Category: PCC Notes

Val James finished as churchwarden after 6 years of service. One nomination was received to elect Val McKenzie to be our next warden. John has also been nominated for his final 6th year in office. Val McKenzie and John were duly elected and Val James was thanked for her many years of conscientious service.
In terms of Elections to the PCC, Susan Collins, Becky Berry and Elaine Marsden were happy to stand again. As there was a space from last year, Paul Rimmington had been nominated and elected.

Janet asked why our mission giving had not happened in 2021 and John Spencer assured her that it had been noted and that it would be discussed and acted on at our next PCCmeeting.

Alastair thanked Martin for his service as treasurer at the Parish Centre and noted grateful thanks for all who have written legacies into their wills. The majority of the redecoration work in Church, almost £150,000, has been gifted to us through the legacy of Ann and Ted Clough.

Alastair thanked Sally, John, Duncan and Pam for their work on producing the annual reports. He also thanked Sara and Nerys for their work as children and families workers during 2021. Also to Judith Hird for her work coordinating the donations to the Children’s Society and for doing the PAYE for the last 10 years.

Alastair shared how difficult 2021 had been and that we were in a time of regrouping and returning to our core values as part of the people of God in Burley. He noted that our work as a community is to draw people to Jesus. This is especially the case, although not exclusively, for young people and children.

Concerns were raised about the piano, the garden, the drop in attendance, the decline in volunteering, especially among the young. Dot asked for help with Safeguarding and Catriona volunteered. Margaret suggested that we needed to revitalise our parish carelists – different people having pastoral care for a street or area in the village.

On the question of the renovations of the Open Door room in the Parish Centre, Alastair said that he had hoped to have a consultation process before Easter, but for a number of reasons they had run out of time. He assured the congregation that some exciting plans were being drawn up and they would be able to be seen very shortly. Time was of the essence as we have a significant grant which is time-limited.

Charles read from Ephesians and encouraged us to sing “Jesus Christ is risen today.”

We were all encouraged to show more gratitude and encouragement to all those who work hard to keep the Church active in our community.

We finished with a small bring and share lunch.

Alastair

Vicar’s Report

Fabulous things happening through December such as the term of work with our young people – Becky and Sam Lewis have been at the vicar’s house on a Sunday evening. They receive around 10-15 young people most weeks and, in some cases, up to 20 people.

The new speakers in the spire are a great improvement.

Christmas worship evening with the gospel choir and the Carol Service were well attended.

Despite the increasing anxiety about Omicron, St Mary’s went ahead with the Christingles which were well attended and much appreciated by all. Thanks to all those who helped support those services and made them really special.

Sadly we have lost a number of the congregation lately. Irene Fowler has appreciated the support from St. Mary’s and asked Alastair to take part in the funeral of Paul Fowler in Nailsea. Jacquie Briggs died suddenly after being at a home for a few weeks before Christmas and Margaret Allsop was also remembered.

There are a number of vacant positions. Judith Hird – payroll position and children’s society. Elaine Marsden – safeguarding officer; Martin Russell – treasurer for the Parish Centre. There is a vacancy for an organist and a new warden from April as Val will be stepping down. We are also looking for an Environment Officer to help John.

PCC Secretary Sally Weatherall is getting married on the 23rd April – congratulations

Lis – Vision & Strategy

Consulted with PCC imagination groups to collect ideas to develop a strategy for 2022 which she hoped could be finalized agreed at the next PCC.

Children and Family Work

Alastair said that we must try and get more considered plan around children and family’s work after the resignation of Sara and Nerys. Historically great interaction with young people which need to be sustained. Job description, hours and salary as well as general support was raised. Connect a good example.
We are grateful to Sara and Nerys for modelling what the job looks like. We are looking for someone committed to growing faith in families and are good at encouraging volunteers. The significant giving has been given from outside the church. St Mary’s members contributed less than a quarter of the money for the post.

It was agreed that Connect cannot stop. We need to work out our needs and the relationship between paid employees and volunteers.

Financial Statement.

1.0 New Fibre Connection for the Church is now up and running.
2.0 The new speakers in the towers have now been installed and working successfully.
3.0 Reordering: A Contract has now been agreed between Woolers Construction Limited and the Architect at £ 127,442.00
£165k has been given in legacies and £125k in gifts. Card payments £600 so far.
£400,000 in reserves – a third is gone so far on phase one of the reordering project.

Fabric Redecorating Glass Door

Due to Wedding commitments and Christmas and Easter the works will take place as follows:
· External works will be started in the next week. Replastering between mid-February and Palm Sunday.
· Decoration after Easter cannot start before 25/04/2022. The date will be dependent on the drying time for the plaster.

