PARISH CHURCH OF ST. CUTHBERT, DARLINGTON
ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING
Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting held on Tuesday 5th April 2016 at 7.30pm
in the Church Centre, attended by 22 members.
Vestry Meeting
The meeting opened with prayers led by the Reverend Robert Williamson.
Election of Churchwardens: The vicar has met regularly on Wednesday mornings with Ann Ducker and Elizabeth Clemo who have been wonderful, faithful and stalwart Churchwardens. He thanked them both – and others who have again stepped in to help.
Nominations were received for Ann Ducker, Joan Gilmore and Elizabeth Clemo, who were all unanimously voted in as Churchwardens for the coming year. Ideally there should be four wardens and we are still looking for another volunteer.
Annual Parochial Church Meeting
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from Mrs J Leckenby, Mr M Brookbanks, Mrs D Gibson.
2. Minutes of the AGM held 16th April 2015
The minutes were accepted and signed as a true record of the meeting.
3. Matters arising from the minutes
There were no matters arising which were not covered by the Agenda.
4. Report on Electoral Roll
There are now 137 parishioners on the electoral roll. Thanks were expressed to John Baldwin for his work on the Electoral Roll. Wedding couples do not now need to be on the Electoral Roll to be married at St Cuthbert’s, but they must attend the church and sign their names in a book a minimum of six times before their marriage takes place.
5. Chairman’s Report
The vicar reflected on the last year, in particular the work carried out on the heating system, the roof repairs, and the Awareness Weekend and special Sunday Services to highlight the Building and Vision Development Plans for St Cuthbert’s. He thanked the Friends who have worked enthusiastically and raised a substantial amount of money for the church, and has been encouraged by seeing new children join the choir, adults and young people being confirmed, adults being christened, and a good attendance on Easter Day. The vicar spoke of future events we have to look forward to in the next two months, such as the Bishop of Durham’s Prayer Walk, hosting a Darlington Choral Society Concert and a Jazz Festival, an Organ Recital and our Spring Fayre. In closing he gave personal thanks for the support shown to him during the time of his operation and also the recent loss of his mother.
6. Treasurer’s Report
Brian Johnson gave his 16th presentation of the Church accounts and explained the accounts in detail. Referring to Donations and Gifts on page 7 of the accounts, an Unrestricted Funds balance of £70,339 is shown together with a Restricted amount of £71,959 – totalling £142,298. The Planned Giving has fallen since last year and again this year it has fallen already by around £5,000. Interest from the CBF is £2,385 and interest on the Organ Fund is £16.00 (i.e. £1.20 per month on £34,000). Regarding Income Tax recovery through Gift Aid, there is quite a difference between this year and last; Brian explained that this is down to the timing of when the Gift Aid is settled by the Inland Revenue.
Expenditure is shown as £206,055, and a full explanation of this figure was given. Regarding the Quota, the PCC had agreed to revise the figure and reduce the last two payments at the end of 2015. The current year we are paying £2,000 every month, with additional payments being sent as and when they can be spared. We are able to recover VAT on most of our expenditure, although apparently not on the money we have paid for the boilers, and we are in negotiation on this.
Our overall loss totals £8,443, which is made up of £5,127 Unrestricted and £3,316 Restricted. Brian asked how can we save some of our costs. Looking at the breakdown of our expenditure, we are unable to pay any less for insurance, as we received a competitive quote. Heating and lighting of the church amounted to £6,656 for the year. Whilst we hoped that the heating costs would go down once new boilers were installed, this has not happened. It seems that because the new boilers are working with an old system of pipes in church, they are having to work harder. Heating and lighting for the church hall amounted to £3,894 for the year.
Looking at funds that we have, there is an Unrestricted amount of £22,821 at the CBF which we could access if there is a need. The General Trading Account at Lloyds Bank has about £17,000 so in all we have around £40,000 in cash. The Organ Fund shows a Restricted balance of £34,000; it would actually cost around £200,000 to repair fully the organ.
We have a further £9,000 in cash. We have 2,364 shares in a Global Fund, and the value of these at the end of 2015 was £36,500. Our Bank Account holds around £10,000 which is restricted for the fabric of the building.
John Baldwin queried why the Diocese were not happy with our offer regarding the Quota, and did they write to us? Hylda explained that we had promised £48,000 but then could not pay. When Diocesan funds drop, then everything that we have in the Diocese has to drop too.
Bibles given to Baptism families at £10 each come out of the Education Fund – however there is an account at Lloyds Bank in the name of the Poor Moor Charity which could be used for this purpose. A unanimous vote of agreement was given; this will therefore not appear in next year’s Miscellaneous Expenses.
Finally Brian mentioned that the Church owns 6 acres of land in Snape Lane which is up for development. This would be a lengthy process but if it goes ahead, the Department of Education advises that maybe a scholarship could be set up.
The accounts were accepted and will now be registered with the Charity Commission. Brian was thanked for his work in preparing this report. It is understood that if someone offered to take Brian’s place as Treasurer then he would now gladly hand over.
Safeguarding
The Diocese is taking Safeguarding very seriously, and Hylda Hopper as our Safeguarding Officer is ensuring everything is up-to-date and all checks carried out.
