2022-12-31-accounts - The Parochial Church Council Of The Ecclesiastical Parish Of St Andrew, Hertford

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HERTFORD ST ANDREW with ST NICHOLAS

Meeting of Parishioners and Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Sunday, 30 April 2023 at noon to be held in St Andrew’s church

Agenda

Prayers

Apologies for absence

A. Meeting of Parishioners

1 Minutes of previous meeting
Election of Churchwardens

B. Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting 2022
Matters Arising from the Minutes
Election of Parochial Representatives of the Laity:
Representatives to the Parochial Church Council
Representatives of the Parish to the Hertford and Ware Deanery Synod
Appointment of Independent Examiner
Report on the Electoral Roll
Report on the audited accounts, statement of funds and property
Comments on the Annual Report (previously circulated)
Churchwardens’ Report
Team Vicar’s Report
Presentations
Any other business

Minutes of the meeting of Parishioners and Annual Parochial Church Meeting held in church and by Zoom on Tuesday, 26 April, 2022

Present : Ian Aitken, Jenny Aitken, Julia Barton, Maria Henriksson-Bell, Joan Cheeseman, Anne Child, Rev Bill Church, Lou Cobb, Alan Cohen, Jane Cohen, Carol Crowhurst, Colin Crowhurst, John Harris, Brenda Hobbs, Andrew Goodman, Debbie Hartnett, Brenda Hobbs, Mary Horne, Nick Hoyle, Sue Little, Jenny Mant, Carol Muhr, Sue Mulligan, Matthew Nash, Kath Oates, Phil Probert, Laura Ramsay, Peter Ruffles, Lesley Self, Chris Seward, Melanie Seward, Judy Sharman, Nick Sharman, Rev Alan Stewart (in the chair), Richard Taylor, Shirley Taylor, Adrian Walter, Stella Walter and Rosemary Willis.

Apologies for absence: Apologies were received from Colin Eldred, Jane Eldred, Malcolm Fry, Carol Kemp, David Kemp, Charles Ledsam, Debbie Ledsam, Geoff Oates, Andrew Rixon, Catherine Sleath and Jean Walker

Alan thanked Jane and Alan Cohen and Kath Oates for making the on-line meeting possible and outlined the procedures for those joining the meeting on Zoom.

The meetings began and ended with prayers.

Meeting of Parishioners

1. Minutes of the previous meeting held on 27 May 2021

The minutes of the meeting were approved and there were no matters arising.

2. Election of Churchwardens

Jane Cohen was standing down and Alan thanked her for working tirelessly for the church over the last three years, including being a Zoom pioneer and giving a huge amount of pastoral support. Shirley Taylor was willing to continue as Churchwarden for another year.

Rosemary Willis had offered to stand as Churchwarden and there were no other candidates. Rosemary was proposed by Laura Ramsay and seconded by Sue Mulligan and was duly elected.

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Attendance and apologies as above.

1. Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting held on 27 May 2021

The minutes of the meeting were approved and there were no matters arising.

2. Election of Parochial Representatives of the Laity

2.1 Representatives to the Parochial Church Council

Joan Cheesman, Kath Oates, Maria Henriksson-Bell and Chris Seward opted to stay on for another term.

Two candidates had come forward

Adrian Walter, proposed by Shirley Taylor and seconded by Sue Mulligan

• Stella Walter, proposed by Shirley Taylor and seconded by Sue Mulligan

There were no other candidates so Stella and Adrian were appointed as members of the PCC.

2.2 Representatives of the Parish to the Hertford and Ware Deanery Synod

Shirley Taylor and Julie Markey agreed to continue for another year.

No other candidates had come forward but Alan said that anyone who might be interested should get in touch with him or the churchwardens.

3. Appointment of the Independent Examiner

John Alflatt was appointed as Independent Examiner and has examined and approved the accounts.

4. Report on the Electoral Roll

The Electoral Roll contains a total of 159 people, compared to 157 in 2021, of whom 62 are resident in the parish and 97 non-residents.

5. Report on the audited accounts, statement of funds and property

Debbie thanked everyone for their continued financial support during another difficult year. The budget almost broke even in 2021, with only £105 overspend, which is a very positive result given that some of the planned events and services, which should have generated income, did not take place due to Covid.

There has been a lot of additional maintenance work needed over the last year; a mandatory full electrical survey and work resulting from it; a new toilet pump, a new hot water boiler as well as the Quinquennial Report. This has been offset by income from a legacy, money given by the Hertford St Andrew Community Trust in respect of the NHS Clinics using the church, as well as financial support through online and envelope giving, phone donations and regular standing orders. The coffee mornings started again in September, which raised money for the church and for charities.

General reserves are enough to cover 12 weeks of expenditure, which is a good position to be in.

The youth worker fund is fully funded through to 2023 and has benefitted from a £10,000 legacy this year. Two new reserves were set up for the clock repairs and the organ repairs. £5,200 in grants and some individual donations have been received towards the cost of the clock repairs.

Another break-even budget is planned for 2022.

Debbie thanked David Kemp the Finance Committee for their continued help and support.

Nick Hoyle asked if we were expecting much of a hit from the energy crisis. Debbie reported that we had fixed energy prices until 1 October through Parish Buying, but we didn’t know yet what the price was likely to be after that date. Some extra money had been put in the budget to allow for increased costs.

The meeting agreed to accept the budget for 2021 and Alan thanked Debbie for all the work that she did.

6. Comments on the Annual Report

6.1 Laura reported that there were two vacancies on the governing body for the school and asked anyone who might be interested in becoming a governor to talk to her, Alan, Chris Seward or Rod Willis. It was not necessary to have an educational background to be a governor.

7. Churchwardens’ Report

There were no questions for the Churchwardens.

8. Team Vicar’s Report

Alan started with a quote from Alan Hirsh, an Australian author and expert in church growth, ‘It’s not so much that the church has a mission, it’s that the mission of God has a church’.

Alan Hirsh’s point is that God is already at work, often in overlooked and unexpected of places. Our job therefore as a church is to identify where he is already at work and to join in.

Alan said that it is in prayer that we work out what our calling is, and find the resources to empower that calling. He asked people to take seriously the need to pray; individually and corporately, by joining the monthly Saturday morning prayer gathering, Breathe. He asked for feedback on why people don’t join. Good prayer is just honest, heartfelt, simple and often silent prayer, and people won’t be asked to pray aloud or to share something they feel uncomfortable about. His challenge was to go along to the next Breathe gathering and see how through prayer, we might actually discern God’s mission.

After two years of disruption and uncertainty, it was wonderful to celebrate Easter with so many of all ages, both in person and online. A sobering contrast to our celebrations are those of the Ukrainian people who celebrated Orthodox Easter a week later, amid the trauma and the horror of war and displacement. Over the next few months, Hertford will be welcoming people fleeing from Ukraine. All Saints and St Andrew’s are collaborating to welcome and support some of those families and those hosting, both practically and socially, starting with an afternoon drop-in at the St Andrew’s Centre. Alan thanked Chris Seward for coordinating this response.

It’s been great to welcome lots of new people in the last year and now that we are able to socialise more, we hope to organise some welcome events. Other ministries, activities and aspects of worship are being reintroduced.

Alan paid tribute to the servers Jenny Gray and Sue Little, and the verger Alan Little, for the many ways they have supported and enabled services to happen, as they’ve continually adapted to the ever-changing rules and regs. He said that they would appreciate some more people to support the team and asked anyone who might be interested to speak to him.

Alan also thanked Jane Eldred, the Director of Music, the musicians and the choir for their faithful ministry, improvising where necessary and for continuing to lead us in such quality and depth of

worship. It’s been wonderful to welcome a new generation of younger members into the choir, and new members would always be welcome.

The feedback from the joint Away Day at High Leigh with our sister church St Mary’s was overwhelmingly positive and another one is being planned for next year.

Our Zoom services have been and continue to be a lifeline for many. Through Zoom we are pioneering new forms of worship and helping to build a new congregation that stretches far and wide. Our online presence is key both to the present and future ministry and mission of our church. Alan thanked the team who ran them, in particular Kath Oates and Nick Hoyle. Kath was licensed at one of our Zoom services as both Pioneer Minister and Lay Leader of Worship with a particular focus on online and the new housing development within the parish. During this year we also commissioned Maria Henriksson-Bell as Pioneer Enabler and Lay Leader of Worship, and her pioneer work will be focusing on the Home-schooling, LGBTQ+ and the arts communities within the town.

Our parish is fast expanding with the new development of 300 plus homes on Sele. Our Reaching New People Group are planning to hand-deliver a ‘welcome to the neighbourhood’ pack, and offer other ways to help people connect such as walking groups in Panshanger Park; some social, some more mindful and reflective.

On Sunday 8th May the congregation will be asked two questions ‘what matters to you?’ and ‘what do you long for?’. They will then be invited to ask at least one friend who doesn’t come to church these same questions. Our hope is that through this exercise in listening, we will discern what’s really important in these times, and how and if we might respond.

On 29th March a group of PCC members and other leaders within the church met with five members of HeartEdge, who came to help us discern the way forward particularly in the use of the church buildings. HeartEdge focus on four areas; congregation, compassion, culture and commerce. They rightly assert that the days of a church being financed purely by the stewardship of the congregation are coming to an end. If we are still to be worshipping here in 20 years’ time then we have to look for other ways to imaginatively use our buildings which lie empty for a great majority of the week.

Over this past year it’s been great to have the NHS use the hall and church for their vaccination programme. We’ve also welcomed many hundreds of visitors to the wonderful Lockdown in 30 Objects exhibition. Concerts, a Model Train Day and a Beer Festival are being planned for this year. Another PCC Away Day will be held to consider how we might reimagine our buildings to enable more of this outreach, to enhance our worship and to bring in much needed revenue to enable this church to still be here in the future.

We continue to be grateful to the Churchyard Team who through their creativity enable many to engage with themes of faith through their tableaus and installations. At Christmas we experimented with Beer and Carols in the churchyard and it worked so well that I think we’ll probably stick with that format in the future, weather permitting.

Special thanks as always go to Debbie Ledsam and others who spend so much time and energy tending the churchyard gardens.

Alan and Tracy have led collective worship and special services with our church schools in playgrounds and woodlands this past year. Alan thanked Tracy for her inspirational ministry and leadership of the youth and children’s work, and to the wonderful team who support her.

A fortnightly communion service has been reintroduced at Calton Court, with currently around ten people attending.

