The Parish of St Martin and St Mary, Chudleigh
Address for correspondence: The Vicarage, Parade, Chudleigh TQ13 0JF
Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Parochial Church Council
for the year ended 31st December 2023 Vicar: Bankers: Independent Examiner: The Reverend Alex Sharp Lloyds Bank Mr David Rudall Newton Abbot TQ12 2EE Greenwood Accountancy NatWest Bank Teign Street Newton Abbot TQ12 2QW Teignmouth CCLA TQ14 8EB London EC4R 3AB
Our web site:
chudleighparishchurch.org.uk
The Chudleigh Parochial Church Council is a Registered Charity no: 1128947
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The Parochial Church Council of St Martin & St Mary, Chudleigh
Annual Report for the year ended 31st December 2023
Aim and Purpose
St Martin & St Mary’s Parochial Church Council (the PCC) has the responsibility of cooperating with the Incumbent, the Reverend Alex Sharp, in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical.
Objectives and Activities
The work of the PCC is shaped by our church vision: “sharing the love of Jesus with our community through word and action.”
Achievements and Performance
Worship and Prayer
As a Church, we aim to provide services of worship which are both accessible and reverent, enjoyable and edifying, drawing on the best of traditional music and liturgy while embracing contemporary hymns and songs as well. Our Organist Steve Cox and Music Group leader Mark Gale work extremely hard to lead us in a diverse range of worship each week, and the PCC would like to express its thanks to them.
During 2023 our regular Sunday morning service rotated between Holy Communion, Morning Worship and All Age Services. We are very grateful for the ministry of our LLMs (Helen Harding, Keith Miller, Sheila Fletcher and Yasmin Mann) and clergy with PtO (the Revd Martin Fletcher and the Revd Roderick Withnell), who lead and preach at services across our Mission Community regularly. The PCC would like to express its particular thanks to Keith Miller, who retired as an LLM in summer 2023.
On a monthly basis we also held Messy Church, BCP Holy Communion and Christian Mindfulness services. These reach out to our community in unique and complementary ways to our weekly Sunday Services. We thank all the volunteers involved for their tireless work to provide these opportunities to the local community.
We stream the audio of our Sunday morning services over the internet for those who are housebound or unable to attend. The PCC is very grateful to our PA/AV team for their skill and dedication in ensuring the smooth running of our services and making the broadcast available.
Though we do not hold weekday services on a regular basis, we do have a weekly time of prayer that is open to all at 9.15am on Thursdays. The PCC would like to thank Sheila Glenton for her particular role in facilitating this important meeting at the heart of our corporate prayer life.
Pastoral care for those who are unable to make it to church continues; the PCC recognises that much of this work is done between friends in the congregation in an informal way, and thanks our church family for their love and concern for one another. The Pastoral Care
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Group meets monthly to oversee some of this work. The PCC would like to thank Sheila Fletcher for her work in chairing this group up to September 2023, and for Hayley Jones taking over as Chair at that time.
As of 15/4/24, there were 101 parishioners on the Electoral Roll, 87 of whom live within the parish. 4 names were added in the period between the APCM in 2023 and 14/4/24, and 1 was removed, because of death. The average Sunday attendance at the 10.30am Service on 2023 Sundays was 72 (including children but excluding those listening at home).
As well as our regular services, we enable our community to mark, celebrate and thank God at the milestones of the journey through life. There have been 4 Baptisms, 3 weddings and 9 funerals and memorials during the year. We continue to provide opportunities for our community to observe important occasions in the national and Christian calendar such as Ash Wednesday, Easter, Remembrance Day and Christmas. We reintroduced (post-covid) a special Memorial Service where anyone could come to remember their loved ones who are no longer with us.
The PCC would like to thank all the volunteers who help to decorate the church throughout the year, especially Pam Cox, Judith Perriss, and Barbara Chisnall for their work in this area over many years.
Deanery Synod
Two members of the PCC sit on the Newton Abbot Deanery Synod. This provides the PCC with a link with the churches around us, and also with the Diocese as a whole. It also receives reports from the Diocesan and General Synods. There are various topics and speakers at each meeting.
Church Fabric
Routine maintenance continued throughout the year (boiler servicing, path spraying, carpet cleaning, service of fire extinguishers, clock maintenance, etc…). A Health and Safety report was received, and all issues have been addressed. The PCC wishes to thank all the people who do the other ‘behind the scenes’ jobs that make the building clean and safe, it is much appreciated and the building could not function properly without their silent contributions. The churchyard grass cutter is Mike Neck. He and his team continue to make the churchyard presentable.
Mission and Evangelism
Mission and evangelism remain at the heart of our identity. We began 2023 with an evangelistic course for those exploring faith or wishing to revisit the fundamental truths of Christianity called “Hope Explored,” followed by “Life Explored” shortly after Easter.
Over the course of the year we ran numerous events in addition to our regular services and activities, e.g.: “No Blues Monday” dinner and games in January; a Pancake Day event in February; a Good Friday All Age Trail in April; a screening of the King’s Coronation with associated activities for children in May; an exhibition exploring the importance of faith in the lives of people in Devon (“This is My Story”); a quiz for the “Come and See” Diocesan Weekend in November.
