Monthly Archives: April 2026

Published 28/04/2026

Minutes of the PCC Meeting

Held on Monday 21^st July 2025

		Action
1	The meeting opened at 19.10 with prayer.

2	Attendance
	· Dawn Airey (Chair), Chiaz Alozie, Fiona Clarke (PCC Secretary), Matt Ellson (Vice Chair), Ben Haughton-Scales, Livvi Haughton-Scales, David Meleleu, David Wells, Ruth Wium. Sam Carew joined via Zoom. · Apologies: Alan Palmer, Melanie Hartung.

3	Previous Minutes
	The Minutes of the Meetings held on 28^th April 2025, and 25^th May 2025 (immediately after the APCM) were deemed to be correct by all who were at those meetings and signed off by ME and DA respectively. .

4	Matters Arising
	· Service leader to attach the presentation slides to the order of service email sent to participants. DA to advise them. · Having investigated it, there does not seem to be a suitable live system to update the rotas. Church Suite was not fit for purpose.	DA

5	Guidelines and Purpose of PCC
	DA spoke to the team about the purpose of the PCC, the roles it should play and the way the meetings should run. The most important items to note are below: · The PCC is an oversight and a legal body and together they are responsible for the overall wellbeing, practical as well as spiritual, of their church, the church members, and the church buildings. · The PCC has a duty to promote the mission of the church within the wider community, is responsible for the finances of the parish and for church vision. · It steers the life of the church in its mission, witness and service in the parish. · Please prioritise the meetings and coming to APCM. o please put the dates in your diaries. o At this years’ APCM there were very few PCC members there and that communicates something to the congregation. · It’s really important that everyone voices an opinion. · Individual ministry and day to day decisions are made by the vicar and the wardens so do talk to them, and they will discuss it at their monthly vicar/wardens meeting. · If you’d like something discussed at PCC meetings, then please talk to the vicar 2 weeks before a PCC meeting. o A decision can then be made as to whether it needs to be an agenda item or discussed/sorted another way. o It gives time to collate any necessary information and cascade it for all members to read ahead of the meeting. o There is no time for AOBs as it is a tight schedule. · Reports from the ministry leaders, other necessary information and any decisions that are required, are sent to PCC members a week before the meetings so that everyone can read the information, pray through the decisions and come to the meeting ready to ask questions, make comments, discuss and make decisions. · Some years we have a leadership away day and invite others from church, ministry leads etc. DA then noted some of the things the PCC has looked at since she became the incumbent including: · Writing a new vision. · Looking at what to do with our land. · Considered a Parish weekend away. · Church finances. · Extending the parish boundaries: o We spent 2 years trying to re-order All Saints building. o We changed the name of the church. o We decided on a new church logo. o Looked at what enables a healthy growing church. o The last term of the PCC was making the huge decision to move Sunday morning worship to Glenvale School. Quite a lot of time was spent on that including considering: § Our vision of connecting, with Jesus, with each other, with the wider community. § Our model of being church – · There are different ways of being church, some have everything in one space, usually their own building. · Others, like us, have a base and then community missional hubs for mission, and for our groups and activities. Moving forward, the outstanding piece of work is to make a decision about our land opposite the Ock n dough. FC to add this to the agenda for September’s meeting.	All All All All FC

6	Update on Key Priorities – See Appendices 1 – 3.
	1. Discipleship (DA) · Connect Groups: o Some families tend to come to café church on 1^st Sunday of each month. o For August/ September, Livvi may stop and talk to families after church about Connect groups, possibly sending an email to families beforehand. · Parenting for Faith o This is a course for Parents, giving them the opportunity to discuss faith and raising their children in faith. The point was raised that it may be prudent to ask parents what they think to see how many agree. 2. Under 18s (DA-Under 11s/ BH-S- Youth/ LH-S Ignite) · 3^rd Sundays o Young people are helping out with areas of the service, e.g. setup. Someone needs to co-ordinate who goes where/ does what. It is hoped that the organisation of this will improve when a Youth Worker has been appointed. · Youth Worker o There have been some enquiries about the Youth Worker Post but no applications to date. o DA and ME will be interviewing plus one other. o The closing date for applications has been extended until 11^th August. · Ignite o The cost of holding Ignite at Redwell School: § Previously it was £35. § It increased to £50 when the keys were returned following the move of the Sunday Service to Glenvale in March. § It is intended to increase it again with effect from September to £63. o Attendance: § Autumn term – average 26 children but easing off towards Christmas. § Spring term – average 27. § Summer – average 15. § Over 30 children feels cramped in the available space. There is the question of whether the number allowed each session needs to be capped? o The current charge per session is £2.20 plus 30p for tuck (£2.50). § If we continue at the present charge, there would be a loss over the year of £444.00. § If the fee is increased to £2.70 plus 30p for tuck (£3.00) there would be a potential loss of £50.00. Proposal: To increase the fee to £3.00 (including tuck) with effect from October and to advise the families of this in September. Not voted on DA will write to Redwell School Trust in the meantime to try to negotiate a reduction in the cost. 3. Wholeness in Jesus/ Wellbeing (DA); Prayer (JBC). – · Care o Our main way of caring for each other is through our Connect groups but there are many who do not attend or keep in touch in this manner. This has been discussed previously but there is no simple solution to how it may be portrayed in a more favourable light: § Possibly revise wording of how it is put across to the church, e.g., “if you want to belong to a church community……” § Two families that attend Connect groups host them so that they do not need to leave their homes, although they do not need to lead them. The issues could possibly be discussed at an away day where there will be more time. DA to bear this in mind.	LH-S DA/LH-S DA DA

7	Finance Report – See Appendix 4 + 4a
	Treasurers Report · No questions were sent to HC to respond to before the meeting.. Treasurer’s job · Dale is now the new Treasurer but cannot make any of the PCC meetings. Please send any questions to him as soon as possible after reading the report you receive a week before each PCC meeting. · DA, BH-S and LH-S to meet with the Finance Team to discuss any issues with finances, parts of the role etc., e.g. vulnerability. Finance Proposal – see appendix 4a for more details. To amalgamate the intern, Ignite Youth and the Children’s and Youth Worker pots. Proposer: DA Seconder: FC All were in favour.	ALL DA/LHS/BHS

8	Parish Update – see appendix 5
	· In general people seem to be settled in our new base at Glenvale Church of England School and there have been no negative comments on the choice of venue. · Some of the issues around the transition have been resolved, such as extra storage in the hall, the front door situation, access to the Parish office through the kitchen and an extra fob. However, others are still outstanding: o Benches are hard: § A discussion was held into the possibility of purchasing more of the comfy chairs: · Storage is an issue. 10 – 12 stacking chairs could possibly be stored in the Parish office. · The additional expenditure was raised as an issue when we are not meeting our obligation to pay the Parish Share. However, more people may attend if they do not have to sit on the benches and those who currently have problems with them may decide not to leave or not attend as a result. This in turn could give more opportunity to increase the income to go towards paying the Parish Share. · DA to ask Elizabeth Holbrook if she could look into costings for chairs. o Laptop Cable, Wi-Fi and clicker are still being investigated: § Any cables that have been suggested were not suitable. § Sometimes there is a delay from pressing the clicker to progressing to the next slide, and pressing it again means it continues to the slide after that. · Screen separating the main area for the weekly service from the area where refreshments are produced and consumed. o Having seen the screen up at the service on Sunday, this was seen as a good idea. However, we would need someone from the school to move the screen for health and safety and to avoid any liability for potential damage to the doors. · Venue for Christmas activities o Traditional Carol Service. o Christingle – possibly at Redwell School but more complicated to do so re the need for the PA system. o Christmas Day Service – at Glenvale C of E School. o Carols and Lights – as previous years. o Possibly do the last Ignite before Christmas at Redwell School. Decision postponed until September PCC meeting. FC to add it to the agenda for September. · From 3^rd August Lis Wells will host a pre-service prayer, for the service and the church, at 9.45 in the glass pod in the school.	DA FC

9	Approving New Groups/ Activities
	· Community Days o Proposer: LH-S. o Seconder: RW o All were in favour. · Satellites Summer Youth Camp o Proposer: DA o Seconder: ME o All were in favour.

10	Safeguarding Report – See Appendix 6
	· No further comments re the Safeguarding Report. · The Safeguarding Policy was approved and signed by all at the meeting. SC agreed the policy over Zoom and will sign it subsequently. · FC to update the church website with the new policy.	SC FC

11	Deanery Synod Report – See Appendix 7
	· Nothing to add at present.

12	Other things – See Appendix 8
	· Parish Pioneers is on hold at present. · DA talked through her reflections from being ill and her conclusions (see Appendix 8). She is sharing it with the Diocesan senior leadership, including the bishop, and has a meeting booked with the bishop. · DA advised that the new bishop is strategic and will look at applying for grants in Autumn 2026, but even so we may not receive any of the money. · DA asked the PCC to assist with additional responsibilities as there is only one churchwarden at present, including helping with set up and packing away after the service. · Worship Support Rota o DA will discuss the worship support rota with Amanda (Parish Admin) to see if she is able to take this on within her hours when Elizabeth moves away. o RW will also speak to her husband Lu to see if he is able to put it into the Excel spreadsheet. o 5 Rotas: § Preaching and Leading § Worship support – including buttons § Alex – worship § Children § PA team This will be revisited in September. FC to add it to the agenda.	DA RW FC

13	Ministry Experience Scheme – See Appendix 9
	Proposal: To accept Chiaz Alozie as our Ministry Experience Intern (Starting 1st September 2025) and to pay the £2600 (plus expenses) out of the restricted pot designated for interns. Proposer: DA Seconder: FC. All were in favour.

14	Dates of next meetings:
	PCC meetings: · Monday 29^th September 2025 19.00. · Monday 17th November 2025 19.00. · Monday 2nd February 2026 19.00. · Monday 13th April 2026 19.00 (to agree APCM reports). · APCM Sunday 26^th April 2026 as part of the service, followed by a short PCC meeting.

15	The meeting closed with a prayer from LHS at 21.25.

Appendix 1 – update on Key priority 1: Discipleship

Connect Groups:
There continue to be 5 connect groups which, apart from Sunday mornings, is our main discipleship, friendship and care model.

Our five groups are:
Monday afternoon (Carol Maycock).
Monday evening (Elizabeth Holbrook)
Wednesday evening (Ben & Livvi Haughton-Scales)
Wednesday evening (Ruth Wium)
Thursday morning (Alan Palmer)

The group facilitators continue to meet every couple of months to support one another.

Both Elizabeth and Ruth’s groups are small and are considering joining together.

I am concerned that almost all of our ‘families’ have not yet made their way into a Connect Group. It seems that our families are so busy working and with caring responsibilities that they do not have the capacity for Connect Groups. It is also the case that many in the congregation are not coming to the service on a weekly basis and therefore it leaves me asking some questions around what discipleship, friendship and relationship building looks like in this context – I don’t have any answers. We have one thing we are going to try – Livvi is going to suggest to families that on Café Sundays (just monthly) the families stay around for a shared lunch and simple Bible study. This is still being worked out at the moment.

Something Extra?

