The Parish of St John the Evangelist, Whittle-le-Woods with Clayton Brook Community Church ## **Annual Report 2025 Charity Number 1134259** ## **The Annual Report on the proceedings of the Parochial Church Council and the activities of the Church To be received by the Annual Parish Meeting on 27 April 2026** **Received and adopted by the PCC on the 15[th] April 2026** Rev Philip Venables, Chairman Bryn Williams & Gill Menhennet, Churchwardens 1 ## **Legal and Administrative Information** The full name of the church is St. John the Evangelist, Whittle-le-Woods. We are a Church in the diocese of Blackburn of the Church of England, with two worship centres, the Parish Church (St. John’s) and Clayton Brook Community Church. Each worship centre has a group of ministry co-ordinators who are responsible to the Parochial Church Council, which keeps one set of accounts. This Annual Report covers the activities of the Parish during the year 2025, referring to the parish as a whole with its two congregations and including the parish accounts. Incumbent: Revd Philip Venables The Vicarage Preston Road Whittle-le-Woods Chorley PR6 7PS Correspondence Address: The Vicarage Preston Road Whittle-le-Woods Chorley PR6 7PS Parish Church Location: Preston Road Whittle-le-Woods PR6 7PS As a church in the Diocese of Blackburn, we are a charity excepted from registration with the Charity Commissioners. Charity number 1134259 Bankers: TSB Bank plc Chorley Branch PO Box 373 LS14 9CG The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc 56 Market Street Chorley PR7 2SD 2 ## **The Parish of St John the Evangelist PCC Report** ## **The vision of the Church is as follows:** ## We Seek Revival through: - **Speak Out Reach Out Gather in for Christ** During the year 2025 the following served as members of the PCC: Rev Philip Venables Vicar & Chair Bryn Williams Churchwarden St Johns Kathy Bigio Reader Gill Menhennet Churchwarden Clayton Brook Ed Lillie Secretary, Co-opted on to PCC Nov 24 Chris Woolham Treasurer Gill Lancaster Reader Chris Wynne Deanery Synod Representative – Resigned Mar 2025 Lyndon Wright Deceased Aug 2025 Nick Brake Deanery Synod Representative Ade Brown Stuart Cross Chris Dawson Jamie Dixon Paul Haslem Susan Parkinson Katherine Buckley Julie Fursman Marion Fraser Throughout 2025 the PCC met six times in person. A co-ordinator report from each church was given at the meetings and a report from the various PCC teams as applicable. The Standing Committee met 0 times. ## **Electoral Roll report 2025** The total number of people on the 2025 electoral roll was 112 88 residents in the parish and 24 non-residents 81 from St John’s and 31 from Clayton Brook 3 ## **VICAR’S REPORT for 2025** As we approached the centenary of Blackburn Diocese, we are invited to make 2025 a year of ‘prayer for growth and renewal.’ In that light we chose for our verse for the year these words from Paul’s first letter to Corinth: ## **‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.’ (1 Corinthians 3:6)** In this context, the Friday prayer group in Clayton Brook shifted their focus and have met, every week, to pray for growth and renewal. And I suggest that our prayers have been answered—modestly, but visibly. What has been particularly noticeable in Clayton Brook is the growth in numbers and attendance and faith of the group of children, most of them unaccompanied by adults. It is not uncommon now for there to be around 15 children and 30+ adults on a Sunday morning. This has been a real joy and has undoubtedly contributed to the growing sense of being family at Clayton Brook Community Church. Within St John’s we also saw modest growth in numbers and commitment. It has been a particular joy to see a good number of the newer families becoming very committed to church life and growing in faith and service. While we may freeze in body on a Sunday morning, there has been a warmth of fellowship. Of course, there are tensions and struggles—there always are (just as Jesus said ‘you will always have the poor among you’)—but many have been the joys and rewards. The other major impact in 2025, for me and probably for all of us, was the death of Lyndon Wright in August. In my 38 years of ordained ministry I don’t think I have seen a death impact a congregation so deeply. We have no worries for Lyndon, and we do not grieve without hope, but we do grieve, nevertheless. As we approach my retirement and the time of vacancy, we will need more such committed and gracious servants of Christ. Otherwise, 2025 was a year of plodding on with Jesus (which is a good thing to do!) in faith and love. It was a joy to see Rachel Rongong come to St Michael’s School as the new head and