Alan thanked Phil Probert, the parish administrator who so kindly, creatively and professionally goes above and beyond in supporting the ministry of the church. A Communications Committee has been set up (chaired by Forbes) to help support the work on social media and the website.

Charles Ledsam, Kim Hamilton and Jane Cohen have been commissioned as Pastoral Assistants this year, and are licensed to lead home communion and who, with Carol Crowhurst, help to coordinate all the wonderful care and support that happens across the congregations.

On behalf of the congregation Alan thanked the ministry team; Assistant Priest Bill Church, Readers Melanie and Geoff, and Lay Leaders of Worship Forbes, Kath and Maria. He also thanked the wardens and deputy warden who tirelessly work behind the scenes.

There are so many people to thank who contribute to the life of the church; those who help with coffee mornings, sides duties, refreshments, intercessions, readings, cleaning, flower arranging, looking after the prayer corner, visiting, leading home groups, helping at Toddlers, Shake, TMM, Junior church, Woodland Wonderings, editing the church magazine, serving on PCC, school governors and other committees, leading compline and Mindfulness, trustees of the Centre, bell ringing, winding the clock … and the list goes on.

On behalf of his family and himself, Alan thanked everyone for their encouragement, love patience, prayers and support.

Laura Ramsay thanked Alan for his report and for his leadership.

9. Presentation on Eco Church

Maria reported that St Andrews is going to be working toward becoming an Eco Church. An Eco Church committee has been set up, comprising of Maria, Jenny Mant and Andrew Goodman, with input from Adrian Walter. Eco Church is a widely recognised accreditation from A Rocha UK, which is a very practical tool. The group has carried out a survey of how the church is doing in terms of sustainability already. It has drawn up a series of steps and actions, some of which can be taken immediately and other which are quite big and require a lot of thought and discussion. Further information will be put on the website and published in the magazine. The work also has a spiritual aspect. God has put humans on the earth as caretakers of his plant and to care for his creations is at the heart of our faith. When we make sustainable choices, they are actions of faith and a good way to love our neighbours.

10. Any other Business

There was no other business.

Report from the Parochial Church Council

The PCC is responsible for the financial affairs of the church and the care and maintenance of the church fabric and its contents. It may make representations to the Bishop and Deanery Synod on matters affecting the welfare and pastoral care of the parish.

The PCC has had regard to the Charity Commission public benefit guidance and has complied with the duty under section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016 (duty to have due regard to House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults).

The PCC met on six occasions throughout the year for a formal meeting, three by Zoom only and three by a combination of a live meeting with a Zoom link.

PCC members

*PCC members*
Clergy	Rev Alan Stewart Rev Bill Church	Churchwardens	Shirley Taylor Rosemary Willis
Lay Readers Lay Leaders of Worship	Melanie Seward Geoff Oates Forbes Mutch Maria Henriksson Bell Kath Oates	Deanery Synod Members	Shirley Taylor Julie Markey
Treasurer	Debbie Hartnett	Elected members until 2023	Colin Crowhurst Malcolm Fry Rosemary Willis Nick Hoyle
Elected members until 2024	Laura Ramsay Catherine Sleath Lou Cobb Jenny Mutch	Elected Members until 2025	Adrian Walter Stella Walter Joan Cheesman Kath Oates Maria Henriksson-Bell Chris Seward

Malcom Fry has offered to stay on for another term but Colin Crowhurst, Rosemary Willis and Nick Hoyle are standing down. Joan Cheesman and Kath Oates have also chosen to stand down.

During the year there were ten baptisms, one wedding and eleven funerals in church. The clergy also took nine funerals at a crematorium without a service in church.

Highlights from the year

Joint Parish Away Day at High Leigh
Return of all in-church services and continuation of much valued on-line services
Support for Ukrainian visitors
Successful Railway Day
Children starting to take Communion

The PCC wishes to thank all those who have contributed to the work and running of the church during the last year.

Carol Muhr, Clerk to the PCC

Churchwardens’ Report on 2022

2022 started where the previous two years had led with the final throes of the Covid restrictions. After Christmas 2021 services had been disrupted, it took a few weeks to get started on refreshments after services and to start up the Monthly Friday Senior Lunches which had been put on hold for two years. After the first couple of months St Andrew’s was back in business in person, although the life of the church had never stopped due to Zoom, social distancing, phone calls etc.

In February, during high winds, a large part of the yew tree at the rear of the Centre came down, fortunately causing very little damage. The tree was made safe by the Hertford Town Council contractors, as the Town Council takes responsibility for the upkeep of the churchyard.

The Churchwardens have been commissioning work on several parts of the church. In early April the clock was removed piece by piece and was taken to Smith of Derby for a thorough clean and assessment for repairs. There was a delay whilst Diocesan permission was sought for the repairs and fundraising was completed but, with the work now done and the clock on its final test in the workshop, we hope to have it back very soon.

The stonework on various areas of the spire was repaired in late April which gave Hertford some entertainment watching the steeplejacks at work on ladders tied on by ropes.

A Church and Churchyard Tidy Up was held in May. Grateful thanks to volunteers for doing their bit.

A new sign was installed in St Andrew’s Cemetery in North Road and a design was drawn up to replace the main noticeboard on St Andrew Street. After modifications the design was approved by the Diocese and now we await East Herts Advertising Consent.

At the APCM in April Jane Cohen stood down having completed her three-year term as Churchwarden which she had performed with amazing diligence and endless energy. Rosemary Willis was duly elected as her successor. Chris Seward agreed to carry on as Deputy Churchwarden for which we are very grateful.

Another application was made to the Diocese for the installation of 12 nesting boxes for Swifts in the Bell Tower. These were installed by the Hertford Swift Group. Other birds were not so welcome in our church as jackdaws nested in the void above the North Transept roof – not an easy place to block off access. At the time of writing, we are considering a quotation of £1,268 + VAT for scaffolding etc to facilitate the blocking of the space being occupied by the birds.

The bells in St Andrew’s needed a minor repair to a clapper which was done quickly but in the longer term there is work to be done on the tenor bell as well as other repairs. The quote received is for £20,000 so some research is being done into finding grants.

Once again following gutter cleaning, quite a bit of work needed to be done on the roof to replace lost slates and loose flashings which had resulted in several leaks. This has now been completed together with the unblocking of severely blocked downpipes. In addition, there were several pieces of relatively minor work completed such as the repair to a leaking tap in the Tunnel.

A day was spent by the PCC with the Heartedge Consultancy Group from St Martin in The Fields to lead us in discussions in planning the way forward to help make St Andrew’s more financially secure and to bring in the community. The PCC decided that the church should progress the idea of St Andrew’s as a music venue and to update our technical infrastructure to facilitate this. Before the Covid lockdowns, we had held several folk concerts and in May 2022 we hosted Fairport Convention, an amazing group of musicians

and lovely characters. In September we hosted Jon Boden and in November Ralph McTell. These concerts provide valuable funds for the church.

As well as the folk concerts, several Hertford organisations also use the church for concerts and other events. These all require Performing Licences and sometimes Alcohol Licences. There is also much to do on the administration side e.g., insurance, risk management, stewarding etc, much of which fell onto Phil’s shoulders. The Churchwardens decided that it would be good to appoint a voluntary Events Administrator and we are grateful to Harriet Moore for offering her services to find out more about what this entails.

In March the church family along with St Mary’s spent a day away at High Leigh near Hoddesdon and a wonderful and uplifting time was had by all.

June saw the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a magnificent display in the churchyard of the seven decades of Her Majesty’s reign – thank you Rosemary, Sue and Lou.

The Beer Festival booked for 10th September had to be cancelled at very late notice due to the death of Her Majesty the Queen on 8[th] Sept. St Andrew’s became a place of quiet reflection and prayer as many members of the community came to sign and eventually fill our Book of Condolence. Instead of the cancelled Beer Festival, Harvest Fest 2022 was swiftly organised to coincide with the Harvest Festival weekend in October.

Since April 2022, many Ukrainians arrived in Hertford to find safety from the war at home. St Andrew’s ran a couple of meetings to help hosts to find out more and then facilitated English language classes and afternoon tea get-togethers for the guests.

A First Aid course was held in September for people from St Andrew’s and other local churches.

September saw the Archdeacon’s Visitation which was carried out by the Rural Dean, Rev Mark Dunstan. Their questions this year related mainly to Safeguarding checks and courses completed by the church but the visit was also a chance for the Churchwardens to keep the Archdeacon up to date on what was happening in the church. The Wardens reported the loss of a silver paten which was used for communion, and which had disappeared in April 2022 and despite much searching has not been found.

In September Tracy Plumpton retired as Youth Worker and an after-service get-together was held to give her leaving gifts and thank her for all she had done at St Andrew’s. She is continuing to help with running school assemblies until a replacement can be found. The job has been advertised in several places for quite a time but no applications have been received.

A new Mission Action Plan (created by all PCCs and posted on the Diocesan website for public access) was written by Rosemary and agreed by the PCC in November. The statement of our vision for the future agreed by the PCC is ‘To create a more inclusive and flexible space for worship, hospitality, community and the arts in order to futureproof the ongoing life and mission of this church.’ Our priorities include recruitment of a youth worker, improvements to audio/visual equipment, outreach to new people and progress towards achieving Eco Church status.

With the increase in fuel prices Churches Together in Hertford met to make a rota of warm churches that people could spend time in. St Andrew’s decided to do something different and to put money behind the bar at the Golden Griffin at Sele Farm so that people could turn up and get a free hot drink if they wished. Meanwhile, the Churchwardens have been busy adjusting the heating controls in the church which has achieved welcome, if relatively small, savings.

The year ended, as always, with Christmas. This year every service went ahead as planned, including Beer and Carols. The congregations were very generous with the various charity collections, including gifts for families at St Andrew’s School.

The Wardens have completed their annual check of the inventory in March 2023 and found everything to be present except for the paten mentioned above.

We would all like to thank the very many people who give their time to St Andrew’s to help us with the Warden duties in caring for the church and churchyard, noting especially Phil Probert, Carol Muhr, Debbie Hartnett and Debbie Ledsam.

Shirley Taylor and Rosemary Willis - Churchwardens, Chris Seward - Deputy Churchwarden

Safeguarding Report

St Andrew's PCC takes seriously its collective responsibility to protect and safeguard the welfare of children and adults who may be vulnerable and have complied with due regard to House of Bishops guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

All those who work with children, young people and vulnerable adults and PCC Members are required to undertake regular safeguarding training and to complete DBS checks.

