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2021-12-31-accounts

St Paul New Beckenham Registered Charity No. 1133108

Annual Report

and

Financial Statements

of the

Parochial Church Council

for the year ended 31 December 2021

Bank:

National Westminster PO Box 28 Beckenham Kent BR3 4YN

Independent Examiner:

Ernest Kabera, BSc Accounting 25 Wrenbury Drive Bilston WV14 7BS

PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF ST PAUL NEW BECKENHAM ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2021

Background

St Paul’s PCC has the responsibility for promoting in the parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. It also has maintenance responsibilities for the Church building and halls of St Paul’s New Beckenham. In December 2009 the Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Paul Beckenham was registered with the charity Commission under registered charity no. 1133108. In 2021 St Paul’s adopted the mission statement “Sharing God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ”.

Membership Members of the PCC are either ex officio or elected by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) in accordance with the Church Representation Rules. Within these Rules, St Paul’s at its APCM in 1997 resolved that no representative of the laity to the PCC and/or Deanery Synod should hold office for more than six years continuously, following their current term of office, but that they may stand for election after a one year break. At its APCM in 2012 St Paul’s resolved that Section 3 of the Churchwardens Measure 2001, which states that a person who has served six successive years as churchwarden for the same parish may not serve again as churchwarden for a further two years, should be reinstated and apply to the parish of St Paul New Beckenham.

During the year the following served as members of the PCC:

Vicar: Rev Simon Couper
Chairman
Reader: Miss Sarah Butler
Wardens: Mr Richard Bradley
Mrs Rosemary Dear
(resigned 24thMay
2021) Mrs Hazel Koungoue
(from APCM
2021)
Representatives on Beckenham Deanery Synod:
Mr Keith Howick
Dr Barbara Judge
(resigned 15thMarch
2021) Mrs Hazel Koungoue
Elected members: Mrs Adelaide Adade
(co-opted 21stJuly 2021)
Mr John Blakely
(resigned 24thMay 2021)
Mrs Katie Burr
(resigned 24thMay
2021)
Dr Pete Glenister
(resigned 24th
May 2021) Mr Andrew Grifths
Mrs Tarina Hill
(from APCM 2021)
Mrs Anne Howick
(resigned 24thMay 2021)
Mr Keith Howick
Mr Ian Johnson
(from APCM 2021
Dr Barbara Judge
(resigned 15thMarch 2021)
Mr Paul Lashmar
(from APCM 2021)
Miss Nomsa Mafohla

Mrs Anthea Prendergast (from APCM 2021) Mrs Liz Spencer 1

Appointed Secretary: Mrs Anne Howick

Standing Committee:

This is the only committee required by law. It has power to transact the business of the PCC between its meetings, subject to any directions given by the Council.

In December 2020 the vicar reported to the PCC that he was hoping to make areas of the church life more accessible to people, to help people to understand how the church operates, where they could mentor or support the teams, and he encouraged people to take ownership, and to contribute their talents and gifts. The PCC agreed that people should serve on a team for a certain length of time rather than for a long time.

The Teams

All teams report to the PCC, which shares, with the Vicar, the leadership and oversight of the parish.

Buildings Team

The buildings team is responsible for planning and providing for the future needs of the parish in terms of buildings, grounds, and facilities. This team also has responsibility for significant maintenance projects including the Quinquennial Inspection. Day to day responsibility for maintenance of the buildings and grounds sits with the wardens.

Finance

This team is responsible for all matters relating to finance and stewardship at St Paul’s. This involves drafting the annual budget for the approval of the PCC, and working with the vicar to make sure financial news and concerns are communicated regularly and transparently with the wider fellowship.

Worship (and Children’s Work)

This team is responsible for the public services of worship at St Paul’s. This involves reflecting on styles of worship, our use of music and liturgy, as well as thinking about future sermon series. During the pandemic, our children’s work has come under this bracket with the 11:15 . This team is therefore responsible, for the time being, for making sure that children and young people are well served by our services of worship. As the country transitions out of the pandemic, St Paul’s will look to form a Children and Youth a team in its own right.