join us for a Sunday morning service. We had another joint Easter Praise service with both congregations together in St John’s, which was wonderful. We had two garden parties again with very moving testimonies from Rachel Shelley and Billy McCurrie. This year we billed Harvest Sunday as, also, Back to Church Sunday, and that bore some encouraging fruit. We had a fun day out to Chipping again, with rain for the first time. And the Christmas services were wonderful. One last observation: when Ed, our PCC secretary, completed the annual return for the Charity Commission, he had to indicate the number of volunteers working for our organisation. How do you measure that? He plumped for 70. Maybe 100 would have been more accurate, or maybe 50, but isn’t that wonderful? It is a good reminder that when I leave, though we call it a ‘vacancy’, the only thing that will be vacant is the vicarage. The church of Jesus Christ lives on and, by the grace of God, plods on. Rev Philip Venables 4 ## **DEANERY SYNOD** Chorley Deanery Synod met three times as usual during 2025. 2026 will be a crucial year as Deanery Synod reps are the electorate for the new General Synod. Rev Philip Venables ## **SOCIAL & OUTREACH TEAM 2025** This exists as a subgroup of PCC to plan and coordinate social events throughout the year, most of which aim to have an element of outreach too. These included the garden parties, a Sunday picnic, the Maundy Thursday meal, the day out to Chipping, and so on. The members were Philip & Caroline Venables, Deborah Green, Sue Lillie, Frances Grieve, Anne Harris and Nick Brake. Rev Philip Venables ## **ST JOHN’S CHURCHWARDEN REPORT 2025** ## **Hebrews 13:8 teaches us:** Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. In many ways, in 2025, life at St John’s remained the same but there was also the inevitable change; change that was pleasing, alongside a very saddening change. The building underwent some minor, routine, maintenance, including a repair, to a damaged window. The church is, of course, in need of an upgrade and further progress was made towards our aim for the long-awaited, reordering. The Sunday services were well attended, with pleasing signs of growth in attendance towards the end of the year. We give thanks and praise the Lord for the introduction of new faces to the St John’s family. The Wednesday morning Communion Service retained a similar attendance to previous years. The Easter Praise and Christmas Carol services continued to be joyful and popular. Our ‘Christmas Adventure’ event was, as ever, well attended, with families from the local community enjoying the family fun while learning more about our Lord Jesus. Whittle-le-Woods School and Clayton-le-Woods School continued to uphold their strong Church of England links with St John’s by bringing the children into church and inviting their families to celebrate Easter, Harvest and Christmas services. In March, Mrs Rachel Rongong, the new headteacher at St Michael’s High School, came along to meet our congregation. She is a deeply committed Christian and it was a joy that she came to meet us. 5 **During the year, we welcomed the visit of friends from missions that St John’s supports:** Alf and Hilary returned, in June, to update us on their mission in Chile and, also, with news of their pending retirement. We pray for them both in that retirement and their continued support within the ‘Church Mission Society’. Jim Barrie from Open Doors and Jonathan Hands from Compassion UK both attended to inform us of the Christian mission work their charities provide around the world. We thank God for Philip’s ministry who, with the support of Caroline, continued to provide leadership and pastoral care to the St. John’s family and to the wider parish. St John’s continued to receive the wonderful support and service from the members of the church family who volunteer with their time and gifts to support Philip in his ministry. In August, St John’s lost a wonderful servant, a man who devoted so much of his time to serving God. The sudden loss of Lyndon Wright was a time of great sadness to us all. Lyndon served as Churchwarden for many years with his selfless attitude contributing so much to the day-to-day life of St John’s and the wider parish. Fittingly, St John’s was full to overflowing for Lyndon’s funeral. We thank God for all that he did for the St John’s, the church-family and the parish community. We are so blessed that he was a member of St John’s. Bryn Williams, Churchwarden at St John’s. ## **CLAYTON BROOK CHURCHWARDEN & PRAYER REPORT 2025** ## **“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6)** 2025 brought many blessings and answers to prayer. We are thankful