We continue to be involved in our local school, with the Vicar regularly leading Collective Worship and hosting school services in the church. Along with the Vicar we have two
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Foundation Governors on the Governing Board. The school also makes use of the church building for educational purposes during the school year.
Ecumenically, we held two joint services with Chudleigh Baptist Church and continued to work together on several initiatives, most notably the Miniones parent and toddler group and Tuesday Night (Youth) Group, which has been split into younger and older groups.
The PCC continues to develop new ideas for outreach and service and is working toward a similar programme of annual events for 2024 and beyond.
Church Reordering
During 2023 the PCC began the process of considering how two recent legacies left to the church might best be used to help us work towards our mission by developing the church building and facilities. It was considered important to ensure that the building meets the needs of the Church and wider Chudleigh community in an inclusive way today and into the future. Other uses for the legacies beyond reordering were not to be excluded. A sub-group of the PCC was asked to take the process forward.
The first stage of the consultation process was to issue a questionnaire to the congregations of Chudleigh, Chudleigh Knighton and Trusham. A total of 38 questionnaire responses were received in early November and the results analysed. The emerging themes were as follows:
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Development of balcony.
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Better access to the balcony.
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Space for exhibitions and meetings.
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Better facilities for community use.
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Improved storage.
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Remove pews and replace with flexible seating.
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Improved lighting, heating, AV, extend loop system.
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Improve/ replace flooring.
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Develop kitchen facilities and place to eat (café, lunches).
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Facilities for the disabled.
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Tarmac churchyard paths.
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Advertising board.
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Quieter more discreet area for Sunday school.
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General building repairs.
Other ideas not relating to the church building:
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Paid cleaner.
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Paid church administrator.
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Paid children’s/ youth/ family worker.
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Taking the church into the community.
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Purchase house to provide income.
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Hiring/ renting transport to bring people to the building.
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Training for wider pastoral care and evangelism.
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Mission outreach supporting overseas work.
Those who commented also felt that the rood screen, chancel, altar, memorials, stained glass windows and sanctuary should not be altered.
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The sub-group also formalised the appointment of our church architect, Julie Boultby of Apse Architects as architect for this project and began preparations for an open day in February 2024.
Other Activities
The PCC wishes to express their thanks to all the volunteers that organise and facilitate the many different ministries and activities that contribute to the life and mission of our Church. These include, e.g., Miniones (a parent and toddler midweek group), the Tuesday Night Group (a youth group for 11-14s), the Church Flowers group, and many more. A report from each group is collated in an appendix to this document, which was made available with this document in the run up to the APCM.
Financial Review
Total receipts on the unrestricted General were £84,504, and payments from this fund totalled £95,150 giving a deficit of £10,646. This deficit mainly arises due to the fact that the giving was down in 2023. The PCC have designated the legacy received in 2023 to the building fund, along with the interest received on the deposit account. Designated monies are not restricted but set aside for projects. They can be used for general expenses if required. It has been good to see that more people are now using contactless giving and one-off Gift Aid envelopes. Our grateful thanks go to all who contribute financially to the life of the church.
The contribution to the Diocesan ‘Parish Share’ – which goes towards the cost of stipends, pension, housing costs and training for the clergy – decreased by 4% in 2023, which helped keep expenditure lower than expected. The Parish Share is paid by every parish and calculated annually according to their congregation numbers averaged over three years.
Reserves Policy
It is PCC policy to try and maintain a balance on unrestricted funds of at least three months expenditure. This is equivalent to approximately £24,000. As of the year end, this is being met.
Safeguarding
The PCC has complied with the duty under section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016 (duty to have regard to House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults).
The safeguarding team continue to use the Parish Safeguarding Dashboard, an online platform to manage safeguarding requirements, and have now progressed to level 3. All PCC members have completed Domestic Abuse Awareness training. Safeguarding policies have been reviewed and approved by the PCC.
A volunteer pack has been designed to assist with Safer Recruitment and People Management, and we are continuing to work at putting this into effect across the church’s activities.
Volunteers
The members of the PCC would like to thank all the volunteers who work so tirelessly to make our Church a lively and vibrant community. Our special thanks go to our Churchwardens, Alison Phillips and Cliff Barnes, and to our Assistant Churchwardens David Bone, Ken Styman, Nick Tuckett and Pamela Tuckett.
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Structure, Governance and Management
The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. The Council comprises the Incumbent, the Churchwardens, those elected to the Deanery Synod, and other members who are elected at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, by those on the Electoral Roll. Members of the congregation are always encouraged to join the Electoral Roll, and to consider standing for election to the PCC.
The PCC members are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance in the parish, and for all financial matters. The full PCC met eight times during the year.
Administrative Information
The Church is situated at Fore Street, Chudleigh TQ13 0HX and is part of the Chudleigh Mission Community, in the Deanery of Newton Abbot, in the Diocese of Exeter. The correspondence address is The Vicarage, Parade, Chudleigh, TQ13 OJF.
The PCC is a body corporate (PCC Powers Measure 1956, and the Church Representation Rules 2022) and is registered with the Charity Commission, no: 1128947.
PCC members who have served from 1st January 2023 until the date this report was approved were:
The Incumbent Alex Sharp Chair Churchwardens Alison Phillips Cliff Barnes Vice Chair Deanery Synod Reps Megs Kiddle Clare Lillington Treasurer PCC Secretary Ruth Tuckett Elected Members David Bone Hayley Jones Co-opted 12th June 2023 Jenny Brandon Lucy Kerr Co-opted 12th June 2023 Margaret Parsons Nicky Over Pamela Tuckett To 4th May 2023 Pip Low From 4th May 2023 Rachel Tuckett Sheila Glenton
Approved by the PCC on 11[th] March 2024 and signed on its behalf by:
…………………………………….
……………………………………
Alex Sharp (Chair)
Clare Lillington (Treasurer)
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Parish Church of St Martin & St Mary Chudleigh Charity number 1128947 Receipts and Payments Accountsfor the year ended 31st December 2023
| RECEIPTS Regular giving Tax efficient planned giving Other Planned giving Collections at Services Gift Aid recovered Donations Other Voluntary Receipts Legacy Grants Sundry donations Income from church activities Fees (net) Parish magazine Receipts from Investments Dividend income Deposit account interest TOTAL RECEIPTS PAYMENTS Church Activities Giving - relief & development Giving - home missions Parish Share Vicar's expenses Church utilities Chirch insurance Church maintenance Upkeep of churchyard Upkeep of services Parish magazine Messy church, children, youth Music, organ & choir Outreach Sundry expenses TOTAL PAYMENTS Net receipts (payments) Balance - 1 January 2023 Transfers Balance - 31st December 2023 |
Unrestricted Designated Restricted 2023 51340 6606 57946 2026 0 2026 4316 1450 5766 14351 191 14542 2716 120 2836 74749 8367 83116 2000 26235 0 28235 1322 0 1322 2343 1204 3547 5665 26235 1204 33104 2434 0 2434 1610 0 1610 4044 0 4044 46 0 46 21228 0 21228 46 21228 0 21274 84504 47463 9571 141538 4648 1297 5945 4648 2641 7289 50874 0 50874 3015 0 3015 5223 0 5223 4947 0 4947 3805 0 3805 3283 0 3283 782 0 782 1323 0 1323 2843 1220 4063 3866 0 3866 2551 0 2551 3342 0 3342 95150 0 5158 100308 |
2022 63552 1827 5359 16628 2288 |
|---|---|---|
| 89654 | ||
| 27000 3523 4502 |
||
| 35025 | ||
| 4571 1909 |
||
| 6480 | ||
| 46 8315 |
||
| 8361 | ||
| 139520 | ||
| 8692 8454 53075 2032 4553 4636 10775 3110 1209 1523 3882 3562 1143 2626 |
||
| 109272 | ||
| -10646 47463 4413 41230 35676 648834 9934 694444 2298 -2298 0 27328 696297 12049 735674 |
30248 664196 |
|
| 694444 |
| Statement of Assets and Liabilities 2023 Unrestricted Restricted TOTAL Cash Funds Current account 16878 12049 28927 CCLA Deposit account 10450 696297 0 706747 27328 696297 12049 735674 Investments Investments M&G Charifund 35996 35996 Investments COIF income units 1666 1666 37662 0 37662 TOTAL Assets 64990 696297 12049 773336 |
2022 TOTAL 53925 640519 |
|---|---|
| 694444 | |
| 34735 1526 |
|
| 36261 | |
| 730705 |
Notes
Restricted funds are:
| Restricted funds are: | |
|---|---|
| Chudleigh Youth Project School bible fund Building Fund Missionary giving fund Parish weekend fund |
1619 0 801 8995 634 |
| 12049 |
Independent Examiner's report to the trustees of The Parochial Chllreh Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Mydrtin and Maryy Chudleigh Registered Charity Number: 1128947 I report to th¢ Charity hite&S on my examination of the accounts of Th¢ P0¢bla1 Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Martln and Mary, Chudleigh (the TnLSt) for the year ended 31 December 2023. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity tteeS of the Trust you are responsible for the prq)aration of the accounts in accordancc with th¢ r¢quir¢m¢nts of the Charities Act 2011 ('th¢ A¢t'). I report in respect of my examination of th¢ Trus¢s a¢¢ounts Carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Cornmission under section 145(5Xb) of the Act. ' Independent examiner's statement I have completed my examination. I confirni that no material mattsrs have wme to my attention tn conn¢¢tion with the ¢xamination giving m¢ caus¢ to beli¢v¢ that in any mataial r¢spect: accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with th¢ a¢¢ounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in cortnection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper underst8llding of the accounts to be reached. David Rudall FMAAT Greenwood Accountancy Ltd 5 Pellew Arcade Teignmoutb Devon TQ14 8EB Date: 22 April 2024