Annual Report Year ended 31/12/2024

Published 11/05/2026

Registered Charity No 1172631

“Connecting with Jesus,

with each other,

with the community”

ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024

FOR NORTH WELLINGBOROUGH ANGLICAN CHURCH,

WELLINGBOROUGH, PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL

REPORTS OF CHURCH MINISTRY AND MISSION

Church attendance

The total of Church members on the Electoral Roll for 2025 is 76. This is a reduction from last year’s total of 82. However, this year there has been a total revision of the list.

Marion Darker – Electoral Roll Officer.

Report on the work of the PCC.

Membership

The PCC is made up of the following – ex officio members, who are the clergy, currently including the Incumbent (Vicar), and our two Curates (Ben and Livvy Haughton-Scales), the churchwardens, and Deanery Synod representatives. The other members of the PCC are elected at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM).

Deanery Synod representatives fulfil a three-year term, but new rules since 2020 enable them to stand for two terms before standing down for at least one term.
Churchwardens are elected every year. They can be re-elected but can only serve up to six consecutive years and then have a break of at least one year before standing for re-election.
Elected PCC members may remain on the PCC for up to three years and stand again after a one year wait.

David Wells stepped down from Churchwarden in early March 2024, but was one of the lay PCC members elected at the APCM. Sally Quincey was due to step down at the APCM but moved to pastures new in March 2024

At the APCM in 2024, four people stepped down as they had completed their three-year term, and four new people were elected. Elizabeth Holbrook stepped down from lay PCC member to become Churchwarden (an ex-officio member). This made 12 members in total.

No PCC lay members are due to step down at the 2025 APCM.

There is, therefore, allowance for election of an additional three PCC lay members, two Churchwardens and one Deanery Synod representative at the APCM (2025).

The PCC is empowered to co-opt two additional members after the APCM for a particular purpose, regardless of vacancies, but only until the next APCM and then they would need to be elected.

Legalities

The PCC is required to have a Standing Committee, its membership comprises the Incumbent, Curates, Churchwardens and Treasurer.

As North Wellingborough Anglican Church is a registered charity, members of the PCC are registered with the Charity Commission as trustees. The responsibilities of the trustees are detailed in the Trustees’ Report.

Responsibilities

At every meeting the PCC considers reports from those who cover areas of the three priorities highlighted in the Church Vision, together with reports from Deanery Synod and Safeguarding. The Treasurer also presents regular reports on the church finances. All are responsible to the PCC and report back to it regularly. Their reports are received by the full PCC and discussed, as needed.

Attendance

The full PCC met eight times during this year, including a short meeting after the APCM, with an average attendance of 75%.

Fiona Clarke – PCC Secretary.

Vicar’s Report

When I was preparing to come to Gleneagles church towards the end of 2020, the Lord gave me the scripture from Isaiah 37:30-32. Of course, the scripture was a prophetic vision for Israel at that time, but I believed this to be a prophetic word for us as a church. As we emerged from the pandemic it felt like we were the ‘remnant’ (v31) and it took time to adjust. Year 1 & 2 were about re-orienting ourselves, setting a new vision, simply being faithful to the faith that had been given us and starting to respond to what the Lord was putting in front of us. But in year 3 (2023) we would ‘sow and reap’ (v 30). And at the beginning of 2023 we received another confirmatory prophetic word from Song of Songs 2 ‘the winter is past’ and spring is on its way. Alongside this, I spoke about a prophetic sense that seemed to be starting to grow in this nation, in which the Lord is preparing and equipping His church to be more spirit filled, more equipped/confident in bringing the gospel and with a greater awareness of being a sent people to make new disciples.

The church of England had been in consistent decline for at least 70 years and so in many ways it can feel as though the church is being dismantled, but actually I believe what we have been experiencing are birth pains as God reshapes and recalls His church, it’s a sort of dismantling in order to re-shape us.

And yet again what a year of re-shaping 2024 has been for us!