for the growth in our children and young people’s Sunday morning groups, ‘Kings Kid’s and Kings Youth’, and we praise God for these precious children. Our Sunday Services are attended by 32 adults and 16 children, on average. We welcomed newcomers and said goodbye to some who have moved on. It’s been a busy year in our community church where both church and community events were held each week. Our Warm Welcome outreach group met every Monday for food and fellowship. In February 2022 we started a weekly prayer time to pray for the war in Ukraine and nearly 4 years on we continue to meet and pray for this as well as many other issues both globally and locally. Our Growth Group met weekly during term time to study God’s word and share fellowship. Our building was used by a dance school over 3 days each week as well as 2 weekly support groups and occasional family celebrations. Although we are 2 separate buildings within the Parish our 2 congregations are united in the love of Jesus and the desire to bring the Good News of Christ to those in our communities. We worshipped together on Easter Day and Christmas Day, as well as a number, of shared events. A Maundy Thursday meal was one of those where 60 of us shared food, fellowship and reflected on Jesus’ Last Supper. In September we enjoyed a Parish Awayday in Chipping where we studied Psalm 13 then ate and quizzed together. Some brave souls explored the village in the torrential rain! 6 In November our church became a collection centre for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal run by Samaritans Purse. Hundreds of shoeboxes were sent to the distribution centre in Burnley on their journey to children across the world. What a blessing to be involved in spreading the love of Jesus Christ. Throughout the year Street Pastors have patrolled our community each month. We met with Pastors prior to their patrol to pray together and share tea & cake! We give thanks to God for his provision of these committed pastors who share His love on our estate. I would like to thank our church family for giving their love, skills and time to serve our community and to our Father in Heaven for His grace and mercy to us. Gill Menhennet, Churchwarden at Clayton Brook ## **CLAYTON BROOK PASTORAL REPORT 2025** Pastoral team members met with each other on a spontaneous and ‘as a need arose’ basis during 2025. This enabled any issues arising to be dealt with promptly and effectively with the appropriate people involved. We have been extremely busy providing prompt pastoral care according to needs, eg. Prayer, visits, hospitality, encouraging words and messages, shopping, lifts to services and events and general loving support. 2025 has seen us supporting more church members living alone with mobility issues and helping others through bereavement. New members have been welcomed into our church family and new volunteers have come forward to serve in various areas of need and we praise God for this growth. Supporting each other as team members through prayer, loving care and practical help has also been a priority for us. DBS registrations have been updated and safeguarding training undertaken as appropriate. We thank God for his provision and care throughout 2025, in particular for guiding us in the diversity of pastoral care. We look forward to another year of providing pastoral care with his loving guidance. Gill Wright ## **CLAYTON BROOK WARM WELCOME REPORT 2025** I would like to thank our committed team of volunteers for their hard work and commitment during 2025. Our team is made up of twelve volunteers who fulfil various roles such as setting up tables, serving tea and coffee, giving lifts, managing the kitchen, clearing up, making soup and cakes. Team members are invited to attend meetings which are held three times a year to discuss future planning and any changes which need to be made, there may also be a meeting before any social events to finalise details. Copies of the minutes are sent to each member. We regularly have between twelve and sixteen guests who enjoy coming mainly for the high quality of the lunch we serve and a chance to socialise with friends. 