Annual Parochial Church Meeting - St. Peter’s Draycott

Minutes, Reports

 

Held on 18th April 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the church.

 

Contents

Return to main site

1.     Opening prayer 2

2.     Attendance and apologies for absence. 2

3.     Confirmation of Minutes from meeting on 26th April 2009. 2

4.     Vestry Meeting for the Election of two Church Wardens. 2

5.     Statutory Reports. 2

a.     Electoral Roll 2

b.     Report on PCC proceedings. 2

c.     The financial report and accounts. 2

d.     The churchwarden’s fabric report 3

e.     Deanery Synod Report 3

6.     Other reports. 3

a.     Ministry team.. 3

b.     Covenants. 4

c.     School 4

d.     Supporters of St. Peter’s (S.O.S.P.) 4

e.     Local Ministry Group. 4

f.      Bible Study Group. 4

g.     Web site. 4

7.     Election of Laity to the Parochial Church Council for 2010/11. 4

8.     Appointment of sides men and women. 5

9.     Appointment of independent financial examiner 5

10.       Remarks from the Priest in Charge. 5

11.       Any other matters of important to the Parish. 5

12.       Closing prayer 5

Addendum- PCC meeting. 5

Reports. 6

A. Electoral Roll 6

B. Report on PCC proceedings. 6

C. The financial report and accounts. 6

D. The churchwarden’s fabric report 9

E. Deanery Synod Report 10

F. Ministry team.. 10

G. Covenants. 11

H. School 11

I. Supporters of St. Peter’s (S.O.S.P.) 12

J. Local Ministry Group. 13

K. Bible Study Group. 13

L. Web site. 13

 


 

1.   Opening prayer

(incorporated into the preceding service)

2.   Attendance and apologies for absence

Present: David Cheetham, Tricia Corrick, Nikki Devitt, Chris Green, Tricia Heckbert, Gordon & Colette Jeff, Janet and Hewitt Jeffries, Tricia Lumley, Barry Rose, Sue Rose, Linda Whittle.

Apologies: Richard Dingley, Sylvia Dingley, Audrey Morgan, Thea Oliver, Buffy Rose, Sue Walker.

3.   Confirmation of Minutes from meeting on 26th April 2009

The minutes of the previous meeting had been available for most of the year. The accuracy of these minutes was confirmed, after a clarification to item 24 a. (Children’s Society). David Cheetham confirmed to Linda Whittle that it is inappropriate for Children’s Society giving to go into a church bank account. Therefore no separate account was created for it, contrary to the action proposed in the minutes. It is however fully supported by the church, and Children’s Society giving is included in the annual accounts.

4.   Vestry Meeting for the Election of two Church Wardens

Two nominations had been received for the two posts of churchwarden, David Cheetham and Thea Oliver, and both had agreed to stand. All were in favour, and their election was therefore declared.

5.   Statutory Reports

Sue Rose thanked each of the officers and others responsible for the activities reported in the appropriate places during the proceedings.

a.     Electoral Roll

Chris Green

(See report A)

b.     Report on PCC proceedings

Chris Green

(See report B)

It was pointed out that we were now making a loss, where previously we had made a profit. This might change with more advertising revenue, and the page count might not always be as high (we pay per page).

It was agreed that we should write to thank Alison and Michael for taking on the editorship of the Newsletter (ACTION: PCC secretary).

c.     The financial report and accounts

David Cheetham

(See report C)

Note that income and expenditure were almost balanced, indicating that it is possible for us to pay our way in the general fund (although the Parish Share is going up). The general fund is supported entirely by regular giving- covenants, collection plate and gift aid.

The above does not include the fabric fund, which now stands at £11,000. This is the year for redecoration, so it will all be spent.

As a church, we had also managed to give away £2,000 in charitable giving. (NB. This did not come out of regular giving, but from specific fund-raising activities).

We were asked to consider non-payment of the parish share this year, in view of the huge burden of church refurbishment (Linda Whittle supported by Barry Rose). In response it was pointed out that 99.7% of the parishes in the diocese did manage to pay their parish share in full, and we were far from the least-favoured among the diocese. However we would debate the issue in the PCC.

A clarification was sought on the ‘salaries’ line in General Fund, Payments. This covered visiting priests during the vacancy, and was reimbursed by the diocese.

d.     The churchwarden’s fabric report

David Cheetham

(See report D)

David expanded on the quote received for re-plastering and redecoration, in the report. This was thought to represent ‘top of the range’ work, and we might get a cheaper quote.

The proposed moving of the chandelier was queried. The idea had been to restore it to prominence in the church, after it had been somewhat obscured by the screen (a later addition). It would probably not be very expensive to do when the equipment to do the other works was in place.

It had also been suggested that the pulpit would be moved to the other side of the church, which would allow us to turn it to its intended orientation. This is was certainly not essential.

Chair replacement is a high priority once the decoration has been done. We were hoping that people might donate a chair in much the same way as they donated hymn books. We would not aim to fill more that the part of the church most often used.

We will have to consider innovative ways to raise the finance, including loans from individuals.

e.     Deanery Synod Report

Tricia Lumley

(See report E)

6.   Other reports

Before moving to the other reports, it was proposed that the meeting formally accepted the statutory reports (prop. Janet Jeffries, sec. Colette Jeff; all were in favour and the motion was carried).

a.     Ministry team

Chris Green

(See report F)

Sue Rose welcomed Nikki Devitt and Chris Green to the ministry team as fully-fledged Readers, as of last October.

b.     Covenants

Thea Oliver

(See report G)

Thea wants someone else to take over- she has only stepped in as a temporary measure. Victor will be greatly missed in the role- it requires someone who has the opportunity to visit people during the day, and the patience to explain to them what the money is to be used for. Please volunteer if you feel you can contribute in this most valuable way.

c.     School

Nikki Devitt

(See report H)

The highlight was the pre-school development, which was discussed.

d.     Supporters of St. Peter’s (S.O.S.P.)

Thea Oliver

(See report I)

A big vote of thanks was due to the Mendip Players for the harvest supper event, which had been very successful. It had been also very generous of them to allow us to keep all of the income from the bar and raffle, only splitting the money from ticket sales.

e.     Local Ministry Group

Sue Rose

(See report J)

Sue was asked where the ‘messy Church’ event would be held. It would be either Flagstaff Farm- if the weather was good- or Draycott Church if not.

f.       Bible Study Group

Thea Oliver

(See report K)

g.     Web site

Chris Green

(See report L)

7.   Election of Laity to the Parochial Church Council for 2010/11

It was proposed that the current PCC team be re-elected en bloc, if they agreed (proposed, Tricia Corrick; seconded, Nikki Devitt; all were in favour, and the motion carried).

Ex officio members not requiring election are the churchwardens (David Cheetham and Thea Oliver) and Deanery Synod representatives (Sylvia Dingley and Tricia Lumley).  Re-elected members are Richard Dingley, Chris Green, Tricia Heckbert, Colette Jeff and Barry Rose.

8.   Appointment of sides men and women

Sue said that she would be very grateful if the current sides people would continue, if they could. Gordon Jeff had been recruited during the year, but there was a need for further people.

9.   Appointment of independent financial examiner

Alan Rowntree is the independent examiner of our accounts (we do not require a formal audit as we do not have enough turnover). He is willing to continue. All were agreed.

10.                       Remarks from the Priest in Charge

Sue said how nice it was to be starting on a new year, and be able to recognise the people in her audience! Her principle sadness was that Victor and Rita were not among them.

We are all looking forward to the refurbishment of the church- we can make it happen if we really want. Hold on to our faith. We have an important role to play still in the village.

A highlight of the year was carol singing in the pub- a reminder of the need to worship in the community- although not necessarily in ways served by conventional ‘church’. There were also occasions on which the church itself was full, such as Mothering Friday. We continue to reach out to The Laurels and Sealey Close.

We will need to agree on our ‘category’, which will affect the parish share. Sue would argue the case for us going down a category to ‘D’ for a year, whilst the refurbishment was being carried out.

11.                       Any other matters of important to the Parish

Sue Rose introduced the topic of service re-arrangements.

The experiment of putting the service forward to 9:15 from 9:30 on a Sunday morning had lost us the support of The Laurels, as it is just too early for them. Also it was not proving practical to sustain the transfer to Cheddar at 10:30, which it was intended to make possible.

Sue proposed to move most services back to 9:30, and abandon the transfer from Draycott to Cheddar. Sue would be in the villages for one Sunday morning in the month. In addition, she would lead an evening service- which would bring an opportunity for outreach (possibly even in the pub?). This would be on the first Sunday of the month.

It was possible that an 8.00 am said communion could be incorporated into the schedule. One of the remaining Sunday morning services might be designed and led by one of the Readers.

Rodney Stoke would have all their services back to 11:15 am; Cheddar would move to 9:30 am.

