# St Mary and All Saints, The Parish Church of Bingham 

Registered Charity Number – 1131217 

Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council 

For the year ended 31 December 2020 

PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY AND ALL SAINTS BINGHAM ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2020 

## BACKGROUND 

St Mary and All Saints’ PCC has the responsibility of cooperating with the Rector to promote in the ecclesiastical parish of Bingham, the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. 

The aims are stated as: to worship God, to serve the community, to show God’s love to everyone, to care for those in need and to introduce people, young and old, to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The PCC is also responsible for Old Church House. 



## MEMBERSHIP 

Members of the PCC are either ex-officio, are elected by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM), have been co-opted or have filled a vacancy during the year in accordance with the Church Representation Rules. During the year the following served as members of the PCC: 

Incumbent: Revd Jon Wright Church Army: Capt. Alan Cooper CA MBE Wardens: Mr John Woodman Mrs Wendy Forbes-Buckingham Hon PCC Secretary: Mrs Wendy Forbes-Buckingham Treasury Team: Mr Chris Page, Mr John Woodman, Mrs Vivien Dyer Representatve on the Deanery Synod: Mrs Pam Page 

## Elected Members: 

Mr Philip Bacon Mrs Vivien Dyer Mr Peter Kirkbride Mrs Linda Walden Mr Anthony Watts 

## COMMITTEES 

The PCC operates with the help of two committees or groups which meet between full meetings of the PCC: 

## Standing Commitee 

This is the only committee required by law. It has powers to transact the business of the PC between meetings subject to any direction given by the PCC. 

## Old Church House Management Group 

This committee considers the financial situation and the maintenance of Old Church House. 

## CHURCH ATTENDANCE 

Following a revision of the Church electoral roll for the 2019 APCM there were 97 parishioners on the roll. 



The average weekly adult attendance counted during October 2020 was 22 (Covid 19 restrictions in place). Due to the Covid 19 Pandemic and the national lockdown there was no “in-person” service on Easter Day 2020; on Christmas Day there were 25 attendees (Covid 19 restrictions in place). 

There were 0 baptisms, 0 weddings and there were 17 Bingham parish funerals. 

## ******************** 

## RECTOR’S REPORT 

Dear Friends, 

I know that for some of us the last year has been really hard as we’ve had to adapt quickly to the current situation and learn how to do church differently. 

Initially not being able to meet together, getting used to online services, and having to face restrictions now that we can meet hasn’t been easy. 

In spite of this, a couple of new people found us online and have been able join us for services. 

We’ve also seen good viewing figures for our online services and I would like to thank Steve and Gill Oxley for their help in leading the worship, and everyone who’s been involved in helping our online presence run smoothy. 

Despite the challenges of the last year, I believe that God is giving us a great opportunity to start afresh and do things differently as we move towards restrictions being lifted in the summer. Having spoken to the church wardens recently, I’m looking forward to discussing these plans with the PCC in more detail in the near future. 

Due to your incredible generosity following a couple gift days held last August we’ve been able to purchase two screens for the church. As we look to the future this will give us a lot more flexibility and scope during services, especially when the children join us again for Family Worship. 

We pray that God would use this new media for his glory. 

The closure of Old Church House and suspension of Butter Cross deliveries also highlighted that we can’t rely solely on their income to sustain the church and its mission. As a result, 



we’ve been encouraged to think more about giving as part of our discipleship as these temporary suspensions have had a negative effect on church finances. 

However, with God’s help and your continued support this is something we can overcome together. And so, thank you if you have increased your giving, set up a standing order, or used our online collection plate. If not, could I encourage you to pray about how you might be able to support the church financially. 

The current pandemic has also brought into focus the importance of growing the Church. As Bishop Paul said in his address at the Clergy Conference towards the end of last year: “At a time like this the temptation is to look inward, but instead our vision should be expanding.” 

He also mentioned that transformational change should be taking place within our churches as we apply Jesus’ instruction to make new disciples in Matthew 28v28 our own. 

This was also reiterated by the new Bishop of Sherwood Andy Emerton recently, who’s passion is to encourage children and young families in their faith. 

This obviously comes with the challenge of being more outward looking as we seek to share God’s love for us in Christ. 

One result of this is that on Mothering Sunday and Easter Saturday we were able to serve the community by giving away free plants and a prayer card to mums, and free Easter Eggs on an Easter trail in the church yard explaining the events of Holy Week and beyond. 

Another positive outcome is that Wendy Forbes Buckingham has been a great gift to the church as she continues her lay ministry training and has assisted me in leading services. 

We have also enjoyed online Bible Studies and the continuation of our Prayer Group despite restrictions. 