7 Last year we celebrated Julie Summers’ ninetieth birthday, and our Christmas meal is always eagerly awaited. Our guests have been encouraged to attend church social events and the Carol Service. We try to build up a sense of family and community by contributing to the Shoebox Appeal and bringing donations for the Food Bank and Ukraine. We have joined Chorley Together, a group organised by the council to support the voluntary sector, they are providing free training and support for groups. This organisation was introduced in May last year and has been very helpful so far. We are also supporting Amber River True Bearing Finance Company who allow their employees time off to volunteer with community groups, they have attended all of our special events, and we have built up a good relationship with them. ## **“Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.” Ecclesiastes 9 v 10** We thank God for His many blessings to us and look forward to serving Him in 2026. Sue Lillie ## **ST JOHN’S JUNIOR CHURCH & PATHFINDERS REPORT 2025** We are so grateful to God for giving us a large team of leaders and helpers and for bringing in all the children and young people who attend our groups. Each **Sunday** the youngest children ( **Bubbles** 2-5) descend to the basement for bible-based activities focusing on an interactive bible story. Prayer, singing and craft are used to reinforce the teaching and to help the children understand the story chosen from the Bible. We pray that God is growing faith in each of these little ones. The older children ( **Splash** 6-8 and **Searchlight** 8-10) meet in the school hall. The (same) bible story is taught as engagingly as possible with the children often participating in reading different parts or taking part in a drama. The message is consolidated with questions, prayer and a related activity. A lively group of **Pathfinders** (10-15) meets in the Vicarage sitting room 3 Sundays a month to study and discuss the same passage. It is exciting and encouraging to see them engaging with God’s word and asking searching questions. Other older pathfinders also stay in church to help with AV and sound or help out with Bubbles and Junior Church. It is also most encouraging to see our children and young people help out by welcoming at the door and serving drinks after the service. We are thrilled to see the different ways in which these young people serve the Lord. **Pathfinder Club** also meets at the Vicarage on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, years 5, 6, 7 and 8 join us after school. They enjoy a snack, followed by different games and activities in the garden, basement or church. Their favourite activity in the wet winter months is playing hide and seek in the church! We always have a lively bible study and then enjoy a cooked tea together. 8 It has been such a privilege getting to know the young people in these groups and we give thanks to God for providing the adults whose service enables these groups to thrive. Please continue to pray that these children/young people carry on growing in faith and love of Jesus. Caroline Venables ## **CLAYTON BROOK COMMUNITY JUNIOR CHURCH REPORT 2025** Our children remain an important and vibrant part of our church family, and we have been encouraged by the regular input of the children in our monthly all-age services. Our teaching plan continued using Mission Bible Class material until the summer break, after which we commenced with a DVD based teaching programme Friends and Heroes, which is more suitable for the younger age group. We continued to run one combined age Kings Kids group until summer, when we made a significant change to start up a group for the Year 7 plus children, named Kings Youth (KY). It has been wonderful to see some of the children growing in faith, starting to complete daily Bible readings and study books, and participating more fully in church life. This has proved hugely successful as we can now provide more effective age-appropriate teaching, and encourage growth in faith, along with team building initiatives for the KY children. As we have several children with Special Educational Needs, we organised a training session with Lynn McCann of “Included by Grace” which was very helpful for us. Our total numbers have seen an increase, growing to an average of 16 each week, but with 30 on our registers. Approximately half of our numbers come along unaccompanied which is a real encouragement (and sometimes a challenge!). We held 4 Kings Kids Extra events throughout the year, where the children stay on after Sunday service and enjoy lunch, games and crafts, whilst encouraged to invite a friend. The team of leaders have been a real blessing, and show a true commitment week by week, and also for the planning and delivering of all the additional events and activities. We are always ready to welcome any new adult leaders or helpers to join us in serving God through this ministry. We continue to sponsor Justine, our Compassion child in Ghana, as the children bring their pennies and learn the importance of giving, and caring for those less fortunate than ourselves. The new KY group decided to raise funds for Open Doors and organised a cake bake, then received contributions from the congregation. A total of £60 was donated. Well, done KY! We ended the year with a well-attended Christmas party. We had the opportunity to build our links with Clayton Brook Primary School, as we went into school to tell the nativity story, and also to host the school Christmas service in church. 