Building Vision and Mission Development and Maintenance
Paul Gilmore reported that our ambitious plans for the future have had to be placed on hold whilst more urgent issues are dealt with, particularly in relation to the leaking roof and the state of the church boilers. He showed the meeting the large folder of paperwork which was required for our HLF grant and said that we now need more money than originally estimated. Paperwork has had to be resubmitted because they have lost our original application sent at the end of last year. We now hope to hear something by June. This will then indicate whether we just repair the Chancel roof or whether the Nave roof can be repaired as well; it all depends on the success of our application as to the amount of work we can have done on the roof.
Paul confirmed that today he has heard that we are definitely to receive the extra help in formulating development plans for the church. Discussion then ensued on the importance of St Cuthbert’s always being a place of worship, and, if it embraces other uses in the future which are part of our vision, this is still our primary function.
Thanks were expressed to Paul Gilmore for his extensive work.
7. Reports on the working groups
a) Church Centre:
Christine Port reported that the portable staging units have now been replaced, and thanks to fundraising efforts, only £96 had to be taken from church funds to pay for these. There has been some vandalism on the roof, mainly cracked/broken tiles and damaged brickwork, but fortunately the insurance company have met the cost of repair. We welcomed our Polish family in October, and Christopher works very hard in his role as caretaker – cleaning both the hall and the church. He and his family do value the friendship of the people at St Cuthbert’s, and being part of our church community. All Saints would now like him to work part-time for them as well, so he will be working for both churches.
Thanks were given to Christine for supporting Christopher and his wife and in particular helping them overcome the language barrier.
b) Outreach:
Thank you to Ann Ducker for leading this committee. A good deal of work was put into the Heritage Awareness Weekend in September, which proved to be very successful. The map has now been drawn up showing a list of agencies and places which are able to help vulnerable people and this is now in the stewards’ file. A number of Darlington schools continue to make educational visits to the church and at Christmas we continue to host Carol Concerts given by local schools. Various events throughout the year have raised money, but there is a definite need to establish a Fund Raising Committee.
c) Planned Giving: It was noted that no report on Planned Giving was prepared for this AGM.
d) Social: Pat Pilkington reported on the consistent provision of refreshments and the success of the Tuesday Club.
e) Worship and Faith Development:
Kath Bryant reported that we have had more children joining the choir which is always good to see, and after David Lane’s departure during the year they now come under the guidance of
David Ratnanayagam. Paul Millard came to us on placement from Cranmer Hall and we all appreciated his time with us. All special services were well attended and the Harvest Appeal for the Foodbank was well supported. Kath thanked the retired clergy in her report, whose help is invaluable at St Cuthbert’s.
8. Reports of organisations and activities
a) Bellringers: It was noted that no report from the Bellringers was presented for this AGM.
b) Choir: David Ratnanayagam reported on the work of the choir during the course of the year. He paid tribute to Desmond Faye who was a longstanding member of the choir, and who sadly passed away in November. The vicar thanked David for his report and wanted to personally thank the Choir, particularly for their wonderful singing during Holy Week.
c) Charitable Giving: Christine Port prepared this report which showed a total of £2,715 was given to Charities this year, most of which was Gift Aided.
d) Mothers Union: Margaret Kidd reported on an interesting year for the Mothers’ Union, with the afternoon meetings being well supported. The children in the Choir are going to make a banner for the Mothers Union to carry into the Cathedral for the Festival Service at the end of May.
e) Parish Magazine: Thanks were given to Margaret Port and Christine Port who continue to put together such an excellent magazine.
9. Pastoral Care Group
The vicar thanked the team for the valuable help and support they provide to our parishioners.
10. Group Ministry Council
Christine Port reported that the Group Council has met three times this year, though each parish has been heavily involved in its own large projects this year and there has been little time and energy left over for a Group agenda. A summary was given of the current staffing which takes into account the departure of the Rev. Adele Martin, thereby causing the workload of the remaining clergy to increase to provide cover until a new appointment is made. The roles played by the Readers in the Group and by the retired clergy have been invaluable. Christine was thanked for her report.
11. Shared Ministry Group
Robert said it would be good to have one or two more people on the Shared Ministry Development team. Prayerfulness and wisdom would be the main qualities of such a person.
Baptism will now be referred to as Christening. Hylda said that another couple of people are needed to be here for Christenings, and they should speak to Hylda or Robert if interested.
12. Deanery Synod
Thanks were expressed to Janet Fletcher for a very full report. We are following the items in the Deanery plan. The Pilgrimage to Brancepath was very good with over 80 people taking part, and the Quiet Days at Shepherds Dene and Sadberge were extremely well attended.
13. Elections
a)Members of the PCC: There were three nominations for membership of the PCC: Stephen Auster, Christine Constable and Lynne Smooker. The vicar proposed they should be elected, and all voted in favour.
b)Members of Deanery Synod: Margaret Kidd, Ann Ducker and Hylda Hopper are now in the third year of their triennial.
14. Four and Twenty
With the death of Harry Rogers, we are now pleased to welcome Paul Gilmore onto the Four and Twenty.
16 Appointment of Auditors
B Johnson proposed we re-appoint Ken Easby & Co., and all were in favour.
Any Other Business
Christine Port referred to the recent death of our Patron, Lord Barnard. Condolences will be sent from the church. Over the years he has done a very conscientious job in his role as Patron.
Paul Gilmore confirmed this has gone onto our Facebook page. It may be some time before we have our next Patron, and Hylda said this may come up at Bishop’s Council.
The meeting ended with prayers at 9.25pm.