One of the reasons I said yes to the call to ordained ministry, was to have the opportunity of walking beside people who are exploring what the Lord has created them to be and do, to then support and release that in whatever way I can.Last year Elizabeth was on that journey in a new way and out of a Godly desire within her to be creative, with missional imagination, she started the Creations Craft Group on a Monday morning at the Ock ’n’ Dough. I love that.We also started a second toddler group at Easter last year, this time at Glenvale Park care home also on Monday mornings. And the summer drink stop over at the park on Wednesday afternoons during the summer weeks.
All the myriad ways we try to be present in the parish meant that last year we were part of bucking the downward trend in church attendance and for the first time in at least 70 years, some say 100 years, those who attend services on Sunday mornings grew.In fact, there is some research just coming out now, that was posted on our church Facebook page, that is showing that it is among Gen z that the church is growing rapidly.People just turning up at churches and wanting to know about Jesus.
Last year we ran Alpha for the first time in several years and off the back of that we had two lots of full immersion baptism services with children, young people and adults, as well as a confirmation service in the Autumn.
Huge in the life of this parish is that our parish boundaries were extended last year so that Glenvale Park is now part of this parish (and we are now 3 housing estates).When Glenvale Park is fully built it will more than double the size of the original parish.
With the parish boundaries changing, we changed our name from being Gleneagles to becoming North Wellingborough Anglican Church.In fact, it was at last year’s APCM that we put the choice of names out for people to vote on! Another huge change for us.
The new Glenvale School became a Church of England School and opened in September.So, our engagement with schools has increased, now having 2 schools – this includes monthly assemblies at Redwell, collective worship weekly at Glenvale, being present at all the Christmas and summer fairs, running the year 6 transition sessions in both schools, that’s around 116 year 6s. Running wellbeing groups at Redwell and we’re about to start the same at Glenvale School after half term. Last year, in November, we ran Narnia prayer spaces at Redwell School for year 5, the Glenvale year 5s walked up to join us too.
And there was once again fantastic community presence during festival times of the year (Easter rock hunt, summer community days, teenagers went to the Satellites camp and Advent/Christmas) in which we saw hundreds of people, increasing year on year.

Looking forward:

Our core vision is ‘connecting’ – with Jesus, with each other and with the wider community. I often say that the Lord chooses us to be this parish’s glimpse of heaven! We gather ourselves around this vision by having 3 key areas to focus on: discipleship, wellbeing/wholeness and under 18/16s ministry.

The last couple of years at APCM I’ve focussed on Discipleship. To use a John Mark Comer phrase, being a disciple of Jesus is “being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing the things that Jesus did”. Our major way of encouraging one another in this is through our midweek Connect Groups. We re-shaped them a couple of years ago and I still want to encourage everyone to get into a Connect group.

But just briefly I want to focus on our Under 16’s ministry because we made a significant decision last year about this.

We know where churches invest in under 16s ministry the church grows, where it doesn’t the church declines. In my first year here (we’ve been here for 4.5 years now) we had an average of 5 under 16s on Sundays with a possible maximum of 7. Last year we had an average of 16 under 16s here on a Sunday morning with a possible maximum of 33. That’s a significant difference, because of your investment. So, we launched out in faith last year as a leadership team and knew that we needed to look at the possibility of employing a children’s and youth worker. We started off saying, can we raise enough to pay someone for 1 day a week for 1 year (42 weeks a year) at cost of £5,000. Now that’s a great start but it wouldn’t have really moved us forward. And as people started giving and as we started applying for grants, we got to the place of having or a promise of having in the pot for this project now standing at around £53,000. When the leadership first made this decision, I never dreamed we would get anywhere near that!

We’re now trying to head towards £65,000 which will allow us to employ someone for 30 hours a week, 42 weeks for 3 years. That’s really exciting and soon we’ll be putting a job description together to advertise and hopefully there is someone out there who will apply and can start in September. Their role will be to hold the vision and to co-ordinate the teams. Of course, they will be hands on but no one person can do everything! So please, please don’t anyone think oh good someone else can do my role in the under 16s because that won’t be the case. Essentially, that person will take on the roles that Ben, Livvi and I are carrying, which will free us up to do other things but also, Ben and Livvi will complete their training next summer and be moving on. What I’m saying is that what we’re doing at the moment, as clergy, isn’t sustainable and we need a children’s and youth worker.