Given that we no longer have Tuesday evenings for extra teaching, etc, I am considering doing something slightly different on Sunday mornings for 6 weeks after Christmas. I would like to give parents of preteens and teens an opportunity to consider how they can support the faith of their young people using the ‘Parenting for faith’ material. What I’m thinking is that those particular parents could be taken to another room after worship and notices and have about an hour together. Because the main part of the service will be recorded then if they want to listen to the main sermon series they can watch it later in the day/week. I’d like the PCC’s thoughts on this.

Revd. DA.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions are needed from PCC at this time.

Appendix 2 – Under 18s Ministry

We take the research seriously that tells us that churches who invest in under 18s ministry grow, and those that don’t decline. The national church has a vision to see 30,000 employed children’s and youth workers in an attempt to double the number of children and young people in church on a Sunday morning by 2030!

We are very much part of this story and have raised just over £53,000 to employ a part time children’s and youth worker. We ideally need to get a bit more in and are hoping that the 100 for 100 project will bring in a significant amount. We have now advertised for a children’s and youth worker for 25 hours a week, 45 weeks of the year for a fixed 3-year contract. The closing date is the 8^th July. Please keep praying and please consider giving towards this vital ministry.

All under 18s groups continue to use the Energize resource.

Under 11s Ministry

For our under 11s and under 5s ministry, we have both a discipleship stream and an outreach stream. Our discipleship stream is primarily Sunday mornings at Sunday Club. Our outreach stream is on a Monday morning at Glenvale Care Home (under 5s) & Ignite (those in years 1-6). Our long running toddler group on a Thursday afternoon (Wellitots) had to close down after Easter due to a lack of venue (we could no longer use the Hub at Redwell School).

Sunday mornings great group of people who le

There continues to be aad and help with the groups. Huge thanks to each of them for their willingness to guide the children in their individual journeys with the Lord.

Glenvale Park toddler group
We began this group Easter 2024. Glenvale Care home provides a beautiful room, toy storage and refreshments for this group. Some of the residents join the group also. We have around 50 families now on the register and anywhere between 7 and 16 households can turn up on any given week! This continues to be the case. The Wellitots leadership team all moved across to support the Glenvale Team when Wellitots had to close, which has been amazing. Dawn still technically leads the group but now doesn’t always have to be present. Thank you very much to this expanded leadership team, it makes a difference.

Ignite
Leaders: Livvi Haughton-Scales, Ruth Gilbert, Alan Palmer, Louise Harrison, Elizabeth Holbrook, Judy Meleleu. Dawn Airey also often comes at the beginning of most sessions to talk with parents. Ben Haughton-Scales has helped on some weeks when needed.

A huge thank you to all our volunteers who have faithfully been helping with this group. Ignite has seen fluctuations in numbers and different challenges in the last few months and I very much appreciate the volunteers’ patience, support and positivity during this time.

Prior to Easter, we were seeing an average of 27 kids join us for Ignite each week. Following Easter, though, these numbers have decreased to an average of 18. This appears to be a trend in previous years once we get to summer term, as there are possibly other groups and also nicer weather resulting in families doing different activities.

As it is summer, we have been using the outdoor space more with the kids who have been coming and had a lovely evening the other week where we all sat in a circle outside, ate tuck and shared jokes. There have been lovely moments in the past few weeks and, although numbers have been lower, it has mostly been the same group of kids each week, which has allowed for relationships to deepen. We have continued to pray with the children, share bible stories and start sessions with an action worship song. This seems to continue to be embedded into the culture of the group. In our last Ignite session, two children even spoke about times they had prayed in the past, which was very special.

We have also had teenagers helping us with Ignite as part of their Duke of Edinburgh volunteering program and one girl especially has taken to this really well, saying she loves coming. She has been such an asset to the group. This has been really encouraging and since she is the older sister of one of the girls who already comes to Ignite regularly, it has allowed us as a team to become more connected with that family.

One issue that has arisen, though, in recent months is that the trust at Redwell Primary School wish to put up our rent for Ignite to £64 for the 2 hours we spend there (including set up and set down), starting from September. This would be an overall increase from £35 for the 2 hours, which is what it was at the end of 2024. It has been increased steadily since then. We currently charge the children £2.20 plus 30p for tuck. This is an increase since Christmas, as we used to charge £2.00 plus 30p for tuck. At our current price, this would put a pressure on us to have at least 30 children attending every week to break even on cost. We have had 30 children or more at our busiest times of year, but this isn’t across the whole of the year and may result in us making a considerable loss overall.

This means there is a decision to be made by the PCC of the best way of resolving this issue. It may be that we should continue with Ignite, with the expectation that it will make a loss. We could put the price up considerably for the children attending to cover the cost. Otherwise, we may need to consider the sustainability of the group in the future.

Revd. LH-S

School’s work
Being present in our two primary schools is a very significant part of how we serve our housing estates and the mission of the church. It is largely ministry unseen by the church but plays a huge part in what I would describe as ‘oiling’ ministry

We continue to have a very good relationship with Redwell School which means between Ben, Livvi and I we are present on a regular basis, either through assemblies, Narnia prayers spaces, year 6 transition sessions, well-being groups, parent evenings and the various fayre’s and school productions.

Glenvale Church of England school has been open for nearly a year now and we have developed a really good relationship with the Head and PDET, the diocesan education trust that runs the school.

Again, between the clergy we lead collective worship Thursday mornings, have a presence at the various events and fayres, the new parents intake evening and we are about to start well-being groups there also in September. The Head and I meet monthly and also on a monthly basis offering a ‘tea and toast’ drop in for parents.

Youth Ministry

The poster above highlights the church’s current youth work activities. Sunday Youth occurs on the second and fourth Sunday mornings of the month during the service. During this time there is in-depth bible teaching and discussion. We currently do not have enough leaders to run Sunday youth on third Sundays in the month and have been seeking to use this as a ‘Serving Sunday’, encouraging the young people to help with various aspects of the morning service (such as assisting with children’s groups, playing in the worship band, serving tea and coffee, and washing up). Due to the unavailability of the young people for the June café service, we delayed the new Youth Band leading worship in church for the first time, and are now working towards the August café service for this. We’ll continue to explore other serving opportunities for the young people and are open to ideas church members might have. The number of young people attending on Sunday mornings varies from week to week.

Connect Youth

Connect Youth is our discipleship group, which meets fortnightly. Ben, Livvi, Dawn, Bruna and Daniela lead this group. We begin with a game and snacks, then have a time of worship, Bible teaching/discussion and prayer. 19 young people have attended the group so far this year, with an average attendance of 8. Most of the young people are connected with church, though we have seen them start to invite friends from outside the group too. Our prayer is that they would all continue to build friendships and explore faith in Jesus together. For the last couple of terms, we have been following a series on Christian Lifestyle using the church’s Energize resource and have run sessions on holiness, contentment and resilience.

We have continued to hold half-termly social evenings and will be having a summer social for our last session of the school year on Sunday 3^rd August.

A group will be going to Satellites again this summer at the Bath & West Showground from 6^th-11^th August 2025. This was a fantastic time away for the young people last summer; the range of activities provided was excellent and the young people all had stories of encountering Jesus in new and significant ways. 6 young people have signed up to go, including 2 for whom this will be their first time, which is really exciting!

Please pray for the following:

For all the young people connected with NWAC to have a great time of rest and relaxation during the school summer holidays, especially those who have just finished exams.
Give thanks for those who faithfully support the church youth work activities and pray for the development of more leaders with a heart and calling to serve young people.
For the young people in the group whose families are on the fringe of church and/or aren’t yet followers of Jesus – that the light of Jesus might grow brighter in their lives and that they might lead their families to faith in Him.
Give thanks for the musical talents of the new Youth Band, and pray that the young people involved would grow as worshippers of God and develop their confidence in leading others in worship.
Thank God that 6 young people are going to Satellites and pray that they would all encounter Jesus in personal and significant ways during the festival. And pray the same would be true for those not going to Satellites, that they would know His presence with them whatever they’re up to this summer.

Revd. BH-S

Satellites Summer Youth Camp

This year Ben and I will be taking 6 young people to Satellites, 6-11^th August 2025. 4 of the same young people came last year and 2 new ones this year. Livvi will remain in the parish. The young people are very excited by this opportunity and talk about it regularly. The young people are kept busy from 8am to midnight – if they wish to be that busy!!! We all go to the main worship and teaching sessions in the morning and evening but outside of this there is a huge range of seminars, activities and lots of fun to be had. The theme this year is ‘Hope’. Satellites is run by Youth Scape and hosts around 4,000 people at the camp. I believe they are expecting more this year.

The organisation of it with our group is easier this year having done it once before. We will have a parent and young person meeting on the 20^th July and then a further meet up with just young people to practice putting their tents up! The relevant consents and risk assessment will be in place. This activity needs approval from the PCC for insurance purposes.

Revd. DA.

Decision needed by PCC

Approval for the young people to go to Satellites Summer youth Camp, 6-11^th August 2025.

Appendix 3 – update on Key priority 3: Wholeness in Jesus/ Wellbeing
Bereavement Support Group
We continue to have our bereavement Facebook group which has 86 people part of it. It would be a wonderful opportunity for someone with the passion and skills in this area to really grow this ministry.

Care
We’ve moved away from the language of pastoral care and more towards Christian friendship which I think has been helpful. So, the main way of supporting one another continues to be via Connect Groups. It would be helpful to have some feedback from PCC about how this is working and being experienced by the church?

Revd. D.A.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions are needed from PCC at this time.

Creations Craft Group

The Creations Craft Group has met for an hour and a half every Monday morning since December – group members enjoy it so much that we even meet on Bank Holidays.

There are 17 people on the WhatsApp group and regularly 8 to 10 people (men and women) attending. We have church people and others from the community as part of the group.

The venue at the Ock n Dough is perfect – nice and light, with hot and cold drinks from the bar, and plenty of space for however many people turn up. Members help each other with tricky bits of what they are making, teach each other new skills and encourage each other when things go well.

It is a really lovely, restful space to start the week. We have friendly discussions about life, faith and all sorts during which we try to concentrate on our crafting!

Prayer
Jackie heads up all the Prayer contacts & training etc…

I’ve taken the Weekly Prayer Sheet from Jackie to help her time/workload etc. All I have done since starting is more or less follow Jackie’s initial model – “Thanks” & Then “Pray for …” & do so in 5 Points per section, that seems to give enough scope to provide decent detail without “going on” too much. I’ve added a “Point to Ponder” at the end to give a subject to pray over & linked it to some verifiable statistics or a report from a reputable body.

I had wondered about posting it all on the Church Private Facebook Page – but not sure about it. Our Private Facebook seems to be very sparingly accessed – so may be little point.

The final point is how well used is it as a document – the Tuesday Parish Prayer always has it as the starting point & I have used it as an emergency Intercessory Prayer on a Sunday Morning if the Prayer Person hasn’t turned up. I’ve never had any feedback from the Church Family about the Weekly Prayer Sheet so I can’t say how effective/useful it is in any wider context.

Chris Gledhill

Appendix 4 – Finance Report – TREASURER’S REPORT

At the present time we have £79,003 in the church account, this is divided between two areas. The non-restricted area has £400 in it whilst the restricted area has £78,603.

