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2020-12-31-accounts

Parish of Luton, St Anne with St Christopher Annual Report 2020

Registered Charity Number: 1134772 Including accounts for year ending 31 December 2020

ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE PARISH OF LUTON ST ANNE WITH ST CHRISTOPHER 2020

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to our annual report for 2021. This booklet contains all reports that appertain to this parish, including the accounts from both churches and the parish accounts. Also included are reports from the different organisations who have met in our premises for the last 12 months. These reports are requested because all these groups come under the umbrella of the Parochial Church Council and are ultimately responsible to them apart from the uniformed groups which are directly responsible to their own organisations. This annual report gives an indication of the diversity of this parish.

To comply with the Charities Act, this report contains information that is supplementary to what is being presented as a Parish Statement to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM)

VICAR’S STATEMENT TO ANNUAL MEETINGS 2020

2020 began full of promise, of expectation and excitement.

We had much planned for this year.

2020 became a year of huge challenge, but one of enormous growth and learning. For during this year, we encountered Corona Virus. We have been closed for public worship twice and a third time was coming as we entered 2021.

But let us begin with thanks.

A huge thank you to Ann Moore and Michelle Reeves the Churchwardens for this parish and Dianne Scott, who began the year as a Lay Reader in training and ended as a fully-fledged Lay Reader. They have each worked tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of this parish. Thank you personally for all your support, thank you from the parish for all that you have undertaken, thank you from the community for the way in which you have enabled the parish to support the needs of those in need in the parish and more widely in the town.

Thank you to Jackie Ives, the PCC treasurer for keeping our finances in order as these were hit dramatically, by the reduction of income from the rental of our church halls and the reduced planned giving.

Thank you to the PCC members and others who took on the role of keeping in contact with parishioners with regular phone calls. Thank you to those who delivered the regular newsletters and the Christmas cards. 3,000 Christmas cards were delivered across the parish in two weeks. A mammoth achievement.

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Thank you to those of you who have been on a journey of deepening your faith and growing in confidence as you have attended the weekly House Groups, the Lent Course, Advent Course and Start Course. All ways in which you have given God an opportunity to enable you to experience more of God’s transforming love.

Thank you to those of you who have cleaned the churches, stood outside the churches collecting food for the Luton Foodbank, stewarded the churches for individual prayer and to those who have created and decorated the fences, thus raising a smile in the hearts of those who have passed by.

Thank you to our parish administrator, who throughout this year has approached the challenges and new ways of working with a positive and helpful attitude, adapting the work undertaken to support the current needs.

Thank you to those of you who worshipped online with us, on Facebook, YouTube and Zoom.

Thank you to those of you who attended in-person worship when this was possible.

2020 began so well.

We began with a party as we said farewell to Robert Bates, a long-term member of St Christopher’s and Parish Churchwarden until 2019, as he left to live in Lowestoft. A sadness for us, a new adventure for Robert.

As we entered 2020, many ideas were swirling around. This was to be the year when we could begin the work to develop the mission and outreach of the parish. We had already recognised that part of that needed the facilities at St Christopher’s Church Hall to be improved. With this in mind a very good piece of training was attended entitled, ‘From Vision to Reality: Developing your project and making it happen’. Good progress was being made with the creation of new altar frontals at St Christopher’s. The parish Quiz team, Living in Hope, were still attending the Quiz nights in the Jolly Topers, which was forging good relationships with the organisers and local quizzers. A review of the work we as a parish were doing with the Scouts and Guides was undertaken and plans and ideas were refined. Members of the parish attended A Week of Prayer for Christian Unity event hosted by Holy Ghost RC Church. This was an event that inspired and excited those who attended. Wenlock Church of England Junior School came to St Anne’s to consider ‘Creation and science: conflicting or complementary?’. Craft Fairs were beginning to be embedded in the regular fundraising programme and we began to look at reviewing our Mission Action Plan.

A group of six from across the parish travelled to Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, for the Diocesan Leading Your Church into Growth Conference, while Bishop Richard presided at an All Together Service in St Christopher’s, with both Guides and Scouts participating in the

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service, followed by a service of Holy Communion at St Anne’s. Those attending the course, received some fabulous teaching and returned to Luton, a bit windswept as storm Ciara swept across the UK, full of excitement and eager anticipation about what we would do next. This was followed up with more training, this time from the Reaching New People team, where another group of people attended ‘Innovation in the Box - Designing for a Christian Life.’ Another creative way to look at how we became more missional. The decision was taken to bring together the people who had engaged with the Reaching New People training and those who had attended Leading your Church into Growth, into one group - The Parish Mission Group. A group with porous edges which anyone who had a yearning to see this parish grow could come and become a part of.

The last event we hosted before the pandemic struck was the Fairtrade Baking Competition. This was the second time we had run this event. This time we had a surprise visit by Dr. Nazia Khanum OBE DL, the chair of the United Nations Association Luton Branch and Purbachal - the eastern sky. Dr Nazia was delighted to see such a diverse gathering of Luton people and the quality and quantity of cakes. This year’s winners were invited to provide a cake for the inaugural meeting of the Luton Women’s Network which included a Fairtrade tea as a way of joining with the celebrations for Fairtrade Fortnight 2020. Eight-year-old Molly, who had won the prize for the best Sponge cake at the parish Fairtrade Cake Baking competition, was presented with an award at the Luton Women’s Network in recognition of her outstanding baking skills and her willingness to be an ambassador for young people.