So, to help us get to the £65,000 we launched the 100 for 100 project in January this year. The idea being that more than 100 people are part of this congregation (including under 16s) and growing all the time, and if we each could raise £100 this year, then collectively we would raise £10,000, with gift aid on top which would take us to the £65,000! My two kind of rules are (because I’m not into fund raising):

be missional
have fun

There are lots of ways to do this and during some café services a portion of time will be spent on allowing people to talk with one another around their tables and get ideas from each other.

Revd. Dawn Airey – Vicar

Churchwardens’ Fabric Report

During 2024, the church worshiped at Redwell School. All equipment was stored in the shed, apart from PA equipment, which was kept in a cupboard off the main hall, and office equipment kept in the study at the Vicarage. The PCC decided to relocate our Sunday services to Glenvale Church of England School, from spring 2025, with weekday activities for children continuing at Redwell School. Whilst some of our equipment is to be moved to storage cupboards at Glenvale School, this relocation will necessitate the purchase of some things which we need at both premises. Storage at Glenvale school is limited, so the shed will act as useful long-term storage for items we do not use every Sunday, and we are grateful that we can keep this facility.

The PCC also decided to use a generous donation to update much of the PA equipment, including a wheeled storage case, to use in the new school.

Items of office equipment are used in the Vicar’s study at the Vicarage.

Everything is in good order, with no evidence of deterioration due to damp. Items are repaired or replaced as necessary, and the costs are borne from church funds under the oversight of the PCC.

The parish still owns land in the Redhill Farm area of the parish, in conjunction with the Diocese. There are no plans regarding this at the present time.

This report comprises the Terrier report, together with the report on the Church Inventory and Logbook.

In conclusion, we would like to acknowledge and give thanks for the hard work and dedication of those who fulfil so many duties across our church life, who make our task so much easier by their selfless service.

Matthew Ellson and Elizabeth Holbrook – Churchwardens.

Sung Worship Team

Team: Alex Palmer, Ben Haughton-Scales, Dan Hulland, Ezra Airey, Jasmin Childs, Louise Harrison, Mel Hartung, Ore Alo, Ruth Wium, Seb Goss, Steph Gledhill & Steven Follows.

I’d like to start with a huge thank you to all those who have led and facilitated our musical worship over the last year. The process of planning worship, preparing music, learning new songs and gathering early on Sundays to practice is not without sacrifice and we are grateful to the way these people’s gifts enrich our gathered worship. In addition to the team, we are also hugely grateful to Sally Wilkins, who diligently compiles the PowerPoint slides, to those who manage the visuals week to week, and to the sound team, who have served the church so faithfully in this area and have also overseen the transition of our PA setup to our new venue at The Glenvale CofE Primary School, including the purchase of new equipment.

It’s been a particular joy to have a number of new musicians join the team over the last year. If you are harbouring a musical gift and are interested in exploring how you might use that to serve God and his church, please do speak to me. A new youth band comprising several of the church’s young people has met for several practices during the year and is aiming to lead musical worship for the first time at the June 2025 Together on Sunday cafe service. In addition, Mel and Ruth attended the New Wine Worship Leaders Retreat in March 2025 and have returned with some really good ideas for us to explore and implement as a team over the coming year.

Revd. Ben Haughton-Scales – Curate

Financial Review for 2024

The church now only has one bank account and mid-year it changed account name to match the church’s new name. Some of the money held in this account is set aside for specific purposes and is deemed restricted money.

At the beginning of 2024 the General account had £1,071 in it and the Building account had £49,032. At the end of the year following the merger of these two accounts there was £ 61,334 in the General account.

Our Parish Share was set by the Diocese as £69781; this was not paid in full this year although we did pay slightly more than last year; the shortfall was £7,281. We continued to support our many Mission Partners this year.

The net income over the year was £11,230, some of this is linked to grants for the U18 worker. The main source of our funding still comes from the congregation, this comes into the bank account through the weekly plate, online giving, Parish Giving Scheme and the card machine.

The accounts were examined by Denton Tavara Limited and no issues were reported.

My thanks go to Lis Wells for starting the year as Treasurer until I took over in the summer.

We thank God for his generous provision during 2024 which enabled us to sustain ministry. We pray that this will continue.