We still face many challenges but with God’s continued help we have a wonderful opportunity to deepen our fellowship, focus on mission, and develop our worship as we Love God, Share Christ, and Serve One Another. 

And so, I close with some words from Acts: 

"The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” (Acts 9v31) 

Every blessing, 

Jon 



## ******************** 

# CHURCHWARDENS’ REPORT FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR 2020 FABRIC, GOODS AND ORNAMENTS OF THE CHURCH 

## Fabric Internal 

Sound System issues reported last year, now resolved. 

## Fabric External 

Lightning conductor inspection reported that it complies with standards. 

## Churchyard 

Planned work on Lychgate ironwork delayed owing to pandemic. 

Goods and Ornaments 

Display screens installed to aid worship have met with general approval. 

John Woodman, Wendy Forbes-Buckingham 

## ******************** 

EAST BINGHAM DEANERY SYNOD REPORTS OF MEETINGS HELD IN 2020 

## 13th February 

## Guest Speaker 

The speaker was the Venerable Phil Williams, Archdeacon of Nottingham, who had been working with many parishes and had engaged with many rural churches. 

In response to his questions Synod members reported the following: people were being drawn into faith by new technology and modern approaches to services; by Alpha Courses and especially by personal invitation to courses or services. 

There were challenges, especially for younger families who might feel it necessary to travel to inner city churches where they felt more comfortable in a more mixed age congregation. A parish might also feel disconnected from the Diocese because of lack of contact and knowledge of resources. 

Generate These groups were organised to bring together young people from rural communities across the Deanery, but the distances and the lack of suitable public transport proved problematic and eventually the initiative ended. 

The use of websites was suggested as a way forward, particularly for rural areas. 

Finance The balance of the Deanery bank account at the 5[th] February was £3,851.14. In 2019, the deanery share apportionment was £565,913. Despite this being less than the previous year, only 87% was achieved. The 2020 deanery apportionment was £594,414. 



There is a commitment to be open and transparent about needs across the Deanery in order to share better with one another. 

## Area Dean’s Report 

1. Tim Chambers, who was appointed to the Cranmer Group was licenced on the 23[rd] March; 

2. 80 people from the Deanery attended the Advent Service at the Minster on 1[st] December last. 

## Standing Commitee 

This year the parish elects Deanery representatives for the next three years and Steve Gelsthorpe, the Lay Chair, emphasised the importance of the role and that there should be regular attendance at the meetings. 

## Deanery Events 

Most events either did not take place or were carried out by Zoom, except some Mustard Seed meetings which were able to take place in gardens. 

## Sharing Good News 

In Radcliffe, the regular Nativity Services had become family carol services with a nativity. 

This eventually became two Christmas Eve services in 2019 which were very successful. Plumtree Light Party, the first was held in 2017and by 2019 had become financially supported by the Deanery with more than 30 children plus babies with parents attending. Ed Hine, Colston Bassett, who previously explained how they had tripled their congregation in the previous year, maintained that the reason for attendance remaining static since was that services were advertised by a banner displayed outside the church. 

Janet Baines, Stanton on the Wolds, explained how they held a Golfers Service, as there was a nearby club. This was extremely popular and those who did not come had asked about a future service. 

The planned meetngs in June and October 2020 were cancelled because of the pandemic. 

## 12th November (via Zoom) 

The Area Dean welcomed everyone to the very first Zoom Synod Meeting. 

## Maters Arising 

It was noted that most of the plans for 2020 had been postponed. The visit to the Minster for Evensong during April had been replaced by a virtual visit hosted by Dean Nicola. Steve Gelsthorpe, Lay Chair, hoped the Deanery would be able to repeat the experience. 

## Area Dean’s Report 

The pandemic has brought many initiatives to a halt but has accelerated many others such as the use of computer technology for services and meetings etc. 

Several spoke about their experience of lockdown. Jon Wright referred to the challenges of learning to adapt but the encouragement of reaching a wider audience. The financial challenge also encouraged the parish to re-think giving. Pastoral care was difficult but people kept in touch electronically. Katharine Bacon (Wiverton in the Vale) commented that 



Rachel Mitchell, although only appointed a few months previously, had succeeded in having the PCC working together on line, had organised mainly lay-led regular Zoom prayer meetings, had recorded Sunday services followed by Zoom coffee and chat and had run zoom Alpha and prayer courses. The parish had enjoyed a brilliant Remembrance Day Service on You Tube. Paul Massey felt the strength of people coming together in the 

‘Cotgrave Community response’, which brought together organisations in partnership to meet the needs of the community. When churches were closed a lot of businesses were open and agreed to host services including the pub and school. Mark Tanner (Radcliffe) referred to recorded and zoomed services, on line children’s ministry and a foodbank collection. He also mentioned the gifting in lay people which contributed to the life of the church. 

