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2022-12-31-accounts

Annual Report & Accounts

Year Ending 31[st] December 2022

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Hebrews 10:23

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Contents

Contents
Secton 1 Summary of 2022 4
Secton 2 Reports by Church Groups
CONGREGATIONS
8am Congregaton 5 4pm Congregaton 6
9.15am Congregaton 5 6.30 Congregaton 7
11am Congregaton 6
ADULT ACTIVITIES
20-30s Ministry 7 Flower Ministry 10
ALLsorts 8 Music Ministry 11
Christan Foundatons 8 Growth Groups 11
Christanity Explored 8 Men’s Daytme Bible Study 11
St Mary’s Career Support 8 Pastoral Care 11
Audio Visual & Lightng 9 St Mary’s Blog/Touchline 12
Deanery Synod 9 Women’s Ministry 12
Third Thursday Table 9 Ministry among Internatonals in Maidenhead 12
Ministry to Ukrainians 9
MISSION
Mission Strategy Commitee 13 Mission Partner Support Group 13
CHILDREN’S & YOUTH WORK
Children’s Work 14 Youth Work 18
Children’s Sunday Work 14 Sunday Youth Ministry 18
7UP 15 Growth Groups 18
Schools Work 15 X and Shif Focus 18
Holiday Club 16 Summer Camps 19
Minor Key 17 Student Time Away 19
Toddler and Baby Ministry 18
SAFEGUARDING 19
RESOURCES
Library 20 Books @ St Mary’s 20
Care Fund 20
Secton 3 Atendance 21Secton 10 Objectves and Actvites 27
Secton 4 Operatons and Fabric Report 21Secton 11 Financial Review 28
Secton 5 Church Wardens’ Report 22Secton 12 Reserves Policy 28
Secton 6 Electoral Roll Report 23Secton 13 Report on Financial Actvites for 2022 28
Secton 7 Report on PCC Proceedings 24Secton 14 Financial Report 30
Secton 8 Administratve Details 25Secton 15 Auditors’ Report 45
Secton 9 Structure, Governance and Management 26

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Secton 1: Summary of 2022

The 2022 Annual Report provides an overview of our church – the people, Sunday services, the midweek groups, the PCC, missions, the finances and buildings and much more. We hope that as you read the report, you will get a sense of the joy of our church family meeting together and serving the Lord.

2022 was marked by the interregnum and we give great thanks to God for his provision and protection over this period. Our Vicar Will Stileman left in February for a brief sabbatical ahead of taking up his new post as Associate Vicar at All Souls, Langham Place, leaving St Mary’s in great shape following 18 years of loyal and dedicated service. We are particularly grateful for the wardens and the staff team who worked tirelessly across the subsequent 11 months to shepherd our flock and to keep St Mary’s growing, despite being one member of staff down, which put particular pressure on the ministry team. We were delighted to appoint Jon Drake as our new Vicar in October.

It was wonderful to be able to meet in the church again for all services as Covid restrictions were dropped. We were thrilled to be able to resume all the other regular activities that take place on our site and use our great facilities to reach out with the gospel.

Some of the regular activities included

Easter Cracked, Holiday Club and Christmas Unwrapped were great successes. We held our first carol service in the garden in December and it was a super time of worship and fellowship.

We wanted to continue to enable people that cannot attend in person, to attend some events online so many were held in hybrid form in person and on Zoom. The APCM and some Growth Groups are examples as is St Mary’s Evening where it was special to have our overseas mission partners join us on Zoom.

Other highlights for the year were:

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Please give thanks to God for the time, energy and effort of so many that together make up the ministry of St Mary’s, and thank God for his continual blessing of both willing servants and financial provision that enable us to serve God and His people.

Secton 2: Reports by Church Groups

CONGREGATIONS

8am Communion

We started 2022 meeting in the lower lounge wearing face masks and by the end of the year we had made the very welcome move back to the chapel without masks being required. There continues to be a faithful core group who attend each week enjoying worshipping the Lord using the BCP in contemporary language. Preachers who preach at the 6.30pm service also preach at the 8am and we have been grateful to God for the way he has spoken to us through their ministry and has been building us up. Victor and Sheila join us via Zoom each week as do others when they are unable to join us in person. Most third Sundays of the month we have met for breakfast at The Bear after the service; the majority of people at the service also come to the breakfast afterwards and enjoy a good time of fellowship. The 8am congregation continues to have a precious close-family feel and we are particularly thankful to Robert Weeks for being such a reliable sidesman and to Bernard Obi for his pastoral care.

Ian Miller

9.15am Congregaton

As we look back on 2022 there is so much to give thanks to our gracious God for. After all the disruption of the Covid pandemic we had in 2022 a year when we could meet together without restriction to worship God, to hear his word, to sing his praises and to build each other up in Christ. This has been a precious gift indeed. I am also thankful for how God has sustained us through the interregnum, following Will Stileman’s move to All Soul’s Langham Place in early 2022. The Staff Team, Congregation Team and Growth Group leaders have been such a support to me while I have been both 9.15am & 11am Congregation Leader and staff team leader. I remain in awe of the ministry teams God has brought together within our congregations to serve in Music, AV, Welcome, Children’s Ministry, Coffee, Family Focus and other areas beside. We give thanks for the new members God has brought into our fellowship during 2022, including our brothers and sisters from Central America who are with us for the start and end of the service and hear the sermon translated into Spanish in the middle. The Lord has been faithful in feeding us from his word. We have had teaching from Isaiah 40-66, Colossians, Psalms, Mark 6-10 and topical series in Sharing God’s Grace and Sexuality and Relationships . We praise God for how he has been building us in Christ and growing us in our love for each other and for him.

Amidst all these blessings I am conscious of two particular challenges. One is that now I am both Vicar and Congregation Leader for 9.15am & 11am I am more limited in the time I can give to the vital pastoral work in the congregation. I am thankful that the PCC have given the go ahead for us to appoint a new Associate Minister to join the team and share in the work. Please join me in praying for this appointment. In the meantime the Congregation Team - Linsley Green, Sarah Thomas, Dick & Fiona West, and Rob & Tarryn Wingfield – and the Growth Group Leaders are stepping up wonderfully, please do let us know how we can help. Our other challenge is the continued work of rebuilding the congregation after the disruption of 2020-21. As is the case in many churches and congregations, our numbers on Sunday remain lower than the pre-pandemic levels. Please pray that the Lord will give us a passion for meeting together week by week to hear his word and to love each other as his family, and that he will enable us to integrate into our congregation believers who are moving to the area and those who are coming to faith.

Jon Drake

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11am Congregaton

We have much to thank God for as we look back on 2022 as an 11am Congregation. After all the disruption of 2020-21 we have had a year when we could meet together without restriction to worship God, to hear his word, to sing his praises and to build each other up in Christ. I am also thankful for how God has sustained us through the interregnum, following Will Stileman’s move to All Soul’s Langham Place in early 2022. The Staff Team, Congregation Team and Growth Group leaders have been such a support to me while I have been both 9.15am & 11am Congregation Leader and staff team leader. I am especially thankful to God for those who serve in Music, AV, Welcome, Children’s Ministry, Coffee and other many other areas beside. We give thanks to God for his provision of Paul Leddington Wright to lead our music, and for each and every person who serves so faithfully to make our gatherings possible.

It has been encouraging to see how the Lord is sustaining our Children’s Ministry at 11am. Everyone is enriched by our congregation containing representatives from the full range of generations and age groups. The Lord has been faithful in feeding us from his word.

We have had teaching from Isaiah 40-66, Colossians, Psalms, Mark 6-10 and topical series in Sharing God’s Grace and Sexuality and Relationships . We praise God for how he has been building us in Christ and growing us in our love for each other and for him.

Just as with the 9.15am Congregation, I am conscious, amidst theses blessings, of two particular challenges. One is that now I am both Vicar and Congregation Leader for 9.15am & 11am I am more limited in the time I can give to the vital pastoral work in the congregation. I am thankful that the PCC have given the go ahead for us to appoint a new Associate Minister to join the team and share in the work. Please join me in praying for this appointment. In the meantime the Congregation Team - Robin Aghovia, Neil McDonald, Louise Drake and Schona Strange – and the Growth Group Leaders are stepping up wonderfully, please do let us know how we can help. Our other challenge is the continued work of rebuilding the congregation after the disruption of 2020-21. We have seen considerable progress in this during 2022, but as is the case in many churches and congregations, our numbers on Sunday remain lower than the pre-pandemic levels. Please pray that the Lord will give us a passion for meeting together week by week to hear his word and to love each other as his family, and that he will enable us to integrate into our congregation believers who are moving to the area and those who are coming to faith.

Jon Drake

4pm Congregaton

During 2021 we were blessed by over 40 new members and became a far more diverse congregation in terms of ethnicity, age and marital status. In 2022 the Lord has brought newcomers most weeks. Our numbers have however remained broadly static as only some of the newcomers have become regulars and a number of regulars have moved away from Maidenhead. We continue to pray for newcomers to come each week but with the added prayer that they will settle at the 4pm/St Mary’s!

Average Sunday attendance over the year was 94 (34 under 16 and 60, over). We are thankful that we have so many children and for all the leaders and helpers who give so much time to prepare for and run their groups. We are also very thankful for the many others who serve as musicians, as welcomers, on the AV desk and providing refreshments.

We have had a number of encouraging events over the course of the year. Highlights include hospitality Sundays, ladies walks on the first Wednesday of the month, 16 men going to the Pines for a weekend away, a ladies’ dinner after the Women’s day at St Mary’s, family fun in Oaken Grove Park one Saturday in August and a very well-attended (around 90) high tea in the hall after the 4pm the autumn.

My prayer continues to be that we will continue to grow in love for God, in spiritual maturity, in love for one another and in number – all for God’s glory.

Ian Miller

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6.30pm Congregaton

“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

For the 6.30 congregation, 2022 was a year marked by both joys and sorrows.

Joyful highlights of the year included World Mission Sunday in January, with a clarion call to faith from Simon Guillebaud. The United Church Sunday in July. A joyful service of baptisms and confirmations in September with Bishop Tim Wambunya, at which a number of our young people declared their faith publicly. And three candlelit carol services in December, which this year were packed to the rafters.

We were deeply saddened to lose our dear sister Helen Walker, who went to be with the Lord in October after a sudden illness. We rejoice that she is with her Lord and Saviour, and we are grateful to God for bringing us closer together in our shock. Mike and Jon are especially in our prayers, along with several others in the congregation who suffered bereavements or life changing events this year.

God’s Word continued to be at the centre of our life together. We worked our way through the profound second half of John’s gospel (chapters 13-21), Luke 13-17, Malachi, and 1 Corinthians 7-14 which encouraged us to understand our true identity in Christ.

With Covid largely behind us, it was good to recommit ourselves to hospitality, although we could always do more. Conversations after church often continued well beyond 9pm! I’m especially grateful to those who served on the congregational oversight team during the year: Andrew and Liz Kennedy, Hamish Graham, Hazel Tomlinson, Sam and Sarah Chaplain, Thomas Walton, Scott Bedford and Gracy Crane. The summer also saw the 4-yearly reorganisation of our growth groups. We give thanks to God for all our faithful leaders and hosts: Callum Patterson, Martin and Elizabeth Rich, Mike and Helen Walker, Helen Norton, Nick McDonald, Jeremy and Jo Byfleet, Jan and Elna Strydom, Kate Wheatley, Jess Lehane, and (last but not least) Jim Beswick for the cross congregational group in Marlow.