Helen Cracknell – Treasurer. On behalf of the Finance Team.

Accounts and Independent Examiners Report to 31 Dec 24

Key Vision Areas:

Discipleship

Connect Groups

From the APCM in 2023 we ‘re-launched’ Connect Groups and reshaped them around the vision of the church. It isn’t possible to get to know everyone and so our midweek Connect Groups are the main way of caring for, encouraging, and supporting one another both in our faith journey but also life in general! The other change in Connect Groups is that we stopped calling those who coordinated them ‘leaders’ and instead call them ‘facilitators’. In many ways it may not feel like a significant change, but we recognised that a culture had developed in which those who were willing to be ‘leaders’ felt at times overwhelmed and found themselves organizing every aspect of the Connect Group. The purpose of the facilitator is to enable every person in the group to use their God given gifts and skills to serve and build one another up, rather than do everything themselves.

We have continued to have 5 Connect Groups, all meeting fortnightly (listed below). Rob Seaman, who had been leading one of our Connect Groups, left to start his curacy in June 2024. This resulted in a need for another Connect Group Facilitator.

With some discussion and deliberation, it has eventually been decided that Ruth Wium would become the Connect Group facilitator for this group. We are so thankful for her in taking up this role and using her gifts in this way. We have tried to encourage everyone to be part of a group and while for some going to the fortnightly meetings might be hard, the majority can get to the group socials and be part of the wider group to pray for and support one another. We have discovered that Connect Groups have been especially hard for those with families to attend in person. The possibility was considered as to whether an online Connect Group might be of benefit to those in this situation, as requested by one of the families. There hasn’t been too much traction at the moment with this, but we continue to bear it in mind and attempt to come up with opportunities for families to engage in different ways.

The facilitators continue to meet every couple of months to support one another. These meetings tend to be led by Dawn at this time, and are an opportunity to pray, share how things have been within our Connect Groups and to seek the wisdom in the room for anything we have been struggling with or thinking through in regard to the Connect Groups.

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)

Tuesday Teaching evenings:

In 2022 we decided to keep Tuesday evenings free from other church business to allow for occasional extra teaching sessions. In 2023 we used Tuesday evenings for a Lent course and a training course in prophetic ministry. In 2024, we have not used Tuesday evenings in this way, but the time that would have been spent on Tuesday evenings has been transferred to evenings of Alpha during the week.

In 2024, we completed an Alpha course with 6 adults within the congregation. This then led to four adult baptisms in May 2024, and the baptisms of two of their children in September 2024.

We have just begun another Alpha course.

Community Events

We seemed to have developed a pattern of hosting community missional events at festival times of year and almost all of us are involved in these in some way or other, so thank you everyone!!! As a parish within the Church of England, we are called to be this parish’s glimpse of heaven and so I believe our community events have been a really significant part of being present in and being that good news to our local community.

Easter:

The Holy Week rock hunt happened again and was just as popular as in previous years. 260 decorated rocks went out and we finished the week by inviting families to an activity morning on Good Friday. 200 children, young people and their families came and enjoyed the activities, being introduced and invited into the mission of the church.

Summer:

During the summer we hosted the pop-up Community Days at Glenvale Park for the third time at the beginning of the July school holidays. We were able to have a community day on all of three days we had planned. The days were full of crafts, games, football, coffee and chat. On the Friday, we had the addition of a puppet show brought to us by Livvi’s mum, Wendy Scales, which was very popular, and on the Saturday, we had the addition of a bouncy assault course, bouncy dash n’ grab, donated to use by the developers. This was very well received by the community and a 100 or more people attended each day from the community and further afield. Some people from the care home also visited the Community Days. On the final day, while it was still sunny, we held an outdoor church service outside by the play park, between Glenvale Church of England School and the nursery. A few extra people from Glenvale came to this event, as well as many regular members of our church family. We also had the pleasure of a group from Glenvale Care Home coming as well, which was lovely! So many people from the church were involved in running the community days and it felt like a really good time for the church too. We look ahead to Community Days in 2025. Although feedback from those who helped was overwhelmingly positive, there was also acknowledgement that the time and energy spent putting up the event each day was more than the time we spent doing the event. In order to preserve time and energy, whilst still having the same impact of previous Community Days, we are looking to adjust the Community Days to be two slightly longer days, possibly including food and drink vans if we go over lunchtime. We will think about this in the coming months.