If you have any questions, then do email me on helen.hollwey@gmail.com.

Below is the situation in the church account (unrestricted)

01 January 2024

31 December 2025

To 31 December 2024

General – General fund (Unrestricted) Fund

Receipts

Planned giving

Gift Aid – Bank 23,991 51,296

Total Planned giving 23,991 51,296

Collections and other giving

Loose Plate eligible for gift aid 5,231 10,876

Collection online giving 4,376 6,244

Sum Up giving at church 628 1,469

Total Collections and other giving 10,236 18,589

Other voluntary receipts

Refreshments at service 71 281

Donations — 218

Total Other voluntary receipts 71 499

Gift Aid recovered

Tax recoverable on Gift Aid 2,161 8,652

Total Gift Aid recovered 2,161 8,652

Other receipts

Collections — 168

Total Other receipts — 168

Investment Income

Interest 78 43

Total Investment Income 78 43

Receipts from church activities

Ignite Income 826 2,055

Wellitots Income 127 256

Glenvale Tots 140 120

Fees for weddings and funerals 1,415 282

Total Receipts from church activities 2,509 2,714

Total receipts 39,049 81,964

Payments

Cost of generating funds

Costs of fetes & other events 12 101

Total Cost of generating funds 12 101

Missionary and Charitable Giving

Giving to missionary societies 1,380 2,760

Carol singing expenses — 122

Total Missionary and Charitable Giving 1,380 2,882

Parish Share

Parish Share 28,000 62,500

Total Parish Share 28,000 62,500

Clergy and Staffing costs

Working expenses of vicar 6 42

Vicar’s telephone 170 408

Mileage of Vicar 249 490

Adminstrator wages 2,292 2,171

Total Clergy and Staffing costs 2,717 3,112

Church Running Expenses

Parish training and mission 165 140

Ignite Expenses — 28

Glenvale Tots 8 177

Children’s work 15 —

Church running Expenses 694 1,775

Bank Charges 30 65

Refreshments at services 11 29

Support services — 300

Sum up machine costs 163 321

Copying costs 965 1,104

Upkeep of services – candles, communion — 101

Stationery 52 81

Gifts 60 100

Hall hire 1,545 6,163

Books 210 162

Total Church Running Expenses 3,922 10,552

New Building work

Set up costs at Glenvale 201 —

Total New Building work 201 —

Total payments 36,235 79,149

Excess of Receipts over Payments 2,813 2,815

Brought forward balance (2,412) (9,263)

Transfers to/(from) — 4,035

Total carried forward balance 400 (2,412)

Non-Restricted money against this year’s budget is:				Expected end of June
Receipts		BUDGET 2025	01/07/25	Expected end of June	% actual
Planned Giving	PGS	50000	23991	25000	48
Collections	Online	5000	4376	2500	88
Collections	Loose Plate	8000	5231	4000	65
Sum Up		2000	628	1000	31
Tax recovered through PGS and Gift Aid		10000	2161	5000	22
Other receipts/Fees		1000	1493	500	149
Fundraising		0	0	0	0
Church activities		2500	1097	1250	47
TOTAL		78500	39049	36250	49.7

Payments		BUDGET 2025
Parish Share		70207	28000	35104	40
Missionary Giving		2760	1380	1380	50
Hall hire		6500	1545	3250	24
Clergy and staff costs		3500	2717	1750	78
Church running costs		4000	2590	2000	65
TOTAL		86967	36235	43484	42

We are expecting our refund from HMRC shortly from cash collected at church. There is a maximum of £8,000 through this scheme.

RESTRICTED MONEY

		31/01/2025	01/04/2025	01/05/2025	01/06/2025	06/07/2025
1	Discretionary Fund	434	434	434	434	434
2	Wages/Expenses Youth worker	4500	4500	4500	4500	4500
3	Grant and Donations for Youth Worker (sheet 2)	16235	24455	24455	24455	24455
4	100/100 ( sheet 2)		298	373	682	1038
5	Ignite Youth	286	286	286	286	286
6	Building Fund	48064	47064	47064	47064	47064
7	Wreath event	152	152	152	152	152
8	Interest	76	40	9	9	9
9	PA donation	2000	619	619	619	487
10	Other	139	139	139	139	139
11	Social income	0	49	39	39	39
	TOTAL	71886	78036	78070	78379	78603

Discretionary Fund is the money that has been given over several years to support individuals at the discretion of the vicar and the churchwardens.
Wages/Expenses Youth worker this money was given when Alice ( an intern ) who joined us in 2022, and this money was given to support her wages and expenses but never fully spent.
Grant for Youth worker this is the money we have just received from the Diocese for a Youth worker ( £13,000), Benefact Trust (£7200) and donations from congregation ( £4255)
100/100 through the bank online and box at church
Ignite Youth this is the money which has been collected over several years as surplus from the Ignite Youth tuck shop
Money transferred to General Account on Building Account closure.
Wreath making , income was £925 and expenditure so far £773, leaving a profit of £152 this excess will be used for set up at Glenvale
Historic Interest when we had 2 accounts
We had a donation of £1000 for the PA equipment in January plus £1000 from Laing trust in November 2022
This was money left from restricted money brought forward
Social income from Maundy Thursday event , we are awaiting hall hire costs

Restricted – Restricted money from specific collections (Restricted) Fund

01 January 2025 01 January 2024

31 December 2025

To 31 December 2024

Receipts

Collections and other giving

Building Fund money — 49,063

Total Collections and other giving — 49,063

Other voluntary receipts

Adminstrator role — 350

Under 18 worker 15,430 9,025

100/100 1,038 —

Total Other voluntary receipts 16,468 9,375

Other receipts

PA equipment 1,000 —

Collections — 640

Total Other receipts 1,000 640

Activities for generating funds

Fundraising — 925

Total Activities for generating funds — 925

Receipts from church activities

Ignite Youth work income — 333

Social events income 178 —

Total Receipts from church activities 178 333

Total receipts 17,646 60,337

Payments

Cost of generating funds

Costs of fetes & other events — 776

Total Cost of generating funds — 776

Clergy and Staffing costs

Discretionary Fund — 300

Adminstrator wages — 497

Total Clergy and Staffing costs — 797

Church Running Expenses

Ignite Expenses — 48

Church running Expenses 17 195

PA & IT equipment — 35

PA and IT equipment 1,513 —

Social events 139 301

Gifts — 640

Hall hire 70 —

Books — 94

Total Church Running Expenses 1,740 1,315

New Building work

Set up costs at Glenvale 1,048 —

Total New Building work 1,048 —

Total payments 2,789 2,890

Excess of Receipts over Payments 14,857 57,447

Brought forward balance 63,746 6,299

Total carried forward balance 78,603 63,746

Appendix 4a– Finance Proposal

In the treasurers report there are a couple of restricted pots that I’d like to amalgamate but Helen wanted PCC to make this decision rather than simply do it.

I would like to move the intern and Ignite youth pots into the children’s and youth work pot. All the money is essentially for the same purpose and so it would make much more sense. The intern (or Ministry Experience Scheme) pot we developed when we had Alice and didn’t use all of the money. The scheme at the time was a Gen2 project, so more focussed on under 16s ministry. You will see from my proposal on the Ministry Experience Scheme that I am proposing we take Chiaz Alozie on as from September and we use £2,600 of that pot towards his costs first. The rest to then go to the children’s and youth worker pot.

Revd. D.A.

Decision for the PCC:

To amalgamate the intern, Ignite Youth and the Children’s and Youth Worker pots.

Appendix 5 – Parish Update

We moved our Sunday morning worship to Glenvale Church of England School on the 9^th March 2025. In the main this seems to have gone well. There are one or two struggling to get there but the majority are being supported by others via lifts, etc. The feedback I am receiving is very positive. There are some teething issues but as the weeks go by we are slowly dealing with these. For example, I am meeting with the PA team early July, the young people’s group is growing and we may need to talk to the school about use of the staff room and then there are some practical things to resolve with PDET and the school (wifi, access from the parish office through the kitchen, the safeguarding wall from the parish office area to the kitchen, the 2 front doors, and numerous other things!) I am meeting with our link from PDET (Dan Parker) in July to start to move things further forward in this regard. The feedback I receive from the school and PDET is that we are welcome, and people are so pleased we are there.

It is wonderful that already we have seen a number of new people starting to join us, just as we hoped. Let’s pray this keeps on increasing. One factor to bear in mind at Glenvale Park, is that many seem to still be travelling to their previous churches on a Sunday. This means that most of the new families are dipping their toes in with us and so not around every week.

Revd. D.A.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions are needed from PCC at this time.

Appendix 6 – Safeguarding Report

Since the APCM, one person’s DBS has come through and two more are in the process (it can take up to 60 days from submission). One person has got all the training done.

John Gilyead

Appendix 7 – Deanery Synod Report

We currently do not have a Deanery Synod rep.

Appendix 8 – Other things!

Parish Pioneers

This group initially started around 3/3.5 years ago and was very focused on being present at Glenvale Park in such a way as to make new disciples. Once we made the decision to move our Sunday worship to Glenvale Park, the group wanted to continue meeting but to repurpose itself as the ‘parish pioneers’ group, now thinking about what we could do to be present around the whole parish, all 3 housing estates. The most recent project was to create a new welcome flyer and deliver it to every house.

Livvi and Louise took the lead with developing the flyer, Judy M and Lynn B took the lead with ordering and delivering them! The current project is the summer drink stop at Glenvale play park on Wednesdays after school.

Alpha

Ben (with support from Livvi and Mel) is running our second Alpha course on Monday evenings. He is almost at the end of the current course with 3 people. Off the back of this we are planning a full immersion baptism service for October.

Churchwarden

Thank you to Elizabeth and Matt. While Elizabeth is no longer formally a Churchwarden she is still doing lots of things until the summer (Ish)! We need to be acutely aware that we currently have only Matt as our Churchwarden, and he will need the support of the PCC. It may be for example that Matt can’t be there one Sunday morning and so someone else will need to be designated as churchwarden that morning and Matt can go through with you what that will mean. In the meantime, do you have any thoughts about who we might approach to become our second Churchwarden?

Areas where PCC support is needed

There is something I’d like to share with the PCC having done quite a lot of reflection when I was off ill. At nearly 56 years of age and having spent 20 years as a social worker prior to Ordination, I have never been so ill that I needed to be signed off sick and that led me to some quite serious reflection. Please be assured that I am sharing this with diocesan senior leadership, including the Bishop, with whom I have a meeting booked the second week of July.

One of the things I realized is that I was carrying a significant weight of responsibility for too many things, over and above that which you would expect the Vicar to carry. This is not the same as number of hours worked…it is about the number of things and the weight of responsibility, they are very different things. Having spoken to some with their finger on the national pulse, this is being reflected and experienced by Incumbents across the country. The weight of responsibility has increased beyond what is manageable for many.

There are a number of reasons for this: lack of resources being released, parish size being increased in numbers, costs going up, church members unable to give financially at the same level as previously.

The biggest factor (for me) and certainly for many Incumbents (as I now understand it) is that while we are a growing church and thank the Lord that that is our experience because it’s not everywhere, there are now less people who are willing to take on responsibility.

