sunday morning service and we regularly provide services which have a focus on healing.

In 2017, the Diocese of London held its annual healing service at St Mary’s, with staff from the Chrisan Healing Mission, at which the Bishop of Stepney preached.

We take our safeguarding responsibilies seriously, and are fully commied to the House of Bishop’s Policy Statement on Child Protecon and Safeguarding and have implemented the Diocese of London’s Safeguarding Policy in our parish. Our Safeguarding Officer is Liz Salmon and our Children’s Champion is Tim Broadbent.

Organised acvies like home groups are very oen the place where people build trusng relaonships and find opportunies to support each other. Our Monday Fellowship, Chat and Cuppa, Twenes and Thires, Families Lunches, Welcome Lunches all connued to flourish. A new iniave, Chat and Cuppa, was launched in the autumn, helping people who aend a regular health class in the Neighbourhood Centre to enjoy companionship and encouragement.

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Telling our story

Words are powerful. The stories we tell shape atudes, give meaning, movate and inspire. We make a priority of engaging with the wider world in a range of ways. This isn’t mere public relaons or markeng. It’s tesmony, witness and proclamaon. When we celebrate the work of other organisaons in the name of the church, we are seen as giving blessing — a profoundly important move.

By redeveloping our church website into a responsive format we now cater for the majority of users who now use mobile devices. We have extended our impact through social media and at the end of the year by commissioning a newly designed logo for the church.

The local parish church is the place which holds much of the vital memories of the neighbourhood and place which give identy and significance to residents. We are proud to help people locate themselves in our longer and bigger story.

The phrase “The Church at Islington’s Heart” has served to express the way that St Mary’s is located on the ground where Islington’s story began and reflects the warm feeling that the wider community feels towards its original church. And we use “The Heart of Islington” to give focus and identy to our project to help Islington understand its origins.

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Managing resources

We take a posive and creave view of resources. They are not merely assets or empty vessels for the life of the church. They are oen the means through which really effecve acvity takes place. We don’t worship our buildings or make our finances the ulmate goal of our organisaon. But we don’t see these as spiritually irrelevant either.

In 2017, the PCC connued its work on the major Heart of Islington pr oject.

The architect’s quinquennial inspecon report of 2015 revealed over seventy defects and issues in the church building. We also recognised that some important improvement projects that we’ve been aempng to do over a decade or more were stalling because of limited resources of me and money. This led us to take a step back, see a bigger picture and to seek a bigger vision for the improvement of our buildings and site. Aer a period of reflecon and consultaon, we conceived the Heart of Islington project.

The Heart of Islington Project, in partnership with Islington and other key stakeholders, will enhance the beauful St Mary's Church Gardens. We're raising further funding to restore the wonderfully bright interior of St Mary's, a rare example of 1950s church architecture, to the glory for which it was conceived. And we're pung right a whole list of problems, from leaking guers to a fragile stonework. We don't want Islington's first church to remain on the naonal Heritage at Risk Register. We want it to serve God and neighbour for a long me to come.

We have benefied from a generous allocaon of the Secon 106 funds arising from the adjacent Islington Square development, plus grants from Richard Cloudesley’s Charity, the government’s

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Listed Places of Worship scheme, and pledges from our own church members.

The project has itself led to closer partnerships with key organisaons and local people.

The Heart of Islington is complicated and is taking place in a number of phases. In 2017, we repaired and restored the 1754 steeple and completed complicated repairs to the church nave and chancel roofs. Following the successful restoraon of the brass eagle lectern in 2016, other brassware in the church has now also been restored. Aer detailed invesgaons, our architect and specialist advisers confirmed that the porco needs much more extensive rebuilding than we had originally thought. We consulted with diocesan experts on the relocaon of the organ console and the architect has drawn up plans for the interior works. We completed the re-roofing of the Neighbourhood Centre and the replacement of its windows with double-glazed units, together with a new sports hall heater and major repairs to the church li. Islington Council maintains the church gardens and awarded itself a poron of the secon 106 funds in order to enhance the north garden for public benefit. A steering group was formed, on which several members of the church sit, and has appointed a landscape architect and arst. Two trees which were at risk of presenng danger to the public have been removed.

