Minutes of the Parochial Church Council, St. Peter’s Draycott

 

Held on 21/01/2010 at 8:00 p.m. at Yeoddens, Station Road, Cheddar.

 

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1.        Opening prayers.. 1

2.        Attendance, apologies and welcome.. 1

3.        Minutes from 15/12/09.. 1

4.        Matters arising.. 1

5.        Other business.. 2

6.        Items for Decision.. 2

6a.  New worship ideas.. 2

6b.  Church reappointment. 2

6c.  Lent course 2010.. 2

7.        Items for Discussion.. 2

7a.  Worship.. 2

7b.  Fabric.. 2

7c.  Finance.. 2

7d.  School. 2

7e.  Supporters of St. Peter’s.. 2

7f.  LMG.... 2

8.        Items of New Business.. 2

8a.  Parish Share.. 2

9.        Dates.. 2

9a.  Next scheduled meetings.. 2

10.            Closing prayer. 2

 

1.        Opening prayers

Sue opened the meeting with a prayer. Tricia Heckbert took the chair.

2.        Attendance, apologies and welcome

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

 

3.        Minutes from 15/12/09

The minutes were agreed as an accurate record, subject to minor changes.

4.        Matters arising

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.

5.        Other business

(paper on Parish Share- tabled as item 8a)

6.        Items for Decision

6a.  New worship ideas

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

6b.  Church reappointment

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.

6c.  Lent course 2010

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.

.

7.        Items for Discussion

7a.  Worship

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.

7b.  Fabric

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?

7c.  Finance

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.

7d.  School

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.

7e.  Supporters of St. Peter’s

(defer until TO is present)

7f.  LMG

Pulpit exchanges- 28th Feb, 6th June.

Children’s day- 16th May.

Father’s Day- Kings of Wessex, 20th June- with Rowley Baines the clown.

8.        Items of New Business

8a.  Parish Share

BR and VS had previously circulated a paper on the parish share to PCC members. This was followed up by discussion at the PCC meeting. Generally we were unhappy at the amount being asked of us, which seemed disproportionate to our means.

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.

9.        Dates

9a.  Next scheduled meetings

1.         Next PCC- 3rd March (Wednesday)- venue TBA

2.         11th April 2010- APCM

10.  Closing prayer

The meeting concluded with the Grace.

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[1] For a future occasion, perhaps we could have a Benefice service on Maundy Thursday.