Many are willing to ‘help’ with things but that means that instead of the congregation taking responsibility for particular areas, that responsibility is increasingly laying with the Incumbent.

(On a personal note, I find this very hard because as well as it being too weighty to carry, my role is to release God’s people into what He is calling them to be and to do, not to try and fill gaps/roles/jobs/ with the available people).

There will be many reasons why we are in the place we are (I have some thoughts about that if anyone wants to talk this through with me) and there are no easy answers (I have some thoughts about that too). However, it would be extremely helpful if PCC members were willing to take a little bit more responsibility for various things, please.

Three urgent areas are:

Counting money on Sunday mornings and taking the cash and vestry form to new treasurer, Dale Gilbert. He will then bank it.
Someone to take on the worship support Rota from Elizabeth
Prayer ministry on Sunday mornings: I would hope that everyone on the PCC is able to pray for others on any occasion on a Sunday morning. I have asked Jackie CB to come to the first half of our next PCC meeting in September, for the first 30 minutes to go through the prayer ministry guidelines with everyone on PCC, so that on Sunday mornings there is a wider group of people available to pray with others. Of course, that means you may also need to receive prayer ministry so please continue to do that….in this way we also model to others our own need and vulnerability……and that it is ok to need and want prayer.

Other areas we are currently thinking through:

Someone to lead and support the Refreshments Team on Sunday mornings
Someone to lead and support the Welcome Team on Sunday mornings

(What we mean by both of these is that you would not be responsible for the Rota, but you would each week need to look at who from your team is down to do that particular task and ensure that they know what they’re doing and can physically do it. You would need to cover someone if they can’t physically set up welcome for example but could then arrive to actually welcome people.)

There will be other things to come!

Revd. D.A.

Decisions for the PCC:

Who is willing to take on the worship support rota from Elizabeth
Who is willing to take responsibility for making sure the money is counted on Sunday mornings, the vestry form completed and then it dropped off with Dale Gilbert?
Are PCC members willing to do the prayer ministry training with Jackie BC and be available Sunday mornings to pray with people?

Appendix 9 – Ministry Experience Scheme – Proposal to PCC

This scheme is run by the diocese and is a national initiative. It enables 18–30-year-olds to take 1 year working with their church, experiencing and exploring every part of ministry. It is usually full time but there are occasions when a young adult needs to bump up their income by working a day or two elsewhere.

The idea is to allow time to explore further who they are in Jesus, how He is calling them and how He has and is equipping them. It is very much a training post. Some go on to ordained ministry and for others it’s a year of significant transformation, discovering a call to something else.

While on the scheme the group has two residentials and meet for training every 6 weeks in between. The rest of the time they are in the parish.

It costs £8,200 for the year. The church needs to find £2,600 of that cost, the rest being met by the diocese and the national church. £2,600 to have someone full time is amazing! And it’s really just pocket money for that person equating to around £157.70. We would need to pay for any travel expenses on top, but those costs will be minimal.

You may remember that Alice Pettifer was with us for a year via this scheme and completed it 2 years ago now.

This year Chiaz Alozie has applied to work with us via the scheme and the diocese are pleased to accept him, as am I!

In terms of finances, I am aware that we are putting money away into the children’s and youth worker pot. We have some money left over from when Alice last did the scheme which I will be suggesting needs to go into that pot rather than be listed as a separate item. When Alice did the scheme it was more biased towards children and young people. However, it was still money made available to us for the Ministry Experience Scheme, whatever shape that is. So my suggestion is that we use some of that money to pay for Chiaz and the rest go into the children and youth worker pot.

Proposal for PCC decision:

To accept Chiaz as our Ministry Experience Intern (starting 1^st Sep 2025) and to pay the £2,600 (plus expenses) out of the restricted pot designated for Interns.

Revd. D.A.

Published 28/04/2026

Minutes of the PCC Meeting

Held on Monday 28^th April 2025

		Action
1	The meeting opened at 19.15 with prayer.

2	Attendance
	· Fiona Clarke (Honorary Secretary), Matt Ellson, Louise Harrison, Melanie Hartung, Ben Haughton-Scales (Chair), Livvi Haughton-Scales, Elizabeth Holbrook, Alan Palmer, David Wells, Ruth Wium. · Apologies: Dawn Airey, Helen Cracknell, Sam Carew

3	Previous Minutes
	The Minutes of the Meeting held on 25^th March 2025 were deemed to be correct by all who were at that meeting. ME was elected as Vice Chairman (unanimously) to enable him to sign any paperwork in DA’s absence including the previous minutes.

4	Matters Arising
	· HC produced a table of bank accounts that may be suitable for the church. However, in her absence and in light of her decision to step down as Treasurer at the APCM, this has been postponed UFN. It is not as urgent as at the time the issue was raised as the Post Office will accept money paid into the account removing the need to travel to Higham Ferrers/ Rushden. Interest rates can be considered another time when a new Treasurer is in post. · The keys have now been returned to Redwell School as they requested. · Prayer Ministry will be discussed with Dawn when she is well. · The question of feasibility of having a WhatsApp group for PCC members has been postponed until Dawn is well and available to discuss it. · HC produced an outline of jobs needed for the Treasurer’s role with a suggestion as to how the role may be split. EH will discuss this further with HC to determine how technical each job is to get the right person for each part. · Some people are bringing their own cushions for use on the benches during church services. · The set-up team are turning the wheels of the benches inwards as much as possible to avoid “clonked ankles”. · The PA team are now using cable covers. EH purchased mats to cover the cables. · Alex has sorted out the cables to her Keyboard. · Livvi/ Ben to see if the PowerPoint slides used in the services can be printed, possibly 8 per page and double sided for frugality, to allow the person on buttons to know what comes next and avoid having to click backwards and forwards unnecessarily.	DA EH/HC LHS/BHS

5	Update on Key Priorities – See Annual Reports
	1. Discipleship (DA) · Good feedback was reported re the Easter Rock Hunt and Good Friday activities. 2. Under 18s (DA-under 11s/ BHS- youth) · New Transition Sessions have been booked for those from year 6 moving on to secondary school. · More people/ families from Glenvale estate are attending church services and Ignite. 3. Wholeness in Jesus/ Wellbeing (DA); Prayer (JBC). – · Nothing to add – see under matters arising from last PCC meeting.

6	Annual Reports
	· Treasurers Report This does not include the audited financial statements as it has in previous years. EH to discuss with HC as to whether the report signed by the Independent Examiner is needed for the APCM reports or just for the Trustee Reports when they are submitted. The full reports will need to be approved by PCC by emails and a copy should be printed and displayed on the church noticeboard 7 days prior to the APCM. We also need to appoint an independent Examiner. This will need to be added to PCC meeting agenda following APCM. · Connect Groups There are 5 groups but only 4 detailed in the report. FC to add BHS and LHS’ group. · Ignite Technical error – “are” should be “our” in the last sentence under “they loved the film…..” FC to amend. Mope Alo and Michelle Norwood need to be added as Leaders. · Glenvale Toddlers LHS to supply details for FC to add to the reports. · School Choir LH to supply details for FC to add to the reports. · FC to do all amendments to annual reports and add the Vicar’s Report, when available, and send the updated reports to PCC by email for approval before APCM.	EH/HC HC HC FC FC FC FC LHS/FC LH/FC FC

7	Parish Update – see Annual Reports
	· Access to the school on Sundays after the Service has started. This was an issue when there was a car boot sale and people were coming into the school to use the toilets and were needing to be turned away. Whilst we need to be accessible for those who arrive later for the service, BHS and LHS will check with the school whether there is any issue with their insurance. The clergy and churchwardens will discuss a new policy in the light of this. · Benches – Louise commented that the back of her bench felt as though it would lean back too far. Churchwardens to check if there is a way to lock the chair backs. · Mops-The need for more mops was raised. This is being looked at and trialling different things. · Distribution of Church responsibilities – Currently, all the responsibilities on the church service rota are filled by church members, with oversight by the Churchwardens. ME proposed that those who are currently doing Set up/Pack away, Welcome and Refreshments should be formed into 3 independent teams, each under the oversight of a PCC member. The PCC member doesn’t have to do the work but would be the person who prepares the rota and ensures things run smoothly. Those who lead prayers, do readings and Buttons, would still be in a team led by the churchwardens. MH also suggested that the Set Up/ Pack Away responsibilities should be split so that the person on Welcome sets up and packs away the foyer area and the refreshments team set up and pack away everything they use. Team Leader duties would include: · Encouraging their team members to arrive on time so that their area is set up and ready by 10.10am (Welcome and Set up) and before the service starts (Refreshments). · Being the point of call if individual team members are unavailable for their duties and arranging for another member to cover or stepping in themselves if necessary. · Refreshments team leader – Co-ordinating to ensure coffee, tea, milk, washing up liquid etc. supply levels are maintained. · Welcome team leader – keeping the noticeboard/table up to date. In principle the general consensus was that this is a good idea, but details will need to be looked at in more depth separately. Eventually, it is hoped that a live system can be devised whereby the Team Leaders can update the rotas. This will need further consideration but needs to be in place before EH leaves the parish later this year. PCC members to mull over and pray over this issue and feedback to EH/ME with any suggestions.	BHS/LHS/ EH/ME/DA EH/ME EH/ME All PCC

8	Approving New Groups/ Activities – See Appendix 1
	New group for those struggling with faith. Chris Green would like to start a group for those people who are struggling with their faith and need to talk with others about their questions or stumbling blocks. It is to be on a weekday evening for approximately 90 minutes. The plan for the group is to follow the needs of the group rather than a specific programme. Date to start and intended day to be determined. Chris needs PCC approval to move forward with this for insurance purposes. Revd. DA · Proposer – ME · Seconded – DW · 3 people abstained. The remainder agreed. The motion was carried by the majority.

9	Safeguarding Report – See Annual Reports
	· Nothing to add

10	Deanery Synod Report – See Annual Reports
	· Nothing this time.

11	Dates of next meetings:
	PCC meetings: APCM Sunday 25^th May 2025 as part of the service followed by a short PCC meeting. The meetings for the rest of the year will be decided at the APCM

12	The meeting closed with prayers at 20.35.

Published 28/04/2026

Minutes of the PCC Meeting

Held on Monday 24^th March 2025

		Action
1	The meeting opened at 19.15 with prayer from AP.

2	Attendance
	· Sam Carew, Fiona Clarke (Honorary Secretary), Matt Ellson, Louise Harrison, Melanie Hartung, Ben Haughton-Scales, Livvi Haughton-Scales (Chair), Elizabeth Holbrook, Alan Palmer, David Wells, Ruth Wium. · Apologies: Dawn Airey, Helen Cracknell

3	Previous Minutes
	The Minutes of the Meeting held on 11^th November 2024 were deemed to be correct by all who were at that meeting.

4	Matters Arising
	· LH advised, at the last meeting, that some families are struggling to attend a Connect Group. DA discussed the possibility of a Zoom Connect Meeting with the Facilitators and asked the congregation if it would be helpful. No one has come forward to say it would to date. · Wednesday Connect group continues to be run by RW. · HC has produced a table of accounts that may be suitable for the church but in her absence, this can be looked at again at the next meeting, including interest rates. · The “100 for 100” has been instigated and DA has given suggestions as to how people might raise the money. · LH has liaised with Mica Gill (bursar at Glenvale school) to ensure that any literature regarding the church choir shows that she (LH) is a resident and from the Church. However, the choir has not continued at present, although hopefully it will restart when time permits. · The printing of the gazebo has been done.