All training is completed online through the Church of England portal, and everyone is required to complete both Basic and Foundation level training. The Foundation training is refreshed every 3 years. PCC members are required to complete additional training in Domestic Abuse. The Clergy, Readers and the Parish Safeguarding Officer undertake face to face training which is delivered via Zoom.

DBS checks are carried out for us by Thirtyone:eight. All those who work with children and vulnerable adults and PCC Members are required to complete an enhanced check.

Our Safeguarding Risk Assessment for all activities involving children and young people is reviewed annually.

A copy of all St Andrew’s policies which include ‘Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults’, ‘Lone Worker’ and ‘Safer Recruitment’ are kept on the church website. These policies are reviewed annually and, along with other safeguarding documentation, are stored centrally in the Church GoogleDrive with access to the Drive being given to the Priest, Parish Safeguarding Officer, Church Wardens and Parish Administrator.

The Diocese of St Albans support our safeguarding practices in a number of ways:

Regular safeguarding newsletters ensure that parishes are kept up to date with current legislation and of any changes to policies, procedures and training requirements.
The ‘Parish Dashboard’. This is a useful online portal which records all the safeguarding measures we take as a church including risk assessments completed and policies and their review date.
The ‘Parish Safeguarding Hub’. This has recently been introduced by the Diocese and stands alongside the Parish Dashboard. It is designed to help with safer recruitment and people management and, once up and running it will contain details of all those who have completed training and DBS checks and will generate automatic reminders when these are due to be renewed.
Monthly Zoom drop-in sessions and an annual Safeguarding Forum for Parish Safeguarding Officers.

An online safeguarding training course is available through their website (www.stalbans.anglican.org). This takes less than an hour to complete and is an excellent introduction to safeguarding, particularly in recognising potential safeguarding issues and knowing then what course of action to take. The PCC recommend that all those involved with church life complete the course, particularly sidesmen, choir members and those in coffee teams. Please let me know if you would like me to send you the link to the course.
Also on their website is a comprehensive set of policies, procedures and information documents, many of which we use as templates for our own policies and procedures.

Catherine Sleath, Parish Safeguarding Officer

Children’s and Youth Activities

Junior Church having been meeting on the first, third, and fourth Sundays during the 10.30 Sunday service.

We have been following the Lectionary, so our sessions are based on the same readings and themes as the congregation, and we explore these through games, crafts, music and drama. We also have times of prayer and reflection.

We currently have a team of six volunteers, as well as some young leaders who have been brilliant at stepping up during this time of transition. There are 2 more volunteers on standby for any preschool children who might come.

There are about 30 children on the junior church register, ranging from 6 to 11 years of age. There is a core group of around 12 that we see regularly and some of our children in year 6 look forward to moving up to the TMM afternoon group, towards the end of the summer term.

Claire Wacher

TMM continues to meet every first and third Sunday afternoon, bringing together a great group of secondary school age young people from within and beyond the church.

This term we have had a number of new members with up to 14 young people coming, creating a great atmosphere and enabling giant games of table tennis!

As well as plentiful snacks and games, we have covered a range of topics from friendship and social media to God’s love and faithfulness.

Socials have included Lasertag and trampolining and we are looking forward to meeting up with the youth group from Hertford Baptist church shortly.

Huge thanks to our excellent team of leaders Toyin, Melanie, Jo and Nick.

John Wacher

Shake After School Club has had a great start to 2023! We have had about 12-15 young people each week, with some new regular attenders being added recently. Each week we give them a snack, play a game or two, and do a 20–30 minute interactive Bible study together.

We had started going through the Gospel of Mark together during the Autumn term, and we finished it up during the first half of the Spring term. Then we had the youth write down questions they had about life, God, the Bible, etc. Over the last few weeks of the term, we looked at their questions and unpacked them together. These questions were insightful and deep- young people are clearly thinking about these things! Some of the questions we discussed were: “How can we know that God exists?”, “If God wants us to know him and love him, then why are there other religions?”, “Who wrote the Bible?”, and more.

I am grateful for the opportunity to get to meet with these young people each week. It is a privilege to open up the Bible and discuss the most important things in life with them!

Bryan Fries, Young Life Hertford

Toddler Group Report

The Toddler Group has continued to meet every Thursday in term-time with an average of 15 families coming along each week to enjoy fun, games and friendship.

2022 brought some stability to the group after the covid disruption of recent years. We started the year with a core team of weekly helpers, Tracy Plumpton, May Muhr, Sue Mulligan, Debbie Ledsam and myself. In the Summer we said goodbye to Tracy and we’ve subsequently missed her huge contribution, her amazing enthusiasm, and we’ve especially missed her singing the wiggle song before the story each week!

We are also hugely grateful to all those on the rota who come along and serve refreshments, Sue Coe, Frances Wilby, Jane Chaplin, Laura Ramsey, Sue Ling, Lesley Self and Doreen Spielman (Doreen is an experienced member of the toddler group having brought along various grandchildren over the years). Thank you all.

On a Thursday morning the centre is a hive of activity with the under 5s taking full advantage of our stock of toys whilst parents, grandparents and carers catch up with each other. We start each week with general play and an open hatch for everyone to have access to refreshments. Popular toys are the kitchen and toy food, the railway, and the slide - learning to take turns is very important!

In the Summer, we enjoy being outside in the garden, we spread out the noise, and the children! There is less danger of the bigger children running into the smaller ones on the ride on toys! The return of the art room has been a big hit, it limits the glue, glitter and paint to one place, and makes it easier to clean up. We have made Christmas angels, cards for Mother’s Day and valentine’s day, crowns, and the ever-popular play doh.

At 11am we play the tidy up song and encourage the children to put away their toys. The wiggle song is next where we burn off excess energy before we sit down quietly to listen to a story, celebrate birthdays and choose songs by selecting a toy from the special bag. We end with the teddy bear song, waving goodbye.

We have celebrated with our families as we acknowledge various life events including new babies, baptisms and weddings.

Our last meeting each term involves a party with special food and games. Just before Christmas we are visited by Santa Claus (thanks Bill!) and hear the Christmas story, for Easter we enjoy an Easter egg hunt and hear the Easter story (thanks Alan) and we end the summer term with fun and games in the garden, weather permitting.

We always have a few families on our waiting list, many of whom have had heard good things about the group and would like to some along. When children move on to nursery/school, we are always able to fill the space from the list. Demand for places is always exceeding supply!

Judy Sharman

Church music report 2022

At last, after two reports describing severely curtailed musical activities in the church, I can describe a much more “normal” and active year.

The organ

When the organ had its annual tuning in the autumn, we were told of some urgent repairs which needed to be done. The organ is about 150 years old and must be maintained properly; however, such maintenance is expensive. £4,000 was required, so the choir undertook to help raise funds for the work. Owing to a very successful coffee morning in January, the use of some reserves in our choir fund, and a generous donation, we were able to raise half of the money, which was matched by the PCC. The repair work has recently been completed and the organists report a distinct improvement (including the restoration of the trumpet stop!).

The Choir

Although there was still a lot of Covid 19 infection in the community last Easter, the choir were able to take part as usual in the Holy Week services (Taizé service, Maundy Thursday Eucharist and the 3[rd] Hour on Good Friday), and were also involved in an East Herts Church Choirs Association event on Good Friday 2022, an indication that things were returning to normal (this was a joint choirs’ service including the Passiontide section of Handel’s Messiah, directed by myself, with solos by Jo Willis and Anna Sharman – it had been postponed in 2020 and 2021).

In June we were very pleased to be involved in a special concert for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, under the aegis of Hertfordshire Festival of Music. This took place in All Saints’ Church, and was a joint concert with All Saints’ choir and Hertford Chamber Choir. The music was chosen for its connections with Queen Elizabeth II, and we sang four items jointly, plus our own choices (St Andrew’s sang pieces by Purcell and contemporary composer Will Todd). We greatly enjoyed this opportunity., shared with a very large audience.

In September, the choir were able to sing suitable music for St Andrew’s’ memorial service following the death of Queen Elizabeth, and at the Sunday services during the period of mourning.

As Christmas approached, we found ourselves invited again to take part in the Isabel Hospice Lights of Love event at the Castle, and to sing at the Museum for the Christmas Lights festival (for the first time since 2019). I am grateful to Peter Murphy for directing the Lights of Love and to the Mimram Singers for joining us. The picture shows us at the Museum – always a bit of a squash!

We led the music as in previous years at the Advent candlelit service and the service of Lessons and Carols (which took place on Thursday 22[nd] , not on a Sunday, in a break with tradition). Since Christmas we have taken part in the Ash Wednesday service and Holy Week services. We have of course continued with our core aim, to lead the worship at the main 10.30 services and to provide an anthem each week (except for All-Age weeks). Recently some of our choir joined with St Mary’s choir for Evensong at St Mary’s, and we hope to hold a joint Evensong at St Mary’s to celebrate King Charles’ Coronation.

Flare

We finally thought of a name for our worship band! The name is taken from a song written by John Wacher, who with Katie Seaton forms the song-writing core of this band. Flare was due to play at the Beer and Hymns festival in September, but this had to be rescheduled because of the death of the Queen – instead they performed as part of HarvestFest at the beginning of October. This was followed by Beer and Carols in December, again a very successful event. Flare also led the music at two 5[th] Sunday 10.30am services during the year.

In September Soul Food services were resumed, having been suspended during the pandemic, and music plays an important part in these – the musicians involved are generally members of Flare.

All-age music and use of instrumentalists

The membership of Flare and the instrumental group who play for All-Age services overlap, but I aim to involve other players of orchestral instruments for this, and especially young people, both playing and singing. I’m grateful to those who play for Taizé services, and to our several trumpeters who enhance the hymn/carol singing on occasion - especially to Keith Neat who plays at the Remembrance Day service.

Concerts in the church

There has been a most welcome return of the folk concert series organised by Chris Seward, when we have hosted internationally-known artists such as Ralph McTell, to sell-out audiences. It has been decided that the church should pay for an expanded performance licence, as our previous licence only allowed for six concerts yearly for which we could charge an entrance fee. Hertfordshire Festival of Music are also still interested in holding concerts in St Andrew’s and for this year a guitar recital is scheduled in early June. With the expanded licence we will be able to be welcoming hosts for a greater number and variety of concerts and make better use of the church building.

