Registered Charity Number 1134777
Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Parochial Church Council for the Year Ended
31 December 2014
Incumbent:
The Revd Julian Francis
The Vicarage
Westbourne Road
Birmingham
B15 3TH
Bank:
Santander
Bootle
Merseyside
L30 4GB
Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council
What are the Parochial Church Council’s Tasks?
The PCC cooperates with the Incumbent in the whole mission of the Church. As part of the synodical structure of the Church of England, the PCC makes known and puts into effect any decision made by the Diocesan or Deanery Synods and gives advice to these Synods on any matters the PCC considers appropriate. The PCC is responsible for the financial affairs of the Church; the PCC draws up a budget and has the responsibility with the Incumbent of appointing, paying and dismissing paid officers of the Parish. The PCC is responsible for the care, maintenance, preservation and insurance of the fabric of the Parish church. The PCC is also responsible for the care and maintenance of the churchyard.
Vicar’s report
The year 2014 into 2015 began with the arrival of our new nave altar in April 2014. Across the year, its use on two Sundays in each month has become embedded within our liturgical pattern. In the worshipping, praying life of St George’s, there have been some highlights within the ebb and flow of the Sundays and the seasons. In the season of Trinity 2014, we trialled ‘Trinity Prayer’ on Wednesday evenings at six o’clock, saying the Common Worship Evening Office in the Lady Chapel with dedicated space for prayer for the parish and the needs of the world. This was very successful and gave birth to a complementary venture, ‘Lunchtime Prayer’, in Epiphany and Lent in 2015. This was a form of Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer with discussion of successive readings from Mark’s gospel. These initiatives have been a welcome addition. In May 2015 we are also starting a trial of having a said communion service according to Common Worship on the Tuesdays when parish lunch takes place, thus once a month on the second Tuesday at 11.30am. Our hope is that these weekday opportunities for prayer and worship will be accessible to the daytime office and student community, as well as to those of us who have daytime availability as members of St George’s.
As a complement to the more formal occasions of Remembrance, All Saints and All Souls, Christmas and Easter, it has been gratifying to have had three very rewarding all-age Sunday services for the Nativity with St George’s Primary School in December 2014, the Celebration of Baptism in January 2015 and the Christingle Service in February 2015. These services require extra planning, preparation and coordination and we are very grateful to Lorraine, Aly and Suganthi and all their assistants for all their input. They are also a very important part of our outreach to young families, and in so far as we invite recent baptism families as well as Junior Church families to all these occasions, we are all the time attempting to broaden both the reach and appeal of our worship. It was a particular delight therefore to welcome sixty four people to the Crib Service this last Christmas Eve, 27 children and 37 adults. This should encourage us to continue to offer a significant number of family-accessible occasions through the year. With this in mind, I would also like to thank all our Junior Church leaders for their tireless efforts in providing stimulating activities for the children who come each Sunday. In particular we thank Kirsty and Heather Butler for their very consistent, generous and creative contributions in Junior Church right through the year. We are also very grateful to St George’s Primary School for their strong commitment to our partnership in working for children. We thank Shirley Atkar and Bruce Warland, as Head and Deputy Head, for their continuing support and engagement with us as church and school working for the community.
Our worship would not be the same, of course, without its musical accompaniment. We have witnessed another year of outstanding leadership of music at St George’s from our musical director Phil Ypres Smith. We thank him and the Choir and the Dragon Consort for their consistent, dedicated and joyful commitment to the enhancement of many different types of worship. In connection with regular nave altar worship, we thank everyone for their flexibility and forebearance in meeting the associated acoustic challenges.
In July 2014, the PCC set new targets for our mission within the locality; to develop our work with schools, and to develop relationships with local partner churches, including our sister churches of the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) who worship at St George’s regularly. A new initiative of Fellowship Lunches among local churches began at St George’s in October 2014 and regular meetings are now taking place between ourselves and EOTC. These are small but really important steps in building trust, confidence and relationships across denominational, theological and cultural differences and in the quest to realise visible unity within the body of Christ in Birmingham. It is my sincere hope that we will continue to develop bonds of fellowship in the months and years to come. In respect of our work with schools, the PCC launched an initiative, ‘Serving our Schools’, with an open meeting on January 17th 2015. This has led to some exciting initiatives already, including our collaboration with St George’s Primary School through Eve Kirby and others in the launch of a school ‘youth club’ on Monday evenings. And we can look forward to further developments into 2015. We enjoy interaction with five different schools and we are keen to expand what we can do together. Another exciting venture has been the lunchtime concerts organised by Zoe Challenor and Phil Ypres Smith. These began in 2015 and followed on from two ‘Concerts for Ebola’ arranged at short notice by Zoe and Sara Clethero in support of Medecins sans Frontiers in December 2014. We look forward to how this important community initiative will develop into the future especially in connection with involvement from our schools.
