DRAFT Minutes of
Annual Parochial Church Meeting 2023
The Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) was opened at 7.50pm on Wednesday 19th April 2023 in St Luke’s Church by the vicar, Rev Jeremy Haswell, who welcomed the 35 people present.
Revd Haswell opened the meeting with a prayer.
1. Apologies.
Apologies were received from Chris Grocock, Anne & Tony Edden, Barbara & Patrick Johnston, Allison Sutcliffe and Peter Wilson.
2. Minutes of 2022 APCM
The Secretary said that a correction needed to be made to the Minutes in that the next complete renewal of the Electoral Roll would be in 2025 not 2024 as stated in the draft. The Chairman made the correction and approval was given by a show of hands. Revd Haswell then signed the Minutes of 2022 APCM as amended.
3. Presentation of the Electoral Roll
It was reported that the total number on the Electoral Roll (ER) as of April 2022 was 165. The Electoral Roll Officer informed the meeting the figure now was 162. Revd Haswell thanked John Haine for all the work that had gone into producing and maintaining the Electoral Roll.
4. Elections
4.i. Readers: Revd Haswell explained that the term “Reader” has been replaced by “Licensed Lay Minister (LLM)” which reflected their theological training and that this was recognised by the Diocese for the role they had undertaken. He added that he was enormously grateful to Susie Millard and Chris Grocock for their diligence and the work they put in. Dr Christopher Grocock offered to remain on the PCC as the Lay Reader’s Representative. This was welcomed by all.
4.ii. Parochial Church Council (PCC) Members.
There were three applicants for nomination for the three vacancies. There being only three vacancies, the following were elected:
Anne Gale-Jones – Proposed by Frankie Kelly, seconded by Sheila Austin
Hilary Loder – Proposed by Barbara Johnston, seconded by Dan Bennett
Philippa Whitaker – Proposed by Sue Wilson, seconded by Adrian Banwell.
Revd Haswell thanked the three candidates for offering to serve in this capacity.
4.iii. Deanery Synod Representatives. There were two vacancies for Deanery Synod Representatives.
Penny Thomas – Proposed by Michael Lugg, seconded by Hilary Loder.
Clive Loder – Proposed by Clive Purkiss, seconded by Carol Tinegate.
4.iv. Sidesmen/women. The PCC Secretary read out the following names of Sidesmen/women:
Sheila Austin, Ros Balfour, Adrian Banwell, Shelagh Edwards, Andrea Franklin, Anne Gale-Jones, Angela Haine, Robert Harland, Linda Holbrook, Anna Lescure, Clive Loder, Michael Lugg, Madi Mocanu, Alice Murphy, Richard Pimm, Anne Preston, Clive Purkiss, Christine Richmond, Julia Tarento, Liz Tippett, Jonathan Tippett, Philippa Whitaker, Sue Wilson.
All were approved. Revd Haswell expressed his gratitude to all for welcoming and organising people. The approval was unanimous.
Reports.
5.Secretary Report. Revd Haswell asked again for someone to take on the role of PCC Secretary as the role had been covered by the Churchwardens for a year. Sheila Austin stated that the PCC had met 5 times between June 2022 and March 2023.
The main focus this year had been the state of the church’s finances. With the Treasurer again cautioning the PCC that urgent action was necessary to improve the church finances for which, as Trustees of the Charity, the PCC were responsible.
The “WhatsApp” prayer group continued to provide support during difficult and challenging times. Two members of the PCC resigned during the year and it is pleasing to see we have new volunteers applying to join.
Copies of approved minutes for all PCC meetings were posted on the website.
In addition to the printed report Sheila added the following: As required, the PCC has due regard to the House of Bishops’ Safeguarding Policy and Practice Guidance. There were no cases of abuse reported in the year 2022-23. All of the 21 known paid employees and volunteers eligible for DBS clearance have been cleared. 10 of the 23 people known to need safeguarding training are fully up to date, 8 of the remainder have partly completed their training. 5 have yet to start.
Sheila thanked Angela Haine for being the Safeguarding Officer and Revd Haswell stated that Safeguarding was central to everything we do so we can provide a safe place for people to come. He added that Angela was retiring from the post, she has been assiduous and incredible in her diligence to the role and he thanked her. The role was being taken over by Penny Thomas and Hilary Loder both of whom have so much relevant past experience in many aspects of this subject and he thanked them both for taking this on.
6.Vicars Report.
