Serving the communities
of Mirfield and Hopton
Annual report 2015
(Please note that questions for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) on Wednesday 20thApril 2016 at 19:00 at St. Mary’s are to be submitted in writing and presented by Sunday 17thApril 2016for inclusion.)
Revd Hugh Baker
Vicar of Mirfield Team Parish
Report for the Year 2015
2015 / St. Mary’s / St. Paul’s / St. John’s / Crem / TOTALBaptisms / 42 / 0 / 16 / 58
Weddings / 15 / 1 / 3 / 19
Funerals / 20 / 0 / 7 / 31 / 58
Average Sunday attendance (Main service only) / 85 / 32 / 117
A read through of the individual contributions submitted for this annual report will tell you of the wide range of activities that are carried out in this Parish over the year, the hours of dedicated effort that have gone in to the life of the church here and the care and attention that has been shown by so many. I am as ever extremely grateful to everyone who has worked so hard over the year both those mentioned in this report and the many others who get on quietly in the background, living out their Christian faith day by day.
Worship and prayer.
Worship and prayer should quite rightly be at the heart of what we do as it is this that sustains and upholds us. The yearly cycle of word and sacrament is what roots us in our faith. Our response to God and how we live out our lives should grow from this. My thanks go to everyone who helps to lead our worship week by week and through the special seasons of the year: those who assist and serve, those who produce our service sheets, those who read and intercede, those who sing and play. Our thanks goes to Juliet Moorhouse for her many years of dedicated service as organist both at St. Paul’s and then St. John’s, who following a time of illness took the decision to retire this year. Scott has now stepped into the gap that this has left and although the Sunday morning dash between St. Mary’s and St. John’s is a difficult manoeuvre he has managed to maintain a very high standard of music and choral work at both churches, which I know is greatly appreciated. In addition to the usual services 2015 also saw another quiet day organised at St. Paul’s.
Pastoral Care
My thanks once again this year to the people who visit those in hospital, the sick and bereaved at home and take Communion to the housebound. This is a very valuable part of the work that we do and goes on quietly in the background both officially through our pastoral team and also I know as individual Christians respond to the needs around them as part of their witness.
Mission and outreach
Jesus calls us to help those in need and to take the “Good news” of the Christian message to those around us. In a nut shell this is what the mission and outreach of the church is and it is something that all of us are called to part of. There are many good things already going on. There is the Pastoral visiting I just mentioned, there is the work that is being done through our local Schools, and there is the support that we give to “Trinity Care” food bank week by week. This year also saw us reaching out to those who had come to church for Baptisms with a Baptism party and this is something we look to repeat in alternate years, the next being in 2017. We also have a lot of very good work being done with our young children, we have a very active Tiny Tots Group meeting at St. Paul’s and we continue to offer regular children’s workshops and weekly children’s activities in church.
Many things can be identified as part of our mission and outreach like the links we have with the groups who use the Community Centre at St. Mary’s or the good relationships we have with the local community at St. John’s and through St. Paul’s. All of this is excellent and to be encouraged, but we also need to ask the questions “are we doing as much of this as we can?” and “are we doing the things we are doing as well as we can?” The churches that try to answer these questions honestly and truthfully are the ones that seem to be growing at a time when so many others are getting smaller. 2015 saw the start of a process to help us answer these questions for ourselves in this Parish. Kath Crossley and I went to a conference organised through the Diocese called “Leading Your Church into Growth” (LYCIG). Following this through and sharing it with the wider Parish will be one of the PCC’s priorities as we go through 2016 and into 2017 I hope as many as possible will be encouraged by its message of hope and be as active as we can to help God’s kingdom grow here.
Buildings and grounds
2015 was again a year that was dominated by our buildings.
St. John’s saw the completion of its new facilities and there was a visit by our area Bishop, Jonathan Gibbs, to mark this special occasion in the life of the church. Our thanks go to all who have worked so hard towards this day. The new toilet, kitchen and meeting room are already proving extremely valuable and I am sure that they will continue to be a major asset to the church for years to come.
Prayerful negotiations still surround St. Paul’s. We are still looking for the money to repair the damage done to the roof back in 2014 by the lead theft. The temporary repair has held out much longer than we could have hoped but will not last for ever. We have a bid in for a grant to cover this work so please hold that in your prayers. On the positive side the area surrounding the church is to be improved as part of the Darren Smith development to the South, and the church continues to be used by a growing number of local community groups. In addition there are some very interesting and positive ideas being talked about at the moment that may be of great interest. My thanks go to all who are continuing to work with the massive potential that St. Paul’s offers to our Parish.