Sadly there isn’t room here to thank all those who served in the music teams, audio-visual, welcome teams, refreshments, leading services, reading and praying, and above all, loving one another through prayer and practical help!

The 6.30 continues to have a fairly high turnover due to its younger demographic. It was a delight to welcome newcomers from the UK and overseas, and we said our farewells to dear friends who moved away. Please be praying for us in 2023, as we seek to follow Jesus more wholeheartedly in every area of our lives. May we do it all to the glory of God.

Richard Crane

ADULT ACTIVITIES

- 20 30s Ministry

The 20-30s group offers fellowship to those in this age bracket aiming to be particularly welcoming to new church members. The whatsapp and facebook groups enabled people to share with the group thoughts, questions and invites to socials as well as reminders about wider church events. Socials that have run in the past year included film nights, football watching and meals to cele5 _ brate birthdays. The group go to the pub for a meal after the 6:30pm service every week and others are welcome to join. Give thanks that this has enabled deeper conversations than “ \ ¢ a4,x fhe?c possible over coffee. In 2022 there was not any formal teaching , LS specifically run by/for the 20-30s however several members found the anxiety seminars particularly beneficial and enjoyed the Taste of all Nations event. Please pray for the specific teaching events planned for 2023 that these would help us grow in faith.

Ruth McElhone

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ALLsorts

Do you like allsorts ? Do you have a favourite ? We believe that God loves ALL sorts of people, and that there are no favourites. So that’s why we call this group ALLsorts.

It’s primarily for adults with learning disabilities and their carers, but everyone is welcome. We try to show God’s love through friendship and fun and by telling Bible stories through drama, music, games and craft in a way designed for people who might find a normal church service difficult. Our helpers are members of several churches but we meet on the last Thursday of most months between 7 and 8.30pm at St Mary’s Church. We have refreshments and these, together with all sessions, are free. This year we’re celebrating our 20[th] Anniversary.

Please pray for this work to continue. Thank you,

Sue Nordberg

Christan Foundatons

Christian Foundations has continued to run on Monday evenings through 2022. The content of the course has been that same as in previous years; Philippians in the spring, the doctrine of God in the summer, and the doctrine of the church in the autumn. New members have joined the group at the beginning of each term with some coming from Christianity Explored.

Course leaders during 2022 were Lindsay Reisser-Weston, David Howse, Chris Roberts and me. Lindsay and I have shared giving the talks at the beginning of each session and we have usually broken out into two separate groups after the talk for our small group discussion

Together with the leaders we had in the order of 12 on the course during the spring term, 14 in the summer term and 15 in the autumn term although attendance has not always been consistent.

Discussions and engagement are excellent and it is a privilege to see participants growing spiritually.

We are immensely grateful to Maggi Richards and her team for wonderful food and for their kindness in serving and clearing up.

Ian Miller

Christanity Explored

We are grateful to God that, yet again, we were able to run the course every term. 30 guests attended during the year, either in person or online. Sincere thanks to Maggie Richards and her wonderful team for cooking and serving the meals. Thanks too to Luke Douglas, and Delon and Corlea Human, for coleading the course with me.

In the spring term, we had the privilege of welcoming a group of asylum seekers from central America. Many thanks to Angela McDonald and David Howse for stepping in at very short notice (as the guests were coming up the driveway!), making it possible to serve them in parallel to the English-speaking course. In the summer term, we ran an additional Sunday morning course, which was valued by those who couldn’t manage a Monday evening.

Please pray that the church family will continue to make use of this opportunity – whether to introduce friends to Jesus, or to deepen their own understanding of who Jesus is and why He came.

Richard Crane

St. Mary’s Careers Support

Work, in all its forms matters to God and it’s a key part of all of our lives. For many, the last year has meant that lots of aspects of our working lives have changed to some degree or not. At St. Mary’s we believe supporting our members and friends outside the church in this area of their lives is important. Through referrals to the staff team, we have supported a small handful of people with a number of work related challenges ranging from returning to work from illness or moving into a new job or career and we have been able to offer practical up to date advice on how to write a CV to how to use social media more effectively.

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In particular we have also been supporting a number of our young people who need help working out what they’d like to do once they have finished education and supporting our Hong Kong community reorientate to working in the UK. Our practical resources on the ‘work matters’ section of the website cover a range of issues from being made redundant, thinking about retirement and how to find deal with stress in the workplace and we hope that this provides another means to support members and friends whenever they need.

The service relies on active support from those with professional HR experience so if you have this experience and would like to get more involved, please contact Liz Tolcher.

Liz Tolcher

Audio, Visual & Lightng

The AV team have worked tirelessly to deliver a consistently high-quality audio and visual experience for both in-person and online services during the last year in the church. The current AV equipment continues to function well for the needs within the church building and has only required minor expenditures for general replacements.

As ever, a special word of thanks to the many volunteers that operate the AV equipment from week to week and especially Andy Small and Adam Stylo who have again dedicated a huge amount of time and effort this year to technical support and training.

Jim Beswick

Deanery Synod

St Mary’s is part of the Maidenhead and Windsor Deanery Synod, which met three times during 2022, virtually in February then in person in May and September.

The February meeting heard from the Bishop of Reading about the spiritual and practical Christian response to climate change. In May Deanery Synod members gave feedback to the Archdeacon of Berkshire about the Diocese’s focus areas. In September the meeting was hosted at St Mary’s and parishes across the Deanery shared encouragements and struggles, including a time of prayer in small groups. Daniel Matovu and Gracy Crane also gave feedback from General Synod at two meetings, which was well-received.

Please pray for wisdom in our relationship with the Deanery concerning how much parish share we contribute in 2023, and also regarding the impact of disagreements in the wider Church of England.

Thomas Walton

Third Thursday Table

A monthly lunch for those who would like company during the day-including a testimony and singing a hymn. Between 40-70 people attend each month and have enjoyed meeting old and new friends, hearing stories from the lives of others in the church family, and singing together. Many thanks to Sara Hewins and the team who prepare and serve the food each month. A small number of visitors are now coming along and are being introduced to the Christian Faith.

Rachel Meynell

Ministry to Ukrainians

The Ukrainian Welcome Hub has been running on Thursdays since May. It is a safe, friendly place where Ukrainians and others can come and chat, play games and practise their English. As part of our outreach to Ukrainians in Maidenhead, we have attended numerous online and in-person meetings with others involved with helping Ukrainians both in Maidenhead and further afield. With our extensive knowledge of the government rules and of other available support, we can assist in many different ways and we also link individuals with each other through social media. We have introduced people to other groups at St Mary’s, from language classes to youth groups to Third Thursday Table.

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Friendships are made as we reach out in Jesus’ name. We have prayed with those who are distressed & have shared the Gospel. Ukrainian bibles are available at all services. At Christmas, 10 Ukrainians plus other guests came to the Advent Bags outreach. The daily Bible verses had been translated into Ukrainian, & the Ukrainian version of ‘Silent Night’ was available when we sang during the evening. Several came to St Mary’s Christmas services, which had been translated into Ukrainian. Around 17 Ukrainian children attended the refugees’ Christmas party with their mothers

St Mary’s has a very good reputation in the Ukrainian community and in other organisations in the Borough, for the activities it is running. Many of those who attend events regularly are keen to make British friends and there is a particular opportunity for families to come alongside and build relationships, which are enriching on both sides. We can clearly see God at work in this ministry.

Jo Jobson

Flower Ministry

The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

The flower team have been very supportive ensuring fresh flowers for each Sunday alongside decorating the Chapel.

We are a very small team: Donna Stimson, Sylvine Andrews, Kim Boulter and myself with thanks to Judy Percy who continues to support despite health restrictions. Alex Di Menza and Janis Chan hope to join the team, though we rely on a variety of garden foliage (the church garden is limited) and cars for transport. Let me know if you can help with this.

Thank you: we are funded by a small group of contributors who have generously acknowledged the increasing costs of flowers, including a one off donation which will cover a number of Sundays. We are also grateful to the team who literally go the extra mile to source the best value flowers, often driving long distances and supplementing with their garden produce to extend the weekly budget further.

Naomi Khoo

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Music Ministry

The music team is a bit thin on the ground at the moment! We've had a number of departures in recent years as people leave Maidenhead or change roles/churches, and then Tom Brewster moved on earlier than expected. We're delighted to have Paul Leddington Wright join us - the 11am would have no regular pianist/organist otherwise - but we could still do with more singers and musicians (all main instruments), and someone with more time to devote to the leadership and development of music at St Mary's. A point for prayer in 2023! Thanks go to everyone in the team who give many hours of service - there is much done behind the scenes from the weekly Minor Key rehearsals, to the thoughtful choosing of what we sing week by week, to preparation for the big choral events at Christmas, etc. All of us involved in St Mary's music ministry are privileged to use the gifts we've been given in joyful service of the One who deserves all praise. From our most-sung hymn in 2022: "Praise the Lord! His mercy is more: stronger than darkness, new every morn; our sins, they are many; his mercy is more!".

James Ainscough

Growth Groups

Growth Groups are a brilliant setting in which we can live out the ‘one another’ commands of the New Testament. In our groups we can love, teach, encourage, pray for and spur on one another, to mention five of those biblical instructions. In 2022 the evening Growth Groups have studied the books of Jonah and Philippians and a topic series on Church – Enjoying God’s Masterpiece.

In September 2022 the evening Growth Groups reorganised after four years together. It has been wonderful to see new friendships and fellowship forming, new people joining groups and new people serving as Growth Group Leaders.

At present we have eight evening groups for the 9.15am Congregation, five for the 11am Congregation, four for the 4pm Congregation and six for the 6.30pm Congregation. In addition to these groups we have a geographic Growth Group based in Marlow and one in Eton & Windsor, two daytime groups for women, one for men, one mixed daytime group, and the Tuesday morning women’s groups.

I would like to express my thanks to all our Growth Group Leaders, for evening and daytime groups, for their wonderful work in leading Bible studies, supporting group members and fostering the life and relationships of the groups.

Jon Drake

Men’s Daytime Bible Study

We have had a very blessed year. Under the inspiring leadership of Roger Hines, we were able to study the passages that were preached on Sundays. We meet in person and via Zoom. This arrangement makes it so much easier for some who have mobility issues to meet with the group.

It is heart-warming to see how everyone looks after each other not just in prayer but in very practical ways. There is a solid core group of 10 men with some others that dip in and out as it is practical for them. It is our hope that more men would be able to join so that this great meeting will grow and prosper in learning about and serving God.

Jan Strydom

Pastoral Care

The Pastoral Care ministry aims to look after those in the congregations who are vulnerable or undergoing hard times. This has been done by:

Sending out fortnightly mailings with sermons and other church news for those who cannot come or access services online.

A team of people visiting the elderly in their homes to encourage them.

The staff team prays through the pastoral list about 5 times a year and follows up those who have not 11 been at church or who are undergoing hard times.

Home communion offered to those who cannot get out at Christmas and Easter.

Our ‘Life Matters’ programme has continued to give teaching on specific topics. Anger Matters happened in the growth groups in March, Menopause Matters women’s breakfast was in October and Anxiety Matters was in November over two Saturday mornings.

A monthly support group for those who are same sex attracted and find it helpful to meet with others for mutual encouragement and support.

Sharon Bedford has been working as an intern with the support of Biblical Counselling UK, meeting with women one to one to help them talk through their struggles in the light of Scripture.