Revd. Haswell acknowledge his report was long and he would go with the principle that all the reports had been read so would not be going into great detail. He had a huge number of people to thank but opted not to list them for danger of leaving someone out. At the heart of his vision as a Minister of the Gospel is to build a community that knows how to love God and how to praise the Lord but also to love one another. Where there is love and praise God moves and by highlighting and focusing in on love we are going to win. Although we are in difficult circumstances financially and others aspects of how things are, while we focus on love we are going to build the right DNA for what’s growing.
Hilary Loder asked who Revd Chris Oldroyd (as mentioned in the Vicar’s report) was, Revd Haswell replied that he was a CofE ordained Minister who lived in our parish and had asked Revd Haswell to sponsor his application for permission to officiate here and in other places.
7.Presentation of the 2021 Accounts.
Viv Ward announced that the Report and Financial Statement was 26 pages long and he did not intend to go through page by page. He confirmed the whole document had been scrutinised by the Independent Examiner, The Finance Working Group (FWG) and the PCC who had approved it. Viv added that if anyone wanted to go through the document, he was very willing to do so outside of the meeting. He apologised that the Summary of Account had been omitted from the Booklet but that it must have got lost between him and Sheila Austin, so he would go through the figures.
In 2021 we had a deficit of £(39,000), in 2022 this was reduced to £(5,000). Investments had increased in 2021 but had fallen back to 2020 figures in 2022. He picked out some items of particular areas of interest. We launched the Parish Fundraising Programme, as promised at this meeting last year, and although new givers came forward it was matched by others who stopped giving for a variety of reasons; grants received, i.e. from the Diocese who realised several parishes were struggling; Grayshott Parish Council are very supportive especially on the youth work side of things and we won a contract for three years with the East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) to provide The Base Youth Club with funds.
Viv recognised that everyone knows we are not able to raise huge amounts of money so we needed to reduce our expenditure and it is this that resulted in the reduced deficit for 2022.
Looking forward to next year (2023) we see a lot of things going on. We are receiving a reduced amount of giving and the cost of heating the church and church rooms has gone from £6,000 (2022) to £18,000 (2023), so the pressure is definitely on. Each month we pay the Diocese £8,000 (£96,000 a year) and our main income has been below that since December 2022 (December £7,400; January £6,600; February £7,700 and March £6,400). On top of that there is heating, salaries and other expenditure. This is not a good position to be in.
Viv stated that he had prepared a Budget in November 2022 and presented it to the PCC with a £(41,000) deficit. The PCC would not accept it and it went back to the FWG, who produced a list of things the church could perhaps do; increase regular giving; increase regular attendance which should help income figures; encourage village support; pursue legacies; appoint a grant searcher; set up digital donation facility in church; maximise Holiday Club income and increase fundraising. These measures would only reduce the deficit from £(41,000) to £(23,000) if all were successful. Viv advised the meeting that, and Dan Bennett was aware of this, we could not really afford a Youth Worker but that we are talking to St Edmund’s School who are very open to coming up with a solution to help us maintain our youth work.
He then welcomed any fundraising suggestions from those present. He added that the Vicar’s Relief Fund, which had been running for a few years began the year with £5,000, had received £4,000 and we had donated £3,000. The end of year figure was therefore £6,000. The Accounts were then approved by a show of hands.
Viv finished with thanks; to Michael Lugg, who counted the collection money weekly and banked it at the Post Office; to the FWG who helped him feel less lonely when talking about money matters and the new Independent Examiner Christopher Kelly. Revd Haswell added his thanks to the outgoing Independent Examiner, Jonathan Tippett who had served in the role for many years.
Revd Haswell stated that the sober nature of the financial situation has not been taken lightly and in terms of the biblical model is that we all share that responsibility together. He added that the initiative of Gill and Clive Purkiss to provide monthly roast lunches ticked all the right boxes, i.e. hospitality and fellowship and he thanked them for that.
John Haine suggested holding a Gift Day as had been done some 15 years ago and had been very successful. This would be considered by the Fundraising Team.
A discussion followed on the issue of a Card Reader system for donations and Revd Haswell confirmed this was in hand.
7a. Stewardship Report.
Viv Ward acknowledged that Shelagh Edwards had kept Stewardship records going for a very long time and was always very accurate (round of appreciative applause for Shelagh).
He noted that the results showed a downward trend as indicated in his Finance Report. It was intended to have another Fundraising Programme to remind people of the need to do more and increase funds. Revd Haswell said how much he appreciated all the work Viv did for the church and how grateful we all should be.
8.Indepentent Examiner.
Revd Haswell said that Christopher Kelly needed to be formally appointed by this meeting. Proposed by Claire Haswell, seconded by Jonathan Tippett. Unanimously approved.