5	Update on Key Priorities – See Appendices 1 – 3.
	1. Discipleship (DA) · Connect Groups o The question was raised as to how many people attend the groups on a regular basis. The facilitators present accounted for 31, but the number who attend Carol Maycock’s group was unknown. In general, the daytime groups, of which Carol’s is one, were seen to be the most popular. o As no-one has come forward regarding the suggestion of using ZOOM for those who cannot otherwise attend, there is no plan currently to provide this. 2. Under 18s (DA-under 11s/ BHS- youth) · Wellitots o Redwell School will be repurposing the hub so Wellitots will not be able to continue there after Easter. However, several of the children will be starting school so it may be coming to a natural end. Glenvale toddlers will continue, and children could go there if their parents wish to. · Ignite o Redwell School have asked that the keys to the school, that we currently hold, are returned to them and for the church to pay for someone to unlock the school for the activity and lock up again afterwards. It is unknown as to the cost of this at present. Once the school is opened, we will have access to our shed, which is opened by our own key. However, we will not be able to access it until the premises are unlocked. o The parents could be approached to see if they are willing for the Ignite fee to be increased to cover this extra cost, although the fee has only recently been increased. o Another option would be to move Ignite to Glenvale school. o DA to speak to Claire (Redwell School Head) about other events that are to be held at the school. o The keys will not be returned until after Easter so Easter activities can proceed as planned. This is the school Trust’s decision. · Youth and Children’s Worker o The proposal re LH taking on the role has been withdrawn for the time being but may be looked at again before September. o However, fund raising for the role continues and someone will be appointed to start in September. 3. Wholeness in Jesus/ Wellbeing (DA); Prayer (JBC). – · Creations Craft Group o Congratulations for the success of the Craft Group. o Many members have enjoyed painting the rocks for the Easter Rock Hunt and have found it therapeutic and more enjoyable done as a group than solo at home, enjoying the social opportunities. o Sandi has been approached by people having breakfast in the pub, and a few from outside the church have joined the group. · Prayer Ministry o Prayer Ministry in the Sunday Services was discussed: § It was felt that this being done at the front of the church might make people feel exposed and not inclined to seek the prayer as a result. § The request for “could anyone from the prayer team come to give prayers?” was deemed to look unprofessional and unorganised and it would be better, if possible, to have a rota to say who is on prayer duty. This could be just one or two persons as clergy could possibly make up the numbers if there was a call for more on any particular Sunday. More people may be required to join the Prayer Ministry Team to enable this. § Another suggestion was for a prayer box so people could put their prayer requests in it, if they do not wish to be seen asking for prayer. That way the Prayer Ministry Team could pray for them privately and contact the person if needed. It could also be anonymized to an extent, as people could put just the Christian name of the person if they wish. § LHS/BHS to speak to DA about this and it may require a further discussion with PCC when more time is available. o It was also asked if prayer for specific things/ people could be added to the church’s closed Facebook Group. LHS/BHS to discuss with DA. · Communications for PCC o The question was raised as to the feasibility of having a WhatsApp group for PCC members. § This would help with last minute changes of plans, venue etc. as people do not always look at their emails throughout the day, and WhatsApp would alert them if something to read. § Any decisions etc could still be done via email, but a WhatsApp note, e.g., “decision for PCC please see email” etc. would prompt them to check. o LHS/BHS to discuss with DA.	DA LHS/BHS LHS/BHS LHS/BHS

6	Finance Report – See Appendix 4
	Treasurers Report · No questions were sent to HC to respond to before the meeting. · BHS asked about the difference between the expected and actual ‘Tax recovered through PGS and Gift Aid’. This was deemed to be as the Tax from the Gift Aid scheme is only applied for 6 monthly or annually and will not be included in the monthly figures at this time. · Another questioned the increase in the Parish Share but was satisfied when someone advised them that the Parish Share had not been increased for a few years due to the pandemic, so an increase was due. Treasurer’s job · Helen will be stepping down from the role after the APCM. · The church may be able to pay someone from the Diocese to do some of the accounts. · One person has agreed to do some parts of the role, but others are needed. · It was deemed that a list of the jobs that need to be done would be helpful so that people could decide if they could do part of it, e.g., banking the funds. · EH to speak to HC to ask her to specify what the expectations would be for each part of the role. · Whether, or not, the role is divided, there still needs to be a named Treasurer, who has overall responsibility.	EH

7	Parish Update – see appendix 5
	· Bench Cushions: o No storage. o The PCC agreed option 1 – No cushions to be purchased. If anyone from the congregation mentions it, they can be asked to bring their own cushion if they feel they need one. · Set up for Services o Need for gaps between the benches, including the front row: § To allow people access, e.g., when going to the front for communion, without needing to walk right round the outside of the benches, cross in front of the camera, step over wires etc. § Also fire safety – can’t exit as fast if having to go right round, same trip hazards etc. as above. § LHS/BHS to discuss with DA. o Clonked ankles. § Some people have reported catching their ankles on the edges of the benches. Assuming this refers to the wheel mechanism, LHS/BHS to discuss with set-up team to ensure they are turned inwards when benches are in position. § EH to discuss with Set Up Team. o Cables § Cables across the floor was raised as a safety hazard. § Cable covers have been purchased but have not been used due to the time needed to set them up each week – feeding the cables through the channel. § ME to discuss with PA and Set Up teams to see how this can be rectified. § The cable for the keyboard has broken but Alex Palmer has a backup. § Not discussed, but the HDMI cable from the screen to the laptop is too short. Using the clicker to progress the PowerPoint Slides worked well but will not work if videos are not within the slides, and for changing the volume. It is possible that the volume could be set for the video before the service, if no other slides require sound. However, it is not viable for the person on buttons to sit at the front close to the wall as it is impossible to see the screen from that position. LHS/BHS to look into this and discuss it with DA/ Sally (who produces the PowerPoints for the Service). o Standard Operating Procedures and Terms of Reference § Set Up instructions should be the same each week for whoever is on this duty. § This would help to speed things up and allow anyone to step in if needed in an emergency. § ME to meet with the PA team in April to discuss equipment/ storage of cables/ SOP’s/ TOR’s in the hope of being able to streamline the system that is currently used to make set- up efficient and more user friendly. § PA Team to produce SOP/TOR	LHS/BHS EH ME LHS/BHS ME

8	Approving New Groups/ Activities – See Appendix 1
	· New group for those struggling with faith. o In principle, this was agreed but it raised several questions as DA was, unfortunately, unable to attend the meeting to give more information: § Are people struggling with their faith, or with the bible, or with ways to express it as what worked for them previously may not be working now? § It needs to be a group to talk things out rather than teaching/ preaching. Is this the case? § Where does it fit? Presumably separate to Alpha, Livvi’s videos, Connect Groups? Needs clarification of the scope. § Should the name be changed to reflect the scope if different? o LHS/BHS to discuss with DA and with Chris Green if needed. o PCC to decide when further information is available.	LBH/BHS

9	Safeguarding Report – See Appendix 6
	There was a general reminder to PCC members that if John Gilyead makes contact about either DBS Checks or Safeguarding Training, to action those as soon as possible.

10	Deanery Synod Report – See Appendix 7
	· March meeting Helen Dearnley spoke about Prison Chaplaincy. · Safeguarding and Finance were also on the agenda as a regular item. · No further questions.

11	Parish Administrator Contract – See Appendix 8
	Proposal: to increase Amanda’s hourly rate to £12.21on the 1^st April in line with the National Living Wage. Proposer: EH. Seconder: SC. All were in favour.

12	PCC Social
	This agenda item was postponed.

13	Dates of next meetings:
	PCC meetings: · Monday 28^th April 2025 19.00 (to approve APCM reports). · APCM Sunday 25^th May 2025 as part of the service followed by a short PCC meeting.

14	The meeting closed with prayers at 20.55.

Appendix 1 – update on Key priority 1: Discipleship

Connect Groups:
There continue to be 5 connect groups with Ruth W having taken on the one that Rob started and I then “held” for a short while.

Most groups used the SHAPE course material, which appeared to go well. Only one person has requested a follow up meeting with the clergy.

Our five groups are:
Monday afternoon (Carol Maycock).
Monday evening (Elizabeth Holbrook)
Monday evening (Ben & Livvi Haughton-Scales)
Wednesday evening (Ruth Wium)
Thursday morning (Alan Palmer)

The group facilitators continue to meet every couple of months to support one another.

Tuesday Teaching evenings:
Currently it feels as though time is very squeezed for people and so we are not anticipating running anything further on Tuesday evenings, at least for now. Ben is looking at running another Alpha course to start at the end of January. If you know of anyone who you would like to invite, please talk to Ben ASAP.

March 2025 addition

New Group for those struggling with faith
Chris Green would like to start a group for those people who are struggling with their faith and need to talk with others about their questions or stumbling blocks. It is to be on a weekday evening for approximately 90 minutes. The plan for the group is to follow the needs of the group rather than a specific programme. Date to start and intended day to be determined.

Decision needed by PCC

Chris needs PCC approval to move forward with the new group for insurance purposes

Revd. DA.

Appendix 2 – Under 18s Ministry

There are a huge number of people involved in under 18s ministry – around 35% of the adult church! We take the research seriously that tells us that churches who invest in under 18s ministry grow, and those that don’t decline. I’ve become aware recently that the national church has a vision to see 30,000 employed children’s and youth workers in an attempt to double the number of children and young people in church on a Sunday morning by 2030!

We are very much part of this story and are doing what we can to raise the funds to employ a part time children’s and youth worker. I was able to announce to the church on Sunday 27^th Oct 2024 that we have received a very large grant and had £32,000 in the ring-fenced pot for this purpose. We now have £45 000 in or promised! We are still applying for more grants, and I hope to be in a position to have appointed ready to start Sep 2025. At the moment, the money in the pot allows us to employ someone for 30 hours a week (term time only) for 3 years. Please keep praying and please consider giving towards it.

All under 18s groups continue to use the Energize resource.

Under 11s Ministry

For our under 11s and under 5s ministry, we have both a discipleship stream and an outreach stream. Our discipleship stream is primarily Sunday mornings at Sunday Club. Our outreach stream is on a Thursday for Wellitots {under 5s) and Ignite (those in years 1 to 6), and on a Monday for Glenvale toddlers (under 5s). Livvi continues to lead Ignite.

Sunday mornings
There continues to be a great group of people who lead and help with the groups. Huge thanks to each of them for their willingness to guide the children in their individual journeys with the Lord.

Wellitots Toddlers Group
Wellitots still meets at Redwell between 1:15pm and 3:15 pm on Thursday afternoons, during school term time. At Wellitots, we have a core group of mum’s and toddlers who come regularly. We have also had a few new parents who have come along recently. A few of those have been from Glenvale, which is nice to see. Numbers can fluctuate each week, but it’s nice to know that we have parents and toddlers who are coming back each week. It seems to be a great place to chat with parents and build relationships. A family from the group started coming to our cafe services each month at the beginning of 2024 and have continued coming very regularly.