As ever I am especially grateful to David Boarder, Richard Prince and Mark Buck for their organ playing. We are very fortunate to have in the congregation both professional and non-professional musicians who enthusiastically take part in and greatly enhance the music in our worship, and together singers and players make a thriving musical team. We also have song-writers and composers who each make their own unique and valuable contribution. We can always do more, and this year I hope to recruit more young people into our music-making, but my heartfelt thanks go to all who contribute to music in our worship.

Jane Eldred, Musical Director

Bellringing Report

We are still managing to ring for most Sundays although we struggle now if regulars are away. We did gain one new ringer from the group who were trained at Bengeo and another Bengeo ringer also often comes to St Andrew’s on Sunday mornings. Two new recruits are currently learning to ring which will help.

We were able to ring to mark the death of the Queen and for that ringing we had all the bells fully muffled but with the tenor, the heaviest bell, open at backstroke. This is only done to mark the death of the monarch. During the year we had a little bit of professional maintenance done on the bells including replacing a clapper which broke off during ringing.

Andrew Case

Eco-church summary report

Background

The eco-church committee officially started this year. The committee consists of Maria Henriksson-Bell, Rosemary Willis, Jenny Mant (chair) and Andrew Goodman.

Our main aim has been to raise awareness of the importance of changing the way we think of using and sourcing our consumables. We have, to date, focused on raising awareness within the church community in the context of our responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint related to human induced climate change impacts.

Activities

Our activities this year have included various contributions to the parish magazine and a questionnaire to find out what people are already doing with suggestions for what we, as a church, could do better. The results of this can be found in the parish magazine and on the website, but in summary we had nearly 50 responses which indicated that many people are trying to reduce the use of single use plastic, shopping for

local produce and are much more mindful of fossil fuel usage (albeit that much of this has been driven by soaring prices). Great ideas for other ideas were also provided and some of these we have already acted on as follows:

1) In late summer 2022 we asked for offers of flowers and foliage from people’s gardens. The church was a riot floral decoration from gardens and the church yard with a small carbon footprint (no flowers were flown in from other countries or driven from other parts of country). We are planning to do this again in July this year and to encourage more of the same.
2) We are encouraging the use of fairtrade, local produce and where possible organic produce. The bakers galore are working towards showing not only what ingredients are in the cakes but also indicating if any of those are Local sources, Organic, Animal free or Fairtrade (LOAF) as encourage by the eco-church A Rocha.
3) With thanks to Shirley Taylor, we have significantly reduced our carbon footprint just by being more strategic in the way we use our heating and lighting. We are in the process of providing an audit of how St Andrew’s energy usage stacks up against other churches in the dioceses in terms of our energy usage.
4) In March 2023 we hosted the Climate Change walking group, run by Tim Hagyard and Alan Muhr. Some of us walked from Ware to St Andrews with prayers, singing and points of silence for contemplation along the route. Afterwards we provided eco-friendly cakes and drinks to the circa 45 audience whilst watching a film followed by discussion on climate change action. A great awareness raising opportunity with our follow up magazine article and a small £50 profit was made as well.

Future plans :

We are working towards bike racks in the church yard.
We hope to have our bronze eochurch award by this Summer – to do this we need to work with Phillipa Probert and Carol Muhr to ensure that our goods bought for the church and the hall (e.g., sugar, tea and coffee are at least fairtrade and from sustainable sources) and our church cleaning products are reviewed.
On the first of July we will have our first eco-church coffee morning. We will be selling local produce and eggs and have a representative joining us from A Rocha.
We will review of the opportunities for eco-friendly plants in the church yard and composting opportunities with much support and advice from Debbie Ledsam.

Summary

Moving towards a more eco – sustainable church is not easy but there is a lot we can do. This year has very much been around awareness raising of a complex subject with a simple message that if everyone tries to do a bit towards being careful with the use of our world’s resources, we can all help to reduce some of the effects of climate change. This following year we plan to implement some of our plans and are always happy to hear from anyone with ideas or wish to join the committee.

Jenny Mant

Hertford St Andrew Mission Giving 2022 'Mission' describes......everything the church is sent into the world to do 111 Every year, St Andrew s sends 12% 01 the congregation's planned giving to support charities locally and globally. It is distributed by the Mis510n Giving Comrnittee which h85 the remit to Fnake dec1510ns about allocating money to charities with a Christian ethos, working predominantly abroad and to a lesser extent at home. In 2022. St Andrew's allocated a total of £8,730 to the following organisationsl people: Christians Against Poverty DEC Ukraine Appeal FUTUREhope H: Ilord&Ware FUTUREhope The Hertford Pantry Hèrts Welcomes Refugees Inteinatlonal H¢olth Partner5 International Health Partners ILatin Link Julie Noble/ Latin Link ¥(ftlJgftope ILyounglife | Living Hope www livin Michael & Beth Ann Hunterl Youn9 Life International • SolarAid Solar Aid tearfund Tearfund Young Life Hertford 65% of the donations1£5,6751 went to organisation5 workin9 overseas. 35% of the donations1£3,0551 went to organisation5 working locally. John StDtt'Christian Mission In the Modern World'1197S-. updated by Chri5 Wright in 20151 17

Communications Committee

Background

The Communications Committee was brought back to life after a few years in hiatus with a meeting of suitably skilled members of the congregation in January 2022. The terms of reference and key purpose of the committee were agreed, and remain, as:

To maintain and improve the standards of communication within the church community;
Utilise new platforms of communication to reach a broader audience;
Retain people that are part of our community and reach new audiences.

Membership

Of the original members of the committee, Stuart Penson was forced to withdraw due to pressure of work in December 2022, and Paul Stanton is available only for one-off consultancy. The remaining membership has stayed the same: Forbes Mutch (chair), Lou Cobb (PCC representative), Alex Nicholas, Kath Oates, Phi Probert and Richard Taylor.

The committee has met online six times during the year, although there has been significant email traffic between members and with church event organisers as required.

Activity 2022-23

1) Drafting a Communications Strategy , including a template for a Communications Plan for specific events and periods of church activity. The Strategy was submitted to the PCC in September 2022.
2) Benchmarking the ways that St Andrew’s communicates with its various audiences, comparing what we do against the activities of other churches and parishes in terms of:
Printed material
Website
Social media
Online services
Outreach communication
In-church communication

In general, the committee agreed that our communications compare well to other churches in the area and elsewhere.

3) Plan rearrangement of church entrance , including porch: streamlining entrance notices; adding more pictures, faces and colour (ongoing).
4) Commission photography of services and events (checking permissions first) for above (ongoing). Catherine Sleath, Church Safeguarding Officer, joined the March (2023) meeting to discuss the latest Safe Use of Images Guidelines and how to best to plan taking/storing/publishing photos for St Andrew’s services / events.
5) Increased use of Facebook posts : Phil and Lou maintain the church FB page and Lou has added more posts about regular services and highlighting how people are welcome. She also posts much wider on social media in the community about coffee mornings, music events etc and has developed strong links with Sele Farm with reference to St Andrew's activities, such as the Monday morning fortnightly mindfulness run by Alan. These not only feature on the Sele FB page but also in the estate newsletter and the estate webpage calendar.

6) The committee has been involved in publicising church events throughout the year, ensuring a consistency of brand and design. Projects have included:
Generic welcome card
Railway Day
Eco Church questionnaire and poster
Soul Food
Harvest Fest
Warm Spaces
Christmas card and publicity
Beer and Carols
Sele Farm mindfulness
Climate Pilgrimage
7) Kath has researched and developed a list of sites most likely to take posters and has cultivated relationships with shops and site owners.
8) It was hoped to involve TMM in discussing church comms but Tracy’s departure prevented this happening. The committee is now working with John Wacher on developing TMM publicity for young people and schools.

Summary

In its first year, the Comms Committee has established itself as a critical point of reference for all communications. Graphic designer Alex Nicholas has been instrumental in developing a recognisable brand for the church and, by designing most of the posters and flyers for church activity, has ensured that there is now a consistent look-and-feel to church publicity, which is reflected by Phil and Lou’s posts on the website and social media.

There is still work to be done, of course, and the following year should see:

Increased use of up-to-date photography of church events in publicity
Greater involvement of young people and their opinions
Expanded reach into local communities
Development of local media links
Greater visibility of what happens at St Andrew’s.

Thank you for your support.

Forbes Mutch

Social and Events Committee

The Committee consists of Jane Cohen, Shirley Taylor, Debbie Ledsam, Catherine Sleath, Frances Cracknell and Deborah Buzzard. Pat Warlow officially stepped back from the Social Committee in December 2022. The Committee thanked Pat for her years of participation with a thank you card and small gift.

The Social and Events Committee’s role is to support church events and provide refreshments at specific Services. With the church finally able to hold events again mid-way through 2022, it proved to be busy and at times logistically challenging. Many of the events supported involved large numbers of people, space constraints, shortage of tables to be used for prep and serving as they were being used elsewhere round the church and supplying food and drink for numbers. Examples were the Railway Exhibition, scaled down

Beer Festival, Beer and Carols as well as the Advent Services, particularly the Seven Lessons and Carols Service in which we counted 180 people for mulled wine, Christmas mince pies and nibbles.

Our first event was in June 2022 when we supported Alan with refreshments for the “Newbies” Afternoon Tea.

July brought the Railway Exhibition. Another great project from Kath and Geoff Oates and Nick Hoyle. We were asked to provide refreshments, lunches, snacks and drinks to those who had exhibits as well as having lunch items for sale to people visiting the Exhibition. This involved making 200 ham, cheese and ham and cheese rolls on one table in the kitchen, as well as providing copious amounts of tea and coffee, crisps, cans of drink and bottled water. We were very grateful to Bakers Galore who brought in and served the cakes, biscuits and hot drinks. They cheerfully worked round us in the kitchen and used the card machines without any complaint whatsoever.

We were asked to charge the minimum we could for the lunches and refreshment items and even though there were some rolls and items leftover and were given away on the Sunday afterwards, we still broke even. Many items were able to be sold or used at subsequent events and a small profit would have been made overall.

September brought the planning for the Beer Festival organised by Chris Seward and Laura Ramsay. However, this was postponed due to the death of Her Majesty the Queen. Instead, we helped with a scaled down version held over the Harvest Festival Weekend in October which was a “round the world of culinary delights” that was brought in by the different nationalities connected with St Andrews.

The end of November brought the Advent Service. Traditionally we provide wine, juice, and a selection of hot and cold nibbles after the service for approximately 110 people.