The Pastoral Team (now Rachel Meynell, Sharon Bedford and John Driscoll) has been meeting to think and pray about how we can grow our pastoral ministry.

Rachel Meynell

St Mary’s Blog / Touchline

The blog records the activities and updates of St Mary’s Church family and its mission partners through the year and is written by many different authors. These different authors reflect the diverse voices that make up the St Mary’s family. I am very grateful for all those that contribute and provide such a rich record of our church family life. Thank you to all who contributed.

All the articles and photos on the blog are collated and published as Touchline, the regular church magazine. Special thanks to the proof reader and Touchline compiler for their work through the year behind the scenes. If you would like to find out more, or to suggest or write articles, proof read or compile Touchline, please do contact me.

John Furley

Women’s ministry

We long to see each woman in the church growing in her relationship with Jesus and living a godly life, whatever God has called her to. This happens as we study God’s word together, and as we build encouraging and godly friendships.

To this end we run:

Women’s growth groups (about 60 women in all) meet each week during the daytime. Four groups meet at Church on a Tuesday morning with a creche, and two meet at other times in homes around Maidenhead. All with the aim of understanding God’s word better and supporting and praying for one another. In June we hosted the South-Central Women’s day, where women from the area gathered for teaching from the book of Revelation, seminars on various topics and meeting new friends.

In October we had a women’s breakfast entitled Menopause Matters which was attended by about 75 women and was a help to many.

In November, 14 women from the 6.30 congregation went to The Pines in Sussex to study Romans 12 together.

We also ran an Advent Bag evening before Christmas as a way of reaching other women with the gospel, to which about 90 women came.

The women’s book group and other gatherings have helped to encourage friendships including walks and informal socials-thank you to Sara Hewins for running these.

Thank you so much to those who have made all these events possible.

Rachel Meynell

Ministry among Internatonals in Maidenhead

As many refugees and asylum seekers have arrived in Maidenhead in the past year, we have a growing ministry among them. This consists of;

A Tuesday morning Bible story group, for those who also need help with English, which continues to be very popular and has 10+ coming along.

On Wednesdays we have English classes- with 2 levels of language ability. People continue to come along and are welcomed by some very warm volunteers.

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Thursday evenings at iCafe are always fun-playing games and having English conversation with some Bible input towards the end of the evening. The strength of the evening is the support and help of the volunteers. Students are from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, North Africa, Iran, El Salvador, Colombia, Ukraine and others have attended.

We ran a Christmas party to which about 60 children came and heard the Christmas story as well as having food and fun.

Al Massira-a course for people from a Muslim background to be introduced to Jesus- has been running on a Monday night alongside CE and CF.

Ukraine + hub on Thursday mornings has been meeting since May last year.

We have the morning sermon translated into Spanish every week with a simultaneous translation happening in the church hall.

We have run Christianity Explored in Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Many thanks to Jason and Laura Swain, Jo Jobson, Debra Jonkers, Paul Wheatley and Marcela Taylor as well as all the other volunteers who enable this work to happen.

Rachel Meynell

MISSION

Mission Strategy Commitee

The purpose of the Mission Strategy Committee is to devise a strategy for our support of missions and to bring to the PCC recommendations of which Christian organisations and individuals we should support. The committee meets around 3 times a year. Current members are: Anthony Kan (Chair), Peter Crossley (Mission Treasurer), Damian Eustace, Jo Jobson, Jennie Kemp (Secretary of the Mission Strategy Committee), Rose Matovu and Adam Stylo. In 2022 as a church we gave £103,350 towards the support of mission partners and gospel charities, of which £7,800 came from the Mission Hardship Fund which was established in 2020 to support a number of Mission Partners and Gospel organisations with whom we have had dealings who have experienced financial difficulties because of the global pandemic.

We are sorry to say goodbye to Greg & Jill Vine and Luke & Mary Foster who have finished their ministry in Uganda and Chile respectively to return to the UK. We would like to thank them for their faithful service for the outreach of the gospel in those countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jo Jobson for heading up the Mission Partner Support Group and also the members of the MPSG acting as mission links with our Mission Partners.

Thanks must also go to Peter Crossley for all the research he does in administering the Mission Budget. After many years of faithful service in the role, Peter stepped down in November for personal reasons. David Howes was elected as the new treasurer of the MSC and the MPSG.

Anthony Kan

Mission Partner Support Group

The MPSG provides pastoral care for St Mary’s mission partners and is a bridge between the mission partners & the church family. Each mission partner has a mission link who keeps in regular contact. The MPSG is responsible for mission prayers, presentations, pairings of growth groups with mission partners and also activities on World Focus Sunday. In addition some mission partners visited on United Church Sunday. We give God great thanks for this two-way relationship, which is supportive for the partners and gives us a greater insight into God’s work in the UK and throughout the world, as we work together to advance the Gospel. In 2022 our partnerships ended with Greg and Jill Vine (MAF) and with Luke and Mary Foster (Crosslinks), as they returned to the UK after many years of faithful and sacrificial service overseas. Please continue to pray for them alongside our current partners, as they adjust to their new circumstances.

Jo Jobson

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CHILDREN’S & YOUTH WORK

Children’s Work

Nick and I absolutely love working with the children throughout the year here at St Mary’s.

The children’s work takes many forms over the year; there is the regular weekly Sunday work in age appropriate groups at the 9.15am, 11am and 4pm services.

There is the midweek outreach Club “7up” on a Wednesday evening when our church kids aged 7 to 11 are encouraged to bring friends to hear more about Jesus.

We have some annual special activities which include taking some of the Explorers Abroad to the Isle of Wight for 5 days in May where during that trip, they are challenged to think through who they think Jesus is for themselves.

We also have our annual Holiday Club at the end of August when many will come to find out more about Jesus, some for the very first time.

School assemblies are another wonderful way of sharing the good news of Jesus and we have teams who regularly visit many of our local schools.

However, all of the above only takes a few hours every week and so it is the parents who are doing the bulk of the work in teaching their children about Jesus, I am grateful to all the faithful teaching that goes on in homes day by day, week by week, by you all. We have termly prayer meetings for the Youth and Children’s work where we pray for all those involved in our children’s lives both in the home and here at St Mary’s.

I am incredibly grateful to all those who have worked so hard as helpers and leaders of our many groups as we teach the children about the Good News of Jesus.

Children’s Sunday work

We have 11 teams of people who teach, encourage, nurture and inspire our 140 children in age appropriate ways to grow in their knowledge, love and understanding of Jesus.

We give great thanks to those who run the teams and all who serve us as a church family in this way. All our volunteers are cleared through the DBS process.

As well as the weekly Sunday School groups there is usually a Family Focus in the church service where a topic is explained for the benefit of the whole family.

Over the last year we have learnt more about the different names of Jesus, what is church and why do we do the things we do at church and also about the Gospel using the words of a song,

“Holy God in love became,

Perfect man to bear my blame, On the cross he took our sin, By his death I live again.”

We had All Age services at Good Friday and Christmas and an All Age Family Communion on Remembrance Sunday. On Easter Day and Christmas Day all the primary school children went out together and had a special activity with relevant teaching for them.

Over the summer holidays we continued our practice of taking all the primary school children out for the final 40 minutes of the services, and we continued our overview of the Bible. This summer we learnt about the prophets that God sent to remind his people about him.

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7UP

Our weekly kids outreach club, ‘7up’, has been very encouraging over the past year. 7up is a great opportunity for our church children to bring along their friends who don’t go to church and to share Jesus with them.

We have 8 leaders (5 adults, three teenagers) who regularly help, and it has been brilliant to see this team come together and grow as leaders and teachers. It has been especially encouraging to see how the teenagers have grown in their leadership skills and have been engaging with the children.

Each week, we usually get around 25-30 children. When the children arrive, they have a choice of a sporty game (usually football or volleyball) or board games in the quiet room. We then have a big game altogether.

After the big game, we go into our talk time where we give the children a 7-minute talk from the Bible. Each week, we look at Big Questions about God, asking a different question each week. We have covered questions such as:

• What does the name Jesus mean? • Are Jesus and God different? • How should Christians live? • Is Jesus still dead? • What things did Jesus do?

We have seen an amazing response to God’s word in the children, with many stay-

ing on the carpet afterwards to ask questions, and some taking Bible notes home with them to do with their families.

We’ve also been very encouraged by how children have been inviting their friends, and how these children who have no other connection to church have been engaging with God’s word. We’ve even had non-church children attending on their own just by word of mouth on the school playground. We pray that God will be at work in these children, and in their families, as they hear something of him each week and how he impacts our lives.

A big opportunity was our 7up Advent Party, where we turned the hall into a Christmas fair, had a talk about why Jesus’ birth is so exciting, and had party food with the children. Many newcomers came to this event, and have kept coming since.

Please do keep praying for us and for these non-church families, that we will have more opportunities to engage with them and to share more of Jesus with them.

Schools Work

We have had many opportunities to engage with the local schools around Maidenhead, and to share the hope we have in Jesus with them.

Each week, we go into Holyport and Oldfield Primary Schools, acting out a story from the Bible and explaining it with a short talk afterwards. We also go into Woodlands Park, in partnership with St Mary’s White Waltham, to do similar assemblies. It’s always a joy to see the children getting involved with the stories, with some of them getting the opportunity to come to the front and act out the stories with us.

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It’s also brilliant to see them sing the songs and do the actions along with us.

While it is a great joy to go into these schools, we are still on the lookout for more people to join our assembly team. Please do pray for us as we continue to reach out for people to join us on Monday mornings.

We have also had the schools join us for Easter Cracked and Christmas Unwrapped. These 2-hour presentations give us an opportunity to teach Year 6 children about the true meaning of these festivals, and why they’re so exciting and important for Christians.

The children get an opportunity to read the Bible for themselves, to see what it really says and to address any of their misconceptions such as:

The truths we get down to though, are that whether Jesus was born in a cave or a stable, or whether Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem on a donkey or on a cart, that what we do know is that God came down to Earth on Christmas as Emmanuel, and on Good Friday he died for us so that we could have eternal life. And on Easter morning he rose again to new life.

It’s always brilliant to see the children come to realise this for the first time. They then get an opportunity to ask ‘The Nutty Professor’ (Luke, our Ministry Trainee) any questions that they like. We have had some brilliant questions, and we always get the opportunity to explain the gospel in response. Please pray for the schools that have just attended Easter Cracked, that they might come to realise who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

Holiday Club

Holiday Club is a fantastic opportunity for children to invite their friends along to the church site and to hear about Jesus. For that reason, we run the club for 3 days at the end of August so that they and their families might be able to come straight back to church on the Sundays in September and get stuck into our regular programme of events.

2022 is now officially the hottest year on record and so unsurprisingly we asked all the children and helpers to come wearing bobble hats and scarves as we went on a Polar Expedition! We obviously visited both poles as we saw many polar bears and penguins on our travels amongst the reindeer, wolves and many other snowy animals.

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The whole church site had been transformed into a winter wonderland, complete with an igloo at the front of church. We had around 90 children attending, who all took part in games in the 'Glacier Garden', crafts in the 'Caribou Camp', and Bible studies in their own igloos!

For our main sessions in church we were led in singing by our very own “Arctic Monkeys” Band and we were thrilled to welcome back Simon Eves as our tour guide as he taught us that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that he is the only way to the Father.