Discussion ensued. The move back to 9:30 was well received, but it was observed that only two 9:30 Eucharises per month is too few- so the ‘Reader’s Service’ might not be adopted at this stage.

When should we start the changes? We could move to 9:30 straight away, providing we were still in time for the Newsletter. It was more difficult to imagine when we might start the evening service, which would take time to arrange. Perhaps it is best to start in September with the new term.

12.                       Closing prayer

The meeting closed with the Grace.

Addendum- PCC meeting

The PCC met after the APCM, and agreed the following officers agreed: Tricia Heckbert as vice chair, David Cheetham as Treasurer and Chris Green as Secretary. Our first regular meeting will be Tuesday May 4th. We would meet at 9 Barnett’s Well at 8.00 pm.

Reports

A. Electoral Roll

Chris Green- for Richard Dingley

We do not have access to Richard’s records, but I since we have had 3 leave the roll, and 2 added to it, the present Roll will be one down on last year at 45 members.

B. Report on PCC proceedings

Chris Green, PCC Secretary

After the interregnum of 2009 it has been good for the PCC to return to the governance of a priest in charge, and we in the PCC have been delighted to get to know Sue in the past year.

Your PCC was 11 strong for most of the year, reduced to 10 by the resignation of Victor Skinner at the beginning of March. We had 8 meetings, on 19th May, 30th June, 1st September, 13th October, 5th November and 15th December in 2009, and 21st January and 3rd March in 2010. Of these, the 5th November was an ‘extraordinary’ meeting, at which matters of spirituality and the school were the main topics discussed (Nikki Devitt was invited to this meeting). We have met at the homes of Gordon and Colette Jeff, Sue Rose, Thea Oliver, and Victor Skinner. We thank all of them for their hospitality. We also met once in the Parish Room in Cheddar. We have been mostly chaired by Tricia Heckbert, and have (mostly) kept to our target time- not more than 1 ½ hours!

The recurrent business at PCC meetings is: Worship, Fabric, Finance, Supporters of St. Peter’s, and the Local Ministry Groups, all of which are covered on other reports. One other matter of importance considered at several of our meetings was the Parish Newsletter, following the discussions at the last APCM. There was some support for combining with Cheddar in the production of a single newsletter. However Rodney Stoke PCC preferred to continue with a separate newsletter for Rodney Stoke and Draycott. When Alison Jeffries and Michael Taylor in Rodney Stoke came forward to take on the editorship, this was gladly endorsed by Draycott PCC. The size has been increased somewhat, and the price also (to 50p an issue). We are very grateful to both the previous editors (Alan and Jenny Newman) and the current ones.

The most contentious topic of the year was undoubtedly the payment of the Parish Share, and this is unlikely to change. Please pray for the new PCC as it tackles this and other challenges of the next year, that it might have wisdom in discerning God’s word for the parish.

C. The financial report and accounts

David Cheetham , Treasurer

St Peter’s congregation has paid the Parish Share in full for 2009 (£9488). In spite of that large expenditure, the General Fund has almost broken even; just £129 deficit for the year. Income from investments is almost zero at the moment.

The Fabric Fund has continued to grow, and now stands at over £11,000. There should be enough money there to go ahead and get some of the refurbishment work done in time for the 150th Anniversary next year. But, as outlined in the Fabric report, there is a great deal to do, and we hope that people will continue to give generously to fund-raising ventures.

Although the congregation is small, and the needs of the church are large, we have not forgotten the work of outside charities, with over £2,000 given during the year.

Accounts

GENERAL FUND

RECEIPTS

Covenants and gift aid

6540.50

Income tax recovered

2175.62

Collections at services

1744.38

Sundry donations

533.82

Grants

669.00

Fund raising

170.00

Investment income

2.39

Charitable trading

2701.10

Non-charitable trading

30.00

Restricted income

500.00

Total

15066.81

PAYMENTS

Grants

255.00*

Parish share

9488.00

Clergy and readers’ expenses

628.67

Upkeep of church

1204.91

Upkeep of services

128.25

Trading costs

473.36

Salaries

1265.50

Admin.

