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2021-12-31-accounts

St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Finham, Coventry Charity Commission Number 1133962

Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Parochial Church Council

For the year ended 31[st] December 2021

Incumbent: Rev. Matthew Taylor

Bank: Santander

Bootle, Merseyside, L30 4GB

Independent Examiner:

Mr. Jatinder Singh Birdi

ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS, FINHAM, COVENTRY, FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31[st] DECEMBER, 2021.

AIM and PURPOSE

St. Martin's PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. It also has maintenance responsibilities for the Church Hall, Fellowship Room and Community Hub of St. Martin's.

The PCC is a charity that is registered with the Charity Commission, Number 1133962.

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

St. Martin’s Church is situated in Green Lane, Finham, Coventry. It is part of the Diocese of Coventry within the Church of England.

The correspondence address is: The Vicarage, 136 Green Lane, Finham, Coventry, CV3 6EA.

The PCC is a body corporate, operating under the PCC Powers Measure 1956 which came into effect on 2nd January, 1957 and the Church Representation Rules (within Schedule 3 to the Synodical Government Measure 1969, as amended).

Members of the PCC are either ex-officio or elected by the Annual Parochial Meeting (APCM) in accordance with Church Representation Rules.

At the 2001 APCM a resolution was adopted for 12 elected members to serve on the PCC. Members elected would serve for a period of three years and one third of the elected members would retire annually. Retiring members would be eligible to offer themselves for re-election.

There are 127 parishioners on the Church Electoral Roll, of which 47 are not resident within the parish. All those attending St. Martin’s are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and to consider standing for election to the PCC.

The average church attendance on a normal Sunday in 2021 was 40 in person and many more watching on live stream each week.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE PCC FOR 2021 WAS:

Vicar: Rev Matthew Taylor Curate: Rev Abby Rhodes Church Wardens: Mrs Helen Spencer and Mr Dan Saxton

Lay Reader

Dr Andrew Barclay

Representatives on the Deanery Synod Dr John Elton (Diocesan Synod) Mr Godfrey Armitage (Diocesan Synod) Mrs Jackie Cubitt from 2020 (Deanery Synod)

12 Elected Members

4 Deanery Synod Members

Re-election

2022

  1. Caroline Brown

  2. Gill Blackmore

  3. Richard Morris

2023

  1. Martin Bint

  2. 5.Fran Armitage

2024

  1. Stan McCarthy

  2. Dave Foxwell

  3. Andrew Spencer – cp opted (Due to her commitments to the Revive Coffee Shop, Alison Court will no longer be standing for PCC)

GOVERNANCE, MANAGEMENT and OBJECTIVES

The PCC members are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to the parish, including deciding on how the funds of the PCC are to be spent.

The full PCC met 8 times during the year via Zoom. The PCC has Working Teams which during Covid have not met apart from the Building Team and the Standing Committee, on a monthly basis. The Teams met between PCC meetings when government guidance allowed and minutes of their deliberations were received by the full PCC and discussed where necessary.

The Standing Committee has a core of six members who are Rev Matthew Taylor, Rev Abby Rhodes, Dr Andrew Barclay, Mrs Jackie Cubitt, Mrs Helen Spencer and Mr Dan Saxton.

Standing Committee: This is the only committee required by law. It has the power to transact the business of the PCC between its meetings, subject to any directions given by the Council. The Standing Committee also oversees the monitoring of income and expenditure and the preparation of the annual budget. It oversees the work of the building sub-committee which ensures that the Church, Church Hall, Fellowship Room, Community Hub and grounds are maintained in a high standard of repair and cleanliness and oversees the use of the premises.

PUBLIC BENEFIT

The PCC continues to support and encourage a wide and growing number of church and local organisations, including the Mothers' Union and a variety of youth orientated entities.

The PCC continues with its basic mission of providing an opportunity for all in the area and further afield to join in worship and celebration of the Sacraments of the Church. All are welcome to join in our services either in person or via Live Stream.