## Deanery Share 

By November 83% should have been contributed but only 65% had been received. East Bingham Deanery is the lowest contributor to the Nottingham Archdeaconry. Steve Gelsthorpe (Lay Chair) suggested that this be talked through at local level with PCCs. 

## Standing Commitee Electons 

The list of nominees was shared and voting was to be by e-mail. The result would be announced within two weeks. 

## Deanery Events 

Lesley Haig reported regarding the Mustard Seed Prayer Group, which had been meeting either in gardens or via Zoom throughout the year. Lesley felt that a bond had been created with different churches across the Deanery and believed that there was plenty of room to create more groups. 

The Diocesan Lay Conference was to take place on the 21[st] November by Zoom. The Lay Chair urged as many as possible to attend. 

Pam Page 

******************** 



## TREASURER’S REPORT 

The year began reasonably well, and it looked as though we would be able to pay the parish share in full again and still break even. Then disaster struck. At the end of March, we suffered the first lockdown and this meant that Old Church House had to be closed with a corresponding high loss in income. Nearly half of the income received for Old Church House bookings during the year came in during January and related to usage of the building during the last term of 2019. The income from the first term was only slightly less than the previous year, but no income was received during the second term and although some income was received in the third term, mainly from the Bingham School of Dance which must be congratulated for the safe systems it introduced to keep going at a reduced capacity, the building had to be closed again towards the end of the year. The fact that any activities were possible after Easter was a result of the hard work of the Old Church House team in meeting the stringent safety requirements. Fortunately, we were able to retain the staff who look after the building thanks to the Government’s Furlough Scheme which enabled them to work when necessary and continue to be paid otherwise. The actual income from Old Church House was more than £14,000 less than 2019. Butter Cross was also hit since it was not possible to publish the magazine for four months and this resulted in a loss in revenue of £8,000 compared with 2019. 

Unfortunately, our finances are very dependent upon our commercial activities as we are currently unable to generate sufficient funds from giving, and, consequently, we were unable to meet our parish share in full, paying £11k less than our allocation. 

Towards the end of the year, when it became obvious that the pandemic was going to continue to affect us seriously in 2021, I made an application to the Diocesan Parish Share Support Fund for 2021 and was successful in obtaining £10k towards our 2021 commitment. Unfortunately, the figures I produced to support this claim assumed some income from Old Church House in the Spring Term of 2021, which now appears to be very unlikely, and I also assumed a normal income from Butter Cross which is probably over optimistic considering it will almost certainly be impossible to publish eleven copies during the year. As a result. The expected shortfall in 2021 is now anticipated to be considerably more than £10k. 

Obviously, it is not really sensible to compare figures with previous years. Our income from planned giving held up until the later part of the year when there was an understandable reduction. Our income from collections reduced by £4k and donations generally were down. 

During the year, the sound system in church was replaced using the money that had been raised by the 2019 Christmas Tree Festival. The one big success story of the year was the purchase of screens and the accompanying software to enable services to be run efficiently without service books. An appeal was made to cover the cost of this and as a result of the generosity of church members and Bingham residents the full expenditure was covered. 

We begin 2020 in a very weak position financially. We have virtually used up all our unrestricted reserves and we are unlikely to receive any income from Old Church House until December 2021. It is very likely that, despite the grant we received, we will be unable to pay our parish share in full again in 2021. Indeed, 2021 is going to be a very challenging year. 

Finally, I should like to thank Vivien Dyer and John Woodman, for all their hard work in helping to run the church’s finances and also thank Neville Davis for auditing our accounts once again. 

## Chris Page 



ST MARY AND ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, BINGHAM Financial Statement Year Ended 31st December 2020 

## CURRENT ACCOUNT 

|RECEIPTS<br>(nearest £)|2020<br>UNRESTRICTED<br>(nearest £)|2020<br>RESTRICTED<br>(nearest £)|2019<br>UNRESTRICTED<br>(nearest £)|2019<br>RESTRICTED<br>(nearest £)|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Tax efcient planned<br>giving|28,452|470|27,891|892|
|Other planned giving|3,350|420|4,059||
|Collectons|802||4,822||
|Donatons|2072|4,507|4,853|767|
|Gif Aid recovered|8,332|814|7,514|208|
|Candlestand &<br>bookshelf|32||216||
|Tea Point|171||479||
|Grants|2,905||403||
|Investment Interest|14||14||
|Transfer from<br>Reserves|18,800||9,108||
|Wedding and<br>funerals|1,678||5,610||
|Buter Cross|22,282||30,439||
|Old Church House|17,330||23,286||
|TOTAL|106,220|6,220|123,089|1,867|