1046.87

Restricted payments

581.21

Sub total

15071.77

Add transfers to Fabric Fund

(income tax refund)

124.00

Total

15195.77

Excess of payments over receipts

15195.77

            less

15066.81

DEFICIT FOR THE YEAR

128.96

Balance at bank, 1 Jan 2009,

3370.70

Less cheques drawn in 2008,

            not presented until 2009,

447.86

2922.84

Add cheques drawn in 2009,

            not presented until 2010,

263.43

3186.27

Less deficit for the year

128.96

3057.31

Balance at bank, 31 Dec 2009

3057.31

 

DEPOSIT ACCOUNT (General)        

Balance at bank, 1 Jan 2009

4513.46

Add interest

2.36

Balance at bank, 31 Dec 2009

4515.82

Deposit held at CCLA

79.16

 

FABRIC FUND     

RECEIPTS

Covenants and gift aid

510.00

Collection at a service (Leigh funeral)

181.00

Sundry donations

621.00

Grants (English Heritage)

2092.12

Fund raising

1422.91**

Sub total

4827.03

Add transfers (tax refund)

124.00

Total

4951.03

Balance at bank, 1 Jan 2009

3018.25

Add receipts

4951.03

7969.28

Balance at bank, 31 Dec 2009

7969.28

 

DEPOSIT ACCOUNT (Fabric) 

Balance at bank, 1 Jan 2009

3008.48

Add interest

1.67

Balance at bank, 31 Dec2009

3010.15

Deposit at CCLA, 1 Jan 2009

216.92

Add interest

3.30

Balance on 31 Dec 2009

220 22

NOTES

Collections at The Laurels

85.26

Collections at Sealey Close

42.40

(These are included in collections at services, above)

 


 

GRANTS MADE BY US TO OTHER CHARITIES  

            Crisis

82.20

            Sisters of the church

127.80

            The Children’s Society

45.00

Sub total (see above, payments)

255.00*

Add grants paid directly to charities;

not through St Peter’s accounts

            Children’s Society boxes

671.11

            Christian Aid

1130.76

Total

2056.87

 

FUND RAISING EVENTS FOR THE FABRIC FUND       

            Easter Quiz

162.50

            Car Boot Sale

101.50

            Quiz Night

90.80

            Murder Mystery

942.09

            Candles and Quiz

70.00

            Carol singing (part)

56.02

Total (see above, receipts)

1422.91**

 

D. The churchwarden’s fabric report

David Cheetham and Thea Oliver, Churchwardens

The main thing to report is that, although we have had a winter of particularly bad weather, the visible effects of rainwater ingress and of rising damp are no worse than they were this time last year. It looks as though we can safely go ahead with refurbishment work and be reasonably sure that the work will not be wasted.

 

The quotation has come from Hugh Berry at Ellis Restoration for redecorating the church. He has priced it in areas, including scaffolding, removing all old emulsion paint (including paint mistakenly applied to carved stonework)and painting in "distemper". The price includes work up to the highest points of the gables, but not painting the ceiling, which would be a huge cost.

 

These prices do not include VAT, but we can claim back the VAT on restoration work.

Nave

£13,849

Transepts

£ 7,906

Chancel

£ 5,044

Boiler area

£ 1,987

 

Our intention is that the refurbishment of the porch and the painting of the radiators should be done by a team of church members, and that we should go ahead with the work on the nave, with Ellis or possibly another company.

 

As outlined in articles in the church magazine, we also have plans in the pipeline for enclosing the north choir aisle (boiler area), installing built-in cupboards in the south transept (vestry) and moving the Twelve Apostles chandelier from the choir to the nave.

E. Deanery Synod Report

Tricia Lumley

This year I have been your representative at Deanery Synod. This is a very straightforward and pleasant job as it only involves three meetings a year. Unfortunately, I was unable to make one of those meetings.

The first meeting I attended was at the Diocesan Resource Centre in Wells. This centre is available for all members of the Diocese to use and they have a wide range of materials in every format. In addition to the books, CDs and DVDs, I was really impressed with the ‘sacks’ they put together for schools on all sorts of different topics. The sacks would include books, puppet shows, maybe some templates for pictures, or craftwork ideas- all sorts of ideas to make lesson planning easy. They cover all age groups. I really recommend that you drop in and familiarise yourself with this place. It is well worth a visit.

We had supper afterwards at the new restaurant at the Cathedral. I’m sure most of you have been by now, but if not I heartily recommend it.

The next meeting was in Highbridge. We had two speakers at this meeting, one from Christian Aid and one from the Diocesan Environmental Group. It was the latter gentleman’s job to help parishes in their efforts not only to become green, but also to show them how to get a return on their green initiatives, apply for grants and so forth. There was some real food for thought there. Perhaps by next year’s APCM we will have installed a ground source heat pump and be selling power back to the National Grid from the solar panels on the church roof.