Advent/Christmas:

In December we had a full programme of carol events every weekend.

Week 1: Outdoor Carols & Lights (knitted nativity characters) on Gleneagles.
Week 2: Outdoor Carol service (drinks and food vans) on Glenvale Park; Wreath Event.
Week 3: No additional Christmas Events.
Week 4: Traditional Carol Service at Redwell School; Indoor Christingle & Nativity Service at Redwell School

Each event/service was developed further from the previous year. It was great to see so many people across the whole month, many who we did not know, as well as a good number who we see at our various midweek groups.

Glenvale Park Care Home

Our team for delivering church services and fellowship to Glenvale Park Care Home has increased. Rob Seaman had been an incredibly significant figure for these services, having a clear gift with communicating the gospel through his words and love for the residents and staff there. In leaving us to go to his first curacy, the loss was certainly felt especially in this area. However, we have been so blessed to gain additional members of our team. Our team now stands as Mel, Sandi, Jackie B-C, Dawn, Livvi and Ben. The team has continued to visit and facilitate a weekly church service which normally lasts about 30 minutes including some liturgy, songs, prayers and a short reflection. Dawn joins the team periodically so that we can administer communion. Sandi and Mel have taken on the responsibility of sometimes leading the church service without clergy. We hope this may be something that continues.

The services themselves are well attended. We have now moved our services permanently to the lounge area, which has additional seating. Average attendances are probably around 17 each week.

We also have had family members who have joined the services who we have got to know and often staff members have joined as well. We have tried different things through the services to engage the residents, whilst including elements of liturgy which provide a framework and some familiarity that those with dementia can engage with.

We would value your prayers as we seek to shape this work to best meet the residents’ needs and for the formation of relationships with visitors coming along.

Revd. Livvi Haughton-Scales (Curate).

Under 18’s Ministry

Under 11s ministry

For all of our under 18s ministry we have both a discipleship stream and an outreach stream. For under 11s our discipleship stream is primarily Sunday mornings at Sunday Club. Our outreach stream is on a Thursday – under 5s have Wellitots and those in year 1-5 have Ignite.

The resource called Energize has continued to be used across all of our under 18s groups. This appears to have been appreciated by all the leaders.

Sunday Club (Discipleship)

Sunday club continues to be appreciated by children and parents. There is 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.

Revd. Dawn Airey (Vicar) and Revd. Livvi Haughton-Scales (Curate)

Wellitots

Wellitots has continued to be held weekly on a Thursday afternoon in the Hub at Redwell Primary School. In the last year, we have had consistent volunteers who we are hugely grateful for, who transport toys, and provide snacks and crafts for toddlers and carers who come. A good community of parents, carers and toddlers have developed, although we have seen a drop in numbers in the new school year, to an average of 4-6 families coming each week.

To our surprise, we were contacted by the school a month ago to inform us that the Hub, where we have been meeting, is being repurposed by the school’s trust and so we are no longer able to use it.

The headteacher at Redwell School, Claire, has tried to find us another space and time for meeting, but the only available time was on a Friday, the church staff’s day off. Because of this, the decision has been made to not continue Wellitots in the way it currently stands after Easter. Our regular parents and carers have been informed.

Glenvale Toddlers

In response to a growing need on the Glenvale Park Estate for a toddler group that was close enough for parents and carers on the estate to walk to, our church decided to partner with the Glenvale Care Home and hold a weekly toddler group in their library. Research shows that there are huge benefits for bringing together the youngest and oldest in life and toddler groups in care homes have become more popular in general.

This seemed an amazing opportunity for the church to bless both the community in Glenvale Park and the Care Home. The Care Home had kindly offered to host and provide refreshments during the toddler group. The residents in the care home have enjoyed sitting in the library whilst the toddler group is happening. The Care Home also provides plenty of room for storing toys.

The toddler group ‘Glenvale Toddlers’ began in May 2024 and has been very popular. We now have 45 families on the register and anywhere between 7 and 15 families there each week. This toddler group proves to be very popular, and we pray it will continue to draw in more families, and deeper connections and opportunities to share God’s love will emerge.

