The Parish Church of St Ladoca in the Parish of Ladock

THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST LADOCA IN THE PARISH OF LADOCK

The Annual report and financial statement of the Parochial Church Council for 2015 for presentation Annual Parish Church Council meeting on 17th March 2016

The report has been prepared to comply with the requirements of The Charities Act 2011.

Incumbent: Canon Andrew Wade

The Sanctuary

Wagg Lane

Probus TR2 4JX

Team Vicar: Reverend Ellen Goldsmith

Vounder

Tresillian

Truro TR2 4BW

Banks: Lloyds Bank St Austell, CAF Bank

Independent Examiner:Mr Michael Cole

The Parochial Church Council is a corporate body established by the Church of England. The PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Measure. The Parochial Church Council is expected by order from registering with the charity commissioners.

Members of the Parochial Church Council of Ladock Parish Church are either ex-officio or elected by the Annual Church Council meeting in accordance with the Church Representation Rules.

The Parochial Church Council met four times in 2015.

Jane Sloan, Team Safeguarding officer, regularly attends PCC meetings and updates the PCC as necessary and has arranged Safeguarding training for the Team during the past 12 months.

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The standing Committee, which consists of the, incumbent, two church wardens, treasurer, and secretary is the only committee required by law and has the power to transact the business of the PCC between its meetings, subject to any directions given by the council.

Members of the Parochial Church Council for 2015

Incumbent : Canon Andrew Wade

Team Vicar: Reverend Ellen Goldsmith

Ex officio

Church wardens: Jeremy Sharp

Shirley Soper

BellTower Captain: Renfree Stephens

Ex officio

Marie Cameron: Head Teacher of Grampound Road School.

Lisa Michell: Head of LadockSchool.

Elected members

Vice Chair: Reverend E Goldsmith

Secretary: Jenny Thomas

Treasurer: Ryland Shephard

Barbara Holt

David Hill, RIP

Colin Haines.

Lady Mary Holborow

Suzanne Smith

Deanery Synod

Mary Holborow

Suzanne Smith

Safeguarding Officer : (Jane Sloan Team appointment-non PCC).

At the beginning of 2015 the Electoral Roll number stood at 47, however 2 of these members have since died.

During the past year our stalwart of some 40 plus years as PCC member and Churchwarden (for much of this time) of Ladock Parish church, Mr Geoffrey Holborow has died. He bore his illness with dignity and grace and our brother in Christ is greatly missed.

Objectives and Activities.

The objective of the Parochial Church Council of Ladock Parish Church is to exercise the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent in promoting the Ecclesiastical Parish, the whole mission of the Church, Pastoral, Evangelistic, Social and Ecumenical.

We have fulfilled our objectives with the Achievements and Performances of the following headings.

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Pastoral

• Harvest brought in many villagers participating in decorating and attending the service followed by a Harvest lunch.
• The Annual Remembrance service saw a good congregation at the church and several wreaths were laid at the war memorial.
• Lent course.
• Pastoral visits from The Right Reverend Tim Thornton.
• The Annual church community Carol service.
• Weekly morning Prayer continues.
• Home visits by the Rector,Team vicar and pastoral visitor. Visits from the clergy to the sick/dying and their families have been particularly heavy this year.
• Monthly coffee mornings within the community.
• Average regular service attendance: 21
• There were 5 baptisms, 2 weddings, 7funerals, 1 service at a crematorium and no confirmations throughout the year.

Evangelistic

• The Right Reverend Chris Goldsmith, Bishop of St Germans, visited to talk of his experiences on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
• A wonderful open air evensong which could be heard and enjoyed across Ladock valley.
• Songs of Praise held at the climax of the Flower Festival.
• Financial and practical assistance at ‘Messy church’ held at Grampound Road which is within Ladock Parish.
• Ladock School Eucharist held termly and is well received by the children, parents and teachers. Weekly school assemblies have taken place within the church.
• The Annual Christingle service was well attended and much enjoyed.
• The church has been used on numerous occasions by the school for drum work shops, recitals and school related activities.
• Our ringers many of whom come from afar practise on a regular basis. And ring on a regular basis to welcome Christians to worship.
• Ladock church choir also practise regularly as do our organists and both enhance and lead our worship.
• Kenwyn church choir enhanced our evening worship wonderfully when they came in the autumn for Choral evensong.
• The monthly coffee mornings, held by the church in the community are a vehicle to befriend, stave loneliness and promote the Gospel. The aim is not to make money other than to have sufficient to pay for the use of the community hall. The exception to this was in December when the coffee morning raised money to financially support the work of The Children’s Society
• Our church has supported the Truro food bank throughout the year and with the harvest produce being sent to the food bank.
• Thanks to one of our church members we have also helped the refugees by collecting surplus goods to aid them,

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Social

This past year has been a very busy year socially and enjoyably for the church.