Early in 2024, Livvi started doing Bubble Church each week. Bubble church is a very short ‘church service’ with the toddlers, where we sing an action song, tell a story with puppets and say a prayer with bubbles. Earlier in the year, it seemed to be taken positively. Feedback was taken from the parents and, overall, they seemed to enjoying it. With a lot of the older children going to school in September, we lost a few of the children who seemed most engaged with it. It may be worth reviewing how we are doing at the moment to ensure it is still engaging the children. However, it has been a good opportunity to tell the toddlers (and parents) a bit of the gospel message in a fun, child-friendly way. Sandi and Gayle have helped a bit with Bubble Church with reading the story. It will also be good to consider how Bubble Church will evolve once Livvi is gone.

Sandi Rance has been a huge part of the team but feels more called towards our ministry at Glenvale Park care home and so will be leaving a big hole in the Wellitots team after Christmas
Glenvale Park toddler group
Glenvale Care home provides a beautiful room, toy storage and refreshments for this group. Some of the residents join the group also. We have around 45 families now on the register and anywhere between 7 and 16 households can turn up on any given week!
Ignite
Ignite is an after-school kids group that meets between 6 and 7pm on Thursday evenings during school term times. The group was for kids between year 1 and 5 but has adjusted to between year 1 and 6 now Ignite Youth no longer runs, as this group had been for year 6 and up. Since September 2024, Livvi has been leading this group. There has been a healthy group of volunteers who are helping. Four new volunteers have started helping regularly since September. Our current team of volunteers are Louise Harrison, Ruth Gilbert, Alan Palmer, Elizabeth Holbrook, Judy Meleleu, Mope Alo and Dawn Airey.

The first week back, Ignite had 25 kids who attended. Livvi did an assembly at Redwell advertising Ignite after this session and, at our next session, the numbers jumped to 45. This was very exciting! However, we did need to adjust things to cater for a much higher number of kids. We had to increase the number of volunteers. A few new volunteers kindly agreed to help. The volunteers and I also considered how to best manage the behaviour, particularly among the older boys who felt hard to control at times. We were also aware of smaller children who may have felt intimidated. We tried dividing them up into groups for different games, which appeared to help a little. We also started doing the ‘star of Ignite,’ which is an award given to children who are behaving well. As we draw near to the end of the term, we feel the behaviour has improved and we have begun to build good relationships with the children. We are trying, at the moment, to build a good structure and make clear expectations around behaviour. We are going to look to create values together as a group after Christmas, to give the children ownership over these expectations.

Before Autumn half term, the numbers stabilised to an average of 30 each week. After the half term, the numbers decreased to around 20 each week. We have certainly noticed a drop in numbers as we have drawn closer to Christmas. We are not quite sure why this is. The last Thursday of the term we hosted a puppet show, which Livvi’s mum delivered and invited the parents to this as well. We offered refreshments and Christmas crafts for the children after the show. Not as many kids turned up as we hoped, but a few parents did, and it was nice to have a chance to speak with some of them. They seemed to enjoy the session and were not in a rush to get away at the end. One thing we are going to keep considering is how we can build relationships with the parents, carers and other family members, as well as the kids.

We are also planning on doing an assembly at Glenvale School too.

March 2025 update – Ignite, our after-school children’s group, has had an average of 25-30 kids each week since September and 80 regulars on our register. We are getting kids from both Redwell and Glenvale and assemblies have definitely been a key factor in ensuring our numbers stay steady. As well as this, current kids are also inviting their friends too. New children join every week.

This last term, the team have been thinking about how we can introduce prayer, worship and the bible to the kids. Every other week they teach a Bible story.

As well as this, we have introduced an action worship song at the beginning of every session.
We play worship music when they arrive and during activities. Livvi now asks the kids how they feel at the beginning of the session by getting them to use their thumbs. Livvi then prays they will feel God’s joy. Louise Harrison has also come up with great activities such as Bible bingo and activities to help them pray. This has been a creative way to weave prayer and our Christian faith throughout everything we do.

We have also been looking at how we can build relationships with the parents. Last term, we did a Christmas puppet show for the whole family. It was not as well attended as we hoped, but some families did come and there were good chats with the parents over coffee and cake afterwards. This term, we are filming an Easter film telling the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with the help of Livvi’s Mum, Wendy. We will invite parents to watch this film as part of the final session before Easter. Please pray this will be well attended and there will be a good response from the parents to the gospel message.

In building on this, another question for our team is how we might bridge the gap between Ignite and church. By building relationships and sharing openly our faith with both kids and parents, we pray that God might do something in their hearts that leads them to seeking Him. We will consider how we might encourage the parents to come to church with different strategies, such as getting the Ignite kids to be involved in a song or drama at our Cafe service or maybe playing a film we have produced with the kids.

We feel thankful for what God is already doing with this group. Please pray we will have a sense of where the Holy Spirit is leading us.

School’s work
We continue to have a very good relationship with Redwell School which means between Ben, Livvi and I we are present on a regular basis, either through assemblies, year 6 transition sessions, wellbeing groups, parent evenings and the various fayre’s and school productions. This year we ran Narnia Prayer Spaces in Redwell School the week starting 25^th Nov for year 5. The mixed year 5/6 class from Glenvale School also walked up to Redwell to enjoy the resource too. It was so appreciated, and we have booked to do it again next year.

Glenvale Church of England school finally opened in September 2024. I’m in every Thursday morning delivery collective worship and building a warm relationship with the Head. She and I are planning on meeting monthly and offering a drop in for parents.

March 2025 addition

Extra for PCC to consider and make a decision on re Children’s and Youth Support Worker

I have been giving a lot of thought to the appointment of a children’s and youth worker ready for September. Partly because it’s really hard to actually find someone! In days gone by there were quite a lot who had completed their training and ready for employment but when the finances of churches dropped, so did employment of children’s and youth workers, and so did the training courses that equipped them.

I have talked this through with our diocesan Gen2 team (and will continue talking with them as they have agreed to help me think this through and walk with me) and I have also spoken with Revd Canon Nick McKee who is the National Director for Ministry, part of the National Church of England leadership team (Nick came to our diocesan clergy conference in November as the representative from the national church). Nick pointed out to me that even if we get the finances, we are unlikely to find someone to employ. It was a sobering message. He was also very encouraging in that he reminded us that the national church has a vision to appoint 30,000 children’s and youth workers and double the number of under 16s in our churches on a Sunday by 2030. Therefore, they are having to think hard about how they/we achieve this. I’m aware, for example, that Pete White who used to lead the Gen2 team in our diocese, has moved on to work with Cuddesdon college (through a 3 year initial grant) to develop a new training pathway for children’s and youth workers. Needless to say, I am in close contact with him and there should be a choice of pathways available from this September at Cuddesdon. More information to follow. I had a long conversation with Nick at the clergy conference which included issues around finance, with an offer from him for me to go back to him should the cost of training someone be prohibitive. No promises of course…..but I will definitely go back to him!

All of this set me on a trail of not only working to raise the necessary funds but to also begin to think strategically about how we do this and crucially, who do we invest in.

So, you know what we’re doing to raise the required funds…I’ll say more on this in a moment……but in terms of who…..

-Firstly, we do not need to advertise the post (I’ve checked with the diocesan office, the PCC can employ whoever they want to employ).

-Secondly, we have someone in our midst who has a passion, call and growing expertise in this area – Louise Harrison.

Louise and I have had numerous conversations, and we are at the point where she and Rory would really like to pursue this possibility with us.

Back to the finances & training:

Below is part of an email I sent to the Gen2 team to bring them up to speed and the support/strategic thinking I would like to do with them.

“There is quite a lot of nuance and detail that I would appreciate speaking to someone about, which may include how we get to the right level of finance as well as the specific pathway.

In terms of finance, we’ve got £52,200 in the pot (or promised) for this role so far, we have another 3 grants to hear back from, and we have a project this year as a congregation to raise £10,000 towards it. I am hoping that we will be nearer £65,000 by September. Louise currently earns around £22,000 a year and needs to maintain this. Another complicating factor is that roughly 3 years after we start the role, she and her husband will need to re-apply for their mortgage and therefore she needs to have a secure role, so a 3-year contract won’t be possible for her, she’ll need a 5 year contract.

In terms of a specific pathway, the different possibilities I see are:

Option 1) Go straight for employment

Option 2) For the first year, Louise to work in current (or alternative employment) for half the money she needs to earn (so £11,000), and she does a 2 day a week internship with us (which Chad I think you said the diocesan grant for an intern can now be released at £150 a week, even if the intern is part time), and out of the pot of money we have we pay the rest to make it up to the other £11,000 for the first year. The following year or two could include an official training aspect (Cuddesdon) as part of her hours and we pay £22,000 a year from year 2.

Option 3) Start the Cuddesdon training part time this coming September (talking to Pete it looks like there are going to be different pathways) and work the other part of the time with us. We will need to pay £22,000 a year from the outset.”

Clearly, in order to do this, £65,000 won’t be enough for 5 years or to pay someone £22,000 a year plus NI/pension/expenses/training fees. What I hope to work out with the Gen2 team is what is the shortfall, and how we can cover it. We may for example be able to persuade Nick McKee to release some central funds. We don’t yet know what Bishop Debbie is planning strategically and which pots of money she is going to apply for and for what purpose, but we do know what the national churches priority is! So, we may for example be able to persuade Bishop Debbie to ‘support us’ ahead of any other grant money she may or may not apply for on behalf of the diocese. These are questions and things I am in the process of working through.

Decision needed by PCC

What I need from the PCC is a ‘yes’ that I can continue pursuing this in the light of Louise becoming our children’s and youth worker should we able to make it work.

Revd. DA

Youth:

The poster above highlights the church’s current youth work activities. Sunday Youth occurs on the second and fourth Sunday mornings of the month during the service. During this time there is in-depth bible teaching and discussion. We currently do not have enough leaders to run Sunday youth on third Sundays in the month and have been seeking to use this as a ‘Serving Sunday’, encouraging the young people to help with various aspects of the morning service (such as assisting with children’s groups, playing in the worship band, serving tea and coffee, and washing up). The new Youth Band has now met for three practices, and we are working towards them leading worship in church for the first time at the June café service. We’ll continue to explore other serving opportunities for the young people and are open to ideas church members might have. The number of young people attending on Sunday mornings varies from week to week.

Connect Youth is our discipleship group, which meets fortnightly. Ben, Livvi, Dawn, Bruna and Daniela lead this group. We begin with a game and snacks, then have a time of worship, Bible teaching/discussion and prayer. 18 young people have attended the group so far this year, with an average attendance of 9. Most of the young people are connected with church, and a prayer for this year is that they might start to invite friends from outside the group to build friendships and explore faith in Jesus. This term we have been following a series on Christian Lifestyle using the church’s Energize resource and have run sessions on priorities, integrity, humility and influence. We have continued to hold half-termly social evenings, including a games night social on 23^rd February.

A group will be going to Satellites again this year at the Bath & West Showground from 6^th-11^th August 2025. This was a fantastic time away for the young people last summer; the range of activities provided was excellent and the young people all had stories of encountering Jesus in new and significant ways.