The Church will need to be closed when the repairs and plastering takes place during the working week with the church not useable for worship on Sundays from 14th February – 8th April. Waiting for the URC to confirm whether we can worship in their building. Queens Hall will be saved for a couple of dates. Decorating will take place after John and Sally have got married, possibly from the 9th May whilst the building is drying out. The path work is starting on Monday.

Worship Evening/ Organists / Music etc.

A gentleman in Ilkley called Nigel offered to be an organist as an interim and Alastair is meeting him on Thursday. Edward may continue until we vacate the building.

Alastair encouraged all to come along to a worship evening. The next is this Thursday. It will then move over to the Methodist Church with the works making it a more of an ecumenical event.

Churches together will separate the difference between Burley together and Menston together. PCC in agreement with this change.

Parish Centre

Zoe has had a good first couple of months. Had a promising team meeting before Christmas. Going to be working on refurbishing open door. They need help with some of the building maintenance side of things.

Correspondence
There was no correspondence.

AOB
Depending on the outcome of Omicron, Alastair will be going to co-lead a pilgrimage on 27th March with Rev Gordon Dey. He will be away until 7th April (including 2 Sundays) along with Mary and Becky. The PCC agreed unanimously to dispensation for Becky to take the time off.

There was a suggestion of reinstating pastoral lists to keep an eye on vulnerable people. Becky and Mary have started compiling a list

Concern was raised about the amount of information available about
reordering. Alastair to include more about the redecoration and the church closure in next weekly email.

It was decided to move the next meeting to the 1st March

The meeting closed with a grace at 9.50pm.

Welcome and introduction: Alastair remembered a young Hungarian lady, who worshipped at Bradford Cathedral and had been tragically murdered. He read from Luke 7 reflecting on the exuberant love of the woman in the story and comparing it to those who had recently been confirmed.

Matters Arising: An advertisement has been placed for a new organist on the RSCM website and we are now waiting for responses. Thanks were expressed to Jonny and to John for organising the new card machine.

Vicar’s Report: Alastair expressed how encouraging it was that there had been 7 Connect services at the Parish Centre, 2 Connect Together at Church, 2 evening worship events. In addition, there had been a well-attended Remembrance Service held outdoors and a new youth group had started, thanks to Becky and Sam with 15 young people attending.

He reported on new speakers in the spire, involvement in the new Well-being hub, a new centre manager, Zoe Cullum. The highlight of the autumn was the confirmation of 12 candidates by Bishop Toby.

Alastair outlined plans for Advent and Christmas services and asked permission for services on Boxing Day to be suspended. The PCC agreed but asked for the Church building to remain open.

Financial Statement: John presented the accounts and shared the
wonderful news that £80,000 had been received in legacies and a further £25,000 in one-off gifts by Church members.

Children and Family Work: Despite a very good start to their job, Nerys and Sarah had both handed in their resignations. They have both been offered other employment which suits them both and their families. Alastair recorded a formal thank you to them both and asked the PCC to pray and think about how to move forward whilst keeping the momentum that had been created. It was recognised that some work would be needed on the job description.

Fabric Redecorating & Glass Door: – John reported a new fibre connection for the Church to support the 4G signal. New AV equipment had been purchased to assist with live-streaming on YouTube including a MEVO camera.

Reordering: After a lot of work from the Architect we are close to awarding a contract for the first phase of reordering which includes:

External works to the path to stop damp ingress
New internal Glass Door at West end
Repair to the fabric of the building above the nave windows
Removal of the arched wainscoting and replastering
Decoration of the Church.

Music: There have been two Thursday Worship evenings led by Amy Haguma from a local Bradford Church with excellent feedback. Concern was raised at the cost, but Alastair asked members to try and attend the event before making a judgement. Edward Scott is happy to play the organ for the short term.

Parish Centre: Zoe settling in well to the new role. Martin has given
notice of his resignation as treasurer.

Alastair

Notes from the Online PCC meeting, 15th June, 2021

Welcome and introduction: Alastair welcomed us to an informal meeting. There were two items to discuss.

1. To approve the Contract and the job description for Nerys and Sara.

Val noted Susan’s point about what action to take if one of the job sharers resigns. After consideration the options were too restricting and therefore decided to leave it open. Their job security would not be affected, and it would be the responsibility of the PCC to find a new person.

Catriona raised the question of ‘out of pocket expenses.’ Alastair said that they would be reimbursed.

Alastair proposed that a vote was taken to approve the Job Description and the Contract. All in favour.