We finished the week with a BBQ for all the families of everyone who had been part of the week, where naturally we ate a lot of ice cream as well as our burgers and hot dogs.

Thank you to the huge number of people who helped over the week to enable us to teach these children about Jesus.

Kate Wheatley

Minor Key

Minor Key is our young people’s music group for those in school years 6-13 (aged 10-18) running on a Friday night alongside X and Shift Focus. The aim is for all to develop their musical gifts in serving God and their church family.

We have 23 young people, some of whom join us from White Waltham Church and it is lovely to support this partnership. Non-Christian friends are welcome and the group provides an opportunity for their families to come to a service where they are playing.

Over the last year we have lead music for various all age services at both St. Mary’s and White Waltham churches including singing an anthem at one of the St. Mary’s evening carol services. Some of our young people have ventured into playing the organ, which has been wonderful.

Our prayers for more leaders have been thoroughly answered this year with the arrival of Vic Harris, Heidi Cooper and Richard Holland. We continue also to be grateful for the support of James Ainscough. Please praise God with us for this answered prayer and pray that we will see some nonChristian friends coming along.

Katie and John Croft

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Toddler and Baby Ministry

St Mary’s runs toddler groups two mornings a week as a way of reaching out to the community with the gospel, and also providing support for young families. The mornings consist of time to play, refreshments for adults and toddlers, a time of singing with a Bible story, and a craft themed to go with the Bible story. We also run a weekly New Parent’s support group on Thursday mornings for new mums to find friends and help for the early days.

About 60 families now come on site each week for the various groups. Our aim is to build relationships with the families, so that through our actions we can demonstrate the love of Christ and through our words to share the good news of Jesus.

We have run some other events, where we have been able to explain the gospel. Some of the mums came to the Advent Bag evening, and a few families to the toddler Christingle service on Christmas Eve. We also give them all Christmas and Easter books to read at home.

We praise God for these opportunities, and continue to pray that he would raise up more workers for this harvest field.

Thank you so much to the teams of volunteers who make this ministry possible.

Rachel Meynell

Youth Work

We are very grateful to God that 2022 turned out to be a far more normal year than 2021. It was lovely to be able to get on with our usual groups and focus on studying God’s word, building relationships with each other and running activities without restrictions.

Sunday Youth Ministry

In Pathfinders we started the year following the series on Sharing God’s Grace before studying a bit of Isaiah. Although we were delighted to be doing Pathfinders as usual, as leaders we became aware that the young people were struggling to make new friendships within the group. One suggestion was that we give them some hot chocolate at the end of the session so that they could spend some time chatting with each other and their leaders. Praise God for wise people – the atmosphere changed and friendships began to form. In God’s good timing the young people were soon comfortable and confident enough in the groups to ask questions and discuss the Living in Love and Faith topic which followed.

Afterchurch has been a source of real encouragement as the young people have shown a hunger for understanding God’s word and knowing him more deeply. The Afterchurch team has grown too which means these older teens have more faithful adults guiding them. A highlight of the year was the three teens who were baptised and the four who were confirmed in September.

Growth Groups

In January all the Youth Growth Groups studied a topical series on Gender Roles in the Church. After that we came inline with the adult growth groups and so then studied Jonah and Philippians. Our prayer has been that the young people talk about the studies with their parents between Growth Group meetings. These groups have continued to be wonderful places for the year 10s to 13s to study the Bible deeply and we are very blessed with committed and faithful leaders to disciple our young people.

X Focus and Shif Focus

Our two Friday night youth groups, X Focus for years 6-9 and Shift Focus for years 9-13 (the young people can move up to Shift Focus during year 9), have been times of fun and looking at some topical studies. We had an encouraging number of young people from families not connected with St Mary’s coming along and some challenging and deep questions about the saving grace of Jesus. In the Autumn term we started a Bible overview, where we managed to work our way through the Old Testament and end with the birth of Jesus at our Christmas party. Our Friday Focus groups are our main outreach activity of the week for our youth and so please do continue to pray for our young people to bring their friends along.

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In March we had our Senior Youth Weekend Away at the lovely Woodcroft Christian Centre where Tim Adams helped us see more of Jesus by looking at the character of Peter who failed Jesus, was restored by Jesus and then stood firm as Jesus strengthened him. Then in October we headed back for our Junior Youth Weekend Away. This time Nick McDonald took us through the story of the Exodus and we saw how faithful God was to his people in rescuing them – a rescue that points to our rescue through Jesus.

Summer Camps

Summer camps ran as usual in 2022 and were very popular. a=. Ce‘ene j We sent leaders and members to over 12 ww different camps dur i ing the holidays. We { had far more leaders ry > i er = | helping out at the | various camps so - bia " mz f our prayer from 2021 was answered. — “a a) Summer Camps are a a — = always a time of growth and renewed commitment to our Lord for our . q- 3 a = young people and a time of great enae ; , — couragement for a leaders as they see our young people’s wT mt . : i _ — love for Jesus grow.

Student Time Away

In September, those about to set off for university spent a couple of days together looking in the Bible for guidance around issues that affect new students. There was some serious Bible study, fun discussions, competitive Mario Kart and fairly decent food.

Melinda Stylo

SAFEGUARDING

Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding children, young people, victims, perpetrators of domestic abuse and vulnerable adults.

All those involved at St Mary’s comply with the Church of England’s policies and best practice on Safeguarding and are engaging with the relevant training.

I am grateful to everyone for their compliance with the required training courses and especially to Janet Wood for helping with the task of administering the Safeguarding at St Mary’s. This is a huge job with over 200 people on our lists as helping in some capacity.

Kate Wheatley

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RESOURCES

Library

Have you visited the St Mary’s Church Library? It is in the Halls/Kitchen building just down from the kitchen on the right. We have a variety of books on different topics.

Taking books out of the library is easy: you choose the book and then write the details on the sheet in the purple file. When you return the book just place it in the ‘Returned Books’ box and put the Date returned on the sheet in the file.

If you have borrowed a book this past year and have not returned it please put it in the Returned Books box.

Many of the books have been donated to our library and I would like to thank all those who have donated books this past year, we appreciate your generosity and it helps to boost our book stock.

Do come in and have a look at our books.

Janet Huisman

Books @ St Mary’s 2022

The aim of our book work at St Mary’s is to recommend and make accessible books that will inspire, encourage and challenge us in our Christian walk.

In 2022 we held 3 book sales, each across all 5 services. 2 (February and June) were St Mary’s led, each with a selection of around 15 books chosen by St Mary’s staff. Over 400 books were purchased.

The autumn book sale was run by Christian bookseller ’10 of Those’ who brought along a large selection of books.

In addition devotionals for Lent and Advent were recommended and available for purchase at the appropriate times.

Sarah Hewins

Care Fund

What is the Care Fund?

The aim of the Care Fund is to demonstrate practical Christian care for members of the Church family facing unusual and primarily finance-related difficulties.

The Fund was established in March 1988 in order for financial support to be considered by an independent team and kept separate from pastoral needs referred to the clergy, if this is considered appropriate.

The Fund is topped up to a value of £4,000 at the beginning of each calendar year.

What assistance is provided by the Care Fund?

Assistance is normally provided by one or more of the following means:

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Who administers the Care Fund? The Fund is administered by four trustees, who are: Neil McDonald, Jenny Taylor, Janet Wood, David Robinson.

The Fund is operated through a dedicated bank account which is administered by the trustees. The Fund is audited by the same company as the main church accounts.

The trustees meet together at least quarterly and a confidential record is maintained by the trustees listing names of beneficiaries and grants made.

Neill McDonald

Secton 3: Atendance

Jane Thrift

Secton 4: Operatons and Fabric Report

The areas of church life falling under operations management are the care and management of staff, Health and Safety, legislative compliance, property, change management, communication, security, events, AV, IT, data management, succession planning, setting up and setting down for groups that meet during the week and maintaining administrative systems and controls. We were very well assisted by Jane Thrift, Jan Strydom, Luke Douglas and many volunteers that work so hard to ensure all operations run smoothly and we are very grateful for all they do.

2022 saw the end of Covid restrictions and it was wonderful to be able to hold services in the church again and start up all the other regular activities on the church site.

We are grateful to Jim Beswick, the AV committee, all the AV volunteers, the Welcome teams and the IT committee for the work they have done for us as to keep our systems and processes running well.

We completed the annual update of our terrier and detailed asset register and submitted all the required reports to the diocese and charities commission.

Following extensive refurbishment and maintenance work over the last four years we are now in the fortunate position where we just have smaller maintenance items to complete. With the large increase in energy costs, we worked hard to reduce our energy footprint. The heating system in the church is still fragile and required significant ongoing attention.

We updated policies as necessary and wrote new ones where they were required. We continue to look for the best ways to communicate information to the church family and are currently working on a new website. The blog, Touchline and the weekly church family email have done this effectively and we are very grateful to all those involved in putting them together.

We have ensured that St Mary’s remains up to date and compliant with legislation (health and safety, fire, data privacy) and with all safeguarding practices recommended by the diocese.

Dick West & John Blackbeard

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Secton 5: Churchwardens’ Report 2022

2022 was marked by the interregnum and we give great thanks to God for his provision and protection across this period. Our much-loved Vicar Will Stileman left in February for a brief sabbatical ahead of taking up his new post as Associate Vicar at All Souls, Langham Place, leaving St Mary’s in great shape following 18 years of loyal and dedicated service. We are particularly grateful for the staff team who worked tirelessly across the subsequent 11 months to shepherd our flock and to keep St Mary’s growing, despite being a head count down, which put particular pressure on the ministry team. We are hugely thankful for all the support of the PCC and the church family across this period. We were delighted to appoint Jon Drake as our new Vicar in October, following a rigorous selection process and now we look ahead with great hope and expectation for St Mary’s as he takes up his new role in February 2023.

Below are a few key areas of focus as we review 2022 and consider the challenges that lie ahead:

Buildings and property

The churchwardens are responsible for the maintenance of the buildings on our church site. Following extensive refurbishments in recent years, we are in the fortunate position where we have just smaller maintenance now to complete. We are grateful to the A&M Trust who allow us to use their buildings (The Old Vic, the garden and 1 Hemsdale) free of charge on condition we maintain them and pay for the running costs. We have undertaken some refurbishment on 1 Hemsdale in 2022. The A&M Trust are in the process of buying a new property which we hope to use to provide accommodation for Ian Miller and his family.

The Church owns the freehold of St Andrew’s House, and in 2022 we began negotiations with the various leaseholders who are requesting lease extensions.

All non-residential property is inspected annually, and residential accommodation is inspected twice a year by our tenant support worker, Jenny Taylor.

Church Terrier and Inventory

The Terrier and Record of Inventory have been duly updated.

Finances

We thank God for His continued provision and generosity to us through the last year. Our planned giving, donations and collections income went down slightly from £529,309 in 2021 to £526,312 in 2022. We are truly blessed to receive this income when many churches have faced a significant drop in their income this past year. Most give to St Mary’s via standing orders and we are thus not reliant on collections taken at services. We are very grateful that the Lord’s people at St Mary’s give faithfully and sacrificially and do so via our RGS. This enabled us to end 2022 with a deficit of General Funds of £29,840.

We are grateful to the finance team for all their work, and for the provision of the Care Fund and Vicar’s Discretionary Fund to support church members in times of need across this challenging year.

Staffing Changes

Staffing

2022 was a year of change but very few staff changes. Will officially left the church on 9[th] April 2022 (having been on sabbatical since February).