9 Thanks to all for your prayer support, and to all the leaders who serve God faithfully week by week. Stuart Cross ## **ST JOHN’S WORSHIP GROUP REPORT 2025** It’s been a good year for the music group at St John’s, it feels like we’re making some good steps forward. Here are some of the highlights: • Glynn, one of the newer members of the congregation, is an experienced sound engineer and he has been amazing at helping us get to grips with the new sound system and getting the best sound possible. • Tate has joined the sound team and has been doing a brilliant job. • Bear has joined the band playing percussion and it’s made such a difference! • We have a new piano to replace the one that kept cutting out in the middle of songs • We made more space by taking some of the stage blocks away, it’s now so much easier to fit everyone in. We’re very grateful to God for everything He’s done for us this year. Jen Brake ## **CLAYTON BROOK WORSHIP GROUP REPORT 2025** Sung worship is an integral part of our church service. It’s a means of expressing our love, devotion and gratitude to our loving God. It’s also a means of declaring the truth of God’s word and His promises over our lives. We do this by singing a variety of songs and hymns which ‘compliment’ the theme and readings each week. Our sung worship is led by a team of dedicated musicians who sacrificially give up their time during the week to practise before rehearsing faithfully every Friday ready for the Sunday service. We also make good use of the Worship Lyric Video resource especially when musicians are unavailable, during our time of fellowship before our service begins and whilst communion is being distributed. This year we have introduced 3 new songs to the congregation and added 9 extra songs to our WLV resource playlist. On the first Sunday of every month, it’s wonderful to see a multigenerational congregation coming together to worship during our ‘All Age’ Service, it’s even more uplifting when our youth start to use their talents during these services. This year it’s been encouraging to see one of them occasionally serving the Lord on the drums. Our ‘All Age’ Service is also a time when we remember family members birthdays with our special birthday song. 10 This year, we have again acknowledged Mother’s Day and Father’s Day by asking a few of the congregation to choose their favourite song/hymn. As a team may we encourage you, to always… “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. **(Ephesians 5:18-20)** Janette Digney ## **ST JOHN’S PRAYER & PARISH GAZETTE REPORT 2025** During the year intercessions were offered during each Sunday service for people in church and those watching online. Thank you to everyone who does this important ministry. The prayer chain is now on WhatsApp and remains faithfully active for urgent or emergency prayers. An increasing number of prayers, over 140, have been requested throughout the year. Thank you to every member from St John’s and Clayton Brook who pray so fervently. Tuesday evening parish prayer meetings were held once a month either in church or on zoom. Small prayer groups continued to meet regularly, in person or by zoom. The church prayer diary continued to be produced monthly, which contained prayer suggestions for both churches for people involved in services, groups, meetings, activities, events, training courses, missions we support, the re-ordering of StJohns church, sick & bereaved, care homes and housebound, clergy, churchwardens, ALMs, our bishops and the Diocesan Vision prayer. This ensures everything and everyone is covered in prayer. The prayer diary was emailed out to our congregations, with a few printed copies sent to the housebound, and was also available in church. Cath Orr ## **Parish Gazette 2025** The gazette continued to maintain its content and quality and produced 14 or more A4 pages per issue. It is a good source of communication and information for the parish and contained three advertisements for local businesses. The gazette was emailed out to over 130 people each month. These copies have been produced in colour and are greatly appreciated. Several large print copies were produced each month for church members who prefer larger print. For those who are not on email copies are distributed either by post or by hand. Thank you to Susan Parkinson for helping with this task. 11 The Parish