F. Ministry team

Chris Green, Reader

In the previous year, much of the service planning and scheduling of duties had taken place at the local preaching team meetings. Following the revd. Sue’s appointment last year, the preaching team joined forces with the Cheddar-based clergy and readers, and the expanded team has met four times. Membership is as follows:

·      Sue Rose (Cheddar, Draycott, Rodney Stoke- incumbent)

·      Rupert Bursell (Cheddar- non-stipendiary assistant priest)

·      Judith Rose (Cheddar- archdeacon, retd.)

·      Hilary Thomas (Cheddar- parish priest, retd.)

·      Gordon Jeff (Draycott- canon, retd.)

·      Richard Dingley (Draycott-reader)

·      Ann Wait (Cheddar- reader)

·      Nikki Devitt (Draycott-reader in 2nd training year)

·      Chris Green (Draycott-reader in 2nd training year)

·      Thea Oliver (Draycott-church warden, preaching team)

From this company it has so far been possible to find preachers and celebrants to cover all services at Draycott, although this sometimes results in a rapid transfer to Cheddar at the end of the service- undesirable for all concerned.  All of the above apart from Ann Wait have played a part in worship at Draycott, including preaching. This has ensured a very varied programme of preaching, which has been appreciated.

Draycott has seen the addition of two new Readers this year, Chris and Nikki. They were licensed last October, and will finish their formal training this year. However they will still need to be absent for a period of some weeks to complete a placement over the next two years. They continue to need the prayers and support of the congregation as they gain experience in leading services and other activities.

We look forward to welcoming the new curate, Christine Butler, to the ministry team in July.

G. Covenants

Thea Oliver, Covenant Secretary (temporary)

Unfortunately the Covenant Secretary resigned in February, after doing an excellent job for a number of years, and as Church Warden I have temporarily taken this on, but I have not been able to have access to any of the paperwork relating to this before the APCM & so cannot provide a report.

If you are a taxpayer are giving to St Peter’s Church (either General Fund or Refurbishment Fund or both) but are not already ‘gift-aiding’ please consider doing this, it really does make a big difference to the amount we raise. This can be done via standing order (often easier method) or through the yellow envelope scheme. Please either speak to me at Church or telephone me to arrange a meeting.

Please can someone offer to take on this extremely necessary role as I really do not feel that I am best suited to doing this?

Thank you.

H. School

Nikki Devitt, School Governor

Our new Chair of Governors is Jo Hogan. Jo is an active member of the Cheddar Catholic Church community, and is thoroughly supportive of the Christian ethos of the school.

Links between church and school have been enhanced this year, following a meeting of Sue Rose and Nikki Devitt with the Head, Cathy Lowe in January 2010, when we discussed ways of offering more support to the school. Mrs. Lowe is very encouraging of stronger church connections with school. Following this meeting, Sue is now going into school one per week to teach the children RE, taking each class on a rotational basis. Sue has also been co-opted on to the Governing Body, with the understanding that her busy schedule will not always allow her to get to meetings. Nikki also remains on the Governing Body in the Ex Officio role, as a Foundation Governor.

The regular School Services have continued fortnightly on a Wednesday morning, led by Nikki. They follow the themes of the agreed RE syllabus ‘Awareness Mystery and Value’. The children participate with enthusiasm in the worship, drama and songs. We have also had more special services this year, taken by Sue. These have included worship for Harvest, Christmas, Mothering Sunday (though actually held on the Friday before) and Easter. Our church was also wonderfully decorated for Easter with the children’s Easter Gardens. This was a good reminder to our regular Sunday congregation of the younger generation they seldom see in church. As always, all parishioners are welcome at all of the school services. It’s good for both the younger and older generations to be reminded that God’s family spans the generations!

A major development for the School, as from September, is our new pre-school (nursery) unit. We shall be taking children from the age of 3years. This is one way of sustaining the numbers of children coming to the school and ensuring the future of our village school. It remains to be seen how we can involve the younger children and their families in the life of the church.

I. Supporters of St. Peter’s (S.O.S.P.)

Thea Oliver

The three committee members of SOSP- Maria Millard, Tricia Lumley, Thea Oliver -have continued to organise fundraising events throughout 2009/10 with the unstinting help and support of our spouses, families and friends! We thank you all.

We have also had donations from Church members and friends including some in lieu of birthday gifts, we are very grateful to everyone who continues to support us in whatever way they can.

