Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts 2022
Aim and Purposes
St Paul’s Parochial Church Council (PCC) supports our interim Priest in Charge the Revd. Chris Lavender in promoting the pastoral, evangelistic and social mission of the church in the parish. The PCC is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of the church and halls, which are all part of the same building at St Paul’s Boxley Road, Maidstone.
Objectives and Activities
The PCC seeks to serve our parish and the wider community in Maidstone and beyond in various ways. Our Vision Statement reflects this: “Becoming Christian Community – serving the wider community.”
Through prayer and scripture, music and sacrament, activity and silence, our worship is at the heart of who we are. We are committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at St Paul’s and to become part of our church community. To this end, the PCC maintains an overview of our worship, and regularly discusses our pattern of services.
In line with the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, and the particular guidance on charities for the advancement of religion, we try to enable ordinary people to grow in faith and live it out as part of our church community. As well as providing opportunities for worship, we do our best to help people deepen their knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith, and their relationships with God and others.
We offer pastoral care for those living in the parish and for others who are part of our church community. We seek to reach out in various ways, and to contribute to the needs of the wider world.
Like every church, we are all too aware that we are not all that we could be. That is why our vision is about “Becoming Christian Community…” We are a work in progress, seeking always to better reflect the life of Jesus Christ in our life together, and no truly Christian community exists for its own sake. We are not a private club; of course we do our best to look after our own, but it goes much further than that. Hence “serving the wider community.”
One of the primary ways in which we serve the community is to make our premises available not just for worship, but for a range of activities which contribute positively to people’s quality of life. With two halls and a kitchen as well as the worship space itself, we have flexible facilities which we are continually seeking to improve.
The PCC has complied with Section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016 (duty to have due regard to the House of Bishops guidance on Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults).
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Achievements and Performance
Reviewing our Church Life , Worship and Prayer and Ministry
The last year has seen the church gradually come to terms with maintaining a breadth of worship post-pandemic, and providing an environment that enables others to assist and explore ministry to one degree or another.
This has been made more possible following on from the ordination to the priesthood of our Assistant Curate, Revd. Anthea Mitchell, in July 2022. Her development has seen her become proactive in the planning and implementation of worship, as well as her ministry in secular employment. It is fair to say that Anthea has found her role within the life of the church to be very rewarding and significant in shaping her own sense of calling.
Within the mix of worship others continue to play a significant part in the provision of a monthly Café Church service that is run by a team with the Worship Leader ALM, Gwyn McPherson.
The pastoral and prayer side of church life is ably maintained by the Pastoral ALM, Jenny Clifton, who produces a weekly prayer diary, keeps people connected and visits Maidstone Care Home on a regular basis.
A monthly toddler group was started in summer 2022 which has seen varying degrees of success. The numbers attending have fluctuated but those that come appreciate the informality and the hospitality. The intention is to continue with this on a monthly basis with Margaret Hawkes, Anne Gillespie and Wendy Reeves as the facilitators.
Our re-connection with the local schools has not really taken place as had been hoped, other than the very occasional assembly.
This last year has been about consolidating the church’s position post-Covid and seeking to provide a foundation from which the challenges of the future can be tackled. In September our incumbent Revd. Chris Lavender announced his intention to take early retirement in February 2023. This brought forward by six months the need for the parish to put into motion the process of seeking a new incumbent through the development of a Parish Profile. The PCC will choose a suitable group for this purpose and will be in regular contact with the Archdeacon, the Venerable Andrew Sewell.
As St Paul’s enters an interregnum the main question in terms of a new priest will be about how that fits into the bigger deanery picture. So the church needs to investigate, with the Archdeacon, what possibilities are most suitable in terms of continuing to share a priest with another parish or not. In the meantime, those who have continued to maintain the life of the church, and will do so during the interregnum, are to be commended for their faithful commitment.
Pastoral Care
St Paul’s has always believed that care for others must play an important role in the way we live, and that we should reach out not only to our families, friends and church family, but also to the wider community. We have a dedicated pastoral team, led by Jenny Clifton, our ALM Pastoral Assistant, which keeps in touch with those who live on their own or who are unwell or struggling
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and we offer home communion to members of the congregation who are no longer able to get to church.