Gazette was also available on the church website. Thank you to everyone who has contributed articles throughout the year. The Parish Gazette has been produced in this format for the last 30 years and 2025 is the last year it will be produced. Cath Orr ## **MISSION TEAM REPORT 2025** The Mission Team works on behalf of the PCC to make decisions about how the 10% tithe of church income should be distributed. This amounts on average to ~£10k per year. The ministries that we regularly support are Churches Ministry among Jewish People, Church Missionary Society (CMS – Alf and Hilary Cooper in Chile), Crosslinks (Alex and Kate Phillips in South Korea), Compassion (through individual sponsorship), Open Doors, Street Pastors, Tearfund, The Salvation Army, and Wellfield Church in Leyland. Our support for Barnabas Aid has been suspended until further notice due to difficulties within the ministry. These ministries were selected on the basis that they are well-established, work alongside local churches worldwide, and we have advocates within our churches willing to speak out on their behalf. Intercessors are asked to pray for our mission partners regularly, and dedicated noticeboards are in each church outlining the work of the supported ministries. One mission breakfast was held this year in February with Lynda Gallagher from Living Waters Food Bank, speaking about the work that they do in Chorley, which was well-received by the 24 attendees. This year monetary harvest donations ~£280 went to Tearfund, and food donations were taken to Living Waters food bank. In October/November we took part in Operation Christmas Child supplying a record number of 128 shoeboxes (including those online) to children in low- and middle-income countries, and Clayton Brook was used as a drop-off centre for OCC for one week with volunteers helping from both churches. World Mission Sunday this year was postponed to January 2026 due to the availability of the speaker. During the services we held monthly focus spots showing videos of the ministries we support, and Philip hosted 2 visiting preachers - Alf Cooper in June (CMS) and Jim Barrie from Open Doors in November on Suffering Church Sunday. Stuart and the newly formed Youth Group at Clayton Brook held a baking Saturday to make and sell cakes to raise money for Open Doors, raising £60 which was given to Jim when he visited. He was deeply touched at what they had done. Alex Phillips (Crosslinks) came to speak at the Vicarage in September with 5 people attending. The mission team met twice during the year. Gill Lancaster wrote Gazette articles to highlight the launch and results of OCC in October and December, respectively, and Gill Lancaster, Kathy Bigio and Gill Menhennet organised the logistics of the shoebox appeal. Five of our church members went to help with processing the shoeboxes at Life Church in Burnley in December. Throughout the year Hetti updated the team on the work of Street Pastors, and Cath Orr (editor) regularly highlighted the needs of Living Waters foodbank in the Gazette, and published newsletters from our CMS and Crosslinks overseas partners. David Barlow continued writing articles highlighting the plight of persecuted Christians worldwide. Robin Lancaster (St Johns) and Sue Lillie with help from Stuart Cross and Gill Menhennet (Clayton Brook) regularly delivered our contributions to the food bank. Sue continued to regularly rotate mission information on the noticeboard at Clayton Brook. Kathy Bigio and Gill Lancaster highlighted the mission fund at the beginning of the year in each church, and during the year we had 2 mission fund applications (Jean Buckley £200 to AIM July 12 2025; Anne Harris £150 for church outreach November 2025). The remaining £1450 left at year end in the tithe account went to the Salvation Army, Open Doors, Living Waters food bank, Crosslinks (Alex and Kate) and Compassion. We would like to thank everyone who has supported Mission within our two churches over the past year and encourage everyone to get involved. Please see our mission leaflet for more information. **Mission Team:** Gillian Lancaster (chair), Kathy Bigio, Stuart Cross, Hetti Johnson, Philip Venables Gillian Lancaster ## **BEEHIVE REPORT 2025** This year has been an extremely difficult year because since the government has given 30 free hours to Nurseries, our numbers have drastically reduced, and we have not been able to cover the rent for most of the year. But God has been good to us as we still have enough in the funds to cover the rent for a few more months. Because of finances, we didn’t do any extra activities this year apart from our usual Easter Party, Leavers Party, and Nativity and