VICAR’S REPORT - REV MATT TAYLOR

The second year of the pandemic brought with it the realisation that although vaccines were becoming more widely available, the variants meant it wasn’t a quick fix for the world to return to any form of normal. It seemed right, even in the face of this, for a year’s motto to help give hope again from the Gospel of John, ‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full …’ John 10.10b

It remained essential for us as a church community in the midst of such struggle to remain unified and to find new ways of maintaining connections with each other and our wider community. Along with our weekly sheet and service plans we began the year of mission encouraging each other to simply tell stories of how Jesus had touched our lives, in conversation, or online. We did this by social media, our news sheet and our fascinating interviews with members of the congregation which we called ‘Life stories’.

We continued to use technology to keep ourselves connected, PCC Zoom meetings and Saturday morning prayers. I regularly kept in contact with local developments by being part of the Community messengers Teams meeting, an initiative organised by the Coventry Council. Abby and I kept apart for a while to ensure Sunday services kept going, one of us leading the worship from church, the other preaching the sermon from home. Our fantastic Youth and Children’s workers kept connections via Zoom with young people, children and their families. We ‘broadcast’ live directly into the school via Zoom or Teams to deliver interactive lessons. The St Martin’s worship team even led worship for 30 minutes for The New Wine Leadership conference in the same way.

In March we began to connect again face to face with our community through the planting of flowers to commemorate the beginning of the first lock down and to remember those who had been lost due to Covid. As restrictions lifted further, we had the joy of singing together again outside. On Good Friday we conducted an open-air service attended by members of the community as well as church family regulars and Easter day worshipping both outside and in.

This year saw the return of our Summer Holiday Club with 25-30 children attending. This year it was a self-penned presentation based on the ideas of ‘Faith, Hope and Love’ with its own theme song.

As the year of mission began to come to an end our thoughts turned to 2022 as a year of Mental Health and wellbeing, with the long term effects of the pandemic predicted to impact people in the year to come. A team went to Bristol to be part of a day aimed at Mental Health Friendly Churches, which has been helpful in our thinking, but still needs further action in 2022.

In October, Abby and Matt attended a Church Planting and New Missional Communities conference which further confirmed for us that all the work on planning the coffee shop was worthwhile, and helped us to think about how it might be developed. Though there had been heavy disappointment earlier in the year when our major grant hadn’t come through, God led us onward in our thinking.

In terms of the coffee shop, the amazing work of so many began in earnest in the later parts of 2021, more to say on that in 2021. This year although we lost out with the larger grant, we saw an enormous amount of other blessing which spurred us on. The 5k from the diocese for the floor, the offer of an outside play area the day after we found we were unable to buy and build our own. We had a donation from Golden Bottle Trust (in September) and of course the amazing generosity of an anonymous donor in October to purchase solar panels for the church. With our new tables we saw their first purposeful use at the Christmas fair as we used the hub area once again as a pop up coffee shop.

When Christmas did come again there was more a sense of celebration compared to the previous year, if still a little muted. For us personally in the days before this Sandra’s Mum passed away which made things extra difficult, Christmas unwrapped was once again live and in church and our Christmas services filled once again, with a busy Nativity and standing room only at our Christmas Eve service.

Perhaps it should also be noted that it’s been a busy year for me in my Area Dean role. In 2021, we interviewed, appointed and licensed three new ministers. Father Ed at Tile Hill in February, Father Edward at Mary Magdalene in May and finally Rev Jo Joyce in July to Eastern Green. There has been a monthly chapter Zoom meeting every month with the first face to face social in November, this alongside finalising the deanery plan and help organising the regular deanery synods.

As we look in on 2022 and see the coffee shop now opened, we have begun to see the completion of a vision which began many years ago. Yes, it is tough, but God is blessing it and I believe in the days ahead it will continue to build and grow not only our connection with our local community, but also, we hope and pray we will ultimately see people come to faith in Jesus.

Reverend Matt Taylor - Vicar

Treasurer’s Report for 2021

2021 saw some important changes in the management of the church finances. Neville Hunt stepped down as Church Treasurer at the end of 2021 and was replaced by Paul McEwen. However, because of work pressures, Paul also stood down at the end of September 2021 and was replaced by Andrew Spencer. Also, Thomas Oliver stood down as Independent Examiner, having examined the 2020 accounts, and the PCC at their meeting on 22[nd] February 2022 recommended that Mr. Jatinder Singh Birdi be appointed to replace him.