December brought Beer and Carols in which we served warm mulled wine. Again, a logistical challenge but one we ran very smoothly.

Seven Lessons and Carols was on Thursday, 22[nd] December 2022 rather than the last Sunday of Advent due to the Football World Cup. With this new date being so close to Christmas, catering wise we were uncertain as to whether this would mean more people attending or less. After this service warm mulled wine, Christmas mince pies and other nibbles is served. We counted 180 people attending and it was a very joyous occasion.

And for this year thus far, on Shrove Tuesday, Alan asked us to provide coffee and pikelets (scotch pancakes) before Claire Goodman’s Dementia talk.

Whether an event is large or small, very involved or only serving, the committee members approach each with a calmness, ease and good humour that makes it is a pleasure to be part of their team. I want to offer a huge thanks to the Committee and all those that help us.

Jane Cohen

Hertford St Andrew Community Trust

The Trust, set up by the PCC, is responsible for managing and maintaining the St Andrew’s Centre. It is a registered charity with a main object of promoting and enabling well-being in our local community through the use of the Centre.

People

The trustees are Malcolm Fry, Carol Muhr, Philippa Probert, Laura Ramsay, Judy Sharman, David Spring, Richard Taylor and Rod Willis. Carol Muhr, who for many years was the Bookings Secretary and involved in the day-to-day operation of the Centre, joined the board of trustees last year and we are glad to have her experience and ever-willingness to help.

A new Centre Administrator was appointed in April 2022, namely Christine Williams. She attends to all enquiries and organising bookings of the hall and the John Summers-Gill Room, producing a monthly schedule of occupancy of the Centre, invoicing and chasing up outstanding payments. We are glad to have Christine as part of the team.

All financial matters including bookkeeping, banking, preparation of budgets and drafting of the annual accounts is carried out by our honorary treasurer, Shirley Taylor. The trustees are grateful to Shirley for all the work she does and to Ralph Paddock for acting as independent examiner of the accounts.

Rod Willis is one of the trustees. Thanks to Rod many maintenance jobs have been and continue to be carried out at little or no cost to the Trust.

Other jobs are shared out among the trustees.

Financial Position : please see the accompanying schedule

Income: getting back to normal after the restrictions imposed during the pandemic was the order of 2022. The Centre continued to be used for Covid-19 vaccinations which helped to boost income. Overall usage income rose to £18,113 (£14,256 in 2021).

However, looking at 2023, with no further income from the vaccination programme, usage income is expected to drop to below £15,000. We have lost one major user in the last two years as a consequence of the pandemic as they relocated to larger premises for increased social distancing. We have not been able to find another regular user for their time slots. The trustees have endeavoured to widen the advertising of the Centre (without cost) to increase hire income.

Running expenses: total running expenses in 2022 were £15,694 (£12,875 in 2021). These expenses include the annual payment made to the PCC (as to which see below).

Energy costs rose significantly in the last quarter of the year and are expected to be high for the whole of this year.

Payment to the PCC: the Trust bears a portion of running expenses shared by the church and Centre, such as utilities, buildings insurance, heating and intruder alarm servicing and church administration. This amounted to £4,357 in 2022 (£3,847 in 2021).

In addition, £10,000 was paid to the PCC under the terms of the Management Agreement by which the Trust administers the Centre and pays excess reserves to the PCC.

Maintenance

In 2022 the hall was redecorated, the hall divider repaired, new taps fitted and the emergency lights were upgraded. Earlier this year, the cisterns in both toilets needed replacement. This included the major job (carried out by Rod) of rebuilding the casing around each of them and making them more easily accessible for future maintenance.

The handrail at the garden end of the hall was also repaired by Rod after it was damaged by a large section of yew tree which came down in a storm.

Richard Taylor, Chairman

22 HERTF RD T ANDREW MM NITY TR St Andrew's Centre FINAN £ 2022 £ 2021 £ 2020 £ 2019 Income Hirin8s Inon vaccinations) Hirings Ivaccinationsl Donations 13,291 4,822 300 6,764 7,492 5.653 14.885 92 50J 270 Grants Fundraising Trainin Ciyjrses Income Holiday At Home 7,500 500 18 35 1,027 16.735 18.413 21,756 6.245 ndlture Cleanin & Materials Utilities Equipment Trust & Church Insurances Maintenance & Repairs Administration Payment to PCC Table Tennis inc coach Holiday At Home Sundry 2,301 2,773 126 1,521 4,248 4,716 iO,LX)O 1970 1787 324 1444 1821 3529 20cl 2185 1871 31 1665 1979 3273 2,332 2.193 312 1.623 2,048 5.208 178 890 1,027 62 15.695 25.694 12.875 11.182 Su luslDeflclt In ar Brought forward from prevlous Carry fon¥ard tt> followin8 year -7.281 23.915 16,634 8.881 15.034 23,915 4.937 19.971 15,034 1.040 18.931 19,971 Summa ment to PCC Includedln alve e ndlture Utilitie5 Church Administmtor Church Insumnce Fire Ext & BurglorAlarm Stoff under/overpayment 8oiler seryice Sund Poyment to PCC ui ment 2, 773 475 680 239 -140 165 107 lo,) 58 14,357 1, 787 475 1,871 475 2,193 475 680 365 -20 260 175 253 257 165 163 144 22 324 5,847 3,449 4,128 25.3.23

Hertford St Andrew C of E Primary School

Since I wrote a report in April 2022, our parish school has been open full time for twelve months since the government’s Covid restrictions were lifted. It has, however, been a challenging year for everyone, as children settled back into the routine of coming to school again and engaging in learning. Mr Jones and the staff have worked hard to raise attainment across the curriculum and the children continue to make good progress.

Our school continues to offer the children a full and enriching curriculum within a clearly Christian ethos, its leaders and staff providing a caring and nurturing environment where the children grow in confidence and are keen to learn. Our vision – “Love Learning, Aim High, Trust God” and our values of Love, Trust, Forgiveness, Courage and Resilience are at the core of everything the school does. Loving and valuing everyone is an essential element of Christian behaviour and is at the heart of life at the school.

Mr Jones and the staff have once again provided an eclectic range of activities and extra-curricular pursuits, including trips and visitors to the school. This supports the children’s learning, builds their confidence and allows our children to respond to the school’s adopted Bible verse “let your light shine” (Mathew 5:16). Visit our excellent website to read more about these: www.hertfordstandrew.herts.sch.uk

There are currently 144 children on roll including 20 nursery children. The school has been fully staffed throughout the academic year. However, during the last twelve months we have seen some changes in personnel as several members of staff have moved on. Miss Raw left last Summer to take up a post as Senior Teacher at nearby Essendon Primary and Mrs Hammond our Family Support Worker left at end of the Spring Term 2023 to take up a post with Herts County working as a SEND Implementation Support Officer. Both of them had made significant contributions towards the continuing improvement of the school and the well-being of the children and we wish them well for the future in their new roles.

At the end of the academic year, we will be saying goodbye to Mr Jones as he takes up a new headship in Essex. The school is indebted to him for all his hard work, ambition and commitment to improving the achievements and outcomes of all children during the four years he has been with us and in meeting and dealing with the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus shutdown. We wish him every success in his new headship. At the time of writing, an appointment process is being undertaken to find a replacement as Headteacher.

After the absence of a PTA for many years the governors are very proud that the school has now been able to re-establish the PTA and the governors have noticed that parents are more engaged with the school community again. The church has been very pleased to welcome, on two occasions, members of the PTA and some children to sell cakes they have baked and to raise funds for the school. Feedback from them was that they felt very welcomed by the members of the congregation and Junior Church.

St Andrew’s continues to have a high proportion of the children on the SEND register (30%) with nine children with Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP), eligible for Free School Meals (52%) and receiving Pupil Premium funding (52%). The Department for Education requires the Pupil Premium money to be spent on promoting the progress of disadvantaged children and a full analysis of how the money is spent can be found on our website. Our Pupil Premium children make good progress from their starting points because of these interventions.

Overall, the school is balancing its budget, but governors are very aware of the increasing costs (notably rising employment costs) that face all schools in both the primary and secondary sectors. Governors need to review all expenditures with great rigour when the budget for 2023/24 is set. The number of children in school, although rising, is still low and this affects the budget as the amount the school receives depends on numbers on roll. We hope that with the new housing development on Sele Farm, the successive Ofsted

reports that have judged St Andrew’s as a “Good School” and the nurturing ethos of the school, more families will choose to send their children to the school

There are now five members of Hertford St Andrew’s congregation on the Governing Body i.e., Laura Ramsay, Rod Willis, Peter Murphy Chris Seward, and Lyn Payne (who joined us in September 2022) and our vicar, Alan. We also appointed another co-opted governor in September 2022. I stepped down as Chair of Governors at the beginning of the academic year and Stuart Aldridge, a parent of two children in school, became the Chair. Governors remain committed to working closely with the Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team to monitor all aspects of school life to ensure the best possible outcomes for the school. We continue to hold regular committee, full governing body (FGB) and monitoring meetings throughout this year.

You can find out more about the governors and their role on the school website. Please feel free to speak to myself or any of the governors if you wish to enquire more about the school and/or the opportunities of becoming a member of our highly valued team or a volunteer to help in the school.

In conclusion, there is a continued emphasis on growth and improvement at Hertford St Andrew where the governors, Headteacher and staff are ambitious and committed to improving and sustaining a thriving environment for all our children. I just want to add how extremely proud the governors are of all the hard work Mr Jones and the staff have done during another challenging year.

Laura Ramsay, Foundation Governor

Deanery Synod Report

Deanery Synod met three times during 2022.

March – the Role of the Diocese with the Deaneries and Parishes .

Synod met the new Diocesan Secretary David White, who gave an insight into his own life of faith and experience of worshipping in the Church of England. He outlined his vision for the diocesan office as existing for the purpose of serving the life of the diocese in its parishes, schools and chaplaincies. David also noted some of the challenges facing deaneries and the way in which deaneries are working together to support one another. There were questions about the diocesan financial situation post Covid and the challenge of attracting new people to church and encouraging congregations to return to worshipping in church. These questions generated much discussion.

Revd Rachel Wakefield gave a full report on the February General Synod which had discussed issues including Safeguarding; Facilities; Slavery and Human Trafficking.

July – Waterways Chaplaincy & Social Action.