The PCC report records the activities of the council across the year. In this report I would like to draw attention to the Funding 15 process initiated by the PCC, and led by Peter Millward. Through Funding 15 we have all been encouraged to review our regular giving towards the mission of St George’s. And we thank Peter and the group which has worked with him for bringing this matter before us sensitively and respectfully and keeping us focussed on it. We also thank everyone who gives so generously to St George’s. And if you haven’t yet responded to the appeal can I encourage you to do so. It is a sound financial base that allows us to undertake new mission initiatives and sustain our existing outreach. The PCC also owes special thanks to Carol Couse and Jane Darnton for the work they have been doing on our heritage lottery fund application for monies to undertake essential stonework and roof repairs. We will soon be having a fundraising evening towards this project in June 2015 followed by participation in an autumn auction with Biddle and Webb on October 17th 2015 also to raise funds. Do please support these events which Judy Dyke and Jane Darnton have worked hard to set up as they are an important part of our demonstration of commitment to the project. We also thank Biddle and Webb for the very generous terms on which we are benefitting from their assistance. As mentioned elsewhere, the PCC has received a report from the recent Quinquennial Inspection conducted by Chris Thomas our architect in September 2014. (This reviews the state of repair of the church building and furnishings every five years). In the coming months the PCC will be addressing how we undertake necessary repairs and improvements. And in this significant process, and the day to day upkeep of church, we thank Carol Couse and the Fabric and Environment Committee for all their generous, tireless work on our behalf. Looking ahead, the PCC has been pleased to support a long process of planning towards a significant World War One event over the weekend of September 19th and 20th 2015. This will be a commemoration of Edgbaston’s involvement in World War One with a particular focus on the family of Sir Oliver Lodge, who lived at Mariemont, the house that once stood opposite church across Westbourne Crescent, whose son Raymond was killed in September 1915. We thank Jane Darnton for all her work and research towards this weekend which is due to include seminars and displays on Saturday 19th September as well as the church service at 10.30am on the Sunday. It is also planned for there to be the dedication of a Peace Garden at the Sunday Service which Junior Church has been working towards with collaboration from St George’s Primary School. We trust that this weekend will give us good opportunity to look back with deep thanks and look forward in hope.
Over the year, we have been very fortunate to have benefitted from the leadership of Marion and John as churchwardens, and we thank them both for their willing and thoughtful service in this significant role. As Marion is standing down at this APCM, we thank her in particular for the very generous service she has rendered. She has been a great support to the many functions that make for the smooth running of church, to the church office and to me as vicar. We appreciate particularly her sustained commitment to the role across a difficult period of family illness. We thank her for all she has given, and continues to give, to St George’s. In June 2014 we were delighted that Jenny Uff was accepted for Reader training. Already she is half way through the training and we wish her very well as she undertakes the required studies. It was a pleasure to welcome Susan Booth as PCC Secretary in September 2014. This allowed David Hill to retire after his generous years of service. We thank David very much for all of his input in the role at PCC meetings and APCMs, and for all the administration of PCC affairs that ensures the smooth conduct of parish matters. Between January and June of 2014 a significant interregnum existed in the church office. This was brought to an end when Mrs Marcia Cannings was appointed as Parish Administrator. Marcia started work on July 1st and it has a pleasure to welcome her into the St George’s community and we thank her for all of her dedicated work on our behalf. We also thank Carol Austin, Marion Clarke and Julie Abrahams for very generously covering in the office while an appointment was awaited and for their continuing assistance with different office functions.
One of the delights of the year was to have a vicarage welcome party on October 12th 2014 to which over twenty newcomers to St George’s were invited. It is always rewarding when new folk come and join us and we have been very fortunate in this regard in the past year. At the same time we are very conscious of those we have lost. From the regular congregations, three members have died across the year, John Challenor, Margaret Andrews and Philip Cox. In each case their funerals afforded memorable occasions to give thanks for their lives and witness and for the privilege of their friendship and fellowship at St George’s. We thank God for them sincerely and think especially of Sara, Zoe, Anne and Jo and all family members in their personal loss. As I write this I am conscious again of the great privilege it is to share in the worshipping, missional and fellowship life of St George’s. Thank you for your partnership in the gospel.