The present Treasurer is indebted to Neville for the spreadsheet for recording church income and expenditure and to both him and Paul for their help and advice.

In addition to its general (unrestricted) fund, the church began 2021 with four restricted funds of which two, for the garden and EcoChurch, and for Rwanda, were dormant through the year and contain only nominal sums. Two others, for Youth and Missions, contain funds pledged by church members and the Missions fund also holds money committed by the church for supporting Christian organisations and individuals in the UK and overseas.

During the year the church set up three new restricted funds to support new projects: the Coffee Shop, the erection of solar panels, and repairs to the west wall of the church.

Summary

Income

Income to the general fund fell in all categories except Fundraising (there was no Christmas Fair in 2020). Income from hall lettings fell by a smaller amount than between 2019 – 2020, as Covid restrictions eased, and a determined drive to increase lettings and chase up arrears has continued. Standing orders continues to be the main source of income but this fell by just over £3,000 owing to deaths, leavings and changes of circumstances. Income through planned giving envelopes, the loose plate and donations also fell.

Income to restricted funds more than tripled, from £7,429 to £27,637. £17,000 came from an anonymous donation and £3,000 as a grant from the Golden Bottle Trust, both for the solar panels fund. £1,900 in donations was received for the Coffee Shop fund and a donation of £800 for surveys of the west wall.

Expenditure

Parish share rose slightly. The number of staff remained the same throughout the year but a change in hours worked led to a small increase in expenditure from the general fund. The engagement of a youth enabler in late 2020 was reflected in higher staff expenditure from the youth fund in 2021. Work formerly done by the cleaner is now being handled by Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre; this is included in the Buildings figures.

The utilities supplier went out of business in September and were replaced by British Gas, whose charges (particularly standing charges) are much higher. Delays in arranging payment led to some charges not being paid until early 2022. Because of the switch, we also lost our charity’s VAT discount and exemption from Climate Change Levy. We have applied to have these reinstated, retrospectively.

Expenditure on the buildings rose considerably. For the general fund, a large proportion was taken up by the cleaning services but there was also major expenditure on boiler servicing, the fire alarms, plumbing and electrical works. The 2020 financial report noted that some essential buildings maintenance had to be postponed and the upsurge this year may reflect these arrears.

Buildings expenditure from restricted funds is dominated by the new Hub floor and refrigeration and coffee making equipment for the Coffee Shop. There was also survey work in connection with the west wall.

Investments

To support cash flow, £20,000 was transferred from the CCLA deposit account to the current account in July and a further £10,000 in October. As a result the balance of this account was reduced from £65,000 to £38,000 by the end of the year.

The value of the holding in CCLA income shares rose from £125,000 to £142,000, a 113% increase. The holdings also paid out £3,600 in dividends during the year; these were paid into the CCLA deposit account. The value of our endowment with Black Rock recovered from just under £50,000 at the start of the year to £56,600 at the end: a 13% rise. Last year’s report suggested possible concern at the exposure of 69% of the church’s assets to risk on the stock market and the current economic and political uncertainties may strengthen the case for a rethink.

Reserves

In January 2020 the PCC reviewed its policy on financial reserves and decided that sufficient accessible funds should be kept at all times to cover six months of essential expenditure. Based on 2021, the amount to be kept in reserve is estimated to be £57,000. In fact, cash reserves at the end of 2021 amounted to £63,500.

External Giving

Despite the pandemic, throughout 2020 the Church maintained its policy of giving away an amount of at least 10% of its unrestricted income in the preceding year. This would have amounted to £11,449. Heavy expenditure on buildings and from the restricted funds led to concerns about cash flow and this proportion was not achieved in 2021. Giving to missions, relief and development agencies totalled £7,400 this year, with the following beneficiaries:

This has left a shortfall of £4,000 and ways are being sought to make this up. As at March 2022 the PCC has determined that £1,500 be donated to the Salvation Army for their work in Ukraine. In addition, £252 raised at the Christmas Fair was donated equally to Carriers of Hope and the Coventry Foodbank.

Andrew Spencer, March 2022

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