2. Church Redecoration

Alastair asked John to take us through the findings of the exploratory work carried out on the plasterwork prior to redecorating. John explained that redecoration was not the word to use. Multiple problems have been found which will cost a lot of money to correct.

• Behind the Wainscoting which was added in the 1930s, it was found that the wall behind was very damp. The Architect discovered that 20 years or so ago, the steps into church were changed, and a raised pathway was constructed. The method of construction has caused the rain water on the path to run down to the walls of Church which is then held against the wall without draining away. There should have been a slot drain. It could cost £10000 to fix the problem.
• There is a large crack above the first stained glass window which is due to poor workmanship.
• There is also a hairline crack between the window and the roof. There are 8 cracks between the 12 windows. This is something that we could live with; the building will not fall down.
• Approximately 12½% of the plaster within the main body of the church needs to be chipped out replaced and repainted over.
• The Chancel wall and plasterwork is in very poor condition. It is leaching salts from the stone which is causing problems. This needs to be lime plastered.

The challenge for the PCC is to decide:-
What do we absolutely have to do?
What would be nice to do?
What does the architect think should be done as a once generational thing to do? This would cost in the region of £75.000
A lengthy discussion ensued.

John is going to have a further word with the Architect and try to get him to reduce costs. The church will not be available for 6 weeks during the works. Tim Greenbank, who did the Scout and Guide building and would be a good person to do the work, will be approached. The programme could not start until the 12th September, and would be finished at the end of October.

It was decided to give the documentation to Tim Greenbank for him to price it accurately, and also get an accurate scaffolding price and find out when he would be able to do the work.

As soon as we have Stephen the Architects final report, and the costing from Tim Greenbank, then we meet up again.

The meeting ended with some prayers.

Notes from the PCC Meeting held on Tuesday 12th January, 2021.

Alastair welcomed Jonathan Barber to the PCC.

Matters Arising from Meeting held on 15th November, 2020
An update was given on the people still on furlough:
Jo – Parish Co-Coordinator is now on three quarters
Stacey – Cleaner is now on half
Peter – Organist is on full

Fr. Philip has now left St. Margaret’s Ilkley. The new area Dean of South Craven and Wharfedale is Mike Coe (Vicar of All Saints Ilkley) and his deputy is Helen Collings (Vicar of Sutton with Cowling and Lothersdale)

Duncan confirmed that we have paid our full share to the Diocese.

Vicars Report

Alastair felt that we had a very significant time since our last meeting. St Mary’s contributed to the ‘Switch on’ of the Christmas Lights video. There were over 10,000 views of it.

We put together an array of activities leading up to Christmas. To name a few:-

Sunday school offered wonderful contributions
Playing carols from the Church Steeple
A Christmas trail was enjoyed by children and adults
Reverse Advent – Over 300 boxes went from the Methodist Church to various charities in Bradford and Leeds
The appeal for Manningham made a huge difference, particularly in Girlington
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day had a total of 85 attendees who went to the services at 8.00 and 10.00am
Cakes provided by St. Mary’s were given out mainly to people living alone
1,200 Christingle bags were distributed to people in the street.
There was a Tableau in Open Door
18 Families in need with young children were identified. and through a combination of peoples offering from Church, along with a significant contribution from the Civic Charity, were given a £100 voucher for Aldi, and a few families were given more.

Alastair thanked everyone.

Children and Families Worker: It was unanimously decided to advertise for someone. The position is 24 hours, 3 days per week.

Treasurer and CGS Chair: Duncan is retiring in April. The role involves approximately 4/5 hours a week, which increases slightly towards the APCM. Karen is also retiring from the CGS Chair. We need to think who would be prepared to take on these roles.

Fabric/redecoration: Val is aiming to get estimates to look at the plasterwork which needs attention before the decorating can be completed. The gutters were cleared before Christmas

The PCC had their first meeting of the year on 14th January. Alastair welcomed us, and read from Hebrews about uncertainty and stepping forward in faith. The meeting opened with a prayer.

The Minutes were read and approved subject to an amendment relating to Val Mackenzie’s request on behalf of “Burley Dementia Action”

Vicar’s Report

Congratulations were given to Lizzie (one of our lay readers) for successfully passing her BAP to start ordination training in the autumn. Well done Lizzie, you will be greatly missed at St Marys.

There was a positive response from our congregation to Inn Churches which works with the homeless in Bradford. Lizzie is organising Rev to cook for Inn Churches in February. If anyone would like to help, please contact Lizzie. A similar scheme in Otley for homeless asylum seekers is also being organised, again helpers would be welcome.

Churches together are planning ecumenical lent house groups this year with an ecumenical Palm Sunday service at the end.