ST MARY AND ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, BINGHAM Financial Statement Year Ended 31st December 2020 

## CURRENT ACCOUNT (contnued) 

|EXPENDITURE|2020|2020<br>Breakdown|2019|2019<br>Breakdown|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Parish Share|47,276||57,120||
|Ministry Expenses|40||160||
|Services: Wine,<br>bread,candles|240||484||
|Choir and organ|369||699||
|Weddings and<br>funerals|751||3,006||
|Church Running<br>Costs|24,390|Mission<br>2,136<br>Insurance<br>4,220<br>Gas & Electric<br>4,671<br>Building work<br>758<br>Sound & Screens<br>9,676<br>Other<br>2,929|20,958|Mission<br>2,361<br>Insurance<br>4,740<br>Gas & Electric<br>3,424<br>Building work<br>3,988<br>Other<br>6,445|
|Administraton|1,287||1,609||
|Miscellaneous|0||450||
|Buter Cross|17,003||20,915||
|Old Church House|12,302||11,858||
|TOTAL|103,658||122,526||



## TOTAL INCOME – TOTAL EXPENDITURE = £2,562 

|CURRENT ACCOUNT|2020|2019|
|---|---|---|
|Start Balance|£10,306.91|£9,743.47|
|End Balance|£12,868.50|£10,306.91|





ST MARY AND ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, BINGHAM Financial Statement Year Ended 31st December 2020 

## RESERVE ACCOUNTS 

|RESERVE<br>ACCOUNT|FABRIC<br>FUND(£)|FABRIC<br>FUND(£)|CHOIR &<br>ORGAN(£)|CHOIR &<br>ORGAN(£)|BELL<br>FUND(£)|BELL<br>FUND(£)|MISSION<br>FUND(£)|MISSION<br>FUND(£)|GENERAL<br>FUND(£)|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Balance at 1st<br>Jan 2020|23,618.06||2,182.56||4,259.83||2,004.64||8,241.47|
|Funds Added|1,183.14||0||0||35.00||1.75|
|Funds<br>Used|758.40||0||0||370.64||8,000|
|Interest<br>Earned|18.50||1.69||3.37||1.30||6.56|
|Balance at<br>Year End|24,061.30||2,184.25||4,263.20||1,670.30||249.78|
|||||||||||
|RESERVE<br>ACCOUNT||TTIC<br>(£)||XMAS TREE<br>FESTIVAL(£)||PROJECTS FUND||TOTAL<br>(£)||
|Balance at 1st<br>Jan 2020||89.91||4,350.51||0||44,746.98||
|Funds Added||0||520.92||494.42*<br>4,472.00||||
|Funds Used||30.00||4,440.36||5,235.60||||
|Interest Earned||0.05||3.39||0||||
|Transferred to<br>Projects Fund<br>21/08/20||59.96||434.46||||||
|Balance at<br>Year End||0<br>A/C Closed<br>21/08/21||0<br>A/C Closed<br>21/08/21||269.18**||32,159.65||



*Transferred from TTIC and CTF Funds. 

**The balance should increase to £274.07 in February when Gift Aid is received. 



ST MARY AND ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, BINGHAM 

Financial Statement Year Ended 31st December 2020 

## ASSETS SUMMARY 

||MonetaryAssets(£)||2020||2019|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||||
||Current Account||12,868.50||10,306.91|
||PetyCash(CP)||92.81||19.16|
||PetyCash(JW)||78.95||78.95|
||General Reserve||249.78||8,241.47|
||Reserve Fabric Fund||24,061.30||23,618.06|
||Reserve Bells Fund||4,263.20||4,259.83|
||Reserve Choir and Organ Fund||2,184.25||2,182.56|
||Reserve Mission Fund||1,670.30||2,004.64|
||Reserve TTIC Fund||0||89.91|
||Reserve Christmas Tree Fund||0||4,350.51|
||Reserve Projects Fund||-269.18|||
||CCLA Special Fund||14,189.78|||
||Bloom Group||417.71||437.71|
||TOTAL||60,057.12||69,719.51|
||Bingham Fabric(Richmond)||512.18*||479.25|
||Bingham Churchyard(Miles)||63.76*||61.32|
||Bingham General Purposes(Miles)||321.73||309.43|
||Bingham Bell Ringers(Miles)||127.37||122.49|
||CBF Fixed 13800104F||335.49*||332.76|
||Old Church House(Historic value)||2,000.00||2,000.00|



*Current Market Value 

The accounts for 2020 have been examined and found to be correct according to the documents presented. 

Neville Davis 

Date: 8th March 2021 

Signature