Hagley Parochial Church Council
Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 23 January 2025 at 7.30pm at St Saviour’s.
Present: John Gowar, Margaret Rankin, Kim Topham, Michael Norris, Jenny Moulder, Sharon Bryant, Chris Spencer, Alan Smith, Sarah Piper, Fiona Taylor, Margret Tindall, Paul Evans, Sue Priest, Gill Richards, Iain Wright, Barbara Albert, Becky Hindmarsh, Tom Owen, Wendy Jones, Bob Jones, Mark Taylor. Visitor for part of the meeting: Tony Battersby on behalf of ‘The Friends of St John.’
Opening Prayers: Tom opened the meeting with prayers.
Michael formally welcomed Tom to his first meeting for Hagley PCC.
- a) Apologies: David Trewin, Bill Green, Nicola Wallis, Diane Mottershead, Kate Aldridge. We have received a letter of resignation from Nicola Wallis. Tom thanked Nicola for her time on the PCC.
b) Minutes of meeting held on 14 November 2024: The Minutes were approved and signed by Tom subject to 1 amendment: 11.d Volunteer required at St Saviour’s (not St John’s). Proposed by Fiona, seconded by Michael.
- Matters arising from the Minutes:
- Archive cabinet at St John’s: Alan Smith has had no response from the archivist at the Diocese to his message. He will try once more and then Tom will attempt to make contact. It was suggested that sending a video/photos of some of the items may get a response.
- Memorial Book at St John’s: Hilton Studios in Lichfield have given a quote of £25.35 + VAT per entry. Paul has offered to take the book. The PCC will bear the cost of names that need to be added up to 2025, but future fees for interment in to the Garden of Remembrance will include this fee. It was suggested that we try to source a local calligrapher – Sue will ask for it to be posted on Hagley C of E FB page.
- Churches Together: This was very well received at the Hagley Village Christmas event. The local councillor would like to raise the profile of the churches at the 2025 event and local church leaders plan to meet together soon.
- Sound system at St Saviour’s: The system is currently working well. The Bluetooth addition is useful. Thank you to Fiona for her hard work and persistence in getting the system sorted.
3. Radical Candour: The PCC were given handouts visualising Radical Candour as this is the way Tom aims to communicate and how he would like us to work together. As we talked through the areas, it is hoped that we will be willing to challenge and raise issues, and to understand the mode and method we use to communicate with one another.
4. Friends of St John’s: Tony, a trustee of the ‘FOSJ’ since 2002 requested to speak at Tom’s first meeting to explain the background and the history of the preservation of St John’s. Tony strongly put across the point that he felt that the FOSJ should have been invited to speak at Tom Licensing service, as the group were instrumental in saving the fabric of the church so that it could continue as a place of worship today. Tom was delighted that the church is a place of worship and vision and not a museum. He looks forward to working together with the FOSJ in the future and formally apologised that the FOSJ were not recognised at the Licensing service. He thanked Tony for his candour and for coming to the meeting.
5. Evangelism: This item will be on the agenda each meeting and is an open space for anyone to come forward with Good News stories to share. Sarah shared the part she played in the good news of a friend who has revived her interest in the church.
6. Festivals and events:
a) Licensing Service: This went well, and Tom appreciated all the hard work that went into it – especially thank you to Kim. He was humbled by all those who attended. Archbishop Martin enjoyed the evening.
- Christmas: 106 attended the Nine Lessons and Carols service and refreshments. The Christmas Fayre was well attended despite the weather. The hall was full and attracted those who don’t normally attend church. Both Christmas morning and Christmas Eve attendances were increased from last year. The Crib service was well attended especially by those who don’t come to weekly church services but always come to the annual Crib service. The opportunity for children to have their photos taken by the crib went down very well with families. Thank you to Jenny for organising the service.
- Ex Cathedra: Online ticket sales amounted to approx. £5200. Thank you to the car park attendants – Michael and Alan, and to Sarah for doing TicketSource. Next time FAQ will include advice on disabled access and parking. A breakdown of costs will be produced so that we can see how much income is generated from this event.
- Trombones: Those who attended thought that it was a brilliant concert with a huge spread of music from classical to jazz. Approx. 50 attended.
- Lent: Two Lent courses will be run in the Benefice. A day course ‘Women of Holy Week’ by Paula Gooder in Hagley on a Tuesday and Clent on a Wednesday and on a Friday evening ‘The Chosen’ will be at the Rectory. It is hoped that this may develop into a more regular biblical group.