Jon Drake took over leadership of the staff team from February, ably assisted by Rachel Maynell, John Blackbeard and Dick West. In addition, Jon took on many of the responsibilities of the vicar and also managed the four-yearly re-organisation of the growth groups.

Throughout the year, Jon continued to lead the 9:15 and 11 am congregations, Ian Miller the 8am and 4 pm services with Richard Crane being responsible for the 6:30 service. In September, Richard came on full-time which helped in alleviating some of the workload of the staff team.

In July, the advertising for the new vicar went out. In September, Jon decided that he would apply. He was selected to be our next vicar in October and was instituted and inducted in February 2023.

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In August, Patch Crossley got married and left to move north to Stoke. We miss Patch’s ready smile, his musical talents and his enthusiasm for children’s work. We are still looking for a replacement ministry trainee.

As Kate Wheatley is leaving us in July 2023, Nick McDonald started to take on a more prominent role during the year in our children ministry. We are hugely indebted to Kate for her passionate service across so many years and wish her the very best for her future endeavours.

With Ian Miller’s curacy finishing in June 2023, the PCC decided to offer Ian the post of Associate Vicar. We were delighted when Ian accepted as the Miller family is well loved and so much part of the St Mary’s church family. In addition, in January 2023, the PCC approved the search for a second Associate Vicar. We await God’s provision of a faithful and godly man to be part of our ministry team.

At the April APCM, Rae Binning stepped down as church warden after almost 9 years of service. We would like to thank Rae for her dedicated and faithful service as church warden and to wish her a very happy “retirement”. In place of Rae, Lindsay Reisser-Weston was elected to be church warden.

We give thanks to the Lord for our staff team; a group of godly and humble people who love the Lord and their calling to St Mary’s to minister to the church family and to make Jesus known to our parish. We thank the Lord too for their unity in supporting one another during the challenges presented by the interregnum.

Administration

We are especially grateful to all the church staff and to our operations managers, John Blackbeard and Dick West, for assuming many of the responsibilities usually falling on the church wardens.

Challenges, opportunities and looking forward

With the lifting of lockdown and the easing of the Covid threat, many who had stayed away returned. This was a particular concern at the start of 2022. We praise the Lord for His safeguarding and protection during the Covid pandemic.

The war in Ukraine brought many fleeing the war to the UK. Some in the church family are involved in ministering to their needs, which has provided an avenue for outreach. 2022 also saw the arrival in Maidenhead of families from different parts of the world; from Hong Kong, South America, Iran and Africa. Many have joined St Mary’s which posed a challenge as many are not native English speakers. The Lord has graciously provided Spanish, Farsi, Cantonese and Mandarin speakers in the church family to help with translation and integration.

Diversity continues to be a focus in the church with those involved in the services and events being more ethnically diverse.

With the blessing of same sex married couples being considered by the General Synod, the PCC is considering our suitable response to the bishops’ proposals and also the church’s continuing interaction with the diocese and the deanery.

With Jon’s installation as the new incumbent, we are at the start of a new phase for the church. Our challenge is to prayerfully and humbly seek God’s will in the way forward for St Mary’s.

Lindsay Reisser-Weston & Anthony Kan

Secton 6: Electoral Roll Report

The Electoral Roll was updated in April 2022. At this time there were 30 people resident in the parish, and 471 non-resident. The total was 501.

The following members of the church family died between 1[st] January and 31[st] December 2022. Jean Chant, Sia Schoeman, Sonya van Zyl, Arnold Todd, Roger Baldery, Helen Walker, Chris Khoo Pat Battye

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Secton 7: Report on PCC Proceedings 2022

It has been a year of faithfulness and commitment from the Parochial Church Council (PCC) as we have met regularly to discuss and debate the different topics over the past term. In the past term, the PCC consisted of 24-25 people (one stepped down during term), a mix of clergy, wardens, lay and elected members, voted in by the parish or as part of the deanery and general synod (refer to Section 8.2). We are a diverse group, with representatives from all the five congregations. The PCC met every second Tuesday of the month except in August with an average of 17 attendees (refer to Figure 1). Meetings were held in-person, with an option for people to dial-in virtually if an important need arose. There was also an extraordinary meeting for voting a Section 11 in April to set in place the necessary protocols for the recruitment of a new vicar.

Figure 1: PCC Monthly Attendance in 2022 of a total of 24-25. Note that total reflects 1 guest attendee in January and in November.

This year’s Away Day in June was held in Moor Hall, Cookham, where we reflected on the church Mission Statement of “ Engaging Maidenhead with the Gospel ”, and how as a PCC, we could encourage and steer the church to be more mission minded in its focus to know Jesus and to make him known in the local community. We used the book by John McGinley, Mission-Shaped Grace , as a reference.

Some topics of note during the year were the Vicar Selection Process, St Mary’s Staffing, the Director of Music post, Relationship with the Diocese including Parish Share. There were also topics on the Care Fund, General Synod updates and a few guests with Safeguarding and Finances a regular part of the meetings. As a PCC, we thank the Lord for Anthony Kan and Rae Binning who spearheaded the efforts as our Parish Representatives in the search for a new St Mary’s vicar to replace Will Stileman when he left in February. We are thankful too for Jon Drake who has been appointed our new vicar, and for Lindsay Reisser-Weston who has served us so well in her first term as churchwarden alongside Anthony Kan.

For those in the church family who are interested to understand and keep abreast of the topics discussed, minutes of the meetings are available for perusal on the website. If there are any topics which you think the PCC should consider, please do get in touch with me.

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As the discussions with same-sex blessings in the Church of England continue, and St Mary’s reflects on the relationship with our Diocese, the greater church and our faithfulness to the Gospel, while continuing to be wise in our stewardship in the face of financial constraints, there is much to look forward to in the coming year. Please continue to pray for the PCC that we will (a) continue in truth and unity of the gospel, (b) keep a consistent, living personal walk with the Lord, (c) make wise decisions for the church and (d) be of one heart and mind, focused on our Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do.

Phebe Tay – PCC Secretary

Secton 8: Administratve Details

8.1 Church Details

Parochial Name St. Andrew and St. Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead, in the Deanery of Maidenhead, Diocese of Oxford Location Borough Church of St. Mary’s 14 High Street, MAIDENHEAD, Berkshire Postal Address St. Mary’s Church Office St. Mary’s Close, 14 High Street, MAIDENHEAD, Berkshire SL6 1YY Tel. No. 01628 638866

8.2 Membership of the PCC

Clergy, ex-officio and lay: Rev. Jon Drake, Rev. Ian Miller, Rev. Neil Watkinson

Churchwardens: Anthony Kan, Lindsay Reisser-Weston

Elected members: Scott Bedford, John Blackbeard, John Driscoll, Catriona Ketyar, Karnie Sharp, Elna Strydom, Penny Dee, Linsley Green, Sandra Brunt

Co-opted: Rae Binning (April 2022) as a Parish Representative

Deanery Synod: Tanja ten Have (stood down in May 2022), Rob Hurley, Neil McDonald, Rhys Mitchell, Kate Wheatley, Rob Wingfield, Phebe Tay, Sandra Brunt (September 2022)

Diocesan Synod: Thomas Walton

General Synod: Gracey Crane, Daniel Matovu

8.3 Staff Receiving Remuneration

Associate Minister Rev. Jon Drake Associate Minister i/c of women’s Rachel Meynell work and pastoral care Curate Rev. Ian Miller Minister i/c of 6:30 congregation Richard Crane (from September)

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Minister i/c of children’s work Kate Wheatley Children’s minister in training Nick McDonald Minister i/c of youth work Melinda Stylo Director of music in training Tom Brewster (until January) Operations managers John Blackbeard and Dick West Administration manager Jane Thrift Facilities manager Jan Strydom

Secton 9: Structure, Governance and Management

9.1 Legal Status

The PCC is a corporate body established by the Church of England governed by two pieces of legislation: the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956 (as amended) and the Church Representation Rules (contained in Schedule 3 to the Synodical Government Measure 1969). It became a registered charity in January 2009 (No. 1127589) and the PCC members are trustees.

9.2 Appointment

Appointment of PCC members is governed by and set out in the Church Representation Rules.

9.3 Recruitment, Training, Induction

Regular church members are encouraged to join the electoral roll, which makes them eligible for PCC membership. People are encouraged to stand for the PCC via the display of a nomination board for six weeks prior to the annual meeting. New PCC members are given a handbook outlining the roles and responsibilities of a PCC member within St Mary’s church, and explaining the conduct of business, and trustee responsibilities.

9.4 Monthly Meetings

The PCC meets monthly except during August, with additional meetings as required, including an annual Away day. It has established committees and project teams to help it with its work, and receives regular reports including minutes of meetings from these groups. The committees that helped the PCC discharge its various duties and responsibilities during 2022 were:

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9.9 Risk Management

Secton 10: Objectves and Actvites

The mission of the church is to know Jesus and to make Jesus known by:

Engaging Maidenhead with the gospel. It is our responsibility to proclaim the good news about the Lord Jesus in such a way that people have the chance to really engage with Him.

Growing mature disciples of Jesus of all ages and backgrounds. It is our ambition to encourage eve ryone associated with St Mary’s to be a wholehearted disciple of Jesus.

Partnering with other churches to make Jesus better known. We recognise our responsibility to work with other churches for the growth of the gospel in our region, the UK and other parts of the world.

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The primary objective of the PCC is to work collaboratively with the vicar to direct the church’s mission to know Jesus and to make Jesus known by:

Secton 11: Financial Review

The work at St Mary’s is funded mainly by voluntary donations (90%) plus income from interest, lettings, fees and rent.

Total unrestricted income in 2022 was £689,319 (2021: £699,675) with regular expenditure on the work and ministry of the parish at £761,402 (2021: £733,412) to give a deficit of £72,083 (2021: deficit of £33,737).

John Blackbeard

Secton 12: Reserves Policy

PCC policy is to maintain a minimum bank balance equivalent to 3 months of running expenses (about £154,000) plus 12 months of giving to missions (about £96,000) giving a total of £250,000 to cover emergency situations that may arise from time to time.

John Blackbeard

Secton 13: Report on PCC Financial Actvites for 2022

St Mary’s is funded mainly by voluntary donations, including tax recovered on gift aid donations. This made up 90% of the unrestricted income. Other income including interest, lettings and rents make up the balance. Giving for our unrestricted general fund via the Regular Giving Scheme (RGS) in 2022 at £505,006 was £18,358 higher than budget, but £14,129 lower than the RGS giving in 2021 of £519,135. We also thank the Lord for other one-off donations of £17,860.

The budget for 2022 had forecast a deficit of £56,867 on unrestricted general funds but God blessed us once again and we ended the year with a smaller deficit of £29,840 for unrestricted general funds due to income being higher than budget. Collections at services of £3,446 was over budget and exceeded the amount from last year. Income from Ministry events was higher than planned as more events took place after the pandemic. Costs of ministry events at £13,461 was also significantly higher than budget and last year due to more events taking place and more help being provided to those in need via the Care Fund. Hire charges for halls and rooms at £6,331 was more than double the budget. Rental income from our properties at £17,977 was way below last year’s value as one of the flats was occupied by the Ministry Trainees, the other flat was rented at a lower rate and the Castle Court property was sold in 2021. We completed the required maintenance and decoration of our buildings and facilities in 2022 and we again saved a considerable amount by having Jan Strydom and volunteers doing most of the work. We thank them. We spent only £246 on maintaining our rental properties as they were in good condition. Other staff costs were higher due to having to rent a house for our curate for longer than planned but somewhat offset by savings in various areas. Property costs totalled £56,768 compared to a budget of £59,150.