We have one Care Home in our Parish and Jenny takes a regular short service there, making sure that the special times of the Church year are covered. Residents are also offered communion and personal visits.
Our prayer life continues to thrive and during the year Jenny has worked with others to develop after service prayer for the ongoing life of St Paul’s and the local community. She produces a prayer diary each week which gives the congregation and those who access our website a focus for their daily prayer. These prayers can also be included in our Sunday intercessions. We continue to encourage small church groups to pray for current issues and for anyone known to them who is in need of God’s love and care.
Deanery Synod
Four members of the PCC have sat on Deanery Synod. This provides the PCC with an important link between the parish and the wider structures of the church.
When Synod met earlier in the year (a meeting attended by Bishop Rose), the focus was on regrouping after the pandemic. Each church in the deanery was asked to give a two minute presentation on how they had coped during the Covid crisis and what they had learnt.
When Synod met again at the end of the year, much work had been done behind the scenes and Chapter was able to introduce the ‘Maidstone Mission Mosaic’ - an initiative with the express purpose of bringing the good news of the gospel to the people of Maidstone via a series of different but complimentary projects. Steve Coneys, Diocesan Mission and Growth Advisor, has been facilitating Chapter meetings since the summer and has been instrumental in helping to formulate these plans. Synod voted to pursue this agenda going forward, and documents have been submitted to the diocese to form part of a larger bid to secure a portion of the next round of Strategic Development funding released by the Church Commissioners.
In August 2021, Maidstone Deanery Environment Group started the process of producing a short video on Climate Change recording the responses of some of the young people in our local Churches, and Rowan, from St Paul’s, agreed to be involved. This video was forwarded to all local churches and the wider church organisations. In January 2022 St Paul’s held a service on climate change, which included screening the video, and Rowan was presented with a certificate for taking part. The Environment Group organised a tree to be planted in each young person’s name and Rowan also received a National Trust Planting Certificate with background details of the Trust’s Tree Planting Scheme.
Social, Fundraising and Outreach Events
The newly formed social committee has been active in providing a programme of social events which have been well supported and provided much needed funds for the church. Other church groups have returned to meeting regularly providing full and varied programmes. Groups include St Paul’s Fellowship and Mothers Union.
Once a month the craft group meet to chat whilst knitting, sewing, card making and other diverse craft activities.
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Use of the Halls
Post Pandemic we are pleased to see that the church complex is in use every day of the week, in a variety of ways which we believe contribute to the social well-being of our community.
We see the hospitality that we offer to all who cross our threshold as central to our mission and are always looking for ways to make them feel more welcome. Leaving the doors to the worship space permanently unlocked allows parents to take advantage of the seating area at the back of church whilst the children play in the children’s area. It also means that everyone can have access to the worship space.
St Faith’s Church, Maidstone is without a building whilst their new Church complex is being built. They have had to find alternative arrangements for Sunday worship and we have been pleased to make our church and halls available to them once a month.
Care of our building
The quinquennial inspection took place this year and a number of maintenance items were highlighted including resurfacing the car park. This will form the basis of grant applications in the coming year because of the high costs involved. Chlorination of the water tanks in the building was undertaken, together with replacement of a heated water cylinder damaged during the process.
The boiler continues to be capricious but following a small adjustment now seems to perform more reliably.
The building remains a significant drain on our resources.
Communication
We endeavour to keep in touch with our worshipping community, hall users and the wider community by a variety of means. A weekly update is available by e-mail, as hard copy (in church and taken to those without electronic access) and on the church website. The website is a vital means of keeping everyone up to date and of passing on notices and news and is expertly managed by our Parish administrator. Importantly there is a designated email link to our Parish Safeguarding Officer.
Church members also support each other using a church WhatsApp[TM] group and house group meetings.
Planned Giving
Planned giving occurs in different ways, by standing orders, bank transfers, envelopes, and cheques. There are few envelope givers remaining. We are very grateful for all methods of supporting the church financially.
In 2022 the total for planned giving was £27,724 of which £2,173 was in envelopes. We have been able to claim gift aid on nearly all this sum. Using the Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme, we were also able to claim on anything in the open collection, which is an individual gift of £30 or less. This is a very good scheme, but we encourage regular givers who are taxpayers to give using a standing order or envelopes.