There was a presentation from Lorraine Newman, a local Waterways Chaplain. The chaplain’s role is to be a visible presence along the waterways and to work in partnership with the boaters, the waterways authorities and outside agencies. Lorraine explained how she helped those in need living on the waterways with finding medical treatment and mental health support and linking them to food banks and other assistance.

This was followed by a presentation from Revd Sarah Forrest and Lyn Paddon from the Deanery Standing Committee who were leading on the Social Action Group. They talked about the Social Action activity in their benefice and the work they were doing with the Hertford Food Bank and with local homeless people.

Tim Crowther gave a full report on the recent Diocesan Synod which had covered the Environment Net Carbon Zero policy document, Wellbeing of Clergy, priorities for new housing development, safeguarding & finance. Colin Bird reported from the Diocesan Board of Finance, highlighting the financial deficits resulting from the pandemic caused largely by the reduction in the collection of Parish Share.

The deanery voted on a response to the Triennial Share Factor Review (voting to make no change on this occasion in view of the uncertainties brought about by the pandemic).

There were reports from the remaining Project Teams.

November – Beds and Herts Historic Churches Trust & Net Zero

William Masterton from the Hertfordshire & Bedfordshire Historic Churches Trust spoke about their fundraising via membership and the ‘Bike & Hike’ and how churches and parishes could apply for grants. Every parish and individuals were encouraged to join and support this organisation.

Mrs Emma Critchley, Diocesan Pastoral and Advisory Secretary spoke on church buildings and taking steps towards Net-Zero. She outlined the support and advice available from the Diocese and from the Church of England website. Her presentation was followed by a plenary discussion on the issues of maintaining old buildings and looking after the environment (God’s creation).

The continued development of the Deanery Mission Action Plan and Project teams was also discussed.

Other News

The parishes are to be congratulated on their excellent efforts in 2022 to pay Parish Share. Together, we contributed 97.58% of the request made of our deanery.

A Pastoral Aid Support Grant application for St Mary, Ponsbourne, was supported by the deanery for 2023, and it is expected that all the parishes will make their parish share payments in full through the year (2023).

The parishes of Thundridge and High Cross bade farewell to their vicar, Amanda Duncan, at the end of December 2022 and the process for finding new leadership for the parishes has begun. Please hold all concerned in your prayers.

Elections for deanery synod representatives are to be held at the APCMs in each parish. You may have heard that a limit on the number of consecutive terms of office was introduced, but this was subsequently removed. If an APCM wishes to impose its own limit, this can be done, otherwise, there is no limit to how many terms of office a person can hold.

We have the following project teams which would value new members with relevant expertise or interest:

Fresh Expressions, Social Action, Environment, Finance, New Developments

The Deanery Synod is a conduit between parishes and the wider church and will continue to support, share and explore issues highlighted and offer support and advice and share best practices.

Marion Little, Deanery Secretary

HERTFORD ST ANDREW

Charity No 1132540

Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Parochial Church Council for the year ended 31 December 2022

Team Vicar: Reverend Alan Stewart 7 Elizabeth Close Hertford SG14 2DB Bank: Barclays Bank plc 78 Turners Hill Cheshunt EN8 9BW

Independent Examiner: Mr John Alflatt 111 Star Street Ware SG12 7AQ

Honorary Treasurer: Mrs Debbie Hartnett 5 Woodville Place Hertford SG14 3NX

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2021

CONTENTS
	Page
HONORARY TREASURER’S REPORT	1
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT	4
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES	5
BALANCE SHEET	6
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS	7 - 16

HONORARY TREASURER’S REPORT

This report should be read in conjunction with the Parish Annual Report, produced for circulation at the Annual General Meeting, which summarises the main activities of the parish during 2022.

The format of the accounts is the same as last year, as required by the Church Accounting Regulations 2006. The Statement of Financial Activities on page 4 summarises the income and expenditure for the year (separately detailed in Notes 2 and 3 respectively). The balance sheet on page 5 shows the assets and liabilities of the PCC and how these are apportioned between various types of fund.

Summary of 2022

The main headlines for 2022 are:

we are reporting a surplus of £12,488 this year in our general funds; this is a very positive outcome and, compared to 2021, is mainly the result of £3.2k increased planned giving, £5.3k increased cash and contactless collections, a £3.8k increased surplus on church events during the year and £0.2k of other increases/savings.
this surplus has been allocated by the PCC to the following reserves: Sound and Visual reserve £6,000, Calton Avenue reserve £4,000, Energy Fund £360 and the Clock Repair fund £565, whilst retaining £1,563 for our existing general reserve which is now £34,463, representing 3 months of expenditure in line with our reserves policy
our designated reserves decreased during the year by £-6,448 due to expending £-17k on the bell tower repair work, offset by planned giving for the Restoration Reserve of £+0.6k and a generous donation of £10k from the St Andrew’s Trust; the PCC have also allocated £1.6k to the clock repair fund
our restricted reserves increased during the year by £6,560 , mainly as a result of the continued support of our Youth Work Fund (+£2.7k), the continued fundraising and grant income for the Clock Repair Fund (+£2.3k), and the creation of an Energy Fund (+£1.1k) to help the church to weather the on-going energy crisis
it is thanks to the continued generosity of our congregation that we are able to report this much better than expected surplus and create much needed funds for the future.

The detail for 2022

The accounts for 2022 show total income of £190,314 (2021: £173,407). Total expenditure in the year was £177,714 (2021: £158,245).

The 2022 net increase in funds of £17,518 (2021: £46,618) consists of the following:

Day to Day General Fund – net income of £12,488: As already outlined, our cash collections, planned giving and events income increased during the year. Our running costs have increased year on year and especially since October 2022 but we have received a £1,279 grant from the Diocese towards these costs and we have created an Energy fund to help with these increases for 2023.

Designated Funds – net spend of £(6,448): We have completed the bell tower repair work in the year and received a generous donation from the St Andrew’s Trust. The church’s Restoration Reserve is currently £13,067.

Restricted Funds – net income of £6,560: this is the sum of the movement on the various restricted funds in the year. Note 11 provides the detail. We have created four new reserves for the Sound and Visual project, the Calton Avenue fund, the Energy fund and the Church Display fund (for which we have received a £100 grant).

Endowment Funds – net income of £4,918: endowment funds show total gains on investments of £4,918 (2021: £31,456).

Income (Note 2):

Incoming resources from donors in 2022 of £146,811 reflects the generosity of our congregation in supporting the everyday running of the church as well as raising funds for our Youth Worker. This also includes a £10,000 to our Restoration Reserve from the St Andrew’s Trust.
Planned giving through the Church Membership Fund has increased year on year and totalled £96,929 in 2022 (2021: £93,728) including tax to be reclaimed.
£19,593 (including gift aid) was given to our Youth Worker Fund through planned giving and donations.
£4,362 has been raised for the Clock Repair Fund in 2022, as well as a further £1,570 from the Restoration Reserve and £565 from General Funds, with £3,000 coming from grants; the clock repairs in 2023 will be fully covered by this fund.
Church Events raised income of £20,240 with costs of £(12,151), generating a surplus of £8,089 from six extremely popular and well attended events during the year.

Expenditure (Note 3):

The 2022 Diocesan Parish Share was £76,570 (2021: £76,683) and was paid in full.
For 2023 the Parish Share increases slightly to £76,991 an increase of 0.6% (compared to a 6.3% increase across the Hertford & Ware Deanery).
The Parish Share includes two thirds of a stipend portion for our Team Vicar; the other third is paid by St Mary’s Hertingfordbury.
Mission giving totalled £8,730 (2021: £8,526) and this is detailed in Note 4. The PCC’s policy is for mission giving of close to 12% of unrestricted planned giving each year.
Children & Youth Ministry costs amounted to £16,864 (2021: £23,714). Since Tracy stood down from this role in August 2022, we have been actively seeking a new Youth and Children’s Worker for our parish.

Funds (Notes 10, 11 and 12):

Unrestricted funds decreased by £6,455, due to the allocation of £10,925 of the General Fund surplus to restricted reserves as already outlined and a further amount of £1,570 allocated from the Restoration Reserve. Of these unrestricted funds:
£13,067 remains designated for future Restoration work
£34,463 remains in the General Fund, equivalent to 3 months running costs
Restricted funds total £65,470 (2021: £46,415) as detailed in Note 11, with the Youth Fund holding the majority of this.
Endowment funds increased by £4,918 to £472,638 (2021: £467,720) due to the increase in the value of Calton Avenue, offset by the decrease in the value of investments held by the Central Board of Finance.

Reserves Policy

In accordance with best practice, the PCC has reviewed its reserves policy. Putting money aside as a reserve protects the PCC against drops in income or sudden increases in expenditure. It also allows the PCC to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise. The surplus of £12,488 in 2022 has been allocated to the following reserves (as shown in Note 11 of the accounts):

General reserve - The PCC aims to hold a minimum of 3 months of expenditure in a general reserve to protect against short-term pressures. Based on the forecast expenditure in 2023, this amounts to £35,000. Therefore £1,563 of the 2022 surplus has been retained in the general reserve to ensure the 3-month policy is met.
Calton Avenue reserve - These are funds put aside for the periodic refurbishment of the property owned by the PCC at Calton Avenue. The income from this property, which is unrestricted, supports the day-to-day work of the PCC. Expenditure on the property in recent years, which is normally incurred between tenancies, has used up this reserve. Therefore £4,000 of the 2022 surplus has been allocated to start to replenish this reserve.
Sound and Visual Project - The PCC are seeking to enhance the audio-visual equipment in the church. This is likely to be a sizeable cost which will require some fundraising before any expenditure can be incurred. £6,000 of the 2022 surplus has been allocated to this fund.
Energy fund – A new restricted fund which holds money donated specifically to assist with paying for the substantial increase in energy costs which the PCC faces in 2023. This fund benefitted from £1,140 of donations as well as £360 from the 2022 surplus, giving a total of £1,500.
Clock Repair fund – £565 of the 2022 surplus has been added to this fund to ensure that the clock repairs will be fully covered in 2023.

In additional to these reserves, the PCC also holds funds which have been donated for specific purposes, and hence they are restricted in their use. These are detailed in Note 11 of the accounts and include:

Youth fund – Money received specifically towards the PCC’s work with young people. This has continued to grow in 2022 and now totals £35,320. The PCC continues its campaign to recruit a new youth worker.

As always, the PCC wish to thank all those who have given financially during the year, it is very much appreciated.