28

Restricted fund income this year included a donation from the A&M Trust plus amounts received for the Care Fund, various missionaries, an appeal for Ukraine and our regular Harvest and Christmas appeals. There was no Project Connect expenditure in 2022 on building modifications to our main church and Church House but funds of £78,000 were transferred from the A & M Trust in 2022 to refund the PCC for Project Connect costs that had been paid on behalf of the A&M Trust in previous years. The overall surplus on restricted funds of £90,776 is mainly due to the refund from A&M plus timing of gift receipts and timing of paying out Harvest and Christmas gifts. There was a surplus (after fund transfers) for the church groups, excluding the Care Fund, of £2,059 and an overall surplus for unrestricted and restricted funds of £20,095 for 2022 compared to a deficit £49,274 in 2021.

The RGS continues to be central to St Mary’s financial income and is very important as our financial needs grow.

In the year, we continued to use ‘discretionary funds’ that were set aside in previous years to train more Ministry Workers (Nick McDonald) and to help those in need. We still plan to help sponsor another growing church and some other smaller initiatives in future from our ‘discretionary funds’.

Looking ahead, the budget for 2023 follows on page 43. We have decided to maintain our diocesan share payments at the same level as last year (£105 640) until we have had time to digest the changes taking place in the Church of England. Ministry staff salary costs are forecast at £208,472 versus actual in 2022 of £217,948. They are lower as Jon Drake is now paid by the diocese and we have not yet appointed a new associate vicar and Richard Crane will be part time for some of the year. Nick McDonald will continue to be funded from the ‘discretionary funds’ in 2023 until his training is completed. Administration costs at £39,375 will be higher than the £34,614 in 2022 as activity on the church site picks up as Covid restrictions have stopped. Planned giving to missions from unrestricted funds at £86,550 is 10% down on 2022 as two of our missionaries have left the mission field and we are yet to decide what to do with the extra funds. Other costs are increasing with inflation which is currently very high. We have worked hard to keep costs down where possible. The total costs for 2023 from unrestricted funds are budgeted at £851,420 compared to the 2022 actual costs of £761,402 but this includes £106,500 to other churches and missions and a further £52,488 for developing ministry leaders from discretionary funds plus £3,000 from designated funds for AV maintenance.

We were blessed to have 14 new people join RGS and 16 increase their giving during 2022. 15 people stopped giving and 9 people reduced their giving. The net result is that RGS income for 2023 is forecast to be lower than it was in 2022 (£471,832 compared to £505,006). Expenses are forecast to exceed income by £197,739 in 2023, but £106,500 to support other churches and missions and £52,488 for developing ministry leaders will be paid from discretionary funds and the £3,000 for AV from a designated fund. That leaves a budgeted deficit of general funds of £35,751. We have budgeted to fund that deficit from church reserves. It would be wonderful if RGS giving plus Gift Aid was higher by this amount as we would not have to use any of the reserves.

Please note that the official audited accounts are shown on pages 30 to 42. Additional information such as the Budget for 2022 and a Summary of Church Based Organisations on pages 43 and 44 do not form part of the audited accounts.

We pray that God will again be good to us in 2023.

Chairman of the Finance Committee

29

Secton 14: Financial Report

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 December 2022

Note
Income and endowments from:
Donatons and legacies
2a
Investments
2b
Church actvites
2c
Other income
2d
Total
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
3a
Charitable Actvites
Church actvites
3b
Mission grants and donatons
3c
Total
Net income/(expenditure)
Transfers between funds
16
Other recognised gains/(losses)
Gain/(Loss) revaluaton of investment assets
6
Actuarial proft on defned beneft pension
scheme
17
Net movement in funds
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward		 Unrestricted
Restricted
Endowment
Total
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
2022
2021
£
£
£
£
£
638,311 124,918
- 763,229
704,435
24,282
-
133 24,415
36,220
26,357
13,212
-
39,569
19,463
369
-
-
369
-
689,319 138,130
133 827,582
760,118
8,065
-
-
8,065
2,777
638,618
12,263
- 650,881
664,325
114,719
35,224
- 149,943
144,935
761,402
47,487
- 808,889
812,037
(72,083)
90,643
133 18,693
(51,919)
78,502 (78,369)
(133)
-
-
6,419
12,274
- 18,693
(51,919)
-
- (598) (598)
645
2,000
-
- 2,000
2,000
8,419 12,274 (598) 20,095(49,274)
812,880 1,933,836
5,082 2,751,798
2,801,072
821,299 1,946,110
4,484 2,771,893
2,751,798

30

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Balance sheet as at 31 December 2022

Note 2022 2021
£ £
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets 5 1,773,347 1,773,347 1,782,728
Investments 6 138,475 475 139,073
Total fixed assets 1,911,822 1,911,822 1,921,801
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors 7 49,786 49,786 55,123 55,123
Cash at bank and in hand 8 851,178 178 810,577 577
Total current assets 900,964 900,964 865,700 865,700
CURRENT LIABILITIES
Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year 9 (40,893) (40,893) (33,703) (33,703)
NET CURRENT ASSETS 860,071 860,071 831,997
TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 2,771,893 2,771,893 2,753,798
Defined Benefit Pension Scheme liability 17 0 0 (2,000)
TOTAL NET ASSETS 2,771,893 2,771,893 2,751,798
THE FUNDS OF THE CHURCH: 10, 11
Endowment funds 4,484 4,484 5,082
Restricted funds 1,946,110 1,946,110 1,933,836
Unrestricted funds 821,299
 821,299
 812,880
2,771,893 2,771,893 2,751,798

The notes on pages 33 to 42 form part of these accounts.

Approved by the PCC on 28/03/2023 and signed on its behalf by:

Lindsay Reisser-Weston (Church warden)

31

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Cashflow Statement for the year ended 31 December 2022

Net Cash generated from operatng actvites (see below)
Cash fows from investng actvites
Dividends and interest from investments
Rent received from investments
Proceeds from the sale of:
Tangible fxed assets for the use of the PCC
Purchase of:
Tangible fxed assets for the use of the PCC (equipment)
Cash received from endowment capital
Net Cash provided by investng actvites
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reportng period
Cash and cash equivalents at 1 January 2022
Cash and cash equivalents at 31 December 2022
Reconciliaton of net movements in funds to net cash fow
from operatng actvites
Net income/(expenditure) before investment (losses)/ gains
for the year to 31 December 2022
Adjustments for:
Depreciaton
Proft on sale of fxed asset - equipment
Dividends, interest and rent receivable from investments
(Increase)/decrease in debtors
Increase/(decrease) in creditors
Net cash provided by/(used in) operatng actvites
Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
Cash at bank and in hand (note 8)
Term and Notce deposits (note 8)		 2022
2021
£
£
£
£
17,772
(63,388)
4,072
4,976
22,365
28,102
869
-
(4,610)
(3,210)
133
129
22,829
29,997
40,601
(33,391)
810,577
843,968
851,178
810,577
18,693
(51,919)
13,491
14,937
(369)
-
(24,415)
(36,220)
2,283
6,950
8,089
2,864
(921)
(11,469)
17,772
(63,388)
324,393
287,844
526,785
522,733
851,178
810,577

32

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew and St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022

1 Accounting policies

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Church Accounting Regulations together with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention except for investments, which are shown at market value where practical to separately value (see note 1h).

The Church constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

There are no material uncertainties about the Church's ability to continue as a going concern.

Funds "designated by" the PCC for a purpose are unrestricted funds. Restricted funds are those funds that must be expended on a particular purpose specified by the donor. Endowment funds, where the capital must be retained intact, are explained below. All funds which are neither restricted or endowment funds are unrestricted.

The financial statements include all transactions, assets and liabilities for which the PCC is responsible by law.

1b Incoming resources

Income and endowments

Collections are recognised when received by or on behalf of the PCC. Planned giving receivable under covenant or pledge is recognised only when received. Tax recoverable on Gift Aid donations is recognised in the period in which the donations are received. Grants and legacies to the PCC are accounted for as soon as the PCC is notified of its legal entitlement, it is probable that income will be received and the amount of income can be measured reliably.

For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date the money is received or the date the Church is aware probate has been granted and notification has been received from the executor(s) that a distribution will be made. Furthermore, legacy income is only regarded as probable once any conditions attached to it have been met or are within the control of the Church.

Other income:

Rental income from the letting of church premises is recognised when the rental is due. Although the PCC treats most church buildings as restricted fund assets, rental income is considered to be unrestricted. Funds raised by church social events and other similar activities and from the sale of books and magazines is accounted for gross.

Income from investments:

Dividends and interest are accounted for when received except for interest arising on fixed rate deposits which is included on an accruals basis.

Gains and losses in investments:

Realised gains or losses are recognised when investments are sold. Unrealised gains or losses are accounted for on each revaluation.

Grants and donations are accounted for when paid over, or when awarded, if that award creates a binding obligation on the PCC. The diocesan parish share is accounted for when due and has been paid in full each year.

Governance costs include expenditure on compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements.

Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligations committing the Church to that expenditure, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis. All expenses including support costs and governance costs are allocated or apportioned to the applicable expenditure heading. For the information on this attribution refer to note 1d.

33

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew and St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

1d Allocation of support and governance costs

Support and governance costs have been allocated in their entirety to church activities, as it is the opinion of the trustees', that the majority of the support and governance costs relate to the furtherance of the Churchs' activities. Governance costs comprise all costs involving the public accountability of the Church and its compliance with regulation and good practice. These costs include costs related to statutory audit and legal fees.

1e Cost of raising funds

The costs of generating funds consists of invesment management costs and costs of generating booksales.

1f Charitable activities

Costs of charitable activities include grants made, governance costs, support costs and other costs relating to delivery of various church activities. These activities are further described in the Trustees' report.

1g Fixed assets

Consecrated and beneficed property of any kind is excluded from the financial statements in accordance with s.10 of the Charities Act 2011. Equipment used within the church premises is depreciated on a straight line basis over four years. No depreciation is provided on buildings as the Trustees currently estimate the residual value of the properties (discounted for monetary inflation since their capitalisation) is not less than their carrying value and the remaining useful life of these assets currently exceeds 50 years, so that any depreciation charges would be immaterial. If the carrying value of the buildings looks greater than their current value on this basis, an impairment review would be carried out and any resultant loss included in expenditure for the year.

1h Assets held for investment

Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are intially recognised at their transaction value. COIF shares are shown at market value. By virtue of church property being owned in various ways and the property having mixed uses it is not always practical to revalue property held as an investment. Where it is practical, can be accomplished without undue cost and the effect is likely to be significant, investment properties are now stated at valuation. On the basis that it is not practical and the property cannot be valued without undue cost, the property has been valued at cost.

The Church does not acquire put options, derivatives or other complex financial instruments.

All gains and losses are taken to the Statement of Financial Activites as they arise. Realised gains and losses on investments are calcualted as the difference between sales proceeds and their carrying value. Unrealised gains and losses are calcualted as the difference between the fair value at the year end and their carrying value. Realised and unreaslised gains and losses are shown seperately in the Statement of Financial Activities.

1i Taxation

The Church is a registered charity, and therefore is not liable for income tax or corporation tax on income derived from its charitable activities, as it falls within the various exemptions available to registered charities.

