Held on 21/01/2010 at 8:00 p.m. at Yeoddens, Station Road, Cheddar.
2. Attendance,
apologies and welcome
9a. Next scheduled meetings.. 2
Sue
opened the meeting with a prayer. Tricia Heckbert took the chair.
Present David Cheetham Richard
Dingley Sylvia Dingley Chris Green Tricia
Heckbert Colette Jeff |
DC
RD SD CG TH CJ |
Tricia
Lumley Barry
Rose Sue
Rose Victor
Skinner Apologies Thea
Oliver |
TL BR SR VS TO |
The minutes were agreed as
an accurate record, subject to minor changes.
15/12/09 - 6a. (Church refurbishment-
community payback) DC informed the meeting that this was not going to be
possible. It seems as if the probation service favours larger-scale projects
than ours.
15/12/09 - 6b. (Church
reappointment) DC was in correspondence with the church architect. SR had
talked to Piers, who was happy to undertake the stud walling work. She will
apply for a faculty when the plans have been drawn up by the architect.
15/12/09 - 6d. (Magazine
printing) DC told us that they had had a change of heart, and they would use
the Benefice office photocopier instead. This had proved more laborious than
expected however- we might need to review the decision.
15/12/09 - 6e. (Lent course-
publicity etc.) Done- see also 6c, below.
15/12/09 - 7b. (Items for
recycling) Done.
15/12/09 - 7h.
(Environmental issues for PCC discussion). Since the Lent course has an
environmental theme, and may well give us fresh ideas, we thought that we
should leave our PCC discussions until after Easter.
(paper on Parish Share- tabled as item 8a)
DC had previously circulated
some ideas for an additional evening service, to incorporate elements not
usually possible in our regular Sunday morning services- including discussion (e.g.
led by members of the Company of Preachers), silence, and other forms of
meditation or worship. He further expanded on these ideas, and a discussion
ensued.
We needed to decide whether
the main focus would be on discussion or on worship. We might possibly do both,
with a discussion followed by a short service (e.g. Compline). As in any new
idea it might be difficult to get off the ground- a good ‘launch’ might be to
get a speaker to act as a draw. Also, people may find the church building to be
an off-putting venue. Might we meet in the pub?
The ‘gospel choir’ of
Cheddar would be a draw- but they would charge.
Can we do something on April
4th (Easter day)?
ACTION: Preaching team to come up
with a proposal
Now that we know there is to
be no community service workforce, we must organise the works ourselves. We
need a ‘master plan’ to draw up a list of works and an order in which to do
them.
ACTION: form a subcommittee,
including RD, VS, DC and SR- decide on a date to meet afterwards.
ACTION: Electrician- Paul Milton suggested. TO will contact to get
estimates.
Hilary Thomas had
contributed a publicity piece, which CG had put together with some more
material from the diocesan Website for the magazine. We have offered to host
the last session as a joint one at St. Peter’s, Draycott, and this has also
been publicised. Hilary is organising the different groups, of which there are
currently 8 proposed- one in Rodney Stoke (CG & Nikki Devitt’s house).
Hilary will distribute some forms to allow people to put their names down with
their preferences, and will collate the responses. She is also organising
leaders.
.
Programme of Easter worship:
Monday |
Stations
of the Cross (Cheddar Catholic Church) |
Tuesday |
Prayer
(Draycott) |
Wednesday |
Lent
group final meeting (Draycott)- 7:30 p.m. |
Thursday[1] |
Witnesses,
7:30 p.m. (Cheddar) |
|
Meditation
with Gordon Jeff (Draycott)- SR to
confirm with him |
Friday |
Benefice
service- starting at Rodney Stoke (12 midday – 12:30); moving on to Draycott
(13:00 – 13:30); then Cheddar (14:00 – 15:00). |
Saturday |
(nothing
planned) |
Generally- we need to consider
rationalising services, in order to reduce duplication and the need for
celebrants to rush from one event to another. It would also help if preachers,
intercessors etc. kept succinct and to time.
Joint service on 31st
Jan at Draycott. The service will be sung as usual- Barry and David will
produce music copies for the occasional parts. SR will look at producing a
Candlemas service.
Steeple jacks visited. The
down tape (conductor) needs re-fixing, at an estimated cost of £300 + VAT. All
agreed- and can they please free our bell-rope while they are up there?
General funds: £7,573;
Fabric: £10,979. DC has calculated that the general fund has run at a £126
deficit over the year. NB. We have not yet paid our winter gas bill, which will
be high.
SR, Nikki Devitt and Cathy
Lowe met. They decided/ proposed the following:
·
There
would be school services for Mothering Sunday (on Friday) and Easter
·
Posies
were needed for the ‘Mothering Friday’ service- CJ said she would do them
·
SR
will teach once a week at the school
·
Can
the school come to the church (on a Sunday) once a year? (date not yet agreed)
·
Nikki’s
school assemblies were much appreciated- these should continue
·
SR
to attend as an ‘honorary’ governor, when she could
·
Bibles
needed- ‘proper’ versions with full text (about 16). Can the church help?
The PCC discussed the last
point, and a motion was put that we should fund 17 bibles at an approximate
cost of £10 each. We would ask RS to join in- although we should do it on our
own if necessary.
Proposed: TH; Seconded: BR; Votes: All
were in favour (10); Result: motion
carried.
ACTION: SR to organise and present
DC with the bill.
(defer until TO is present)
Pulpit exchanges- 28th
Feb, 6th June.
Children’s day- 16th
May.
Father’s Day- Kings of
Wessex, 20th June- with Rowley Baines the clown.
What are other churches in
the benefice doing?
·
Cheddar
had a smaller proportional increase than us. They had recently mounted a major
drive on stewardship, yielding £5k p.a. more. There was also the ‘£5
challenge’, where every person was given £5 to ‘grow’. This had resulted in
various rewarding activities- coffee meetings, raffles etc.
·
Rodney
Stoke had also run a deficit this year, but has paid the parish share in full
(thus saving 2%). FoSL has had an excellent fundraising year, but the church
has also had a couple of unexpectedly large bills.
Nationally- average giving
of £13.26 each week.
Are we declaring the right
numbers in our parish returns? We should keep a register a while.
Should we put ourselves in a
lower band than C (where we have put ourselves for some years)?
We need to understand the
breakdown of how the £58k for the benefice is spent.
ACTIONS:
1.
Start
a register for attendances
2.
Get
some information on the breakdown of the parish share- share with the PCC and
possibly publish in the Church Newsletter.
1.
Next PCC- 3rd
March (Wednesday)- venue TBA
2.
11th April
2010- APCM
The
meeting concluded with the Grace.