9.Churchwardens Report
Further to the printed report Edward Tobin said how pleasing it was that our relationship with the local Ukrainian community was very good and had resulted in Kler and Amanda providing live music for the 10.30am services twice a month. He added that Sheila and he were very well assisted by Patrick Johnston, Clive Loder and Richard Pimm. Richard’s Fire Safety briefing for Sidesmen had been very helpful and informative for all who attended. Jeremy Hassell also assisted with some technical and practical advice when needed and he was available.
Edward wanted also to mention the efforts of the Churchyard Team; David Williams, Brian Rodgerson, Richard Pimm and Alan Corlett. They not only kept the churchyard tidy but had provided a container for mulched leaves which had saved a significant amount of money last autumn and would do so again. Revd Haswell added that Edward was also a part of the team and was seen so often in and around the churchyard.
10a. Local Lay Ministers (LLM) Report.
Revd Haswell said the two reports from our LLMs Chris Grocock and Susie Millard were good ones.
Chris shares his support with other parishes and has maintained a ZOOM congregation for Traditional services but is now coming back into church for these twice a month.
Susie’s work continues in Grayshott School helping with assemblies and lots of other ways and also in the services in church. Notably for child and family services that she runs particularly at feast times – Nativity and Palm Sunday, the involvement of the school at these times encouraged the attendance of the parents. Revd Haswell expressed his gratitude for all Susie’s efforts. Susie also worked with Dan Bennett in the school with “Open the Book” which was very much appreciated.
He added that the church’s connection with Grayshott School was very good, partly because of the new Headmaster now in post but also because of these initiatives. Revd Haswell also gave thanks for the Foundation Governors, who included Alice Murphy and Linda Holbrook.
Revd Haswell said how grateful he was to both LLMs for all their work in their different areas.
10b.Pastoral Report
Revd Haswell thanked Ros Balfour for her report and for all her work with the Care Homes and the Pastoral Team she leads. He added that Ros was the Pastoral Assistant responsible for the elderly community and Liz Tippett the Pastoral Assistant for birth end of the community, helping with baptisms.
10c. Youth and Children Report.
Dan Bennett was thanked for his published report and Revd Haswell said much of Dan’s work went unseen by many. He had run youth Alpha courses which had been successful and well attended. Dan gave a plea for volunteers to support the youth work activities and he announced the forthcoming “Curry Night” to raise funds for his youth work.
Revd Haswell noted that the youth flagship was the summer Holiday Club which in the past had had a great team but this also needed more volunteers. It was confirmed that the Holiday Club would again be held at St Edmunds school and he expressed his gratitude for the school’s support.
10d. Babes and Toddlers Report
Revd Haswell thanked Liz Tippett for taking over, together with Rika one of the mothers, so that after Julia Hedger left it had continued with the same energy and support from the parents which was very much appreciated.
10e.Thursday Lunch Club.
Revd Haswell thanked Angela Haine for her report and said what a great institution this group was. Angela Haine said that those who attended enjoyed a nice lunch and good fellowship which was so important for elderly people.
In the same vein Revd Haswell mentioned the Oasis Group’s continuing presence on Tuesday mornings and for those who do attend it was hugely appreciated and he thanked Allison Sutcliffe and Alice Murphy for this initiative.
Claire Haswell expressed thanks to Kirsty Bourgogne for setting up the Superheroes group for parents of extremely autistic children which meets twice a month at St Luke’s and the Fox & Pelican.
10f. Grayshott Concerts.
Revd Haswell wanted , on the record, to thank Peter Harrison for his report expressing Grayshott Concerts thanks to St Luke’s. Revd Haswell added that the relationship between Grayshott Concerts and the church was very good and while it doesn’t bring more people to church services it does put St Luke’s on the map. The concerts did bring income to the church by way on hire fees which was welcome.
11. There being no other notified business Revd Haswell asked all PCC members to remain afterwards to enable the appointment of officers necessary to keep the business of the church going. He added that a lot of people continue to come and commit to our work here. He wanted to thank those who had persevered when it’s been tough, particularly through Covid. He acknowledged that some people had moved on for a variety of reasons which he understood but we needed to celebrate the new people coming to church and appreciating what we are providing. His day had started, he said, with the words “whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11;10). The passage illustrates the need to obey God in faith even through difficult circumstances. Prayer and hospitality remain central to all St Luke’s stands for in the community. He reminded everyone of his three “C”s Connected, Committed and Confident. He finished with “Our vision is to build faith, build confidence and discern the vision of God to reach the people of Grayshott”.
Revd Haswell closed the meeting with a prayer, a sung hymn (Thine be the Glory, organ played by Edward Tobin) and a blessing.
The meeting ended at 9.00pm.