THE ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. MARY & ST. ETHELFLAEDA with ST. SWITHUN’S CRAMPMOOR The Annual Vestry Meeting for the Election of Churchwardens and The Annual Parochial Church Meeting will be held in the Abbey on Sunday 27th April 2014 at 11.30am Coffee will be served in the Abbey at the end of the 10am Sung Eucharist AGENDA 1) Opening prayers 2) Apologies for Absence VESTRY MEETING 3) Minutes of the Vestry Meeting held on 23rd April 2013 4) Election of Churchwardens ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING 5) Minutes of the APCM held on 23rd April 2013 (below) 6) Election of 6 members to Deanery Synod and 5 members to the Parochial Church Council 7) Election of Sidesmen 8) Report from the Electoral Roll Officer 9) Election of Electoral Roll Officer 10) To note the Reports submitted by PCC Committees (below): a. ARC b. Church Rooms c. Deanery Synod d. Fabric and Health & Safety (sub-committee of Fabric) e. Fellowship & Fundraising f. Financial Resources g. Magazine h. Mission and Education – Children and Young People, Discipleship, Evangelism and Nurture, i. South Garth Development j. St. Swithun’s 11) To note the Reports submitted by Groups associated with the PCC and other Organisations (below): PCC Groups i. Bellringers ii. Christian Book Club iii. Communion Assistants and Subdeacons iv. First Sunday Breakfasts v. Home groups vi. Infant Sunday School vii. Junior Sunday School viii. Ministers’ Meeting ix. Mothers’ Union x. Parish Lunches xi. Romsey Abbey Choir xii. Romsey Abbey Girls’ Choir xiii. Romsey Abbey Men’s Society xiv. Romsey Abbey & St Swithun’s Women’s Group xv. Romsey Abbey School xvi. Romsey Abbey Technical Support Team xvii. Romsey Abbey Youth Group – Youth 11+ xviii. Romsey Abbey Youth Orchestra xix. Servers 1 xx. Sewing and Knitting Stewards xxi. Stewards Toddler Fellowship xxii. Toddler Fellowship xxiii. Web Site Associated organisations i. Romsey Abbey Appeal Fund ii. Children’s Society iii. Christian Aid iv. George’s Trust v. Music in Romsey vi. Triangulate vii. Friends of Romsey Abbey 12) Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council for the year ended 31st December 2013 including the Accounts. 13) Election of Independent Examiner 14) Vicar’s report 15) Question Time 16) Closing prayers NOTE – Questions relating to Agenda items 10, 11 and 15 must be submitted to the PCC Secretary in writing no later than Noon on Thursday 24th April 2014. ___________________________________________________________________________________ AGENDA ITEM 5 THE ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. MARY & ST. ETHELFLAEDA WITH ST.SWITHUN’S CRAMPMOOR Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting held in Romsey Abbey at 7:30pm on Tuesday 23rd April 2013 1.OPENING PRAYERS The Vicar, the Revd. Tim Sledge, took the chair and opened the meeting with a reading from twelfth chapter of the First Letter of St. Paul to the Church in Corinth. He then explained that there were two meetings. First was the Vestry Meeting, open to anyone living in the Parish, to elect the Churchwardens. The second was the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, which anyone could attend but their name must be on the Electoral Roll in order to speak or vote. 2.APOLOGIES There were 88 present and 24 apologies. Lists filed with these minutes. Items 3 and 4 are recorded in the minutes of the Annual Vestry Meeting. 5. MINUTES The Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting held on 24th April 2012 were taken as read. Their adoption was proposed by Mrs G Beasley, seconded by Mrs E Butcher and agreed unanimously. 6. ELECTIONS a) Deanery Synod. The size of the Electoral Roll entitles the Parish to elect 8 members to serve on the Deanery Synod. At present there were only 4 and no new nominations. The Vicar noted that his father, also a priest, had described Deanery Synod as “A group of Anglicans waiting to go home”. He further explained that it was a very different animal now and asked people to consider serving. b) Parochial Church Council. By rotation six members’ terms of office had come to an end. Mrs G Beasley and Mrs H Phillips were not standing again. The Vicar thanked them for their valuable contribution over a number of years. 2 Mr D Johnson and Mr R Pratt had been proposed before the meeting. Mr T Rogerson was then proposed by Mrs M Dovey and seconded by Mr D Newman, whilst Mr D Newman was proposed by Mr S Martin and seconded by Mr N Sharman. There being no other nominations they were elected unanimously. This left two vacancies which the Vicar said could be filled by co-option at the end of the meeting. There was also a vacancy for one year due to the resignation of Mrs P Leech, whom the Vicar thanked for all her work over the years as member of PCC and Chairman of the Fabric Committee. 