Christmas Party when we had a visit again from Father Christmas and Charlotte did some party dance routines with the children which they really enjoyed. We have a wonderful team of helpers and Steph has now taken over our Facebook page, which has greatly improved our image. We’re praying that God will greatly increase our numbers this next year so we can cover the rent on the village hall and most importantly share the gospel with Parents/Grandparents and Carers with their children. Christine Whiteside ## **SAFEGUARDING REPORT 2025** The Safeguarding Team consist of the Vicar, two Safeguarding Children’s Champions, the Disclosure and Barring Service Administrator and the Parish Safeguarding Officer. **The team’s terms of reference remain as follows:** - Completing the Parish Safeguarding Self Audit as required, - Reviewing the safeguarding needs within the parish, at least annually, - Reviewing the Parish Safeguarding Policy and Procedures at least annually, - To consider safeguarding training requirements within the parish on an ongoing basis, with particular regard to Diocesan recommendations, - Ensuring that appropriate records are kept in a safe place, - Signing off the Annual Safeguarding report to the PCC and Annual Parochial Church St John’s and Clayton Brook are registered for the Diocese of Blackburn Safeguarding Dashboard and Hub. This is a central register helping to manage safer recruitment and people management for all our training requirements. and replaces the Self Audit process as a full printout of status can be done at any time. Access to HUB is restricted to Vicar, Parish Safeguarding Officer and Barring Service Administrator 13 There were no safeguarding incidents during the year. A list of activities for children, adults and community that are ongoing throughout the year were confirmed at PCC in March 2025 these have full risk assessments. If there are any changes to activities, risk assessments will be reviewed and updated. A full audit will be done biannually and presented to the PCC for authorisation in 2027. Carol Wright, Parish Safeguarding Officer ## **TREASURER’S REPORT 2025** Thank you to all those who have contributed financially over the past year, particularly given the ongoing financial pressures that so many are facing. Your generosity and prayerful support are vital to enabling our ministry here in Whittle-le-Woods, Clayton-le-Woods and Clayton Brook. Thank you also to all those who continue to serve in many and varied ways across our church, investing many hours each year to enable us to reach out, speak out and gather in for Christ. Thank you to Marion Barlow for her continued support in regularly submitting our Gift Aid claims, to Sue Lillie for her help in preparing the accounts for Warm Welcome, and to Carol Wright and Bryn Williams for banking the offertory on a regular basis. Your generosity has enabled us to continue to serve our Parish across Whittle-le-Woods, Claytonle-Woods and Clayton Brook, supporting over 160 services throughout the year, including additional celebration services over Christmas and Easter. Your support has also enabled us to reach out into our community with events such as Christmas ADVENTURE, as well as enabling other social and outreach events, such as the women’s summer garden party, the men’s beer and pies event, and our annual church family away day at Chipping. As a PCC, we continue to tithe 10% of our income to support our mission partners locally, nationally and internationally. ## **We really couldn’t continue this ministry without your generous financial and prayerful support, so thank you so much, and thanks be to God for His generous and faithful provision.** _“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”_ 2 Corinthians 9:11 As a PCC, we face significant financial challenges for the year ahead and beyond, so we are incredibly grateful for your continued prayerful and financial support during these difficult times. Please continue to pray for our PCC and for our financial situation as we enter 2026. Please pray for the St John’s reordering project, that the PCC will raise the much-needed funds to complete the works, and that the reordered building will enable our ministry to grow and bring more people in our community to a living faith in Christ. ## **Unrestricted Funds** Whilst the PCC started the year with a budgeted deficit of just over £7,000, thanks to careful management of expenditure, support of £10,000 from the Blackburn Diocese, and a generous response giving, we ended the year with a **surplus** of **£5,900** . This leaves us with **unrestricted reserves** of almost **£21,000** on 31 December 2025. It is the PCC’s policy to try to maintain a balance on unrestricted reserves of approximately 3 months unrestricted expenditure (c£28,000) in order to manage cashflow requirements over the year. Despite a surplus in 2025, unrestricted reserves at the end of 2025 remain below this target. 