- Easter: A sensory Maundy Thursday service will be held at St Saviour’s – 4 reflections with music reflecting on different aspects of Holy Week. The ministry team will meet to discuss other services. Easter Sunday will be a Benefice service at St Leonard’s. Update – due to the large number of people who are expected to attend, there will be an Easter morning service at St John’s as well as St Leonard’s.
- Finance:
- Treasurer’s Report: Iain distributed a report prior to the meeting and talked us through the final figures for 2024. Thank you to Mark, Fiona and Iain for the huge amount of work and effort taken to get the figures collated for the Independent Examiner for the 2023 accounts. Iain proposed and seconded by Fiona, that no extra payments be made to the Parish Share as we have paid the requested amount – passed unanimously. A query was raised about the identity of the donor of the large bequest (£57k), however, considering privacy, the PCC have decided not to publish the name of the donor. The PCC would like to thank Iain for all his service and hard work over the last 7 years as Treasurer and are delighted that he has offered to stay on the Finance committee.
- Other matters from the Finance Committee and the new Treasurer, Mark: Mark submitted a report to the members prior to the meeting. He covered a few of the points as follows – Fiona to stand down from the Finance committee due to a conflict of interest as Fiona is Churchwarden. Iain will overview transactions posted into Xero, to cover the potential conflict of interest between Fiona and Mark. If a regular committed church member would like to join the Finance committee they would be most welcome.
Close the Belfry Account and transfer to the main account – proposed by Bob seconded by Iain, passed unanimously. This had been approved by Richard Scarth and the bell ringing team.
6 Endowed funds to be transferred to restricted funds – proposed Mark, seconded by Paul, passed unanimously.
Expenditure limit controls- proposed by Mark, seconded by Gill and passed unanimously.
Mark and Tom to be added to the HSBC mandate and CCLA mandate – proposed by Iain, seconded by Bob and passed unanimously.
A petty cash float of £50 will be in both churches with a book for recording all expenditure, and all expenditure must be accompanied by receipts. Mark is keen to ensure, other than these petty cash floats, that all cash is banked quickly. He also committed to reimburse any expenditure incurred by members of the congregation by bank transfer on a timely basis.
Mark is still looking into the status of the Church Hall charity as the Trust Deed and Rules, which he has obtained from the Charity Commission, have thrown a new light on the purpose of that Charity. Mark to report further at the next PCC meeting. Mark has done a huge amount of work sorting this out, and the PCC would publicly like to recognise this and thank Mark.
Approval was sought from the PCC to increase Sue’s hours for benefice administration, salary and Paul’s honoraria. It was agreed that we would raise Sue’s working hours to the limit of 16 Hours a week at the rate of £14.65/hour. A New Contract will be drawn up by Tom in line with diocesan guidelines and new workplace law being enacted in 2025. The PCC also agreed to raise Paul’s honoraria to £1,300 to £1,325.
Sue, her daughter Becky, and Paul left the room.
- Church Fabric: See report from David Trewin. Nothing further to add.
- Church Hall: The minutes from the meeting of the Church Hall committee and PCC treasurer were circulated prior to the meeting – nothing further to add. The proposed merger – see notes under Finance.
- Brief Reports:
- Eco Church: Hagley and Clent will join together with Tom taking an active role in the group. Hagley have submitted an application for a bronze award.
- Social Events Group: Nothing further to report.
- Outreach: Volunteers are encouraged to join the group and suggestions for 2024 will be reviewed at the next meeting.
- Churchwardens: Fiona read the short report covering the upgrade to St Saviour’s sound system, the search for an alternative heating system for St Saviour’s, and the high number of positive responses to a defib. course in March.
- Hagley Hub: 40-60 people attend each week, including children and helpers. Thanks to Hagley WI for providing the tea and cakes and Sharon for leading with this community event.
- Electoral Roll: Stands at 115. 94 within the Parish, 21 living outside the Parish.
- Safeguarding: Jenny (Hagley PSO) and Natalie (Clent PSO) are working together and will meet with Tom every 6 months. Positive comments have been received about the Safeguarding Sunday service in November. Safeguarding training can now be recorded on the dashboard.
- Any Other Business:
- Natasha’s Law: We have a duty of care with regards to allergens in the ingredients of any food/refreshments that we serve. Further information and guidelines will be reviewed for discussion at the next meeting.
- Church Suite: This includes an automatic address book, in line with GDPR which will allow us to communicate more effectively. This will aid Pastoral work. An active calendar will help planning and avoid clashes. It will cost approx. £420 p.a. and this has been agreed with the standing committee and Mark.
- The APCM is Sunday 13 April after the morning service at St Saviour’s.
The next meeting is on Thursday 3 April 7.30 pm at St Saviour’s.
The meeting closed with Grace.
Chairman............................................................................. Date: 3 April 2025