Debbie Hartnett - Honorary Treasurer

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE PCC OF HERTFORD ST ANDREW

This report on the financial statements of the PCC for the year ended 31 December 2022, which are set out on pages 4 to 13, is in respect of an examination carried out in accordance with the Church Accounting Regulations 2006 (“the Regulations”) and Section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

Respective responsibilities of the PCC and the examiner

As members of the PCC you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements; you consider that the audit requirement of Regulations and Section 144(2) of the Act do not apply. It is my responsibility to issue this report on those accounts in accordance with the terms of the Regulations.

Basis of this report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission under Section 145(5)(b) of the Act and to be found in the Church guidance, 2006 edition. That examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the PCC and a comparison of the accounts with those records. It also includes considering any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with the examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respects the requirements

to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 130 of the Act; and
to prepare financial statements, which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the requirements of the Act and the Regulations have not been met; or

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

John Alflatt Independent Examiner Dated 31[st] March 2023

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES Year ended 31 December 2022

Note Unrestricted Funds £ Designated Funds £ INCOMING RESOURCES Incoming resource from donors2(a) 111,416 10,600 Activities for generating funds 2(b) 20,240 1,332 Income from church activities 2(c) 2,016 - Income from investments 2(d) 16,785 - Other incoming resources 2(e) 1,696 -	Note Unrestricted Funds £ Designated Funds £ INCOMING RESOURCES Incoming resource from donors2(a) 111,416 10,600 Activities for generating funds 2(b) 20,240 1,332 Income from church activities 2(c) 2,016 - Income from investments 2(d) 16,785 - Other incoming resources 2(e) 1,696 -	Note Unrestricted Funds £ Designated Funds £ INCOMING RESOURCES Incoming resource from donors2(a) 111,416 10,600 Activities for generating funds 2(b) 20,240 1,332 Income from church activities 2(c) 2,016 - Income from investments 2(d) 16,785 - Other incoming resources 2(e) 1,696 -	Restricted Funds £ Endowment Funds £ 24,795 - 400 - 1,034 - - - - -	Restricted Funds £ Endowment Funds £ 24,795 - 400 - 1,034 - - - - -
















Total Incoming Resources	152,153	11,932	26,229	-
RESOURCES EXPENDED Church activities 3(a) Costs of generating funds 3(b)	126,944 12,721	17,048 1,332	19,669 -	- -






Total Resources Expended	139,665	18,380	19,669	-

NET INCOMING
/(OUTGOING) RESOURCES FOR THE YEAR	12,488	(6,448)	6,560	-

Gains/(Losses) on investments: Unrealised - Calton Ave - investments 6(a) 6(b) NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS Distribution of surplus 10 Funds brought forward at 1 January 2022	- - 12,488 (10,925) 32,900	- - (6,448) (1,570) 21,085	- - 6,560 12,495 46,415	27,502 (22,584) 4,918 467,720













Funds carried forward at
31 December 2022	34,463	13,067	65,470	472,638

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

BALANCE SHEET As at 31 December 2022

Note FIXED ASSETS Tangible fixed assets 6(a) Investment assets 6(b) CURRENT ASSETS Debtors 7 Short term deposits Cash at bank CREDITORS: amounts falling due within one year 8 NET CURRENT ASSETS NET ASSETS FUNDS Unrestricted: - general - designated 9/10 Restricted 11 Endowment 12	31 December 2022 £	31 December 2022 £	31 December 2021 £ 275,014 192,706 467,720 33,397 57,570 16,608 107,575 (7,175)	31 December 2021 £ 275,014 192,706 467,720 33,397 57,570 16,608 107,575 (7,175)
		2022
		£

		302,516
		170,122

				467,720
		472,638

				33,397 57,570 16,608

		57,332
		37,956
		32,784

				107,575 (7,175)
		128,072

		(15,072)

				100,400
		113,000

				568,120

		585,638

				32,900 21,085


		34,463
		13,067

				53,985 46,415 467,720
		47,530
		65,470
		472,638

				568,120
		585,638

The financial statements were approved by the Parochial Church Council on 30[th] April 2023 and signed on its behalf by

Rev H A. Stewart – Team Vicar

The notes on pages 7 to 16 form part of these accounts.

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Church Accounting Regulations 2006 together with applicable accounting standards and the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice 2005.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention except for the valuation of fixed assets, which are shown at market value (investments) or insurance value (8 Calton Avenue).

The particular accounting policies adopted by the PCC are described below.

Funds

Unrestricted funds represent the funds of the PCC that are not subject to any restrictions regarding their use and are available for application on the general purposes of the PCC. Funds designated for a particular purpose by the PCC are also unrestricted.

The accounts include all transactions, assets and liabilities for which the PCC is responsible in law. They do not include the accounts of church groups that owe their main affiliations to another body (e.g. Mothers Union) nor those that are informal gatherings of Church members.

Incoming Resources

Collections are recognised when received by or on behalf of the PCC. Planned giving receivable under Gift Aid is recognised only when it is received. Income tax recoverable on Gift Aid donations is accrued when the income is recognised. Grants and legacies to the PCC are accounted for as soon as the PCC is notified of its legal entitlement and the amount due.

Rental income is recognised when the rental income is due. Dividends and interest income are accounted for when receivable. Unrealised gains and losses are accounted for on revaluation of investments at 31 December.

Resources Expended

Grants and donations are accounted for when the decision to make the grant has been taken. The Diocesan Parish Share is accounted for when payable.

Fixed Assets

Consecrated and beneficed property is excluded from the accounts under Section 96(2) of the Charities Act. No value is placed on moveable church furnishings held by the churchwardens on special trust for the PCC and which require a faculty for disposal since the PCC consider this to be inalienable property.

Investments are shown at market value at 31 December. 8 Calton Ave is valued based upon that used for insurance purposes.

Current Assets

Amounts owing to the PCC at 31 December in respect of fees, rent or other income are shown as debtors. Short-term deposits include cash held on deposit either with the Central Board of Finance of the Church of England or at the bank.

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

2. INCOMING RESOURCES

Unrestricted Funds £ *2(a) Incoming resources from donors* Planned giving: - gift aided 72,483 - tax recoverable 18,121 - other 6,325 Cash collections at all services 9,412 Tax recoverable on cash collections 2,000 Grants received 1,279 Sundry donations: - legacies - - gift aided 1,090 - tax recoverable 273 - other 433 111,416 *2(b) Activities for generating funds* Fundraising Events (see note 13a) 1,650 Church Events (see note 13b) 18,590 20,240 *2(c) Income from church activities* St Andrew’s Toddler Group - Fees 2,016 2,016 *2(d) Income from investments* Dividends 5,063 Interest 386 Rental Income (Calton Avenue) 11,336 16,785 *2(e) Other incoming resources* Magazine advertising 1,056 Sundry items 640 1,696 TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES 152,153 2021 132,273	Designated Funds £ 480 120 - - - - - - - 10,000 - 10,600 1,332 - 1,332 - - - - - - - - - -	Restricted Funds £ 13,838 3,460 2,295 - - 3,100 - 95 24 1,983 24,795 400 - 400 1,034 - 1,034 - - - - - - -










































152,153	11,932	26,229
132,273	1,488	39,646

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

3. RESOURCES EXPENDED

3. RESOURCES EXPENDED	3. RESOURCES EXPENDED
Unrestricted Funds £ *3(a) Church activities* Missionary and charitable giving: - overseas (Note 4) 5,675 - home (Note 4) 3,055 8,730 Ministry: Diocesan Parish Share 76,560 Clergy expenses 2,229 Services 426 Organ, choir and music 6,794 Children & Youth Ministry - St Andrew’s Toddler group - Church running expenses 14,244 Church maintenance 1,758 Transaction fees 141 Printing and stationery (including parish office costs) 12,008 Church magazine & website costs 2,864 Sundry 1,190 126,944 *3(b) Costs of generating funds* Calton Avenue expenses 570 Fundraising costs (see note 13a) - Church Events costs (see note 13b) 12,151 12,721 TOTAL RESOURCES EXPENDED 139,665 2021 132,378		Designated Funds £ - - - - - - - - - - 17,048 - - - - 17,048 - 1,332 1,332	Restricted Funds £ Total Funds 2022 £ Total Funds 2021 £ - 5,675 5,226 - 3,055 3,300 - 8,730 8,526 - 76,560 76,683 - 2,229 2,177 - 426 598 191 6,985 6,096 16,864 16,864 23,714 525 525 265 - 14,244 10,801 2,089 20,895 10,681 - 141 171 - 12,008 12,588 - 2,864 1,971 - 1,190 2,480 19,669 163,661 156,751 - 570 376 - 1,332 888 12,151 230 - 14,053 1,494 19,669 177,714 158,245 23,979 158,245
				8,526 76,683 2,177 598 6,096 23,714 265 10,801 10,681 171 12,588 1,971 2,480
				156,751
				376 888 230
				1,494
				158,245
	139,665	18,380	19,669
	132,378	1,888	23,979

These expenditure lines contain a contribution from the St Andrew’s Trust of £4,357 in total to cover the costs incurred by the PCC for the running costs of the Centre.

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

4. MISSIONARY AND CHARITABLE GIVING

Overseas relief and development agencies: Living Hope International Tear Fund International Health Partners DEC Ukraine Appeal SolarAid Latin Link Vaccinaid (Unicef) Home mission and other churches: Young Life Hertford Welcomes Syrian Families Future Hope Christians Against Poverty Hertford Food Pantry (Hertsfood) * Bridge Builders Trust The Children’s Society		2022 £ 5,675 3,055 8,730	£ 1,600 1,000 1,000 - - 750 876 1,800 600 400 - - 400 100	2021 £ 5,226 3,300
	£

	1,200
	575
	1,200
	1,000
	500
	1,200
	-


	1,500
	750
	320
	325
	160
	-
	-


				8,526

These amounts have been designated from the 2022 budget and will be expended in 2023.

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

5. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS and COFFEE MORNINGS

The amounts listed below have been collected on behalf of other charities either through collections or from Saturday coffee mornings, the PCC acting as an agent for these charities.

Due to the prolonged COVID lockdown in 2021, collections and coffee mornings were severely affected, but these were reinstated in 2022. Our monthly coffee mornings have been well supported and have raised £3,381 over the year, with £1,332 going to charity, £1,649 to church funds (2021: £758) and £400 to the clock restoration fund. The PCC retains 50% of funds raised at our monthly coffee mornings but in 2022 one coffee morning was dedicated to church funds and another was dedicated to raising funds for the clock repairs.