14 The PCC have agreed a budget **deficit** of almost **£4,800** for 2026. This presents a continued financial challenge for the PCC for 2026 and beyond as we look to grow our church, so we are grateful of your continued prayer and financial support during these difficult times. ## **We worship a generous and faithful God, and trust in Him that we will be able to meet our needs, as He has enabled us to do so often in the past.** ## **Unrestricted income** Total unrestricted **income** for the year was **£89,990** , of which £73,140 was from congregational giving, £13,590 was from gift aid and £3,048 was in respect of fees retained by the PCC for weddings and funerals. As in previous years, almost all of our income (97%) comes from our congregation in the form of regular giving, donations and gift aid. Unrestricted income was down by some 7.8% compared to 2024 (£97,569). This was specifically due to the introduction of the Ephesian Fund whereby £15,373 of our income over the year was restricted to pay part of our Parish Share via the Ephesian Fund. All else being equal, unrestricted income showed an increase of 8.2% compared to 2024. Please note that there was a corresponding reduction in our expenditure via a reduction in the Parish Share paid from unrestricted income. The chart below shows where all our unrestricted income came from in 2025: ## **Unrestricted Expenditure** Total unrestricted **expenditure** for the year was **£84,079** (2024: £107,409). The largest areas of expense were: - Our Parish Share to the Diocese of £49,448 (2024: £70,762). The reasons for the reduction compared to 2024 are £10,000 support provided by the Blackburn Diocese and the introduction of the Ephesian Fund which meant that a further £13,664 of our Parish Share was paid from restricted income via the Ephesian Fund. All else being equal, our Parish 15 Share would have been £73,112. The Parish Share paid for Philip, together with supporting the financial costs of ministry throughout our diocese including training for lay and ordained ministry. - Utilities and services were £15,486 (2024: £17,027) covering electricity, gas, oil, water, Council Tax, and insurance. - Ministry and outreach spend was £3,143 (2024: £2,922). - Finally, even in these challenging times, the PCC remains committed to tithing 10% of our unrestricted income to charity which amounted to £9,150 (2024 £9,000). Note that a further £1,450 was distributed in January 2026 which represents the balance of the PCC’s 10% tithe. The chart below shows where all our unrestricted expenditure went in 2025: ## **Restricted Funds** The funds of the PCC also include restricted funds in relation to grants or donations received towards a specific purpose. Total **restricted funds** at 31 December 2025 was **£455,734** , of which the majority is in respect of the St John’s Refurbishment Fund (£448,071). ## **Grants** The PCC also received a number of other grants over the year. In particular, grants totalling £2,500 were received from the Net Zero Quick Wins grant towards works at St John’s, as well as grants totalling £1,300 towards the Christmas Adventure event at St John’s held at the end of November. Chris Woolham 16 T* Toll •I$12 211 1717 17, 17 1¥ 27A rTtrr pc¢<•* 18 i•>) 20 314J r J ij I •17 21 ¥T••rFw4 22¥ 7.741 IV7J 2.741 4J*12 VWPA 22 InWnd•nt Examln•rf• R•port to th• Pafochl•l Church Councll ol St John V Evangellsc Whllll• b• Wood& for th• y•w •nd•d 31 oec•m￿ 202& 145 of Ch•riM 2011. My exWnirA1￿ has bwi wxlertaken 80 th•1 I m¥JM 8tate to Tnnlees those rnatlern l am requred to sl•t• to thom arnl yw ¢￿S￿l￿r thal 8n is nol reryffjed for this year s0ctx￿ 14412) oflhg Chantw Act 2011 thal ex￿•natI￿ * rnqu¥•d. It li rny rn•p(W￿I￿ lo 1. examing the acc4xrts mlef Sed1￿ 145 offv 2011 Art. 2. to fol(￿ Ihe Fffocédwes laKI ISC￿ kn the gener* thre￿￿ by th• Chwty Commtssw)n mjef seth)n 14515) (b) ol the 2011 A(*. and nattwe. My 0x8mmatK￿ was ¢amed out in aCC￿danCe with the Gen8r81 D¥ed¥ors 9iven by il* Ch•rtty commm￿ne15 urth S145(5) (b} of the That examinatJc￿ M￿￿ a rvimv oflho a¢cOU￿Tra r¢cuth keFI by Iha Chwty a Compar*￿ of the xc4yJnts wth those rec4nls 110180 irKludt8 considen.ng any unusual rtém8 or d*ck)8ures In tr iired in an 8￿Irt I do ncl an ¢)wion C￿ tho Vv l￿dont Exwnln•rf• St•twwit 1. to keep rn¢wd$ kn xcordwK• Secllon 130 of tho 2011 ac￿UrthJ Toq￿1•monts ol Ihfj 2011 A(1: nol been met.. (Y (b) to vhlth. wi my 01xr￿, Sho￿ be ord•f to a wop 23