Events to date include:

·         Two very successful Soup Lunches in Church

·         Stall at the car boot sale in Cheddar

·         Murder Mystery evening ‘Murder on the Menu’ with the Memorial Hall being transformed into an Italian restaurant for the evening. This was a joint venture with Mendip Players and had rave reviews!!

·         Quiz night at Strawberry Special

·         Candle dipping at the First School Christmas Fayre

·         Carol Singing at Sealey Close, The Laurels & very successfully in the bar of the Strawberry Special (photos will shortly appear on the Church website www.rodneystokewithdraycott.org.uk  !)

·         The now annual Lenten quiz this year featured Dingbats.

Planned events so far for 2010/2011 include:

·         Friday 23rd April there will be ‘A tale of two villages’  a talk about the villages of Rodney Stoke and Draycott  by local historian Alan Rowntree . This is a joint fundraiser with R&R Cancer Care

·         Jumble Sale

·         Cream Teas in Church

·         Harvest Lunch in Church

·         Evening Quiz at Strawberry Special

·         More Soup Lunches!

·         Soup recipe book

·         We propose to hold a weekend of Open Gardens and Scarecrow Festival in 2011, please look out for posters and info on how to become involved, this is a massive project that will need a number of committed people to be involved in planning and organisation.

Our next big project to fund is the redecoration of the inside of St Peter’s and the first estimate for this work was for £28,000 so please if you have a good idea, or (even better) would like to organise & put on an event for SOSP we would be very grateful, we are always on the look out for new angles, and helpers!

J. Local Ministry Group

Sue Rose

(abridged, with ‘Cheddar Valley Churches Together’)

Local Ministry Group

·      Thursday morning prayer- moving between the three benefices.

·      Monthly meetings of the steering group- to plan ahead

·      Pentecost praise event- good weather and well supported. Tea on the grass, wonderful views, vibrant worship.

·      ‘Worship Without Words’ in January

·      ‘Exploring our gifts’ training with Ken Brown from the School of Formation.

·      Marriage Preparation- this has become an annual event, and this year used material from the Mother’s Union in Salisbury diocese. 15 couples came.

·      Planned- ‘Messy Church’ children’s morning in May; participation in ‘Greenbelt’ festival.

Cheddar Valley Churches Together

·      Major event last year- Father’s Day fun day, with Gavin Tyte, a beat boxer, as the main speaker.  Totally free- a point of discussion and witness.

·      Ecumenical Car Boot stand- second Sunday of each month.

·      Christmas card delivered to all homes in the Cheddar, Draycott and Rodney Stoke villages. Well received but a lot of work!

·      Joint act of worship in Holy Week has become an important regular feature. Other opportunities are in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the Women’s World Day of Prayer, and Bible Sunday.

 

K. Bible Study Group

Thea Oliver

For a number of reasons the Bible Study Group has not met regularly this year. We did manage to become involved in a very successful Lent study Course and had an excellent plenary meeting in St Peters Church in Holy Week and following on from this I am pleased to give you some news ‘hot off the press’ that a joint Bible Study Group is being planned for members of the three Churches (and anyone else who is interested!) organised by Rev Hilary Thomas, hosted by Mrs Audrey Morgan and led by Dr Joan Salmon. Please look out for more information as it is advertised, but remember.. you heard it here first!

L. Web site

Chris Green, Webmaster

The address of the website for the benefice is: www.rodneystokewithdraycott.org.uk.

The website has been continued as in previous years, and I have renewed registration of the domain name, at a cost of £14 + VAT (this will run for 2 more years). This is the only cost for the web hosting service we use.

The purpose of the website is to inform anyone who is interested about our parish and benefice, including details of our services. The latter is mostly achieved through the parish newsletter, which is published as part of the benefice website. Alison Jeffries now lets me have a full PDF version of the newsletter as well as the rotas and diary.

In addition to this material, the site publishes PCC reports, and sermons preached at Draycott (when the text is available). It aims therefore to be a complete ‘shop window’ for the parish- something which is rightly expected from any public institution nowadays. There were about 800 unique visitors to the site last year, down from 1140 last year. We have been less in the news than in former years, perhaps- but it still represents an important potential source of contact. Most visitors are from the UK, but they also come from the US and a variety of other countries.

I have recently been approached by Tim Bibby (chair of the Friends of St. Leonard’s) who would like to develop a website for the Friends, as a part of the St. Leonard’s website. The latter requires maintenance, and I have suggested that he take on responsibility for this from me. He is taking this back to the Rodney Stoke PCC, of which he is a member.

Return to main site