Ignite

Leaders: Livvi Haughton-Scales, Ruth Gilbert, Alan Palmer, Louise Harrison, Elizabeth Holbrook, Judy Meleleu, Mope Alo, Michelle Norwood. Dawn Airey also comes at the beginning of most sessions to help with the register. Ben Haughton-Scales has helped on some weeks when needed.

Following Rob Seaman starting his curacy, Livvi took up the role of leading/ coordinating Ignite from September 2024.

Ignite 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.

In an effort to ensure prayer, worship and the bible is a key part of the group, we have continued to teach a Bible story every other week. 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 filmed an Easter film telling the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with the help of Livvi’s Mum, Wendy. We invited parents to watch this film as part of the final session before Easter and 29 children turned up, with around 20 parents/carers/family members.

They loved the film, and it was a great way of deepening our relationships with the parents and providing more of a link between the church and the group, as many of these parents are keen to come to our other events as well.

In building on this, another question for our team is how we might bridge the gap between Ignite and church even more. 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 provide more invitation for parents to come to church, such as inviting the Ignite kids to be part of all age café services in some way 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 in our next school term and beyond.

School’s work

We have continued to have regular school’s work at Redwell in 2024, whilst we have also started to engage with Glenvale Church of England School. At Redwell, Livvi delivers school assemblies on a monthly basis. She has often asked what assemblies the school would most benefit from and has, as a result, done a lot of festival-based assemblies, such as Advent and Lent.

Livvi has also done two assemblies promoting Ignite. This Easter, Livvi did three assemblies in a week telling the story of Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, similarly to what Livvi and Dawn did the previous year. This was a good opportunity to advertise our Rock Hunt and Easter events.

All three clergy have attended school performances and Dawn has attended parents evenings. We have continued to run several wellbeing groups throughout the year with different year groups and Ben has mainly headed this up. We delivered, for a second time, the year 6 ‘Transition to Secondary School’ sessions using material from Scripture Union. Christmas 2024, we offered Narnia prayer spaces in the Hub, with the help of a couple of ladies from the diocese, who provided a lot of resources in order to make this a wonderful space for the year 5 children who attended. It was very well received and some children from Glenvale also came over to enjoy it.

At Glenvale Church of England School, Dawn delivers collective worship every Thursday morning. This has been a great way to increase presence in the school and to provide a place of worship for the children and staff who attend. It has been very well received, especially by the children.

Please pray for all of us, that God will continue to give us the passion and the opportunities to present the gospel to all the children attending the groups and that He will continue to guide us in His will for all the groups and all of us. Also please pray for all the children attending, that God will work incredibly in their hearts.

Revd. Livvi Haughton-Scales (Curate)

School Choir

I ran the school choir at Glenvale Primary on a voluntary basis, in the lead up to Christmas 2024. I work with a group of 25 enthusiastic children from Years 3 to 6. As part of our sessions, I introduced worship songs as warm-up exercises, which helped create a positive and uplifting atmosphere focused on God. The children developed basic vocal skills and began exploring harmony, showing great enthusiasm and commitment throughout. Their hard work culminated in a performance at the Glenvale Carols concert, where they sang with confidence and joy, celebrating all they had achieved together.

Louise Harrison

Youth

Youth Ministry Report

2024 has been a year of both challenges and great joys in the youth ministry at NWAC:

Ignite Youth– This was the outreach group that met each Thursday evening (term-time only) until the end of the 2023/24 school year. It involved games, crafts, a tuck shop, and a short ‘thought for the day’ on issues relevant to the young people and based on Christian teaching.

After much prayer and thought, the decision was made over the 2024 summer holiday not to restart Ignite Youth in the 2024/25 school year. This decision was not made lightly, but in looking at the big picture it was felt the group was not fulfilling its original purpose anymore and that it might be more fruitful to redirect our time and energies in a slightly different way.

Of those who previously led or helped with Ignite Youth, Carol Maycock, Judy Meleleu, Dawn and Livvi became involved with the team for the younger Ignite group for primary school aged children that still meets from 6-7pm on Thursday evenings, while Bruna and Daniela Duarte are now helping with Connect Youth instead. The age range for Ignite was also extended for those in school years 1-6, to catch some of the year 6s who would’ve previously attended.