1j Pension costs and other post-retirement benefits

The PCC contributes to defined contribution and defined benefit pension schemes. Contributions to the defined contribution scheme are charged to the SOFA as incurred. The Church of England Funded Pension Scheme is a multi-employer pension scheme and it is not possible to identify the PCC's share of the underlying assets and liabilities so contributions are accounted for as if they were contributions to a defined contribution plan. The amount which an independent actuary has determined is required to make good the PCC's share of the deficit is reflected as a liability and a deficit reduction plan is now underway, as explained in Note 17.

1k Financial assets

Trade and other receivables are measured at transaction price.

Trade creditors and other payables are measured at transaction price. Liabilities are recognised when there is an obligation to transfer economic benefits.

34

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

2
Income and endowments
from:
2a Donatons and legacies
Planned giving:
Gif Aid donatons
Tax recoverable
Other planned giving
Collectons
Donatons
Gif days
Legacies
2b Investments
Rent
Dividends and interest
2c Church actvites
Outreach events
Fees
Hire charges
Church groups
Book sales		 Unrestricted
Restricted
Endowment
Total
Total
funds
funds
funds
2022
2021
£
£
£
£
£
444,895
2,100
-
446,995
456,295
111,999
7,679
-
119,678
124,070
60,111
-
-
60,111
62,840
3,446
828
-
4,274
2,184
17,860
81,710
-
99,570
36,100
-
32,601
-
32,601
20,446
-
-
-
-
2,500
638,311
124,918
-
763,229
704,435
17,977
-
-
17,977
32,124
6,305
-
133
6,438
4,096
24,282
-
133
24,415
36,220
8,482
-
-
8,482
7,181
3,536
-
-
3,536
4,491
6,331
-
-
6,331
1,884
4,400
13,212
-
17,612
5,243
3,608
-
-
3,608
664
26,357
13,212
-
39,569
19,463
2d Other income
Proft on sale of equipment
Total		 369
-
-
369
-
689,319
138,130
133
827,582
760,118

35

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

3 Expenditure:
3a Raising funds
Cost of generatng voluntary income
Bookstall costs
Investment management costs:
Rental property (fat 1, 2 and Castle Court) expenses
3b Church actvites
Diocesan share
Stpend, NI and pension
Other staf salary, NI and pension
Vicar's expenses
Staf expenses
Staf accommodaton costs
Upkeep of services
Church running expenses
Church maintenance
Equipment maintenance
Contributon to vehicle hire costs
Garden maintenance
Catering
Depreciaton
Admin salaries NI and pension
Ofce costs
Printng postage and statonery
Bank charges
Advertsing and recruitment expenses
Legal and accountancy costs
Hall running costs
Church House running costs
Old Vic running costs
Outreach event costs
Church groups costs
Other ministry costs (Women,Men,Care,Yth)
Statutory audit fee (excluding VAT)
3c Mission grants and donatons
Home mission & church societes
Overseas mission
Total resources expended		 Unrestricted
Restricted
Endowment
Total
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
2022
2021
£
£
£
£
£
174
-
-
174
-
3,981
-
-
3,981
1,012
3,910
-
-
3,910
1,765
8,065
-
-
8,065
2,777
105,640
-
-
105,640
101,946
39,972
-
-
39,972
39,840
180,391
-
-
180,391
205,442
1,560
-
-
1,560
5,173
8,257
-
-
8,257
5,633
37,824
-
-
37,824
34,490
7,630
-
-
7,630
8,610
10,596
-
-
10,596
9,226
7,368
-
-
7,368
8,230
1,255
-
-
1,255
1,145
1,375
-
-
1,375
-
411
-
-
411
671
4,202
-
-
4,202
1,062
13,491
-
-
13,491
14,937
113,785
-
-
113,785
125,893
5,621
-
-
5,621
4,601
5,347
-
-
5,347
2,659
525
15
-
540
478
2,045
-
-
2,045
1,589
21,024
-
-
21,024
28,105
18,582
581
-
19,163
13,302
19,146
-
-
19,146
13,235
7,685
-
-
7,685
7,238
8,425
-
-
8,425
10,776
6,430
9,949
-
16,379
6,135
5,036
1,718
-
6,754
9,109
4,995
-
-
4,995
4,800
638,618
12,263
-
650,881
664,325
65,262
15,069
-
80,331
69,600
49,457
20,155
-
69,612
75,335
114,719
35,224
-
149,943
144,935
761,402
47,487
-
808,889
812,037

36

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

4 Staf costs
Wages and salaries
Social security costs
Pension costs
Average headcount of staf employed by the PCC (including those paid indirectly)
Average number of full-tme equivalent staf paid directly or indirectly by the PCC		 2022
2021
£
£
291,273_323,658_
23,412_25,745_
19,761_21,772_
334,446371,175
10.111.8
7.9
9.4

Average headcount of staff employed by the PCC (including those paid indirectly) Average number of full-time equivalent staff paid directly or indirectly by the PCC No employees received emoluments (excluding employer pension costs) of more than £60,000.

37
5 Tangible assets
(All held for Church charitable objectves)
Cost or valuaton
At beginning of the year
Additons
Disposals
At end of the year
Depreciaton and impairments
At beginning of the year
Charge for year
Eliminated on disposal
At end of the year
Net book value at beginning of the year
Net book value at end of the year
6 Investments
Cost or valuaton
At beginning of the year
Additons
Disposals
Revaluaton
At end of the year
Depreciaton and impairments
At beginning of the year
Charge for year
At end of the year
Net book value at beginning of the year
Net book value at end of the year
Other investments comprise:
217 CBF C of E Investment Fund Income Shares
7 Debtors
Income tax recoverable
Prepayments
Accrued income		 Long
Freehold land
Leasehold
Plant and
Total
& buildings
Propertes
Equipment
£
£
£
£
1,759,462
-
181,744
1,941,206
-
-
4,610
4,610
-
-
(999)
(999)
1,759,462
-
185,355
1,944,817
-
-
158,478
158,478
-
-
13,491
13,491
-
-
(499)
(499)
-
-
171,470
171,470
1,759,462
-
23,266
1,782,728
1,759,462
-
13,885
1,773,347
Long
Leasehold
Other
Total
Property
Investments
£
£
£
133,991
5,082
139,073
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(598)
(598)
133,991
4,484
138,475
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
133,991
5,082
139,073
133,991
4,484
138,475
£
4,484
2022
2021
£
£
30,179
31,422
7,953
10,599
11,654
13,102
49,786
55,123

6 Investments

7 Debtors

37

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

8 Cash at bank and in hand
Immediate access - general funds
Immediate access - designated funds
Immediate access - restricted funds
Cash in hand - general funds
Term deposits
Maturing within one year - general funds
Maturing within one year - designated funds
Maturing within one to two years - general funds
Maturing within one to two years - designated funds
9 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Creditors and Accruals
Tax and social security
Other creditors		 2022
2021
£
£
141,406
117,951
126,995
130,304
55,923
39,508
69
81
200,415
149,733
238,000
373,000
3,370
-
85,000
-
851,178
810,577
2022
2021
£
£
24,442
24,649
7,760
6,639
8,691
2,415
40,893
33,703
10 The funds of the Church
Details of partcular funds maintained are:
Endowed Funds
The Crump Bequest
A permanent endowment, the interest from which is to help meet the costs of maintaining church ser-
vices.
Restricted funds
Groups
Restricted fund balance for groups within the church who administer their own funds. Total church
group income and expenditure is included in these accounts.
Sunday School
Gifs donated for use by the Sunday School groups in the church
The Mark Wheatley Fund
Funds given in memory of Mark Wheatley for young people to take non-Christan friends to Summer
camps.
Restricted and Designated funds
Mission Hardship Funds
Designated and restricted funds to meet Mission needs in difcult economic tmes.
The Care Fund
Designated and restricted funds to meet need in difcult economic tmes.		 2022
2021
£
£
4,484
5,082
11,582
9,554
416
610
5,504
5,539
2,475
13,963
4,077
2,313

In addition to the above, Gift Days and Special Collections are considered "restricted funds".

38

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

11 Summary of assets and liabilities for church funds

Fixed assets for Church use
Fixed asset investments
Debtors
Cash at bank and in hand
Creditors: Amounts falling due
within one year
Defned Beneft Pension Scheme liability		 Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
TOTAL
TOTAL
Funds
Funds
Funds
2022
2021
£
£
£
£
£
17,115 1,756,232 -1,773,3471,782,728
- 133,991 4,484138,475139,073
41,609 8,177 -49,78655,123
795,255 55,923 -851,178810,577
(32,680) (8,213) -(40,893)(33,703)
- - --(2,000)
821,299 1,946,110 4,484 2,771,893_2,751,798_

12 Council members

These council members received payments for their services during the year: Kate Wheatley, Rev Jon Drake and John Blackbeard received remuneration for their duties as employees. Rob Hurley received a payment for audiovisual duties during a church thanksgiving service.

The aggregate remuneration, including employer pension contributions, paid to and on behalf of the above council members was £90,661 (2021, £90,471).

Certain members of the Parochial Church Council are reimbursed expenses they incur in their work for the Church. £9,510 was reimbursed to or paid for five council members during the year (2021, £3,784 for five members)

The council member Rev Neil Watkinson received funding via Crosslinks for his missionary work in Asia as part of our mission funding of £6,873 (2021 £6,872).

The council member Phebe Tay rented our property - Flat 2 St Marys Close up until June 2021. Market rent was paid - the total payable for the year to 31 December 2021 was £5,337.

13 Related party transactions and key management personnel

Related party transactions

One Council member is also a Trustee/Director of the A&M Trust. Donations and grants received for Project Connect from the A&M Trust were £78,059 (2021, £10,000). A donation was made to the A&M Trust for £16,000 during the year (2021, £nil)

Key management personnel

Other then those disclosed in note 12 above, no other key management personnel are remunerated by the Church.

Two members of staff who are considered to be key management personnel are remunerated by the Diocese.

14 Grants made

Of the total grants made from general funds to further the Church's mission work, £38,724 (2021, £21,250) was to various institutions and £75,995 (2021, £71,098) to individuals.

15 Capital commitments

The Parochial Church Council had commitments as at 31 December 2022 relating to refurbishment work on the property 1 Hemsdale and to website improvements amounting to approximately £6,000 and £2,000 respectively. At 31 December 2021 there were commitments relating to the building modifications work on the church under Project Connect amounting to approximately £2,000.

16 Transfers between reserves

The net transfer to General Funds from Project Connect this year to repay Project Connect costs funded from General Funds was £78,059 (2021, £2,939).

39

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew and St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

17 Church of England Funded Pension Scheme (CEFPS)

St Andrews & St Mary Magdalene PCC participates in the Church of England Funded Pensions Scheme for stipendiary clergy, a defined benefit pension scheme. This scheme is administered by the Church of England Pensions Board, which holds the assets of the schemes separately from those of the Responsible Bodies.

Each participating Responsible Body in the Church of England Funded Pensions Scheme pays contributions at a common contribution rate applied to pensionable stipends.

The scheme is considered to be a multi-employer scheme as described in Section 28 of FRS 102. It is not possible to attribute the Scheme’s assets and liabilities to each specific Responsible Body, and this means contributions are accounted for as if the Scheme were a defined contribution scheme. The pensions costs charged to the SoFA in the year are contributions payable towards benefits and expenses accrued in that year (2022: £9,266 , 2021: £9,956), plus the figures in relation to the Scheme's deficit highlighted in the table below as being recognised in the SoFA, giving a total charge of £7,266 for 2022 (2021: £7,956).