At St. Mary’s the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund has meant that the work to the Tower has now been substantially completed. The scaffolding and cladding certainly put St. Mary’s very clearly on the map looking for all the world like a block of flats rising above Mirfield and catching the eye from all directions. Inside too, the work on the side chapel has now made this part of the church much more flexible in its use as chapel, meeting room and children’s class room. Running alongside all of this was the work to the clock which now looks magnificent and the restoration of the bells. The bells were rung on Easter Sunday 2015 before they were taken to Loughborough and it looks as if we will be having them back and able to be rung by Easter 2016. My thanks to everyone who gave of their time and effort to all of this essential work to make safe and restore St. Mary’s: the coordinating team, fundraisers, labourers and those who have supported in any way. We will be having a special service in 2016 to celebrate these achievements.
The grounds around our churches were again very well cared for over the year and my thanks to everyone who was part of the team. It is good to know that those who visit our churchyards can see that they are being cared for. I know this means a lot, especially to those who have the graves of loved ones with us. The “Friends” groups at both St. Mary’s and St. John’s have done much to ensure that the buildings and their grounds are cared for and well maintained and our thanks go to them.
The Community Centre at St. Mary’s continues to go from strength to strength under its able management team headed up by Lauren. The facilities there are improving rapidly and its use is nearing capacity over evenings and weekends. It is very good to know that as a church we are providing the community with a much valued and well used resource.
Sustainability
The concerns that I had at the time of my last report about our finances still hold true this year. Whilst so much has been done on essential works over the past couple of years we have not been able to meet our obligations to the Diocese and the wider work of the church nearly as well as we should have done. The short fall of £30,000 which I reported last year doubled over 2015 leaving us nearly £60,000 short of our commitment over that year. This obviously cannot continue and our Budget and strategy group are working hard with the fundraising group to make sure that the money due to the Diocese is met in 2016. The Diocese is working hard to explain exactly where this money is spent and how the amount we pay is calculated. The bottom line though is that the major part of this money goes on providing clergy across the Diocese and if the money doesn’t come in then the number of clergy will have to reduce accordingly.
People
We are extremely fortunate in the people that we have working as volunteers here in Mirfield Team Parish. Rev’d Helen Butler continues to serve most effectively as a Self-Supporting Minister (SSM) and is joined by our Lay Pastoral Assistants, Barry Hambling, Val Walker and, newly qualified and appointed as of 18th October 2015, Kath Crossley. Both Stephanie Smith and Jessica Malay are continuing their journeys towards ordination through this parish, Stephanie to full time Stipendiary Ministry and Jessica to working alongside Helen as an SSM. Denise continues to serve us well in the Office as Parish Secretary and I am as always extremely grateful to those who have served as PCC members, Officers and Church Wardens over the year. And, as I said at the outset this report bears witness to so much that is good here in the parish which is done by so many and for which we give thanks.
I would just like to close by commending the Leading Your Church into Growth (LYCIG) programme to you. Worship numbers have been holding steady across the Parish for the past few years. However, if you look at the statistics for this year you will see that our average weekly attendance at our main services over 2015 is 117 and this is down when compared to 125 over 2014. If you add to that statistic the average age of those who are attending then unless we do make a concerted effort to lead our church into growth then you have to ask where it is actually going.
With every Blessing.
Hugh
The Business of the Full PCC
Membership of the PCC
The PCC consists of:
ClergyRevd Hugh Crispin Baker (Vicar and Chair)
Revd Helen Butler
WardensFrom St John’s
David Alderson
Jessica Malay (until September 2015)
From St Mary’s
Ruth Edwards
Anne Richardson
From St Paul’s
Jane Jaggar
Karen Batty
PCC MembersFrom St John’s
Vicky Bowen
Chris Breare
Phil Tolson
From St Mary’s
Tim Grace
Lauren Montgomery-Bell
Claire Stanley
From St Paul’s
Katharine Crossley
David Brooke
Valerie Warner
Deanery Synod RepsAnne Heeley
Barry Hambling
Richard Smith
Ex Officio Child Protection Officer Karen Batty
There were 5 PCC meetings and 5 Standing Committee Meetingsheld in 2015.