Sunday Youth – This is the group that meets during Sunday services on 2^ndand 4^th Sundays in the month (1^st Sundays are Together on Sunday cafe services and there currently aren’t enough leaders to run on 3^rd Sundays, so the young people stay in the service). During this time there is in-depth bible teaching and discussion. The new Youth Band has now met for several practices, and we are working towards them leading worship in church for the first time at the June 2025 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 – This is a discipleship group which runs fortnightly on Sunday afternoons. 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 this year, with an average attendance of 9.

Most of the young people are connected with church, but we have started to see them inviting friends from outside the group to build friendships and explore faith in Jesus. This year we ran baptism and confirmation preparation sessions during the 2024 summer term, with 4 members of the group being baptised and 3 confirmed in the autumn. We have been following a series on Christian Lifestyle using the church’s Energize resource and have run sessions on topics including priorities, integrity, humility and influence. We have continued to hold half-termly social evenings to facilitate friendship-building among the group, including games nights, a film night and an outdoor summer social.

We are really excited about the spiritual growth and deepening of friendships that are taking place in these groups and are praying that God continues to work powerfully among our young people to help them grow as followers of Jesus. The Energize online children’s and youth work resource by Urban Saints continues to be an excellent tool for all our children’s and youth volunteers to assist with planning and preparing sessions.

During the school summer holidays, 6 young people attended the Satellites summer youth festival at the Bath & West Showground from 2^nd-7^th August 2024, with Dawn, Livvi and Ben as the leaders for the trip and Chris Airey very kindly making two return journeys to set up and pack down the Aireys’ caravan. This was a fantastic time away for the young people; the range of activities provided was excellent and the young people all had stories of encountering Jesus in new and significant ways. A group will be going to Satellites again next year at the same location from 6^th-11^th August 2025 – 6 young people have signed up to go, including 2 for whom this will be their first time, which is really exciting!

Team

The church’s youth ministry is completely a team effort and would not happen without all those who support the discipleship of our young people in so many different ways. I will resist trying to list everyone for fear of missing someone out, but you know who you all are, and we are immensely grateful for all your hard work and dedication.

Revd. Ben Haughton-Scales – Curate and Youth Team Leader.

Wholeness in Jesus/ Wellbeing

Prayer Ministry Report
Members of the Prayer Ministry team currently are Dawn, Ben, Livvi, Alan, Alex, Chris, Steph, Mel, Ruth and Jackie.
Prayer ministry continues to be offered during and after services, with whoever from the prayer ministry team is present on the day and who isn’t doing other duties. Usually, 1-2 people on average ask for prayer.
Prayer is always available for those who may need it. Please ask Dawn or Jackie if you ever need prayer and they will arrange it for you.
The Prayer Chain continues to be extremely responsive and effective. It currently has 16 members who pray for any needs at short notice. Alerts are sent out via email.
The list of names being prayed for by the chain are also included in the weekly prayers circulated to the wider church. Reviews of the list are carried out at regular intervals in the year with some names being removed as prayer is no longer needed. A summary of names and prayer needs is circulated to the prayer chain to recap on details and progress, and as a reminder of what we are praying for.
Jackie has been looking at the book “Our Hands His Healing” by Jeannie Morgan with a view to potentially doing some training in the future regarding healing ministry.
Ben and Jackie prepared prayer stations for Maundy Thursday. This was held from 4.30-6.30 pm. The theme was ‘Washed by the blood of Christ’. Everyone was welcome to come and spend some quality time with Jesus, with prayer activities for all ages.
Towards the end of the year Prayer ministry was a bit quiet 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 Jackie to meet the deadline for the weekly prayer pointers that are issued on Fridays due to her work and personal commitments. Therefore, Chris Gledhill 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. 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.”
Jackie continues to oversee the prayer chain and list of names for intercession and will liaise with Chris for this.

Our sincere thanks go to the members of both the Prayer Chain and Prayer Ministry Team for their faithful service and devotion to this vital ministry.