Currently 6 young people have signed up to go, including 2 for whom this will be their first time, which is really exciting!

Please pray for the following:

The many young people we are in contact with to come to faith and grow as followers of Jesus.
Give thanks for those who faithfully support the church youth work activities and pray for the development of more leaders with a heart and calling to serve young people.
The families of our young people – may they also be reached through our ministry.
Give thanks for the musical talents of the new Youth Band and pray that the young people involved would grow as worshippers of God and develop their confidence in leading others in worship.
Thank God that the number of young people going to Satellites this coming summer has doubled since the last PCC Youth Report and pray that even now a few more might sign up to go.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions are needed from PCC at this time.

Revd. BH-S

Appendix 3 – update on Key priority 3: Wholeness in Jesus/ Wellbeing

Bereavement Support Group
We continue to have our bereavement Facebook group which has 86 people part of it. It would be a wonderful opportunity for someone with the passion and skills in this area to really grow this ministry.
Care
We’ve moved away from the language of pastoral care and more towards Christian friendship which I think has been helpful. So, the main way of supporting one another continues to be via Connect Groups. It would be helpful to have some feedback from PCC about how this is working and being experienced by the church?
Creations Craft Group

Elizabeth and Sandi start a new craft group early December on Monday mornings at the Ock ‘n’ Dough. Elizabeth can update PCC at the meeting.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions are needed from PCC at this time.

Revd. D.A.

Prayer
Prayer ministry has been quiet of late with not many people coming forward for prayer during services.

There are not many of the Prayer Ministry Team always available for prayer as all the members are participating in other duties during services – leading/preaching, worship band, children’s activities, refreshments etc. We may need to seek more members for the team.

It has been very difficult for me to meet the deadline for the weekly prayer pointers that are issued on Fridays due to my work and personal commitments. However, Chris Gledhill has now volunteered to take over this element of prayer ministry and prayers have been issued for the last few weeks. I am extremely grateful to Chris for taking this on, and I’m happy to see that the prayer points are fresh and revitalised and the addition of a point to ponder for each week is a brilliant idea.

I will continue to oversee the prayer chain and list of names for intercession and will liaise with Chris for this.

Jackie Brooks-Cheesman

March 2025 update

Weekly prayers have resumed on the website and an extra item “a point to ponder” has been added, as well as the usual “Praise God for, Please Pray For, Pray especially for and wisdom from scripture.”

FC pp Jackie Brooks-Cheesman

Appendix 4 – Finance Report – TREASURER’S REPORT
March 2025: At the present time we have £80,255 in the account. The non restricted element is £1,954 and restricted is £79,301.

Non-Restricted money against this year’s budget is:				Expected end of Feb
Receipts		BUDGET 2025	05/03/2025	Expected end of Feb	% actual
Planned Giving	PGS	50000	8221	8333	16
Collections	Online	5000	916	833	18
Collections	Loose Plate	8000	2192	1333	27
Sum Up		2000	196	333	10
Tax recovered through PGS and Gift Aid		10000	368	1667	4
Other receipts/Fees		1000	473	167	47
Fundraising		0	0	0
Church activities		2500	391	417	16
TOTAL		78500	12757	13083	16

Payments		BUDGET 2025
Parish Share		70207	6000	11701	9
Missionary Giving		2760	690	460	25
Hall hire		6500	465	1083	7
Clergy and staff costs		3500	630	583	18
Church running costs		4000	607	667	15
TOTAL		86967	8392	14495	10

As you can see our income is slightly below what we thought we would receive. Do remember we set a deficit budget. We are expecting another invoice from the school for hall hire. Missionary giving has been paid for March (3 months). As always, a more detailed report is also attached below.

	RESTRICTED MONEY HELD IN GENERAL FUND
		21/10/2024	05/11/2024	31/12/2024	31/01/2025	05/03/2025
1	Discretionary Fund	434	434	434	434	434
2	Wages/Expenses Youth worker	4500	4500	4500	4500	4500
3	Grant and Donations for Youth Worker	6050	9025	9025	16235	24265
4	100/100					388
5	Ignite Youth	286	286	286	286	286
6	Building Fund	49064	49064	49064	49064	49064
7	Wreath event	250	425	222	152	152
8	Interest	76	76	76	76	76
9	PA donation
10	Other	345	195	0	139	139
	TOTAL	61005	64005	63607	70886	79304
Notes
1	Discretionary Fund is the money that has been given over several years to support individuals at the discretion of the vicar and the churchwardens.
2	Wages/Expenses Youth worker this money was given when Alice (an intern) joined us in 2022, and this money was given to support her wages and expenses but never fully spent.
3	Grant for Youth worker this is the money we have just received from the Diocese for a Youth worker (£13,000), Benefact Trust (£7200) and donations from congregation
4	100/100 through bank and box
5	Ignite Youth this is the money which has been collected over several years as surplus from the Ignite Youth tuck shop
6	Money transferred to General Account on Building Account closure
7	Wreath making, income was £925 and expenditure so far £773, leaving a profit of £152
9	We had a donation of £1000 for the PA equipment that has now been spent

Details of Banks’ different accounts that HC has been looking into for suitability for the church’s account.

	Our income is above £50K so some of these accounts are not suitable.	Income max	Pay in
Bank of Scotland	Free everyday banking for groups with an annual income of less than £50,000. Charges apply above this threshold.	No
2. Co-operative Bank	Available to charities, CICs, co-ops, and credit unions with annual income under £1 million. Restrictions on cash and cheque deposits over £100k and 5k respectively.		Post office/ bank
3. Barclays	Free banking services for non-profits with an annual income under £100k. Restrictions apply for organisations with more than three full-time employees.		Bank
4. HSBC	Free banking if annual turnover is less than £100k. Audit certification support provided.		Post office/ Bank
5. Metro Bank	Free Community account for income under £2 million. A charge applies after 200 free transactions.		Bank
6. Lloyds Bank	Free banking for income under £50k. Positive account balance required to maintain free services.	No
7. RBS	Free banking for non-profits with income under £100k. Additional benefits for private businesses.		??
8. NatWest	Free everyday banking for income under £100k for 18 months. Post-18 months, standard rates apply.
9. Reliance Bank	Free banking if the monthly transaction does not exceed £2,500, with an average balance of at least £5,000, and other conditions.	No
10. TSB	Free banking for groups with a turnover of less than £50,000. No charge for withdrawals.	No
11. Santander	Free banking for incomes under £250k. Must be UK residents aged over 18. Not available at present

This was a quick search of accounts. It was quite hard to find out information about banking cash so only included those which were specific about using the Post office. We looked at the Co-op once.
At present we do get interest with CAF bank 0.20% gross/AER* (variable) interest daily if account is in credit. But a £5.00 fee every month

Restricted – Restricted money from specific collections (Restricted) Fund

Receipts

Collections and other giving

Building Fund money — 49,063

Total Collections and other giving — 49,063

Other voluntary receipts

Administrator role — 350

Under 18 worker 15,240 9,025

100/100 388 —

Total Other voluntary receipts 15,628 9,375

Other receipts

PA equipment 1,000 —

Collections — 640

Total Other receipts 1,000 640

Activities for generating funds

Fundraising — 925

Total Activities for generating funds — 925

Receipts from church activities

Ignite Youth work income — 333

Total Receipts from church activities — 333

Total receipts 16,628 60,337

Payments

Costs of fetes & other events — 776

Total Cost of generating funds — 776

Clergy and Staffing costs

Discretionary Fund — 300

Administrator wages — 497

Total Clergy and Staffing costs — 797

Church Running Expenses

Ignite Expenses — 48

Church running Expenses — 195

PA & IT equipment 76 35

PA and IT equipment 925 —

Social events — 301

Gifts — 640

Hall hire 70 —

Books — 94

Total Church Running Expenses 1,072 1,315

Total payments 1,072 2,890

Excess of Receipts over Payments 15,555 57,447

Brought forward balance 63,746 6,299

Total carried forward balance 79,301 63,746

General – General fund (Unrestricted) Fund

Receipts

Planned giving

Gift Aid – Bank 8,221 51,296

Total Planned giving 8,221 51,296

Collections and other giving

Loose Plate eligible for gift aid 2,192 10,876

Collection online giving 916 6,244

Sum Up giving at church 196 1,469

Total Collections and other giving 3,305 18,589

Other voluntary receipts

Refreshments at service — 281

Donations — 218

Total Other voluntary receipts — 499

Gift Aid recovered

Tax recoverable on Gift Aid 368 8,652

Total Gift Aid recovered 368 8,652

Other receipts

Collections — 168

Total Other receipts — 168

Investment Income

Interest — 43

Total Investment Income — 43

Receipts from church activities

Ignite Income 192 2,055

Wellitots Income 89 256

Glenvale Tots 110 120

Fees for weddings and funerals 473 282

Total Receipts from church activities 864 2,714

Total receipts 12,760 81,964

Payments

Cost of generating funds

Costs of fetes & other events — 101

Total Cost of generating funds — 101

Missionary and Charitable Giving

Giving to missionary societies 690 2,760

Carol singing expenses — 122

Total Missionary and Charitable Giving 690 2,882

Parish Share

Parish Share 6,000 62,500

Total Parish Share 6,000 62,500

Clergy and Staffing costs

Working expenses of vicar 3 42

Vicar’s telephone 68 408

Mileage of Vicar 63 490

Administrator wages 495 2,171

Total Clergy and Staffing costs 630 3,112

Church Running Expenses

Parish training and mission — 140

Ignite Expenses — 28

Glenvale Tots — 177

Church running Expenses 511 1,775

Bank Charges 10 65

Refreshments at services — 29

Support services — 300

The sum up machine costs 42 321

Copying costs 43 1,104

Upkeep of services – candles, communium — 101

Stationery — 81

Gifts — 100

Hall hire 465 6,163

Books — 162

Total Church Running Expenses 1,072 10,552

Total payments 8,392 79,149

Excess of Receipts over Payments 4,367 2,815

Brought forward balance (2,412) (9,263)

Transfers to/(from) — 4,035

Total carried forward balance 1,954 (2,412)

Statement of Financial Activities

The Statement of Financial Accounts shows that we have £61,333 in the account on the 1^st January. It also shows the amounts in the restricted and the unrestricted elements of that account. You will notice that the unrestricted element is overdrawn by £2,272.

This is due to me paying £3,000 towards the Parish Share on the 31^st December. I had expected the money which I had paid into the account on the Monday would have been cleared by then, unfortunately it hadn’t.

I will verbally inform the PCC of the amounts in the account at the next meeting. This does mean we have paid £62,500 towards our Parish Share of £67,181. Parish Share for next year has increased to £70,207.

BUDGET 2025

I have put this years’ figures alongside last years and our budget for next year. Some numbers are highlighted as these are those where we haven’t matched the income this year that we hope to next year, such as the card reader income and recovering tax. Or with expenditure spent more this year than we are hoping to next year.

Appendix 5 – Parish Update

Timeline for moving Sunday worship to Glenvale Church of England School:

Jan 2025 – I have continued discussions with Ruth Walker-Green (CEO of PDET). Glenvale School still hasn’t yet been able to join PDET, it is hoped this will happen the 1^st Feb 2025. In the meantime, I have a meeting booked with a representative of PDET (Dan) and the head of the school (Louise Bilkhu) on the 15^th Jan to look at the details.