7. SIDESMEN Mrs D Hargreaves reported that there were currently 43 Sidesmen. There had been 3 resignations. Mrs J Hartley had indicated her willingness to serve as a Sidesman and this was proposed by Dr J Hargreaves, and seconded by Mrs E Hallett. Mrs Hargreaves then proposed the remaining Sidesmen and Mrs J Hartley be elected en-bloc, which was carried unanimously. Mr M Wallace, churchwarden, thanked all Sidesmen for their ministry of welcome. He said the workload had increased because there were more baptisms, so more volunteers would always be welcome. He also thanked Mrs Hargreaves for doing the rota. 8. REPORT OF THE ELECTORAL ROLL OFFICER The Electoral Roll Office, Mr I Cox, explained that the Electoral Roll had to be started afresh every six years and 2013 was such a year. He reported had received 459 applications from individuals to join the roll of whom 382 lived in the parish. The numbers were down considerably because of the effect of starting the new roll. Mrs E Wagner thanked Mr Cox. 9. ELECTION OF ELECTORAL ROLL OFFICER Mr I Cox was willing to continue as Electoral Roll Officer and his re-election was proposed by Mr R Bishop, seconded by Mrs B Brook and carried unanimously. 10. PARISH REPORTS – PCC committees Reports received from the following committees and associated organisations had been circulated before the meeting and so were taken as read. The Vicar thanked everyone who had submitted a report and asked for comments or questions as he went through the list. a) ARC b) Church Rooms – it was noted that the new divider was in place. c) Deanery Synod d) Fabric and Health & Safety (sub-committee of Fabric) - The Vicar reported that Mrs P Leech was standing down as Chairman of the Fabric Committee after serving for several years and recorded his thanks to her. e) Fellowship & Fundraising – The Vicar said it was terrific that over 600 people had attended the Open Day organised by this group. f) Financial Resources g) Magazine – it was noted that the Magazine had made a contribution of £4.000 to the PCC General fund in 2012. Mr J Williams, on behalf of the committee, said this might not be repeatable. h) Mission and Education - Children and Young People i) Mission and Education – Discipleship and Nurture j) St. Swithun’s – the Vicar thanked worshippers at St Swithun’s for their fund raising this year. 11. ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS The Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements had been available before the meeting. The Vicar asked if there were any questions about the report, which there were not. The Treasurer (Mr T Rogerson) then spoke about the financial statements. He said the structure of the report was determined by the requirements of the Charity Commission, noted that the accounts had been signed off by the Independent Examiner and explained the difference between unrestricted and restricted funds. He told the meeting that out of interest he had looked at the accounts for 1979 when the general fund had shown a surplus of £2,820. Income had been £16,627 and expenditure £13,807. The Fabric Fund had expenditure of £20,555, which included three hundred new chairs. 3 The Treasurer explained that the Budget for 2012 had forecast a loss on the General Fund but the final result had been a small surplus partly due to a generous donation. He went on to explain that planned giving was slightly down on the previous year, which he attributed to the fact that there had been no annual review of giving in 2011 which in turn affected 2012. Collections were slightly up as were fees for weddings and carol services. He highlighted that the balance on the Capital Fund was slowly being increased and a policy had been established by the PCC whereby any legacies received were allocated to this designated fund. Costs had been kept under control and by the Diocese’s “Close of Books” the Parish Share had been paid in full. The Budget for 2013 showed a small deficit. The Treasurer spoke about the “Parish Giving Scheme” (PGS), which was trialled by members of the Financial Resources Committee and would then be offered to members of the PCC and others. He encouraged those who gave by other means to transfer to the PGS when it was made available as it reduced significantly the amount of work both for himself and the Gift Aid Secretary. The Treasurer concluded by noting that the Parish had achieved a surplus for four consecutive years and thanked those whose generous giving had helped to achieve this. He also thanked the whole treasury team and especially Mrs P Leech who was stepping down as Assistant Treasurer, noting that her knowledge acquired whilst as a former churchwarden had been particularly helpful.