Reverend Julian Francis
Vicar of St George’s Church, Edgbaston
Reports of Elected Officers
Report from the Electoral Roll Officer
At the beginning of 2014, there were 105 names on roll, of which 11 were resident in the parish. During the year, 3 were deleted due to deaths or re-location and 3 were added. At the beginning of 2015, there are 105 names on roll, of which 10 are resident in the parish.
Jenny Astley (Electoral Roll Officer)
Report of the Secretary to the PCC
The usual business of each PCC meeting has been to hear financial statements, to receive reports from PCC committees and other church groups and activities, and make any necessary decisions arising from these. Each meeting has been preceded by a meeting of the Standing Committee (Vicar, churchwardens, PCC vice-chairman, Treasurer, PCC secretary). It is the Standing Committee that agrees the agenda for each PCC meeting. Members of the PCC are ex officio or elected by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. The members of the current PCC (2014-2015) are as follows (with retirement dates in brackets):
Vicar: The Revd Julian Francis
Churchwardens: Marion Clarke, John Hatch
Representatives on Deanery Synod: Philip Couse (2017) (Vice Chairman), Ian French (2017), John Hatch (2017), Caroline Shaw (2017),
Elected members: Doreen Beevers (2017), Andy Butler (2015), Carol Couse (2017), Maggi Cull (2016), Anne Game(2017), Simon Kirby (2015) Aly Merrifield (2015), Justin Pinkess (2016), John Russell (2016) (Treasurer),
Charles Williams (2015), Pat World (2017), Phil Ypres-Smith (2016).
Co-opted members: Susan Booth
The PCC met six times in 2014, with an average attendance of 12 members. As, in other years, 2014 has been a busy year for the PCC, as testified by the issues, activities and events documented below by the many PCC Committees and Church Groups, all of which are overseen by the PCC. Of particular note this year has been the recruitment and appointment of a new Church Administrator in July, also a new PCC Secretary. David Hill, after four years (this time) as PCC secretary managed to retire from the post when Susan Booth was appointed at the July meeting. David Hill was thanked for his many years of service in this capacity.
Copies of the agenda and minutes of each PCC meeting are displayed in the church porch. They are also available on the St George’s website.
Susan Booth – Secretary to the PCC
Reports of the Committees(* indicates non-PCC member on membership of committees)
Finance Committee
The financial statements and reports can be found commencing on page 13
Education and Worship Committee
The Revd Julian Francis (chair),Jim Berrow, Julie Berrow, David Hill, Aly Merrifield,
Simon Kirby,Caroline Shaw, Phil Ypres-Smith, Jenny Uff
We were saddened to hear of the death, on 12thNovember 2014, of Margaret Andrews, our much valued past Lay Reader and former member of the committee.
During the year Jim Berrow has stepped down, and Julie Berrow and Jenny Uff (now a Reader in training) have joined. The Committee met 4 times in 2014. We have been monitoring how we use the Nave Altar, and making various adjustments. We now use it mainly on the 2ndSunday (with Dragon Consort) and 4thSunday, (with Choir) alternately with the High Altar, and Mattins on the 5thSunday. We have much appreciated all the thoughtful preparationfor All-Age Services of the Word, such as Celebration of Baptism on 11thJanuary . There have been some combinedevening services, such as Compline by Candlelight,with the other Edgborne Group churches. We enjoyed the United Methodist Church sharing in our evening, AshWednesdayEucharist too.
The Committee has discussed services for major festivals and seasons and produced service booklets for them. Three concurrent Lent courses are running. There was a modified Evening Prayer on Wednesdays during Trinity 2014, and aThursdayLunchtime Prayer from January to Easter in 2015.
The Home Fellowship Group for Bible Study has continued. Junior Church is flourishing, though with variable numbers. We thank all those who work so enthusiastically with the children. There are plans for Messy Church.
World War 1 Commemorations will take place in September 2015.
Caroline Shaw
Fabric and Environment Committee
Carol Couse (Chair), John Austin*, Keith Herbert *, David Hill, John Russell, Jane Darnton*, The Revd Julian Francis
It was disappointing to receive the news on 17th June that we were not successful in our first-round submission for Heritage Lottery Funding. There is always the possibility to try again and learn from our first attempt. HLF has made some suggestions for improving our application and we shall continue to seek expert advice. The most important part of the application is the heritage aspect and we need to involve and encourage all those who use the church building to express their views and reinforce their commitment to share in the life of St George’s and to secure its future.
We do need to keep this goal in mind; the problem we have with the deteriorating stonework and the penetrating rainfall will not go away by itself. Our 5 yearly Quinquennial Inspection report was completed in September and makes for very depressing reading. The growing list of external masonry repairs since the last Inspection Report seems daunting but should be considered only in the context of St George’ mission over the next 20-30 years.