The Parish of Hagley
St John the Baptist with St Saviour
Annual Parochial Church Meeting 2024
The minutes of the meeting held on Sunday 24 March 2024 at St Saviour’s after the morning service.
- Opening Prayers: The Rector opened the meeting with prayers.
- Attendance/Apologies: 34 present, 7 apologies.
- Minutes of APCM held on 2 April 2023: Unanimously agreed and signed by the Rector.
- Matters arising from the minutes: None.
- Church Electoral Roll: As of 31st December 2023 the number on the Electoral Roll was 117. Richard encouraged those who attend church to add their names to the Electoral Roll.
- Church Council Elections:
a. Churchwardens: Richard thanked Judy, John, and Michael for their hard work and commitment. Judy is standing down as Churchwarden, and Richard mentioned that she is unwell and so he was unable to thank her in person for doing such a fabulous job as Churchwarden. We all appreciate her deep care for everyone, and we owe a great debt of gratitude for all she has done. John and Michael have offered to stand for a further year, and we have also received nominations from Alan Smith (based at St John’s) and Fiona Taylor (based at St Saviour’s). John, Michael, and Alan were duly elected, and Fiona was duly elected pending completion of the Safeguarding process. No further nominations were received.
b. Parochial Church Council Members: Margaret Henderson, Margaret Rankin, Richard Scarth, Kate Aldridge, and Gill Richards were thanked for their commitment during their time on the PCC. Margret Tindall, Margaret Rankin, Sarah Piper, Nicola Wallis, Sue Priest, and Bill Green applied to join the PCC for 3 years and so all persons present at the meeting were asked to vote for 5 people to serve on the PCC for 3 years – results under item 11. Kate Aldridge applied and was duly elected to the PCC for 1 year.
c. Sidespersons: The current Sidespersons at both churches were nominated, seconded, and elected en bloc to serve until the next APCM. The PCC secretary asked for other members of the congregation to join the rota.
- Church Council Secretary’s Report: Richard thanked Sue for the Secretary’s report which was included in the Group Reports.
- a. Treasurer’s report: Richard thanked Iain for his reports throughout the year, acknowledging the tremendous amount of hard work involved in preparing the accounts. Iain thanked the Finance team for all their work and support over the year. The accounts are currently being independently examined and are not ready to be presented at the AGM. The balance sheet shows a small accounting loss of £7000 for 2023 after reducing the amount we pay for Ministry Share by £14000 compared to previous years payments. We paid the amount requested but no extra. Ignoring accounting adjustments, the loss for the year in cash terms was £22600. Our unrestricted reserves are falling and now stand at £64000. The other investments are ‘endowed’ and ‘restricted’ and we cannot draw from them. We will be looking at Stewardship over the next few months and form a small group to research and implement any ideas for growing our income or reducing our expenditure. If any one would like to join the group or who has ideas, please contact the Treasurer or the Parish Office. The question was raised if other Parishes are in a similar financial situation. Iain did not have figures for this, however the fact that many Parishes do not pay their full Ministry Share implies that they are also in deficit. Our biggest costs are: Ministry Share, Insurance, and energy. The recent offer by ‘The Friends’ to help with the oil costs at St John’s has ben gratefully received.
b. Acceptance of Accounts: The 2023 accounts are currently being independently examined. As they were not ready for this meeting it was agreed by a majority vote that the Finance Committee or PCC would approve them. The accounts have not been filed on time with the Charity Commission since 2020 but there have been no repercussions. The Treasurer is confident that they will be filed well before the deadline for 2023.
c. Appointment of Auditor: It was agreed that we would continue with the same Independent Examiner – Wyatt and Co.
- Presentation of Group Reports: Richard referred to all involved in the preparation of the reports. A copy of all reports received is attached. Hard copies have been available at both churches, on the website and also emailed to those on the Parish Office mailing list.
- Chairman’s Report: Richard read his report which is attached. This is his final report as he is to retire in July.
- Election Results: Margret Tindall, Sarah Piper, Margaret Rankin, Nicola Wallis, Sue Priest were all elected to serve on the PCC for 3 years. Bill Green is elected to serve for 1 year on the PCC.
- Any Other Business: Richard raised the current vacancies for volunteers: Joint Editor of Contact – Richard thanked Adam for his offer to print Contact magazine. It is vastly improved and in colour. A volunteer is needed to join the group to help with editing content before it goes to Adam for printing.
Christian Aid: Kathy took over the Chair of the Christian Aid committee after Mollie left. It raises approx. £3000 for Christian Aid during the campaign week in May. As Kathy will be leaving in July when Richard retires, someone to organise the event is sought. A Treasurer is also needed. If no one comes forward to help then there is a strong possibility that we will not be able to run the campaign in Hagley and CLent in the future.
The meeting closed with The Grace.
Chairman…………………………………………………………… Date: