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2025-08-31-accounts

Reports for the General Church Meeting, 10th May, 2026

Annual Report from the Minister

It’s a joy to say that we continue to grow as a fellowship in our worship life, in our engagement with the community, and in our service to those in need. My feeling is that High Street is stronger and more resilient in the summer of 2026. We are blessed with fantastic young people, a range of people from many nations and with diverse lifestyles. We have promised to make significant changes in our approach to young people, especially in our plans to appoint a youth worker and we’re seeing future development of the site coming, slowly, closer!

There have been sad times amongst the joy. It was of course with deep sadness that we said farewell to John Statham in June. He was a force for good within our church and our community…and I, as well as others, have pondered whether I put too much hope in him, too much pressure on him. Others have also died, while quite a few are becoming less robust, less resilient. I’ve even had my wife talking about me as being “fragile”! Aren’t we all?

But we are a community which also see God’s healing power in helping people in their afflictions and illnesses, giving them strength and hope, and in time sending them on to glorious abiding with God. The annual in-loving-memory service had more than twenty attendees this year, after only one two years before. People came to give thanks, light a candle, give a flower. It was beautiful.

Worship – the centre-point of a growing church?

· We’ve kept the usual pattern of worship at the church – although third Sundays have shifted of late into All Age services which seem to be well received and answers a prompt in my report from last year. But our Sunday School still needs helpers to reinforce the shift to two classes and more supporters to fill in the gaps. Breakfast Church continues to thrive with musicians and the young people leading the worship, using technology instead of papers, and having opportunities for others to lead the Bible Study table!

· The 10.30 service remains as our core act of Sunday worship and our experiment to include more instrumentalists has been a huge success in my opinion – we are almost creating a band but in a very “High St” way. It would be great to strengthen this, so do offer your skills and talents to the Senior Steward so we can include you! At last month’s praise service, we had a new drummer and offers of new vocalists!

· Bible Studies haven’t worked, so we’ve started the Fellowship Groups instead. Perhaps the tradition of evening meetings isn’t as strong as it once was – our second largest congregation is now the monthly Friendship Group Meeting. Perhaps we need to put more support into that and into the Warm Place?

· But I am keen to find ways of engaging with the Bible more in our church – a Saturday morning teaching session, perhaps?

Over Lent 2026, we followed Carys Walsh’s reflections on Gerard Manley Hopkins poetry. I decided to reflect on a poem a day. On reflection, it was too much! Those poems were really hard (More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring) but I was personally blessed by the Bible studies we had at St Marks and at the manse reflecting with friends on faith and poetry. Any suggestions and volunteers (?) for next year would be welcome!

I’d like to thank the church for their support over the last year as Spurgeons College collapsed and I lost the academic side of my employment. I was truly blessed by the offer of a half-time post at Cliff College which I hope continues next year. I’m going to accept fewer international requests this year, for sure. Although I will be nominated by this year’s Methodist Conference to be Chair of the Connexional Faith and Order Committee – just three online meetings and one in person, honest!

God Bless

Pete Phillips

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Treasurer’s report : see accompanying document.

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Senior Steward

A caring Christian community in the heart of Maidenhead

Thank you to all those who submitted reports and all those who helped or help in any way, shape or form to make everything that happens, happen. You are all wonderful!

Thank you to those who come when they can, our online viewers, those who read the Notices, those who continue to support us via WhatsApp, and those who maintained the church in the past so it is still here today. High Street is more than a building; it is a community built on the time, talent, and financial support of its members. I hope that you still feel the church is your home, that you are valued and respected, and can worship God in a way that is meaningful to you. Please let me know if the church is falling short of these hopes for you in any way.

These are some of the people who we see in our church or who work "behind the scenes" and we do appreciate them:

Celebrations

We have had two infant baptisms in May 2025 and March 2026. Rev. Mary Austen came to celebrate our church anniversary on 29th June. We also held a church barbecue in June and an indoor picnic in July, (due to the weather!). On 13th July we hosted the local preacher’s recognition service for three of our local preachers who had amassed more than 100 years of preaching between them.

Our harvest service was enhanced with the young people singing enthusiastically, coached by two of our youth leaders.

Bring and share lunches, where everyone can bring some food, (all delicious), took place in September 2025 and March 2026. We had an enjoyable baby shower for one of our young mum’s in November, just a few days before the baby arrived!

Our carol service took place the Sunday before Christmas and was a special occasion. Breakfast for all was available before our Covenant and Easter services.

Films and activities during school holidays have been offered to the young people.

Outreach

Growth & Learning

It has been a year of transition and resilience. We acknowledge and thank our minister for his hard work in maintaining our services, keeping going despite setbacks, attending meetings, and supporting us through the challenges we have faced.

We also pause to remember the three members who died this year. They each left an indelible mark on High Street, and we remain deeply thankful for their legacy.

Ruth Hill

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Art Group

The Art Group has stayed very much the same during the year. The numbers fluctuate, but keep more or less constant. We have always been glad to welcome visiting children during half term breaks or school holidays, and are often amazed at their skills.

We have very much appreciated the tables in the Bromley Room being left up for us, and, as the room was used as a warm space in the winter, we were glad we could leave the chairs and tables in place.

At the start of the year, at the suggestion of one of our members, we agreed to raise our weekly subscription

from £2 to £3 - this is our contribution to the church towards lighting, heating etc.

Some of our group exhibited during the year, and sold both pictures and cards of their work - always a boost to their morale.

We are a small, self-supporting group of artists who come from many different faiths, and none, but all are welcome, and we very much appreciate the morning of friendship and peaceful creativity which re-charges our own batteries every week.

Ruth Daniel

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Catering

Our kitchen continues to be busy and is used by those groups booking from outside our church, as well as ourselves, so it is important to keep them fully functional.

We try to maintain serviceable kitchens, providing the basic foods and equipment. Our ancient cooker in the downstairs kitchen is nearing the end of its life – the oven doors keep opening when it is hot and is difficult to light. We have waited before purchasing a new cooker as possible church refurbishment might mean that what cooker is in the kitchen may not fit in with the new set up and therefore money wasted.

Friday Lunch club . I am grateful for the support of all those involved with Friday lunch club, organising, cooking and helping to serve and clear away.

Sunday Coffee Rota : The after Sunday service coffee rota has been organised, as before, extremely well and has meant some of the newer members of our church have been encouraged to take part in this aspect of church life.

Catering for Funeral Wakes : It is with sadness that I have to report that in the last 15 months I have done catering for four wakes in respect of some our dear church friends who had passed away. I’m always willing to do this, even though it is for a sad occasion.

Walk of Witness : High Street has done the ‘after the Walk refreshments’, offering coffee, tea and hot cross buns for quite a few years now. I have a good team that helps butter 190 hot cross buns and then serve them with the coffee and tea afterwards. It is lovely to see and hear so many other Christians on our premises.

We could still do more in the way of catering and hospitality in our church. Perhaps organise more church family meals?

Diana Phipps

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Choir

The Choir continues to meet for choir practice on most Fridays, depending on availability. Despite our efforts to recruit new members, numbers remain small with up to 6 attending.

We usually sing an anthem or hymn at the morning service on the first Sunday of the month and also on special occasions, such as the Church Anniversary in July. We are very grateful to those who have joined us to boost our numbers on these occasions. It was great to have a choir of 13 singing at our Carol Service. We sang an individual item and also joined with the Young People’s Choir for another piece. Hopefully we may be able to repeat this in the future. Many thanks also to our 3 accompanists.

In October 4 choir members took part in the biennial Free Church Choirs Festival at Coventry Cathedral. It was an uplifting experience singing with a choir of 400 in such a beautiful cathedral.

Choir members have also supported several Circuit services throughout the year, joining with Thames Valley Voices. We took part in the Aldersgate Service in May, the Local Preachers

Recognition Service in July and the Carol Service in December. This was, sadly, the last service to take place at Woodlands Park.

If you enjoy singing, or are available to play the piano occasionally for choir practices, we would love you to join us. Please speak to Diana or one of us for more details.

Gill & Angela Harbut

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Christmas Fair

Each November, a successful Christmas Fayre is held. This is a shared event, between the church and the Uniformed Organisations (UO).

Many people contribute, both in providing items for sale and staffing stalls. Others provide help to set up and pack away. Members of the public attend, especially parents/friends of the UO groups. Various refreshments are sold, and Father Christmas attends as well. The whole of the downstairs premises are used, and it is a great collaboration across the age ranges, with the proceeds being shared between the UOs and the Church, which enhances the possibilities of other Mission activities later in the year, such as Film nights/games sessions for the young people and their friends.

Leadership Team

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Communion Services

The table below shows the numbers of people receiving communion at services held during the year from 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026. For comparison, figures are also shown for the previous year and the last pre-covid year. It should be noted that all figures include the minister and at least one steward. The columns headed ‘10.30am’ include figures for services held at 10.45am.

In addition, a service was held on Maundy Thursday 2025 with 14 communicants (20 in 2024), and 60 people received communion at Synod which was held here in March 2025.

The maximum number of 20 communicants shown for 9.00 services in 2024-25 was on Whit Sunday and the highest number of 83 at 10.30, on Easter Day. The highest numbers excluding these services, were 15 and 65 respectively.

The graph below reinforces the suggestion, made last year, that the post pandemic recovery peaked in 2024-25, with average numbers of communicants now approaching the levels seen in 2021.

In addition, a service was held on Maundy Thursday 2025 with 14. It is encouraging that attendance at the 9.00 services continues to maintain higher levels than in the pre-pandemic years, albeit that the numbers remain relatively small. However, the falling numbers receiving communion at the principal morning services should be of some concern.

Michael Minors

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Flower Committee

A group of dedicated ladies arrange flowers each week in order to enhance the beauty of our church. Over the past two years we have decided that one arrangement is sufficient and this is situated under the cross at the front of the church. The team of helpers are also involved with decorating the church for Easter and Christmas services.

Members of the congregation contribute to the cost of the flowers. They select a date from the rota which may be pertinent to them personally. It might be a birthday, or anniversary or the passing of a loved one. After the service the flowers will be distributed to sick people unable to worship with us .We may also give flowers to people who have a special birthday or we wish to thank in a special way.

We are always grateful to those who donate monies for the flowers and to the arrangers who work each week.

Margaret Maskell, Secretary

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Friendship Hour

We have had another busy and successful year at Friendship Hour with high membership attendance. The group has enjoyed talks, festival tea-times and more adventurous afternoons such as the Ukulele Band and Morris Dancing demonstration. All birthdays are celebrated and we take care to keep in touch.

We have a very good Committee team but, sadly, one of our valued and talented leaders has needed to move away from the Maidenhead area. She is greatly missed. Friendship Hour is looking for more help, in particular, we need a Treasurer for our monthly meetings. Anyone able

to assist in this way might please contact our Minister in the first instance. We would be grateful for your help.

Kathleen McGuinness

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Leadership Team

The leadership team has been meeting monthly over the past year, (with the exception of August). These meetings were held either as in-person gatherings or Zoom sessions.

The team continues to oversee the essential running of the church. Discussions are held as needed regarding:

We try to create a welcoming presence both spiritually and socially:

In recent meetings we have been discussing the way forward for our youth ministry. We are actively seeking a Youth worker and are currently exploring the specific possibility of hosting a student placement to fill this role.

Ruth Hill

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Lunch Club

44 on list 11 lunch clubs (none in August) Average 29 +6 helpers 5 Chefs Cost is still £5 per meal.

Cards were given Christmas and Easter. Each diner is contacted each time to check if they are coming.

Kath England

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Pastoral Visitors

The Pastoral Visitors continue to cover the pastoral needs of the church family throughout the past year. The Committee meets twice a year to share news and concerns. We are guided by our minister whose support and advice is invaluable.

Our current membership is 125. Over the year we have been saddened by the deaths of three of our members, John Statham, Margaret Payne and Hugh Phoenix and we miss the contributions they made to our church.

We continue to welcome visitors to our services and activities, and hope our friendliness and worship style will encourage them to join the church family.

If anyone feels that this pastoral ministry is something they could take part in, please speak to the Minister, Rev Pete Phillips or the Pastoral Secretary.

Felicity Kendon, Pastoral Secretary

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Property

Building Maintenance.

During the year 2024-2025 the normal annual maintenance tasks were undertaken, most of which go unseen/unnoticed. For example, as well as annual servicing, the kitchen island no longer wobbles, the white bookcase has new smooth wheels, and the drains were rodded through so that the roof rainwater runs away instead of over-flowing.

There was one more-obvious piece of work – the improvement of the lighting in the Wesley Hall. The lights were replaced making the room brighter and more energy efficient. The switches were also simplified and labelled – which many keyholders have found invaluable when locking up!

Quinquennial Inspections.

Our buildings have to be inspected by a professional surveyor every 5 years, and this was due in 2025. We duly had three inspections – one for our main Church buildings, one for the Kingsway block of shops etc, and one for the house in Crescent Drive.

Fortunately nothing significant was identified that we weren’t already aware of, but it did demonstrate clearly that we need to spend a lot of money over the coming years if we are to retain our current buildings. The most urgent need for significant expenditure is still the roof over the Kingsway block, along with improving the exterior of the building. (Some more patch repair work has been carried out very recently, to stop the rain from roof puddles dripping into the Upper room.)

Lettings .

We continue to host some regular external community groups for their meetings – including Alzheimers/Dementia, Macular Society, RE-charge mums and tots group, the U3A monthly meetings and of course the various Uniformed Organisations groups.

There is still a weekly Zumba class, and there were 10 private parties – mainly for children’s birthdays. The party organisers love the fact that they can play party music via a Bluetooth connection from their phone, through our Wesley Hall sound desk, to the speakers on the wall.

Our shops, house and office are still all let out to the same tenants.

Site Development.

In February 2025 Church Council decided to press ahead with finding out officially whether a development scheme might be feasible on our site. This would retain the church itself, but could rebuild some or all of the other buildings on our site. Although progress has felt slow, the Connexional team are now working with us and other professionals to gauge whether there would be much interest from developers at the moment.

Ann Pfeiffer

Safeguarding

The Church Safeguarding Policy was reviewed and adopted by the Church Council in February. This should be read in conjunction with the Methodist Church Statement of Safeguarding Principles, and both can be found on the Safeguarding Noticeboard in the corridor. A copy of each can also be found in the Minister’s vestry.

The Methodist Church requires that all those who work with children and vulnerable adults should attend the Creating Safer Spaces Foundation Level Course every 4 years. Many thanks to the 9 people from High Street who attended one of the 3 Foundation Courses that we have run this year and also to those 4 people who attended the Advanced Course for Ministers, Local Preachers, Safeguarding Officers and 3Generate Leaders. We are arranging more training sessions later in the year and I will inform those who need to attend as soon as the dates are set.

DBS checks are also required for those working with children and vulnerable adults and should be renewed every 5 years. I will inform people a few weeks before the renewal is due. If anyone takes up a new church role involving children or vulnerable adults, please contact me and I will arrange for the training and DBS check to take place.

As Church Safeguarding Officer, I continue to attend Circuit Safeguarding Meetings throughout the year to keep up to date with Safeguarding in the Circuit, District and wider Methodist Church. As ever, I have appreciated the help and support of our Circuit Safeguarding Office, Kathy Rickman. It was good to meet our new Regional Officer for Safeguarding, Sarah Howell, in September and learn that she had had been in the Police for 18 years and was also involved in Safeguarding in Secondary Schools.

On Safeguarding Sunday in November, Pete conducted a Family Service with the Focus on Safeguarding, using materials appropriate to Young People and I talked about my role as Church Safeguarding Officer. I stressed, as we do in training, that Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, so if you ever have a safeguarding concern, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you all for your continued support with safeguarding at High Street.

Gill Harbut

Church Safeguarding Office

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Sunday Morning Co ee

We really are so lucky to have such a great group of volunteers willing to help with the Sunday co ff ee after the service. Currently we are running with a team of 37 helpers.

We normally serve co ee in the Bromley Room after the morning service but during the year we have also served co ff ee in the Church to support the Cafe style services.

From April 2025 to March 2026 we have raised, through the generous donations of the congregation, the fantastic amount of £1,285.40 which includes monies from the card machine for the following charities: Church Funds, Benevolent Fund, Youth worker, Alzheimer's Society, British Royal Legion, Church choir music, 3Generation, Foodshare, Crisis at Christmas, Action for Children, Water Aid, Mind, Christian Aid, Cancer Research.

Finally I’d like to thank this great bunch of people, on behalf of everyone, for their unfailing support in providing this invaluable part of our Church fellowship, which is so much appreciated.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about joining our co ee team, then please don’t hesitate in letting me know, as you would be most welcome.

Karen Ackling

Tech Team

We continue to livestream our Sunday services on YouTube, with an average of 23 views per week (no significant change on previous years).

In the last year we have installed a laptop feed from the pulpit so preachers can present their own slides and videos should they wish.

Our new sound desk means it's much quicker to set up for multiple instruments, reducing time and effort between services.

We're always looking for people to help support the team - if you're interested in cameras, sound, or lighting then please get in touch!

Tim Rayers

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Worship planning group

We have had three meetings over the last year and prepared for the Christmas carol service and other services. Currently the group is taking a break from meeting.

Ruth Hill

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Young Church

We continue to have a growing number of children and young people attending Young Church at High Street. They are enthusiastic and keen to learn from the Bible and it is good to see them growing in faith and supporting one another. They are confident to express their opinions, and the church congregation enjoy hearing them talk about what they have learnt at the end of the service. Numbers attending Young Church vary from 4 to 17, with an average of 12, but there were over 20 for the 2 Baptismal Services. There is also a wide age range from the age of 4 to 16+

In October 10 young people from High Street attended the 3 Generate Weekend at Birmingham NEC again, accompanied by 3 leaders (Many thanks to them for this). They all thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, meeting with young Christians from other churches. They talked enthusiastically about their uplifting experiences in the presentation which they shared in church on their return. They also served coffee and cake to the congregation afterwards as a ‘Thank You’ to the church.

Our young people also have many musical talents, which they are encouraged to use in worship, We have enjoyed working with them to prepare songs for the Easter Service, Harvest Service and Carol Service, where they sang two pieces - an individual piece which was must appreciated by the congregation and a worshipful piece with the adult choir. We hope to continue this in the future.

This year we have also welcomed 2 young people to help in various ways with Young Church as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award.

We are very grateful to the small, dedicated team of leaders and helpers who teach the young people each week but we urgently we more people, especially those willing to lead sessions, to join this team. Ideally, as the age range is so wide, we would like to have 2 groups, split by age, but this will only be possible if we have enough regular leaders and helpers. Leaders organise and prepare the session, mainly using the Roots online materials and Helpers support the leader during the session and help the young people with the activities. Despite Pete now conducting a Family Service on the third Sunday of the month, there have still been a few occasions this year when there have been no leaders available, so the children have had to stay in church.

If you would like to know more about what is involved in these important and rewarding roles in the life of the church, we would be pleased to chat to you about it. Training can be provided if necessary.

Gill & Angela Harbut