The tomb of Richard Cloudesley, who died in 1517, was restored by a generous donaon from the charity that bears his name, under the supervision of Michael Maunsell. Railings near the tomb outside the south-west corner of the church have been removed to allow public access.

We’re also really grateful to Michael and Harriet Maunsell for their contribuon to the restoraon of the nearby tomb of James Whiam.

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Our staffing structure at the end of 2017 was:

● Vicar (spendiary, full-me) ● Assistant Curate (spendiary, part-me) ● Children’s and Youth Minister (part me) ● Administrave Assistant (part-me) ● Resource Manager (part-me) - unl 2 January 2018. ● Music Worship Leader (part-me)

We thank staff members who le us in 2017: Anita Sunraj (Administrave Assistant), Chrisne Dawson (Finance Assistant), Amalan Arulanantham (Stepney Intern Ministry Assistant).

St Mary’s has always been a place in which training and ministerial formaon have been supported. We are very pleased to partner with the Diocese of London in offering a training place for a curate and a placement under the Stepney Intern Scheme.

A very large number of volunteers supports the work of the church and it’s not possible to list all of their roles in this report. Among them, significant leadership responsibility is undertaken by two Licensed Lay Ministers, three churchwardens, and treasurer.

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Structure, governance and management

The PCC operates within the regulaon of both charity law and the Church Representaon Rules and other measures. At the Annual Parochial Church Meeng held on 23 April 2017, there were 207 names on the electoral roll.

In 2017, the charity’s trustees were:

Vicar The Revd Simon Harvey

Assistant Curate The Revd Caroline Shuleworth

Churchwarden Ms Jules Cassidy

Churchwarden Mr Nick Sykes

Churchwarden Ms Kemi Wilkinson (from April 2017)

Licensed Lay Minister Ms Elizabeth Salmon

Licensed Lay Minister Mr Ian Mylam

Deanery Synod Lay Dr Sophie Castell Representave

Deanery Synod Lay Dr Richard Nicholson Representave

PCC Member (elected) Mr Phil Moore

PCC Member (elected) Dr Sally Hull

PCC Member (elected) Mr Babatunde Awonusi

PCC Member (elected) Ms Angela Cannon

PCC Member (elected) Mr David Vanden Bon

PCC Member (elected) Mr Colin Ozuruonye

PCC Member (elected) Mr Piers Myers

PCC Member (elected) Dr Pay Kostkova

PCC Member (elected) Ms Anthea Nicholson

PCC Member (elected) Ms Anita Sunraj

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PCC Member (co-opted) Mr Edward Adegbola

The PCC appointed the following as its officers:

Treasurer Mr David Vanden Bon

Secretary (vacant)

Assistant Treasurer (vacant)

Assistant Churchwarden Mr Edward Adegbola

Electoral Roll Officer Ms Harriet Maunsell

Assistant Electoral Roll Dr Sally Hull Officer

Assistant Electoral Roll Ms Angela Cannon Officer

Safeguarding Officer Ms Elizabeth Salmon

Children’s Champion Mr Timothy Broadbent

The PCC Standing Commiee, formed of the parish clergy, churchwardens and treasurer, met on ten occasions to plan the business of the PCC and to transact business on its behalf under delegated authority. The first meeng of the newly-elected PCC was held at Southwark Cathedral.

The PCC met as a full body on ten occasions and considered a large number of issues in relaon to the mission of the church. It regularly considered aspects of the partnership with Mary’s under which the local social acon of the church is delivered and which occupies the PCC’s neighbourhood centre and the church crypt. The PCC recognised the need to strengthen the arrangements under which finances are reported and now receives regular reports, to ensure that the income of the church is applied most effecvely. Much me has been necessarily taken up with the building works in the Heart of Islington project. The PCC made substanal grants to mission partners at home and overseas. It considered the worship of the church and the paern of aendance, and its pastoral implicaons. The PCC has applied the safeguarding policies of the Diocese of London. The Parochial Church Council has paid due regard to the House of Bishop’s Policy Statement on Child Protecon and Safeguarding Adults.

The Archdeacon of Hackney, The Ven Liz Adekunle, conducted the triennial visitaon to the parish and met with the PCC in November 2017. Note

The accompanying financial statements and accounts form part of this annual report.

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