A valuation of the Scheme is carried out once every three years. The most recent Scheme valuation completed was carried out at as 31 December 2021. The 2021 valuation revealed a surplus of £560m, based on assets of £2,720m and a funding target of £2,160m, assessed using the following assumption:

· RPI inflation of 3.6% p.a. (and pension increases consistent with this);

· CPIH inflation in line with RPI less 0.8% pre 2030 moving to RPI with no adjustment from 2030 onwards;

· Increase in pensionable stipends in line with CPIH;

· Mortality in accordance with 90% of the S3NA tables, with allowance for improvements in mortality rates in line with the CMI2020 extended model with a long term annual rate of improvement of 1.5%, a smoothing parameter of 7, an initial addition to mortality improvements of 0.5% pa and an allowance for 2020 data of 0% (i.e. w2020 = 0%).

Following the 31 December 2018 valuation, a deficit recovery plan was put in place until 31 December 2022 and the deficit recovery contributions (as a percentage of pensionable stipends) were as set out in the table below. An interim reduction to deficit contributions to 3.2% of pensionable stipends was made with effect from 1 April 2022. Following finalisation of the 31 December 2021 valuation, deficit contributions ceased with effect from 1 January 2023, since the Scheme was in surplus.

As at 31 December 2020 and 31 December 2021 the deficit recovery contributions under the recovery plan in force were as set out in the table below. For senior office holders, pensionable stipends are adjusted in the calculations by a multiple, as set out in the Scheme’s rules.

% of pensionable stpends
Defcit repair contributons		 January 2018 to
December 2020
11.9%		 January 2021 to

December 2022
7.1%

40

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew and St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

17 Church of England Funded Pension Scheme (CEFPS) cont…

Section 28.11A of FRS 102 requires agreed deficit recovery payments to be recognised as a liability. However, as there are no agreed deficit recovery payments from 1 January 2023 onwards, the balance sheet liability as at 31 December 2022 is nil. The movement in the balance sheet liability over 2021 and over 2022 is set out in the table below.

Balance sheet liability at 1 January
Defcit contributon paid (recognised in SoFA)
Interest cost (recognised in SoFA)
Remaining change to Balance sheet liability (recognised in SoFA)*
Balance sheet liability at 31 December		 2022
£
2,000
(1,000)
-
(1,000)
-		 2021
£
4,000
(2,000)
-
-
2,000

This liability represents the present value of the deficit contributions agreed as at the accounting date and has been valued using the following assumptions. No assumptions are needed for December 2022 as there are no agreed deficit recovery payments going forward. No price inflation assumption is needed since pensionable stipends for the remainder of the recovery plan were already known.

Discount rate
Price infaton
Increase to total pensionable payroll		 December 2022
n/a
n/a
n/a		 December 2021
0.0% pa
n/a
-1.5% pa		 December 2020
0.2% pa
3.1% pa
1.6% pa

During 2022 (and 2021) the deficit contributions paid of £1,000 (2021, £2,000) and the change in the Balance sheet liability of £1,000 (2021, £nil) have been reflected as part of the year’s pension charge.

The legal structure of the scheme is such that if another Responsible Body fails, St Andrews & St Mary Magdalene PCC could become responsible for paying a share of that failed Responsible Body’s pension liabilities. However the PCC will not have to pay more in any year than the contribution rate set for that year.

In addition, the PCC is classed as a minor body under this scheme and when a minor body ceases to have active members it is not required to pay a debt. Instead its liabilities are apportioned to the major bodies, being in this case the Oxford Diocesan Board of Finance.

41

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead

Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (continued)

18 Statement of Financial Actvites for the year ended 31 December Statement of Financial Actvites for the year ended 31 December 2021 - comparatve fgures
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total
Note Funds Funds Funds 2021
£ £ £ £
Income and endowments from:
Donatons and legacies 2a 649,659
54,776		 - 704,435
Investments 2b 36,091
-		 129 36,220
Church actvites 2c 13,925
5,538		 - 19,463
Total 699,675
60,314		 129 760,118
Expenditure on:
Raising funds 3a 2,777
-		 - 2,777
Charitable Actvites
Church actvites 3b 638,287
26,038		 - 664,325
Mission grants and donatons 3c 92,348
52,587		 - 144,935
Total 733,412
78,625		 - 812,037
Net income/(expenditure) (33,737)
(18,311)		 129 (51,919)
Transfers between funds 2,849
(2,720)		 (129)
 -
(30,888)
(21,031)		 - (51,919)
Other recognised gains/(losses)
Gain/(Loss) revaluaton of investment assets 6 -
-		 645 645
Actuarial proft on defned beneft pension scheme 17 2,000
-		 - 2,000
Net movement in funds (28,888)
(21,031)		 645 (49,274)
Total funds brought forward 841,768
1,954,867		 4,437 2,801,072
Total funds carried forward 812,880
1,933,836		 5,082 2,751,798

42

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead Budget for the year ended 31 December 2023

Unrestricted funds
Incoming Resources
Planned giving gif aid donatons
Tax recoverable
Other planned giving
Collectons at services
Donatons
Grants/Legacies
Ministry events
Fees
Hire charges
Church groups
Bookstall sales
Rental income
Dividends and interest
Surplus on sales fxed assets
Total Incoming Resources
Resources Used
Cost of Generatng funds
Bookstall costs
Church Actvites
Diocesan share
Ministry staf salary costs
Other staf costs
Church running costs
Administraton staf salary costs
Other administraton costs
Property costs
Mission grants and donatons
Ministry events
Church groups costs
Governance costs (net of VAT)
Investment costs
Rental property expenses
Property repairs general budget
Total Resources used
NET INCOMING/(OUTGOING) RESOURCES
BUDGETED DEFICIT COVERED BY:
Discretonary Funds
Ministry Leaders Fund
AV Fund
General Fund		 Total Budget
2023
418,310
105,078
53,522
4,105
4,558
-
12,010
2,674
4,336
6,480
4,000
32,306
6,302
-
653,681
4,000
106,000
208,472
27,956
49,479
116,538
39,375
55,233
191,770
21,605
6,480
5,042
17,470
2,000
851,420
(197,739)
(106,500)
(52,488)
(3,000)
(35,751)
(197,739)		 Total Budget
2022
% increase in 2023
budget fgures
compared to 2022
budget
432,450
-3.3%
108,313
-3.0%
54,198
-1.2%
1,750
134.6%
5,334
-14.5%
-
4,934
143.4%
4,330
-38.2%
2,173
99.5%
5,000
29.6%
1,500
166.7%
17,430
85.3%
2,963
112.7%
-
640,375
2.1%
1,500
166.7%
105,640
0.3%
220,853
-5.6%
31,963
-12.5%
41,600
18.9%
113,465
2.7%
40,122
-1.9%
59,150
-6.6%
95,770
100.2%
13,294
62.5%
5,220
24.1%
4,850
4.0%
1,025
1604.4%
2,000
736,452
15.6%
(96,077)
-
(39,210)
(5,000)
AV Fund
(51,867)
General Fund
(96,077)
Net income/
(expenditure) per
SOFA		 Actual 2022
444,895
111,999
60,111
3,446
17,860
0
8,482
3,536
6,331
4,400
3,608
17,977
6,305
369
689,319
3,981
105,640
217,948
39,536
48,865
113,785
34,614
56,768
114,719
13,461
6,430
4,995
660
-
761,402

(72,083)

-
(42,243)
(811)
(29,029)

(72,083)
(72,083)

43

Parochial Church Council of St Andrew & Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead Summary of accounts of Church Based Organisations

For the year ended 31 December 2022

Mother &
Toddlers
2,585

3,443
72

3,515

2,207
-
1,115
-
3,322

193
-

2,778
-
3,321
-
(543)
2,778		 7-Up
2,585
545
988
-
-

988
814
-
-
-
814
193
174
-
778
719
681
3,321
38
-

-
778
719		 Allsorts
545
2,345
-
-
-

0
329
-
-
-
329
174
(329)
-

719
2,016
681
2,016
38
-
-

-
719
2,016		 Focus Groups
2,345
3,484
2,350
4,675
64
16
7,105
1,500
4,336
-
-
5,836
(329)
1,269
-
(125)


016
4,628
2,016
694
-
40
-
-

3,894
016
4,628		 Focus Groups
Flower
Ministry
3,484
595
-
-
1,709
6
1,715
838
-
-
-
838
1,269
877
(125)
-

628
1,47
694
31
40
1,44
1
-
894
-
628
1,47
2		 Care Fund

595
2,313
-
-
250
63
313
-
-
-
6,049
6,049
877
(5,736)
7,500


4,077
31
313
1
2,424
1,400

(60)
2
4,077

44

Secton 15: Auditor’s Report

Independent auditor’s report to the Parochial Church Council and members of the

Church of St Andrew and St Mary Magdalene, Maidenhead.

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of the Church of St Andrew and St Mary Magdalene (PCC), Maidenhead (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 December 2022 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Parish in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Charities Act 2011

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:

45

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of Trustees

As explained more fully in the statement of Trustees responsibilities, the PCC are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the PCC determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the PCC are responsible for assessing the Parish’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the PCC either intend to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.

Fraud and breaches of laws and regulations - ability to detect

Identifying and responding to risks of material misstatement due to fraud

To identify risks of material misstatement due to fraud ("fraud risks") we assessed events or conditions that could indicate an incentive or pressure to commit fraud or provide an opportunity to commit fraud or provide an opportunity to commit fraud. Our risk assessment procedures included:

We communicated identified fraud risks throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of fraud throughout the audit.

As required by auditing standards, and taking into account our overall knowledge of the control environment, we perform procedures to address the risk of management override of controls, in particular the risk that management may be in a position to make in appropriate accounting entries.

We did not identify any additional fraud risks.

We performed procedures including identifying journal entries to test based on risk criteria and comparing identified entries to supporting documentation. These included those posted to unrelated accounts, those posted containing key words, and those posted to an account linked to a fraud risk.

46

Identifying and responding to risks of material misstatement due to non-compliance with laws and regulations

We identified areas of laws and regulations that could reasonably be expected to have a material effect on the financial statements from our sector experience, and through discussions with the trustees and other management (as required by auditing standards), and from inspection of the Charity's regulatory and legal correspondence and discussed with the trustees and other management the policies and procedures regarding compliance with laws and regulations.

We communicated identified laws and regulations throughout our team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.

The Charity is subject to laws and regulations that directly affect the financial statements including financial reporting legislation (including related charities legislation) and tax legislation, and we assessed the extent of compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our procedures on the related financial statement items.

We did not identify any others where the consequences of non-compliance alone could have a material effect on amounts or disclosures in the financial statements.

Context of the ability of the audit to detect fraud or breaches of law or regulation

misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it.

In addition, as with any audit, there remained a higher risk of non-detection of fraud, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. Our audit procedures are designed to detect material misstatement. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance or fraud and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.

Council’s website at: http://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charity’s Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's Trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s Trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Paul Fagan FCCA (Senior Statutory Auditor) for and on behalf of Craufurd Hale Audit Services Limited

.........................

Chartered Accountants

Statutory Auditor

Ground Floor, Arena Court Crown Lane MAIDENHEAD

SL6 8QZ

47