Fiona Clarke pp. Jackie Brooks-Cheesman.

Wellingborough Bereavement and Loss Group.
The year began with numerous referrals from the local medical practices as reported to last year’s APCM. Unfortunately, referrals were not matched by attendances. We found ourselves with insufficient numbers to enable a viable group, to share experiences etc.

Regrettably the group organisers decided to cease meeting at the end of the school year in July 2024.
However, the online help line is still running, and numbers of members are static at the moment.

Valerie Brown facilitator.

Safeguarding Report

At North Wellingborough Anglican Church, safeguarding is treated with the seriousness it deserves.

We have lots of members who give their time supporting children and vulnerable adults.
DBSs, Safer Recruiting and Safeguarding Training are all important elements that back-up the work of volunteers.
Safeguarding information is displayed on the church noticeboard, website and weekly email news bulletin.
On Safeguarding Sunday in November, we spent some time discussing why safeguarding is important and who’s responsibility it is (everyone’s).
Since May 2024, 10 people have got new DBS certificates. 3 people have done the safeguarding training.

Thank you to everyone who volunteers at church and has done the forms and training – this certainly makes my role more straightforward.

John Gilyead (Parish Safeguarding Officer).

Deanery Synod Report

Below is a summary of the Wellingborough Deanery Synod Meetings, Events and Training Opportunities which took place during 2024:

09 January	Synod Meeting	All Hallows, Wellingborough
20 January	Intercessions Training	St Nicholas, Great Doddington
17 February	Deanery Treasurers’ Meet-Up	Earls Barton Church Hall
13 March	Synod Meeting	All Saints, Earls Barton
24 March	JH Maunder’s “Olivet to Calvary”	Castle Ashby
12 May	Thy Kingdom Come Service	with +Debbie at St Catherine’s, Irchester
14 May	Synod Meeting	St Mary’s, Orlingbury
14 July	Deanery Evensong	All Saints, Pytchley
11 September	Synod Meeting	All Saints, Earls Barton
October	Faith Sharing Event	The Lilacs, Isham
12 November	Synod Meeting	St Mark’s, Wellingborough
24 November	The Advent Story	St Andrew’s, Wellingborough
05 December	The Advent Story	St Peter’s, Isham

WELLINGBOROUGH DEANERY FINANCIAL POSITION

Revd Katrina Hutchins (Mears Ashby/Hardwick/ Sywell/ Overstone) thanked all parishes in the Deanery for their Parish Share payments over the 2024 financial year. Every parish has been able to pay at least something.

The total paid in 2024 was very similar to 2023 figures, which was almost £30000 down on 2022.

Thanks were expressed to treasurers for returning the ASA and Parish Share splits; and to churchwardens for inputting the Statistics for Mission data, which the Deanery completed on time.

Katrina reminded parishes that their Finance Returns should be done online as soon as possible after their APCMs, and a copy of their Annual Report and Accounts sent to David Mason at the Diocesan Office in Peterborough.

PRESENTATIONS

The following presentations took place during 2024:

Jan	Jez Gowers-Cromie gave a full and detailed account on the work of Christian Aid.
Mar	Peterborough Diocese Mission Team talked about their work around the Deanery/Diocese and a group discussion was held on generating ideas to take forward.
May	Eco-Church Presentation: members were inspired by the Orlingbury team, and Chad Chadwick and Katrina Hutchins encouraged us to look at our churchyards and church areas as an outside space to plant, enjoy and use.
Sept	Victoria Kellett, Diocesan Safeguarding Officer was welcomed to the Deanery. She gave a brief outline of her career and how her faith has played such an important part in her journey over the years. She looked forward to nurturing the safeguarding culture of the Diocese into something really positive.
Nov	Bishop Debbie spent the day in Wellingborough Deanery, visiting Deanery clergy incl. Greater Chapter, a toddler group at St Mark’s, the Kingsway Estate in Wboro, having a town centre walk in Wboro, incl. Swansgate, and a visit to All Hallows before lunch at the Daylight Centre, a baby/ toddler group in Earls Barton, and collective worship in Mears Ashby. She rested in Lt Harrowden and ended the day with a shared supper and Deanery Synod meeting at St Mark’s, W’boro.