General Church Meeting 23 May 2021 Report from Leadership Team
Back in October, Church Council approved a vision plan for 2020-2021, based around the four areas of Our Calling in the Methodist Church:
Worship, Learning and Caring, Evangelism and Service.
When this plan was drafted, we were aware that Coronavirus would impact church activities, but not as severely has turned out to the be case. Nevertheless, as a church we have much to celebrate in what God has been doing as we have tried to follow through on the vision plan. Here are some of the highlights (although divided into sections there is a lot of cross-over):
Worship
As well as continuing Meeting by Mail as what has kept us connected in our spiritual life (albeit in a limited way), we have offered COVID secure worship in-person when possible. Although it has been over a year since we have been able to lead worship in care homes or meet for Messy Church, we have kept these relationships as best we can through greetings and gifts at the major festivals.
Learning and Caring
Our pastoral network has been strong throughout the pandemic, particularly through the work of the pastoral visitors, but through many others also. The internet is not a “go-to” means of communication for many of us, however we have given a prayer meeting a go in this way, and one fellowship group has kept in touch via Zoom. We were able to hold a remembrance event in person in December as planned.
Evangelism
Several of the things we hoped to do have not come to fruition, however others have emerged. In particular, last year our online presence (our website, Facebook and Twitter) was quiet. Since the autumn we have been much more active and engagement has gone up. Our weekly reflection (from Meeting by Mail ) is on the website and signposted from Facebook, for example, and we have published more than a dozen podcasts (on-demand audio recordings). The shed project has provided means to keep in touch with individuals from the Uniformed groups, Messy Space and Messy Church. After the Nativity Advent Calendar, we continued with a low-key display in Lent, and now have a wonderful Easter display. This work has featured in Downend Voice several times, and it is what has attracted most attention on social media.
Service
The Wednesday Café team have done a fantastic job with monthly mailings to the café community, as well as keeping in touch at birthdays and over the phone when possible. Since the New Year we have begun our Eco Church journey and are gradually exploring possibilities that this presents. We are in the process of registering officially as a Fairtrade church. Things have been tough for the mission and charitable organisations that we regularly support; despite the restrictions we have still found ways to give financially.
Looking to the future
In the vision plan for 2020-2021 we aimed to review the Creations project, which we have now done. Church council accepted this report recently, affirming that from the Creations project we
take forward two values in what we do as a church:
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An ongoing ethos of evolution: of creativity and an openness to change and grow.
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The ongoing value that we place on growth in our own faith as well as engaging with the community
Recognising that we need to think strategically about the future, church council agreed to engage with the Leading your Church into Growth programme which is being promoted by the Methodist Church at the moment. As a first step a small group will attend the training weekend in May along with Samuel Uwimana, our new minister. We hope that this programme may help us to focus our limited capacity effectively.
We look forward to Samuel beginning his work at Badminton Road (as well as Winterbourne Down and St Chad’s) from September.
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Totalsthis | Totals last | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SECTIONA | Funds | Funds | year | |||||
| I | e | g | ||||||
| a1 | RECEIPTS | Note | ||||||
| a2 | Offerinos andTaxrecovered | 30.927 | 353 | 31,280 | ||||
| Bank and CFB interest and | ||||||||
| a3 | lnvestment income | 126 | 126 | |||||
| a4 | Lettinqs | 5.622 | 5.622 | |||||
| a5 | Other receipts | 10,634 | 10,634 | |||||
| a6 | TOTALRECEIPTS | 47,309 | 353 | 47,662 | (a7l | |||
| SECTIONB | ||||||||
| bl | PAYMENTS | |||||||
| b2 | CircuitAssessmentor Share | 27.893 | 27.893 | 27.61e | ||||
| b3 | Donations | 1.000 | 1,000 | 2,000 | ||||
| M | Repairs and Maintenance | 2.012 | 2.O12 | 1,548 | ||||
| Utilities (lnsurances,water | ||||||||
| b5 | charqes, heatinq & liqhtinq) | 8,086 | 8.086 | 10.514 | ||||
| 06 | cleaning | 2.658 | 2.658 | 4,500 | ||||
| 67 | Other payments | 3,284 | 331 | 3,615 | 29,138 | |||
| b8 | rOTALPAYMENTS | 44,933 | 1,331 | 46,264 | (be) | 73"318 | ||
| NETRECEIPTS'PAYMENTS | ||||||||
| Totalfundsbrought forwardfrom | ||||||||
| last year | ||||||||
| c2 | 39.975 | 5.260 | ||||||
| ^2 | Subtotal | {c{+c2l | 42.351 | 4.282 | ||||
| c4 | lTransfersand adiustments | |||||||
| TOTALFUNDSATEND OFYEAR | (c3+c4) | 42,351 | 4,282 | (c8) | (cG) |
| INTERNAL | NetReceipts/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORGANISATIOIIIS | Receh3ts | Pavmenis | Peweots | |
| :l | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| :3 | ||||
| e6 | ||||
| Sub totalofhtemal | ||||
| ;8 | Oroani8ationsfunds | |||
| accounb(totals | ||||
| 'hurch oroughtforrardfrom page |
||||
| 6 | I-totals column! | 47,86i | ,t.398 | |
| tvtAL uEn ruEuo nELg |
||||
| :l{ | BYCI{URCH | 17.&2 | $,281 | t.398 |
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TOTALRECEIPTS | rOTAL PAYUENTS |
| (;TIUR(J}I-GASHFUNDS HELDAI 31 | zo2ll | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash inhand | ||
| 2 | BankCunentAccount | |
| 3 | SankDeDositAccount | |
| -4 | CentralFinance Board | |
| 6 | TrusteesforMethodistChurcfi Purposes | |
| 5 | f,tfigfunds | |
| fl | SUBTOTAL-Churchaccounb | |
| fotal fundsheldby lntemal Organisatiofis (lhe | d6ing | |
| a | lalancetotalfr0m above)(e12) | |
| D | TOTALCASHFUNDS HELDBY GHURCH |