Alastair proposes to run an Alpha course later this year, he will be using some of the Alpha material in church during lent.

Alastair will be inviting Bishop Toby to take a confirmation service towards the end of the year, with courses running in the autumn term.

New Posts

Parish Centre Manager Jo Clayton has been appointed and started work at the beginning of January.

Family worker Maxie Barker was appointed, she will commence work mid January. She is a recent theology graduate from York University.

Please welcome both of them if you meet them.

Finances
This year’s share is £90,589

Next meeting on 11th Feb

There will be a PCC away day on 1st Feb

The meeting ended with the Grace.

Welcome and introduction
Alastair welcomed us and read from Henri Nouwen’s book, ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son’. The meeting opened with a prayer.

Matters Arising
Margaret Sumner’s replacement, Stacey Blenkhorn has settled in well and we are grateful for her hard-working approach. A thank you for Margaret’s work in church will take place shortly during a Service.
Lizzie and John are to get quotes for the lighting and windowsills.

Adverts
The Advertisements for the Parish centre co-ordinator and ‘The children and families’ worker have been sent out to various social media sites etc., Responses are starting to arrive and interview panels for each position will be formed.

Spring Harvest
There are 19 people wanting to attend Spring Harvest Local in January at Otley. Anyone else who is interested to contact Lizzie who will buy the tickets.

Vicar’s Report
Services for Armistice went well with a high attendance. It was good to see all three village schools involved at the War Memorial. Alastair reported a growing interest in linking to St Mary’s from Ghyll Royd School. Thanks were given to Becky for her help in arranging the successful Sabbatical Evening. Anna, who runs Tiny Tots, wishes to close the group due to low attendance. The PCC agreed that this should happen but that our new Family Worker, when appointed, can have a re-launch, perhaps looking back at how the group ran in the past and how it might fit with what is currently offered in the village.

Finance
Duncan presented the accounts for the 6 months until 30th September 2019. There was a rise of £4500 in Christian Giving although collections in church were down slightly.

Christingles
It was agreed that if we ensure that there is the opportunity for regular church goers to receive a Children’s Society donations candle to fill in the run up to Christmas, as well as donating our December refreshments donations to the Children’s Society, then we can divide the Christingle collections 50/50 between St Mary’s and the Children’s Society.

CGS / Parish Giving
A new scheme is being launched nationally by the Church of England and it would be useful if Karen and Duncan could attend one of the presentations on this scheme

Mission Giving: The following was agreed:
£1000 to Otley Christian Resources Hub
£850 to Western Nepal Disability Trust
£250 to Ros Wilkinson in Istanbul
£250 to Inn Churches
£250 to McKenzie Friends (part of BEACON)
£250 to Jesus Shaped People
£250 Tereli
£500 to Sudan Diocese
£400 has already been donated to providing Bibles for school leavers.

Fabric Report
John presented the most recent fabric report and noted that the window is still on track to be in place again by Christmas. PAT testing will take place next week.

Steps
The PCC were asked if we might paint any steps in the church with a white line to make them dementia-friendly.

The meeting ended in the Grace.

Cleaner: Margaret Sumner’s replacement, Stacey Blenkhorn, has been appointed. Margaret and the staff at the centre had a small celebration of her retirement. A ‘Thank You’ for her work in church will take place in a service sometime soon.

Windowsills: Regarding the lounge windowsills – with winter coming, most painters and decorators have finished outside jobs, so the windows may need to wait until spring.

Vicar’s Report: Services for the end of JSP and the Harvest Festival went well, although a storm meant for a lower than hoped for attendance at the former.

The churchyard was tidied at the weekend by a small team of volunteers and looks better for their hard work.

Children & Families Worker: The job description now has a clearer focus and will involve working within the Sunday School in addition to thinking about how we welcome and care for families. The post will include working on Sunday. We discussed the possibility for some flexibility over the number of hours and holiday entitlement. The advert will be sent to as many sources as possible, locally and potentially nationally.

Worship Pattern: Alastair proposed that from January there will be one service on the first Sunday of each month which will be a non-eucharistic all-age service, with Sunday School and choir. Karen noted that this was the most requested change in the recent audit, and the time of 10.00am was agreed.

Mission Giving: Alastair noted that we had not paid our usual subscription/mission giving for this year to Otley Christian Resources Hub and proposed that we pay our usual sum of £1000. We talked about how we might support impoverished places further as a church, perhaps by tithing our income from any church-related fundraising (e.g. for decorating or re-ordering) at 10%, with that portion being donated to help others such as the churches in Sudan. PCC members were invited to think about how they would like to see the remaining mission giving funds distributed and whether we should look more closely at tithing our future income. This will be discussed at the next PCC.