• Numerous garden openings at which teas have also been served. These included openings at Nansawsan House (Mr and Mrs M Cole) and New Mills Farm (Dr and Mrs J Newton)
• A concert by Johnny Cowling.
• Ladock Church Flower Festival.
• The Summer Church Fete.
• Refreshments following 11am service.
• Christmas draw and supper.
• Monthly coffee mornings,
• Some of these events raise funds for Ladock Church whilst others support charities further afield.

We are most grateful to all those who assist with these events in so many ways.

Ecumenical

The Covenant between Grampound Road and Ladock Parish church which was re-established during 2013 continues to thrive. We are committed to two joint services a year with a committee meeting 3 times per year. During the course of these past 12 months we have shared our worship in both Grampound Road and Ladockchurches on several occasions.

This year the Christmas Card cover was designed by a pupil of Grampound Road Schoo l and dates of services for both churches over the festive season printed within with a message from our clergy. This venture has been a wonderful success and warmly received.

Health and Safety

Health and safety matters within our church are at the present time being reviewed and updated to meet with requirements.

Fabric

The new facilities in the Church have been well used. They have allowed us to have events that would have been impossible otherwise, helping to raise much needed funds. The new Tower Room is ideal for meetings and it has been used for this purpose by both the PCC and the Parish Council.

The final retention for the building work was paid in November.

The fabric is generally in good condition, but a small number of items was mentioned in the Qunequennial report: these are being addressed. The layout of the Baptistry has been improved, allowing for a display area and a more prominent place for the burial records, the visitors’ book and leaflets.

We owe so much to the tireless efforts of Geoffrey Holborow over many years in so many ways, but it is due to his work in this area and attention to detail that this section of the report is so short.

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Churchyard

The Churchyard has been well maintained throughout the year; for this we owe much to Colin Haines and several nameless volunteers. Some overhanging branches have been removed as they have been causing problems for members of the public visiting graves.

The only issue has been glass jars left on graves, being hidden by grass and hit by the strimmer. We have urged visitors to use vessels made of other materials and we have warned visitors that we will have to remove anything made from glass lying in the grass.

Financial Report

The Church has reached the end of 2015 in relatively fine financial shape, thanks to the fund raising efforts by so many and the generosity of the congregation through the weekly collections and their standing orders. As a result we were able to pay our MMF call in full without recourse to reserves. At the end of the year we were able to carry forward a surplus of £4,637.20. This compares with £554.19 at the end of 2014. The improvement in our finances was due to three factors: an increase in giving by regular donors; a bigger than usual Gift Aid reclaim arising from the receipt of several large donations in 2014; an exceptional effort to boost income from fund raising activities, making full use of our new facilities to hold events in Church.

We have introduced the Parish Giving Scheme to those who have used standing orders in the past and we are seeking to persuade other members of the congregation to abandon cash payments in favour of the Scheme.

Full use has been made of the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, allowing us to dispense with the cumbersome and bureaucratic numbered envelope system.

We have been immensely fortunate to have benefited from twogenerous legacies during the year from Mrs Doreen Yelland and Miss E A Hotten. In addition we have been informed that Geoffrey Holborow has mentioned the Church in his will. Mrs Yelland’s legacy will be split between the Churchyard Fund and the General Fund; we hope that the funds received from Miss Hotten’s Estate can be used to form the basis of a new endowment fund.

The calls on the Canon Wise Trust have been limited, following the contribution to the cost of the building work in 2014. It is hoped that funds can be used for outreach projects in 2016.

We have participated fully in the discussions on changes to the calculation of MMF, introduced by the Powder Deanery on 1 January 2016. We have made an ‘offer’ of £20,000 for 2016. It will be a tremendous challenge to meet this target, but we will of course do our best.

Donations made in 2015 included:

St Petroc’s Society: £266.11

Merlin Project: £118.20

Truro Food Bank: £192.52

Royal British Legion: £114.50

The Children’s Society (Christingle): £168.86

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Bell Ringers’ Report

During the past year considerable work was carried out to the mechanism of the bells at a cost of almost £4,000. This work has enabled the bells to ‘strike’ more evenly. The project was funded in part by the Diocesan Guild of Ringers Restoration Fund, the Bell Fund and the PCC. The ringers meet for practice twice a month, attracting ringers from within our Team and beyond. Visiting teams have enjoyed the improvements to the tower, especially the toilet facilities. On New Year’s Day a quarter peal was rung by the Kenwyn ringers.