The Officers to the PCC were:
Vice-ChairChris Breare
SecretaryVicky Bowen
TreasurerDavid Brooke
Electoral Roll
At December 31st 2015 there were 217people on the Mirfield Team Parish Electoral Roll.
ELECTORAL ROLL REPORT
Every 6 years the old Electoral Roll is discarded in favour of a new one and a new Roll was initiated in April 2013. At the 15th February 2016 the Roll stands at 217 broken down as 61 for St John’s, 146 for St Mary’s, 5 for St Paul’s and 5 joint registrations. This is an increase of 2 over the year. Prior to discontinuation the old Roll stood at 320 broken down as follows; 73 for St John’s, 224 for St Mary’s and 23 for St Paul’s.
Michael J Hampshire
Electoral Roll Officer
Financial Report
It was another challenging year for the Parish finances with major building projects taking up much time and finance.
Income from regular giving decreased slightly and donations including gift-aided donations to general funds also decreased as these were directed towards the appeal for the work on St Mary’s Tower.
General running and maintenance costs were again the largest expense after the Parish Share. The Parish Share was £88,714 and £34,200 was paid during the year.
The first phase of the work on St Mary’s Church has now been completed and paid for. The work on St John’s Church has also been completed and paid for (funded through the Friends of Upper Hopton Church). The restoration of the bells is almost complete and has been fully funded.
In 2016 it is planned to concentrate on improving our general funds by fundraising and budgeting so that we are able to pay all our expenses and increase our financial contribution to the diocese.
David Brooke
Treasurer
BUDGET AND STRATEGY REPORT
The committee has continued to meet on 10 occasions at monthly intervals this year usually at Tim’s house.
The members of the committee have been Revd Hugh Baker (Chair), Chris Breare, David Brooke, Ruth Edwards, Tim Grace, Jane Jaggar and Lauren Montgomery-Bell.
This has been an exceptional year when we have seen completion of the Heritage Project at St Mary’s, the Restoration of the Bells while the scaffolding has been in place in the Tower, the Facilities Project at St John’s and a continuation of improvements at the Parish centre and Community Centre.
We completed a frank and honest response to the Diocesan Questionnaire on “A parochial contribution requested from every parish in the Diocese towards the cost of stipendiary clergy, lay resource officers and support staff on the of the Parish Share and our ability to pay”
All the restoration projects have been funded in full but we will have a deficit of £64,000 in our contribution to the parish share.
Following appeals for increases in weekly contributions and stewardship campaign from the congregation, we feel we have a commitment to pay our parish share in full next year his year we completed a Diocesan Questionnaire on the future components of Parish Share sent to all churches and expressed our dismay that this debt cannot be met. This was reviewed by the PCC.
Chris Breare
Wardens’ Reports
St John’s Church
The past year has been a very busy time at St John’s. The major project over this period was the new facilities and meeting room which were completed in September, and has made such a difference to the Church. We have also had a heater repositioned on the south aisle to replace the faulty heater by the main door.
Other essential maintenance has also been completed during this period. We have had an electrical inspection, the lightening conductor inspected, the fire extinguishers serviced, the sound system checked and the gutters of the Church cleared. We have also had our quinquennial inspection carried out in December.
The Church has had a busy calendar of events from a quiz in May to a barbeque in July. We have also opened the Church for both the Heritage gala day and the Upper Hopton garden trail during the summer. Roberttown Pop Choir visited us in October, for a very enjoyable concert, and we had a very well attended Autumn Coffee morning in November.
The Dedication Service and Lunch was well attended this year, with the Bishop of Huddersfield opening our new facilities, and leading the service.
St John’s has had a change of wardens this year, with Jessica Malay stepping down so she can enter training for the ministry. Our thanks go to her for all her work as Churchwarden over the past few years. Karen Batty has taken over this position.
The Sunday School is very active, with good work being done by the children, led by Ann Heeley, during the Church services. We are also forging good links with local schools. Sue Young is now a governor at Lower Hopton School, and we have had visits to Church from both Ravenshall School and Croft House Playgroup.
The Churchwardens would like to thank the St John’s Business Team and the Friends of St John’s for all their help over the past year in organising events and helping with fundraising, particularly towards the new facilities.
David Alderson & Karen Batty
Churchwardens St John’s
St Mary’sChurch
The last year has been exceptionally busy, but very eventful. The works to St. Mary's have been completed, for the time being, and the final target has been reached. Further works are desperately required to the vestry, as these had to be postponed because of financial constraints. The amount required is approximately £68,000.