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We are very grateful to all who give.
Financial Review
Planned giving reduced from £29,891 to £27,724 a reduction of 7.3% (2021 10.7%). Collections at services increased from £568 to £1,652 albeit this amount is less than 50% of that received in 2019 pre the Covid 19 pandemic.
The total for giving was £29,376 (2021 £30,459, 2020 £35,128 and 2019 £38,786), a decline of 3.6% in the year.
Gift aid and gift aid on small donations receipts banked were £6,132 (2021 £6,634). £1,723 (2021 £1,311) was outstanding on donations received in the year.
Hall Income returned to the pre pandemic level at £31,579 compared with £18,093 in 2021. However in 2021 we were fortunate to be awarded two discretionary grants by Maidstone Borough Council totalling £12,002 towards loss of hall fees suffered due to Covid restrictions.
The most significant item of expenditure, the Parish Share, which was paid in full, at £35,485 (2021 £36,601, 2020 £46,315). The cost is for ministry and central costs within Canterbury Diocese. The amount reduced in 2021 compared with 2020 due to the reduced allocation from 50% to 40% for our incumbent and the removal of a paid Area Dean post in Maidstone Deanery for which we along with other churches paid a proportion of the cost. The diocese budgeted reduced central costs which accounts for the reduced amount in 2022.
In December we received a grant of £2,450 from Canterbury towards increased costs of energy during winter 2022/23. The increased cost will be more significant in 2023.
The notes on page 3 show details of collections for charities, interest and dividends, being split between unrestricted, restricted and endowment funds.
We were fortunate that other payments were either as expected or reduced. However we always alive to the fact that our 1970’s building requires repairs and maintenance and when this is needed the costs can be substantial. Also, we do not have sufficient unrestricted funds to enable improvements to be made.
Excess receipts were £8,802 (2021 £6,459).
The second page of the accounts identifies the movement of funds. At 31 December 2022 there was £42,407 (2021 £33,605) in current and deposit accounts and cash.
Unfortunately the value of our investments fell back to the 31 December 2020 level, 2022 £71,908 (2021 £81,503), a reduction in the year of 11.8%.
Adding gift aid recoverable and a small liability, our total assets at 31 December 2022 amounted to £116,018 (2021 £116,403) of which £70,309 (2021 £79,537) was in restricted funds.
Volunteers
Many of our members take an active role as volunteers in many aspects of church and local community life.
St Paul’s members have continued to support Maidstone Homeless Care through prayer and donations of food and money. We are grateful that Allert and Rosemary have arranged for their house to be used as a collection point and deliver the food on agreed dates.
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This year The Penenden Heath Uniform bank, organised and run by John Viner, has begun operating from the church hall. The bank is open each month and is appreciated by its customers.
Structure, governance and management
The PCC is a body corporate established by the Church of England. (PCC Powers Measure 1956, Church Representation Rules 2006) and is registered with the Charity Commission.
The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. All church attendees are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC. At present there are 67 parishioners on the Church Electoral Roll of which 46 are nonresident in the parish.
St Paul’s PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the interim priest in charge, the Revd Chris Lavender, in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church: pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. It also has maintenance responsibilities for the Church Centre complex of St Paul’s.
The full PCC met five times during the year with an average level of attendance of 75%. Committees met between meetings and minutes of their deliberations were received by the full PCC and discussed where necessary with particular emphasis on worship, finance, fabric, outreach and mission.
Administrative information
St. Paul’s Church is situated in Boxley Road, Maidstone. It is part of the Diocese of Canterbury within the Church of England. The correspondence address is St Paul’s Church, Boxley Road, Maidstone, ME14 2AN. Registered charity number 1131270.
PCC members who have served at any time from 1[st] January 2022 until the date this report was approved are:
Ex Officio Members:
Incumbent Interim Priest in Charge Rev Chris Lavender (Retired 19[th] February 2023)
Assistant Curate Rev Anthea Mitchell
| Warden | Mr B Beswick | |
|---|---|---|
| Mr M Turner | Vice-Chair | |
| Deanery Synod | Mrs J Clifton | ALM Pastoral Assistant |
| Mrs R Riepma |
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