From my discussions with Ruth Walker-Green it may be that the Sunday afternoon I requested to set things up and invite the leaders of each area to visit the school will now be the 9^th Feb rather than the 2^nd. I will hopefully be able to clarify this at my meeting on the 15^th Jan.

We are still working towards our final service at Redwell, being the 2^nd March. It is hoped we will then have 2 Sunday mornings to worship and iron things out with an official ‘start date’ of the 23^rd March when Archdeacon Richard will preach.

There has been a request for those who wish to, to walk from Redwell School to Glenvale School on one of the Sundays between 9^th and 23^rd March. This feels symbolic of the move. We will look at facilitating this.

Revd. D.A.

Appendix 5a – Church spend re move to Glenvale
Email from Dawn

Thur 06/02/25 16.36

Afternoon all,

I have the keys for Glenvale School!

As the team leaders start to organise things this Sunday afternoon in preparation for our move to Glenvale, it is likely that we will need to buy some new equipment. I had planned on talking about this with the PCC but had to cancel due to illness.

For example, we will need a second first aid box, but I am anticipating more requests once after Sunday afternoon. I would also like to get a very large banner made (which we have permission to tie to the fence at the school) as a temporary sign until permanent signage is done. And put this up in preparation for us starting worship at Glenvale. The cost of the banner from CPO is £170.

Please can we have permission from the PCC to buy equipment up to say £500 (in total) from the building fund to buy the items necessary for the move, without needing to keep coming back to PCC? It will only be used for necessary equipment and the building fund seems the right pot to use, as they will all be things that would have been bought should we have built our own building.

Please can you respond ‘reply all’ to this email, Fiona can then take a note and add it to the minutes at the next PCC meeting!! Thank you!

Every Blessing

Dawn

Replies: –

Name	Replied date	Agreement? Y/N
Sam Carew	7/2	Y
Helen Cracknell	7/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund
Matthew Ellson	8/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund
Louise Harrison	6/2	Y
Melanie Hartung	7/2	Y
Ben Haughton-Scales	13/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund
Livvi Haughton-Scales	13/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund
Elizabeth Holbrook	12/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund
Alan Palmer	7/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund
David Wells	8/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund
Ruth Wium	13/2	Y but from Restricted funds not building fund

Louise

Thu 06/02/2025 19:52

Hi Dawn

I’m happy with this as a spend. I know there will be a few things for Sunday clubs that would be useful so we can split resources between ignite at Redwell and youth work and our new base at Glenvale. Thanks

Louise x

Sam

Fri 07/02/2025, 00:05

I’m happy with the spend too

Cheers
Sam

Mel
Fri 07/02/2025 09:11

Completely agree with the spend and the location the money is coming from

Helen

Fri 07/02/2025 09:24
If the church needs certain things to operate at Glenvale then they should be bought.

But I don’t think the money should come out of the restricted building fund, this money is allocated to building works not the bits and bobs inside a building. I know there are probably only a few members of the congregation remaining who remembers the launch of the building find and have given money to it; it was always just for the building not the inside stuff.

We have some money in the restricted fund which is not allocated to anything – wreath event profit, interest and other, totalling £367 this should be used first.

Wreath event	152
Interest	76
Other	139

This is where I feel the money should come from. Also tidies up the restricted monies.

Helen

Alan

Fri 07/02/25 10.25

I agree entirely with Helen,

Alan

David

Sat 08/02/2025 06:22

I am fine with the purchase of the banner (do we know how long the temporary arrangement is due to last?).

Helen makes a good point about the principle of the Building Fund and offers a good solution re alternative funding. It might mean further discussions but for me, that’s responsible accounting.

Regards,

David

Matt

Sat 08/02/2025 10:20

Good morning, all,

Agree with the purchase of the required items and possible use of ‘restricted funds’ rather than the building fund (which was for infra).

With our church finances frequently being placed in stretch perhaps we need a conversation on how the building fund can be put to good use (within certain boundaries). Having <50,000 sitting in an account and unable to be used for me represents bad practice.

Kindest regards,

Matt

Elizabeth

Wed 12/02/2025 20:13

Dear Fiona

I do apologise for not responding sooner. I agree that it is sensible to allow for necessary equipment to be purchased without further permission needed. Helen’s suggested source of funds makes absolute sense.

Best wishes

Elizabeth

Ruth

Wed 12/02/2025 22:37

Hello Fiona

I would like to echo everything Elizabeth has just said, including sending my own apologies for not replying sooner.

Best wishes

Ruth Wium

Livvi

Thu 13/02/2025 08:07

Apologies for late reply.

Happy for money to be paid for these things out of Helen’s suggested funds.

Ben

Thu 13/02/2025 09:20

Hi all,

Apologies also for the delayed response. I agree with the suggested approach for the needed items to be paid for from the funds Helen has identified.

God bless,

Ben

Appendix 5b – Proposal re bench cushions for Glenvale.

Hi all, Dawn asked me to look into cushions for the bench seats at Glenvale School for use at Sunday morning services. I found different options depending on cost and whether they need to cover the benches as a whole, or whether there could be more than one cushion per bench. Dawn has advised that usually there will be 16 benches out at each service, plus the red chairs.

When I looked at the cushions, ones I saw on Amazon start at £4.15, but that is only about 30cm square. When you customise them to the size we would need (30 x 244 x 3cm) with cotton linen covers, no piping, non-slip bottom they come out at between £72. And £83.19, or possibly even more, for each cushion.

Custom Bench Cushion, Personalized Window Seat Cushions Indoor, Non-Slip Bottom 50D High-Resilience for Custom Bench Cushions for Outdoor Furniture, 100+Colors and 6 Fabrics to Choose From,Dicke 3CM : Amazon.co.uk: Garden

About this item

[50D sponge with high elasticity] The 50D sponge with moderate hardness and softness makes the bench cushion seat pad soft but not easy to deform. It can support your body and relieve the tension between your body and hard surfaces such as the floor, bay window and wooden furniture. It is comfortable when you have to sit for a long time.
[Custom-made bench cushion] We offer you several colours to choose from. You can choose the right colour according to your home style. Available in four different thicknesses: 3 cm / 5 cm / 8 cm / 10 cm. All sizes and colours can be customized via the “Customize Now” channel. Please pay attention to your email address after ordering.
[Removable and washable fabric] Linen fabric, breathable and skin-friendly, no pilling, more wear-resistant. Robust zipper design, the seat cover can be easily removed and machine washed. The sponge can be easily removed from the cushion cover. A mild detergent and warm water below 40 degrees can be used. Clean, do not bleach.
[Anti-slip design] Our stylish seat cushions have non-slip rubber on the back, so you don’t have to worry about the cushion slipping when you sit down. We also have three customized options, including two lacing, four lacing and stretch lock, to choose your preferred fastening method to keep the saddle in place. Enjoy the softness and comfort of this reliable seat.
[Wide application] You can use it indoors or outdoors, very suitable for kitchen, swing, garden, terrace, lawn, living room, floor, bedroom, you can also put it on the grass to enjoy the sun

However, If you don’t mind different colours and 2 to 3 cushions per bench, you can get them from Temu., e.g.

At this size you would need 48 cushions (3 to a bench) and at this price (£8.52) would equate to £408.96.

Or for 2 cushions per bench – 32 x £13.01 (see below) = £416.32.

However, cushions from Temu are subject to availability at the time and would, therefore, need to be ordered quickly when found and colours as available.

Decision needed from PCC re what option to take.

Options:

No cushions.
One cushion per bench – customised option only one available. Approx £85.00 to £100.00 per cushion x 16 = £1360.00 to £1600.00.
Two cushions per bench. Colours as available. Likely to be more than one colour cushions needed. Possibility of someone sitting on the join where the cushions meet and them separating or becoming uncomfortable. Approx £13.00 to £15.00 per cushion x 32 = £416.00 to £480.00.
Three cushions per bench. Issues as for two cushions per bench. Approx £9.00 to £10.00 per cushion x 48 = £432.00 to £480.00.

FC – PCC Secretary

Appendix 6 – Safeguarding Report

Jan 2025 – There are 10 people who need to renew their DBS. (For your information, there is no ‘renewal’ system, people have to reapply from the beginning again. Also, the Update service wasn’t recognised by Peterborough Diocese, but I have contacted them about it to see if they are reconsidering this position, as at least one of our volunteers has the Update service through work). Of these 10, three have started the process. Two members of the PCC are currently updating their Safeguarding Training.

John Gilyead.

March 2025 update

Since the last PCC report, 6 people’s DBS certificates have come through. There are several more that will be coming up in the next couple of months for renewal. One member of the PCC has completed the safeguarding training. Currently, most members of the PCC have completed the training. I have checked with the diocese, and they are still not accepting use of the Update Service for DBSs.

Appendix 7 – Deanery Synod Report

Jan 2025 – The last meeting I attended was on the 12 November when Bishop Debbie was the main speaker.

She addressed the news about that The Archbishop of Canterbury resignation which had just happened. She acknowledged that all church members and leaders should take responsibility for safeguarding.

The main points of her address were as follows.

She spoke about her early life in Scotland and her road to ministry.

After attending St Andrew’s University, she gained experience in Management training with the NHS and also worked as a Charity Worker.

Prior to becoming Bishop of Peterborough, Bishop Debbie was Bishop of Southampton and acting Bishop of Winchester.
The Bishop wishes to develop a clear vision and strategy for achieving this within the diocese.
Thought needs to be given for where we are within the diocese, what is missing and how we can work together both within the diocese and within our deanery.
Ideas for future development included a focus on prayer for 2025, a bible day and possible focus on discipleship in 2026.

Points from remainder of meeting was the Diocese’s budget for next year is likely to show a deficit of £2.5million and Parish Share will increase by 3% approximately.

The importance of safeguarding was highlighted in churches and it being the responsibility of all and not just the Safeguarding Officer. All DBS should be up to date for all PCC members, as well as members of the Worship Teams within churches.

March 2025 update

Deanery Synod – Wednesday 8^th January

Unable to attend so notes taken from minutes of meeting

Finance

Parish Share in 2024 we are looking at similar figures to 2023.

Safeguarding

Following a lot of National-level sadness on safeguarding, please encourage your PSO, safeguarding teams and local teams. If you have the opportunity, write to the DSA who are speaking up for victims and survivors Don’t forget to complete the DBS applications for those who need them, and stay on top of your training at all times.

Future meetings

Wednesday 14 May ………………. St Nicholas, Great Doddington

Tuesday 16 September ………… St Mary’s, Wellingborough

Wednesday 12 November ……. St Mark’s, Wellingborough

Talk was about Emerging Mission given by Revds. Katrina Hutchins, Dawn Airey, Debbie Smith-Wilds and Jackie Buck

Deanery Synod also met on 11^th March – again unable to attend.

HC.

March 2025 addition

Appendix 8 – Parish Administrator wages

Decision needed from PCC

The National Living Wage is going up to £12.21on the 1^st April and so the PCC needs to agree to increase Amanda’s hourly rate.

Revd. D.A.