Our Christmas collections raised an incredible £2,090 for the following charities: The Children’s Society, Christmas Alone, Hertford Food Pantry and Herts Young Homeless.

Special Collections Children’s Society Herts Young Homeless Christmas Alone DEC Ukraine Appeal Cruse Bereavement Hertford Food Pantry (Hertsfood) RNLI Bishops Harvest Appeal Cancer Research Shelter/Shelterbox (Advent collection) Stevenage Haven Macmillan (for Lister Cancer Unit) Dementia UK Total from Special Collections Coffee mornings Royal British Legion Macmillan Christian Aid Cancer Research Action Aid Hertford Food Pantry (Hertsfood) Future Hope International Health Partners Isobel Hospice Total from Coffee Mornings	2022 £ 630 620 500 350 348 340 325 98 23 - - - - 3,234 207 222 175 223 110 110 285 - - 1,332 4,566	2021 £ - 200 - - 400 - - 100 - 165 55 46 305 1,271 113 225 - - - - - 250 300 888
		2,159

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

6 FIXED ASSETS

6(a) Tangible fixed assets

Net book value brought forward at 1 January Gain in the year Net book value carried forward at 31 December	2022 £ 275,014 27,502 302,516	2021 £ 267,783 7,231 275,014

This represents the freehold of 8 Calton Ave, Hertford. The original cost of this property was £6,500. The book value is based upon the value estimated at 1 August 2022 by the PCC for insurance purposes.

6(b) Investments

*Investments*
Net book value brought forward at 1 January (Loss) / Profit in the year Net book value carried forward at 31 December	2022 £ 192,706 (22,584) 170,122	2021 £ 168,481 24,225 192,706

This represents 8,240 shares in the CBF’s Investment Fund (historical cost £10,082).

7. DEBTORS

Income tax recoverable Prepayments and accrued income Sundry debtor – St Andrew’s Trust * Sundry debtor – St Mary’s Church Other debtor – PAYE / NI receivable	2022 £ 50,273 1,168 4,357 1,062 472 57,332	2021 £ 26,264 642 5,847 644 - --- 33,397

Prepayments include a £538 deposit for a church away day in 2023.

** The St Andrew’s Trust contributed £4,357 (2021: £3,847) to cover the costs incurred by the PCC for the running costs of the Centre

8. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

Accruals PAYE and NI Creditor Other creditors	2022		2021 £ 4,634 1,129 1,412 7,175
	£
	6,452
	-
	8,620


	15,072

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

9. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BY FUND

9. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BY FUND	9. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BY FUND	9. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BY FUND	9. ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BY FUND
Unrestricted Funds £ Restricted Funds £ Endowment Funds £ Total £ Fixed assets - - 472,638 472,638 Current assets 58,845 69,227 - 128,072 Current liabilities (11,315) (3,757) - (15,072) 47,530 65,470 472,638 585,638 10. UNRESTRICTED FUNDS Undesignated Designated Total General Fund £ Restoration Reserve £ Unrestricted Funds £ Brought forward at 1 January 2022 32,900 21,085 53,985 Incoming resources 152,153 11,932 164,085 Resources expended (139,665) (18,380) (158,045) Distribution of Surplus (10,925) (1,570) (12,495)

Carried forward at 31 December 2022	34,463	13,067	47,530

The designated funds are set aside by the PCC for particular purposes. These funds may at any time be re-designated by the PCC and therefore the designation does not prevent the funds being spent on any other purpose.

The General Fund surplus of £12,488 in 2022 has been re-designated as follows: £4,000 to the Calton Avenue Fund, £6,000 towards the Sound and Visual Project, £565 to the Clock Repair Fund and £360 to the Energy Fund. The Restoration Reserve has re-designated £1,570 to the Clock Repair Fund.

11. RESTRICTED FUNDS

Youth Work Fund Church Events Fund Clock Repair Fund Sound & Visual Project Calton Avenue Fund Energy Fund Toddler Group Luncheon Club Holiday at Home Sele Farm Toddlers Organ Repair Fund Church Display Fund Choir Fund		Brought forward 1 January £ 32,592 6,875 5,392 - - - 253 294 241 390 160 - 218		Incoming resources £ 19,592 - 4,363 - - 1,140 1,034 - - - - 100 - 26,229	Distribution of Surplus £ - - 2,135 6,000 4,000 360 390 - - (390) - - - 12,495		Resources expended £ (16,864) - (2,089) - - - (525) - - - - - (191) (19,669)		Carried
									forward
									31 Dec
									£
									35,320
									6,875
									9,801
									6,000
									4,000
									1,500
									1,152
									294
									241
									-
									160
									100
									27

		46,415
									65,470

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

These funds are given to the PCC for specific purposes and it is the duty of the PCC to ensure that the money is spent only in that area. As agreed with both todldler groups, the Sele Farm Toddlers Fund has been re-designated to the main Toddler Group Fund.

12. ENDOWMENT FUNDS

12. ENDOWMENT FUNDS
Brought forward at 1 January 2022 Profit / (Loss) in the year	Jolland £ 294,121 25,263	Wallis £ 5,565 (652)	Fryer £ 168,034 (19,693)	Total £ 467,720 4,918
Carried forward at 31 December 2022	319,384	4,913	148,341	472,638

The Jolland and Fryer funds must be retained by the PCC for furthering the religious and other charitable work of the Church of England in the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Andrew, Hertford. They are retained in the form of investments (producing dividend income) and property (producing rental income). The Wallis fund is retained for maintenance of church lighting.

13. SUNDRY MATTERS

13(a) Restoration Reserve

There is £13,066 in the Restoration Reserve as at 31[st] December 2022.

	Brought forward at 1 January 2022 Income Donation from St Andrews Trust Other Donations Gift Aid on donations Expenditure Bell Tower repairs and professional fees Distributed to Clock Fund	Restoration Reserve £ 21,085 10,000 480 120 (17,049) (1,570)

	Carried forward at 31 December 2022	13,066

In 2022 we completed the bell tower repairs which were the final major works identified in the 2020 Quinquennial Report. The balance on the Restoration Reserve will be used partly on a new noticeboard in the church grounds as well as continuing a cycle of work until the next Quinquennial Report in 2025.

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

13(b) Clock Repair Fund

There is £9,801 in the Clock Repair Fund as at 31[st] December 2022.

	Brought forward at 1 January 2022 Income Grants received in the year Coffee morning & competition Individual and community fundraising Gift Aid on donations Distributed from Restoration Reserve Distributed from General Reserve Expenditure Initial payment for Clock Repair	Clock Repair Fund £ 5,392 3,000 673 665 24 1,570 565 (2,088)

	Carried forward at 31 December 2022	9,801

The church clock is currently with Smiths of Derby for extensive repair work and will be fully funded by the £9,801 Clock Repair Fund.

13(c) Church Events and Coffee Mornings

	Income Church events income Church hire income Church share of coffee mornings * Expenditure Church events expenses General event expenses		Church Events, Hire & Coffee Mornings £ 18,049 541 1,650
			20,240 (11,991) (160)

	Surplus		8,089

We hosted 6 large events in 2023, generating a surplus of £6,058. Three events were for visiting performers, namely Fairport Convention, Jon Boden and Ralph McTell. The other three events were a Railway Day, a Harvest Beer Festival and a Beer and Carols event.

** The PCC retains 50% of funds raised at our monthly coffee mornings and in 2022 one coffee morning was dedicated in full to church funds.

We have a church events restricted fund of £6,875 to be used as working capital for these events.

13(d) Letting of 8 Calton Avenue

Rental income is received in relation to 8 Calton Avenue. The property has been let at market rate since September 2016.

HERTFORD ST ANDREW PCC

We have created a Calton Avenue Reserve this year with £4,000. This reserve will be used for much needed updating of the property in the next few years.

13(e) Staff costs

During the year the PCC received the services of the following:

Director of Music who received £3,060 (2021: £3,000).
Parish Administrator who received £9,433 (2021: £9,126).
Youth Worker who received £14,932 (2021: £21,385).
Assistant Parish Administrator who received £212 (2021: £423)

Hertford St Andrew PCC has three staff members who are enrolled in a Church of England pension scheme called The Church Workers Pension Fund (Pension Builder 2014)

Under Financial Reporting Standard 102, we are required to report on the pension as follows:

The Church Workers Pension Builder 2014 is a cash balance scheme that provides a lump sum which members use to provide benefits at retirement. Pension contributions are recorded in an account for each member. This account may have bonuses added by the Pension Board before retirement. The bonuses depend on investment experience and other factors. There is no requirement for the Board to grant any bonuses. The account, plus any bonuses declared, is payable from members’ Normal Pension Age.

There is no sub-division of assets between employers in each section of the Pension Builder Scheme.

The scheme is considered to be a multi-employer scheme as described in Section 28 of FRS 102. This is because it is not possible to attribute the Pension Builder Scheme’s assets and liabilities to specific employers and means that contributions are accounted for as if the Scheme were a defined contribution scheme. The pensions costs charged to the P&L in the year are the contributions payable (2022: £10,839 which includes AVCs for one employee, 2021: £7,215).

A valuation of the Pension Builder Scheme is carried out once every three years. The most recent was carried out as at 31 December 2019. The next valuation is due at 31 December 2022.

For the Pension Builder 2014 section, the valuation revealed a surplus of £5.5m on the on-going assumptions used. There is no requirement for deficit payments at the current time.

The legal structure of the scheme is such that if another employer fails, Hertford St Andrew PCC could become responsible for paying a share of that employer’s pension liabilities.

14. ST ANDREW’S CENTRE

The St Andrew’s Centre is run by the St Andrew’s Trust, a charitable organisation, in which the PCC holds 100% shareholding. The St Andrew’s Trust prepare their own accounts and are not included in this set of accounts, except for the contribution of £4,357 from the Trust towards the running costs of the Centre incurred by the PCC. In addition the following staff are included on the church payroll but fully funded by the Trust:

Cleaner who received £1,850 (2021: £1,820)
Administrator(s) who received £4,186 (2021: £3,254).

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE PCC OF HERTFORD ST ANDREW

Respective responsibilities of the PCC and the examiner

Basis of this report

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with the examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1)which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respects the requirements
to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 130 of the Act; and
to prepare financial statements, which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the requirements of the Act and the Regulations have not been met; or

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

John Alflatt

Independent Examiner Dated 31st March 2023