Communications

This team has oversight of the various channels of communication in use at St Paul’s, both in contacting the immediate church-family, but also in sharing news and events with the wider parish and beyond. This team ensures St Paul’s is keeping the website current, making good use of social media, and has effective measures in place to stay in touch with those who are not online. This team also has responsibility for the technicalities of broadcasting our online services.

Mission Partners

This team has responsibility for developing relationships with St Paul’s mission partners, both in the UK and overseas, and with the organisations they are connected to. This team supports our

partners through regular correspondence and prayer, and ensures that any updates either from

our partners, or their respective organisations, are shared with the wider fellowship. This team is also involved in suggesting new partners to the PCC as and when a link with an existing partner comes to a natural close.

Church attendance

At the end of 2021 there were 130 members on the Electoral Roll, of whom 56 are resident within the Parish and 74 are not resident within the Parish. The average weekly attendance on a Sunday in October 2021, which are the statistics we are required to return to the Diocese each year, was 75 adults and 15 children. During the year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was necessary to close the church for some weeks and it was not possible to hold services in the church. However when the church was closed St Paul’s was able to pre-record services and make them available on the church website, and on average each week there were 135 viewings. As it had not been possible to hold a Christingle service in the church, boxes or gifts and a personal letter had been prepared. 451 people had received the boxes or gifts and there had been 439 views of the online Christingle service. In 2020 451 people received boxes or gifts and there were 439 views of the online Christingle service. adults and 116 children had attended the Christingle Service in church.

Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016

As required by Section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016, the PCC agreed at its meeting in November 2020 the Parish Policy Statement for Safeguarding Adults when they are Vulnerable and the Parish Policy Statement for Safeguarding Children. Copies of these statements are displayed on the noticeboards in the main entrance porch and in the Church hall. Following the APCM in May 2021 Anne Howick was appointed the Parish Safeguarding Officer, Parish Children’s representative, and Parish Safeguarding Adults representative.

DBS Lead Recruiter

The PCC appointed Richard Bradley as the Lead Recruiter and the Vicar as the Deputy Recruiter Officer.

Review of the year

The full PCC met eleven times in 2021 to deal with church matters, with an average attendance of 85%. During the early part of the year it was necessary to hold meetings by Zoom, due to the Covid-19 pandemic but with effect from April 2021 it was possible to hold meetings in the Church hall and via Zoom. In 2020 the full PCC met seven times with an average attendance of 82%. Individual reports from the PCC teams follow later in this report, but this review needs to mention various areas of church life which are hugely important, and some of which were affected by the pandemic in 2021.

Due to the pandemic it was decided that, when it was possible to meet in person, services would be held at 8.00 am (BCP), 10.00 am (Morning Worship or Holy Communion) and 11.15 am (Family Service). For many weeks when the

church was closed the services were pre-recorded and were available to watch on the St Paul’s website. Following the re-opening of the church for services the 10.00 am services and the 11.15 am services were livestreamed and available on the website. Later in the year it was possible to return to holding services at 8.00 am (BCP) and 10.30 am (Morning Worship or Holy Communion), with a creche and Sunday School during the 10.30 am services. The 10.30 am services continued to be livestreamed and available on the website.

The Prayer Ministry Group was unable to meet during the year, and it was not possible to offer prayer in the Chapel during the 10.30 am Service of Holy Communion. The group was kept informed by email of any urgent requests, and a time of prayer continued to be held on a Thursday evening, by Zoom, for anyone to attend.

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The vicar, two wardens, Readers, the Pastoral Assistant, the Evangelist and the Church Administrator have continued to meet each week during 2021, either in person or via Zoom, to review the previous Sunday services and to share thoughts and requests.

Some of the Home Groups have continued to meet via Zoom, and as always this is an important time for study, discussion and nurture outside Sunday worship. Due to requests for the use of the hall on a Wednesday, the Wednesday Friendship Support Group agreed to meet on a Thursday afternoon and was renamed the Friendship Support Group. The Group continued to meet weekly for friendship and chats, either outside in the Church garden or inside in the church hall. In 2021 there were four weddings at St Paul’s and six baptisms. After an absence of 18 months the Babies and Toddler Group was able to re-start at the beginning of September. Due to the pandemic there was, by necessity, a more rigorous regime of registration and attendance week by week but this seemed to work well. In October there were 29 adults and 33 children registered. The organisers felt it was really gratifying to see new friendships being made by adults and children and they hoped to see this continue as the group grows.

The Church website has continued to be a source of information for church members, visitors and local residents. The Communications Group, which was established in 2020, has played an important part in sorting out the requirements for enhanced membership emailing, streaming of virtual services and the live streaming of services which necessitated improvements to the church internet and provision of a camera. As a result of lockdown the website, streaming and social media had become the most important general communications and promotional link to the wider community. The use of these media by the church generally is limited in terms of awareness of opportunity, the provision of information and we are grateful to those who have continued to support the use of the technology at the Morning services. This area had become part of the ‘new normal’ for church and had required greater involvement and the equipment was updated.

The church continues to be extremely well served by its many volunteers who clean the church and the brass, operate the worship presentation software and sound system during services, arrange the flowers, serve on the Welcome Team, maintain the gardens, wind the clock, serve as sidesmen at services, lead services and we give thanks for all their work. We are also grateful to the

musicians who play the organ or piano at each service, and to those who, during lockdown, pre-recorded hymns to be played at the online and actual services.

The PCC has several teams responsible for particular areas of the life of the church at St Paul’s. All members of the teams are required to complete a Conflict of Interest form. The following team reports summarise activity in those areas.

Buildings Team

No major repairs or improvements were carried out this year, but a number of smaller works were completed. These included:-

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The PCC also approved the installation of an external power socket on the north wall near the main entrance, which was used to good effect for the crib and Christmas tree lights in December.

The Buildings Team met in November to discuss two matters: commissioning of the next Quinquennial Inspection (QI) and action to follow up an inspection of the church and church halls electrical installations, carried out by CES in July. The Buildings Team supported the proposed appointment of an architect from the diocese’s approved list to carry out the next QI. The Team also recommended seeking the PCC’s approval of a budget of up to £1,000 to carry out electrical work as recommended by CES. The PCC approved the recommended action, which is being followed up currently.

The Communications team met occasionally over the course of the past 12 months. As with 2020/21, the work of this team was principally concerned with responding to the pandemic. Much effort had been put into the various communication channels which have enabled the parish to stay in touch during this time of social dislocation. Our renewed thanks go to everyone who regularly visits neighbours, makes phone calls, delivers newssheets, and performs those small acts of human kindness which keep us feeling connected and cared for.

As the COVID restrictions lifted, we were able to review our communications strategy. It was decided that, with the recommencement of Sunday services in the building (Palm Sunday 2021), and the merging the 10:00am and 11:15am services back into the 10:30am, we could reasonably lessen the frequency of St Paul’s emails, dropping from three email campaigns a week to two. In conjunction with this, it was felt that the TFTD (Thought for the Day) series had run its course, and these too were brought to a close this past year. The communications team would therefore like to thank everyone who contributed a thought, anecdote, or prayer over the past two years. The written PFTDs (Prayer for the Day) continues, and our renewed thanks go to Gilbert Safarian for his endeavours to supply quotes and prayers from across the broad sweep of church history, which so enrich our Monday mailing.

This past year, the communications team said goodbye to Simon Dalwood, as he and Suzy moved away from the parish after many years’ exemplary service. The regular mailings are now managed between Stephanie Fox in the office, and Sarah Butler, who between them do an excellent job to keep us all up to speed. Simon’s absence has had an impact on our ability to stream our Sunday services, an important channel in our regular communications. We are grateful to those volunteers who help to cover this vital line, but the team acknowledges that more volunteers would be most welcome.

The chief area of concern raised by the team this past year is making sure we are just as attentive in our efforts to communicate with those outside of our regular fellowship, as we are with staying in touch with those “in-house.” We have known for some time about the enormous potential of our website, and social media platforms as a means of outreach, engaging with those on, and beyond, “the fringes” of church life. We have slowly begun to post more regularly on our church Facebook page, and with less success, on our Instagram profile. This is an area we need to remain vigilant with. As ever, we are grateful to David Charlesworth for all he does as web-master. One key success this past year, largely driven by the website, is Christmas 2021. Many of us had anticipated last minute changes to the festive season as COVID numbers rose dramatically ahead of Christmas. David’s work on the website meant that we could clearly communicate the reduced seating capacity for the Christingle service, which in turn meant that nobody turned up without a ticket, and thus had to be turned away.

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Although, formally speaking, the work of the prayer cordon falls outside this team’s remit, we would nonetheless like to thank Ian Rodgers for his hard work in keeping us connected in prayer, and for helping us to pray directly into the needs of our parish family.

The Mission Partners team met four times during the year on Zoom. The following organisations were nominated for the year and were approved by the PCC and we gave:

£1,647.74 each to CMS for Ben and Katy Ray, to Wycliffe Bible Translators for Julian and Catherine, and to Crosslinks for Nick and Harriet Algeo. £1,505.37 was given to OMF for Julia Birkett, to Christians Against Poverty, and to Welcare in Bromley. St Paul’s supports home and foreign charities. In addition out of Contingency money, set aside for emergencies, we donated to the following organisations:

£400 to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, £398.16 to Living Well, £400 to SAT-7 UK, £400 to Tear Fund Crisis Appeal Afghanistan, £400 to Action Aid, Haiti Emergency Appeal, £400 to the Diocesan Welcome Churches Emergency Afghan Fund, and £250 to St Francis’ Home in Zimbabwe – contact of Herbert and Ethel Mafohla.

Worship Team

The Team met on Zoom in autumn 2021 to plan the shape of Christmas services in the light of the ongoing pandemic and suggested a theme for Christmas: “Where is the stable now?”.

There was much discussion about how best to ensure that people felt safe in attending services. The Christingle service was a particular concern where decisions about numbers had to be flexible until very near the day. The suggestion of hosting community carols outside the church with the Crystal

Palace brass band was taken forward and proved to be very successful. This was followed by a carol service in church.

2021 Financial Review

INCOME OVERVIEW

While the 2021 total for ‘voluntary income’ was closely similar to that for 2020, the mix was different in the following key ways:

The number of regular givers was stable (64 in 2021 compared to 65 in 2020) but these include 6 new regular givers and the loss of 7 regular givers who have died or moved away. We cannot stress highly enough how important regular giving is to enable St. Paul’s to thrive, plan and grow in commitment to God’s work here. If you would like a confidential discussion about giving regularly, please find either Keith Howick or Rosemary Dear.

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EXPENDITURE OVERVIEW

Our Parish Share (what we contribute to the Diocese in return for our Vicar and for Diocesan support) was the same in 2021 as it was in 2020, at £66,447, and we met this in full.

There were some ups and downs in general expenditure, but the absence of major repairs in 2021 accounted almost exactly for the reduction in total expenditure from £192,971 in 2020 to £117,490 in 2021.

LOOKING AHEAD

While the St. Paul’s financial position is currently stable, God’s Kingdom is about growth and spreading the Gospel rather than sitting back; about multiplying talents, not sitting on them. We have a stable platform, but need to increase income to enable us to:

The PCC will only commit to expenditure if two tests have been passed:

  1. That the expenditure contributes to our vision of engaging with and helping people on their journey of faith, at whatever stage that might be

  2. That every decision passes specific ecological scrutiny

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