Parish Centre Co-ordinator : Alastair met with the staff at the centre to discuss the role of co-ordinator. Joyce has been doing a phenomenal job covering the work, but no volunteers have come forward in response to our advertising. Alastair proposed that we now offer this as a paid position of 8 hours with the post funded jointly by the Parish Centre and the Church. The office workers and church wardens were in favour of this approach.

Fabric Report: The glass from the East window has been removed to Cook’s workshop. The stone around the window inside the church has had paint removed allowing it to breathe and, internally the stone has been cleaned up to the hood moulding. There was less damage than feared externally, which has allowed for a better cleaning process and we are still on budget.

The heating system has been re-balanced and should be working well.

The decorator has also been contacted regarding the handrail.

AOB: Otley Parish Church have contacted us regarding a local event run by the Christian organisation, Spring Harvest. Lizzie will send an email to the PCC and any others interested and will book anyone who wishes to go. Leaflets are in the church porch.

Open Door will be a place where we can offer refills for water bottles, along with a national scheme for this. A sticker will go on the door of the centre indicating that we offer this service.

The meeting ended in the Grace.

Sally Weatherall

A meeting of the new PCC was held on 30th April after a communion service in church.

Alastair welcomed everyone particularly Elaine and Duncan as new members of the PCC.

Matters Arising

The Electoral Roll is down by 80; therefore having less than 200 on roll means we only need 12 people on PCC.

PCC Officer Elections
Secretary – Sally was proposed by Karen, seconded by Becky and agreed by all.
Treasurer – Duncan was proposed by Susan seconded by Janet and agreed by all.
Minutes Secretary – Lizzie was proposed by Karen, seconded by Margaret
and agreed by all.
Safeguarding – Elaine and Dot were proposed by Janet, seconded by Karen
and agreed by all.
Disability officer – Margaret was proposed by Karen, seconded by Becky and agreed by all.
Standing Committee – John, Val, Alastair, Duncan, Sally, Margaret and Mick
were proposed by Sally seconded by Duncan and agreed by all.

Vicar’s Report
The Mothering Sunday Service with no Eucharist had lots of positive feedback, this led to discussion about monthly all age services which many people are keen to have. It was agreed that 1st Sunday in October and November would be a good time to trial it.
Alastair proposed that during school summer holidays (23rd July – 1st Sept) the service should be at 10am. All agreed. Easter services – apart from Easter Sunday, attendance was poor – down by 50%. Holy Week needs to be carefully planned next year.
The Church Lounge is in a poor state and needs redecorating, new curtains and a good clear out.

Sabbatical Plans

There are notes in the magazine and parish office regarding who to contact during Alastair’s sabbatical. He will return on 25th August.

Treasurer’s Report

Duncan presented the report for the first quarter. There has been a 10% increase in Christian giving. The Income tax return of £22,000 will pay the share for 2-3 months. Duncan will put a note in Magazine re gift aid to make sure we are not claiming for anyone no longer paying tax. Surplus for the quarter of £2,301.

Burley Festival Plans
Lizzie is coordinating these; if anyone has any ideas please run these by Lizzie. We need 2 reps from St Mary’s to help organise the open air service again – any volunteers would be much appreciated!

Parish Centre
Decorating quotes for the Garden and Jepson rooms are being sought. Joyce doing an amazing job keeping the ship afloat.

The meeting ended with prayers for Alastair’s sabbatical.

Next Meeting 18th June 7.30pm

St Mary’s held their APCM on 7th April . The meeting was fairly well attended and we began with a short act of worship – evening prayers taken from the Iona Community.

Our wardens, Val James and John Spencer were re-elected at the Vestry Meeting and much thanked for their hard work to date.

Various reports were read and approved, including the accounts, which were presented by Kevin Lawson. Kevin is now standing down as Treasurer to be replaced by Duncan Watts. Again, he was thanked for his contribution to the life of our church.

The electoral roll will now be the responsibility of Merel Wood, as Christine Clarke has stepped down after many years of organising this for us, for which we are grateful.

New PCC members were elected/re-elected and we welcomed Elaine Marsden to the PCC. Sidespeople were also duly re-elected.

In the vicar’s report, Alastair spoke about the potential for re-ordering the church, and an idea of how this might look was presented to those attending the meeting. He also mentioned that we are almost there with fundraising for the provision of a Children and Families Worker. There was plenty to then discuss at the Open Mic slot and the meeting closed with a prayer.

Sally Weatherall & Lizzie Reynolds