On Wednesday 18 March 2020, closely followed by Mothering Sunday, the first Sunday of the first lockdown, began my steep learning curve of learning to live stream worship. Setting up tripods and a phone to film and record the service was one like we had never experienced before. Thursday 19 was the very first Zoom meeting for the parish. The USPG Lent Course, Living with a World of Difference, went online. At that time no-one had heard of Zoom.

But even then, it felt really important, that even though it may only be for a few weeks, we had to continue to find ways to worship together.

Worship was live streamed directly to our parish Facebook page, initially the services of Holy Eucharist and the daily offices. Subsequently, the services were also uploaded to YouTube to enable those who did not have Facebook accounts, but did have internet access, to be able to engage with the parish worship. Stations of the cross was the first act of worship where images were shared alongside the spoken word. Our worship together has been enhanced as we have heard sermons from the Bishops and Archdeacons from the Diocese of St Albans as well as several from USPG.

That first weekend of lockdown, a few people from across the parish helped print, fold and staple Lent service and prayer booklets, along with what was to become the first of the regular newsletters that have been distributed to those on the mailing lists. This first mailing was

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hand delivered. A huge thank you to everyone who enabled this to happen. This was a big piece of work.

PCC meetings went online using Zoom. The PCC has met on Zoom since that first Lockdown.

As a parish we have not stopped, but through the leadership of the Ministry Team we have continued to ensure that worship, outreach, pastoral support, in fact the whole of the ministry of the parish, has continued with the exception of social gatherings.

Following the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter campaign, following the death in America of George Floyd, and the protests in this country, we held our own event to provide a voice for those of differing ethnicities who worship in this parish as we explored ‘What it is to be an Inclusive Church’ on Tuesday 7 July. This was held as part of the parish commitment to being an Inclusive Church. This meeting was well attended. Questions to those presenting were submitted prior to the meeting, and each presenter was allocated a time slot in which to speak.

Since March 2020, and the first lockdown, the PCC and Ministry Team have engaged in webinars. There have been too many to possibly attend all of them. These have broadened and deepened the knowledge of those who have attended. They have varied from webinars about coping with the challenges of the pandemic, through to child bereavement, dealing with conflict, Bible study and incarnations mission.

Regular newsletters, sent out at least every month, pastoral phone calls from the PCC and others, along with WhatsApp Parish Chat have ensured that people across the parish have been kept in touch with.

During this year, we have begun to hold an outdoor Foodbank collection on a monthly basis for the Luton Foodbank. This has been a real opportunity to show the community Christ’s love, in that it could be seen that we were doing something to help other people. But it also gave opportunities for conversations with people of the community, who came along to drop off a bag or two of food. This along with decorating the fences, railings, and grounds of our churches, visually showed our love for our neighbours. It has raised many smiles and conversations. The outsides of our churches have become places for prayer ribbons to be tied, prayer posters to be seen and used, knitted decorations to be fixed. All to try to add a little bit of colour to the lives of our communities.

It was wonderful over the Christmas period to be able to decorate the fences and railings with nativity pictures created by Hart Hill Nursery and Round Green Pre-School. At St Christopher’s this was in addition to the outdoor Christmas tree festival which was supported by the St Anne’s Scouts.

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Newsletters have been distributed since the very beginning of the first lockdown. I began by encouraging everyone to continue to be a voice of hope to our community. Those who were self-isolating were invited to ask for help, and those able to support those isolating to become isolation volunteers.

I shared prayers and reflections on various Bible readings and the seasons of the church year. All of this alongside keeping the wider community up to date with church services, activities and requests for help. I encouraged those reading to grow in faith, through engaging with House Groups offered by the parish, webinars, acts of worship on the television, radio and live streamed by other churches. Daily Hope, the Church of England telephone line, continues to be promoted to those without access to the internet.

A deepening of spending time has been encouraged during this time. As a way of encouraging everyone to pray, a weekly time of private prayer was introduced each Saturday morning at 9am. A selection of prayers was offered in each newsletter.

The WhatsApp Prayer group and the prayer chain have grown in importance as people beyond the parish community have requested prayer.

Flourishing Churches in the Diocese of St Albans shared the Prayer for Spiritual Communion. This was introduced to enable parishioners attended online worship to participate in the service of the Holy Eucharist.

To participate in Thy Kingdom Come during the pandemic, Zoom was used for the platform to host a Novena based on Mark Cazalet’s artwork for ‘Listening on the Way’.

The PCC held an evening of prayer over Zoom, where different ways of praying were offered.

Both churches opened for individual prayer between lockdowns. It was good to be able to offer this to those of the neighbourhood. Another way in which we were able to show the importance of prayer.

Throughout this most challenging of years, we have continued to worship together. The Holy Eucharist has been celebrated throughout, Daily Offices have been live streamed and have drawn an increased number of people who have gathered to pray Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer, Evening Prayer and Compline (Night Prayer). I am looking forward to us once again being able to sing together to the time when we can move about and reintroduce the All Together services.

A regular letter was distributed to families, including activities and links to video clips. I recorded and shared a reading of ‘Candle Walk, A Bedtime Prayer to God’ on the parish

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YouTube channel. Permission was granted by the publishers, Church Publishing inc, on behalf of the author Karen Holsinger Sherman.

Finances have been an issue for us, as they have been for many organisations. We have encouraged and provided different ways in which to support the work of God in this parish, with a PayPal account, an Easy Fundraising account and online donation options on both A Church Near You and the parish Facebook page.

Social Media has become a very useful platform. The Parish now uses Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram to share with the wider community what we as a parish are doing.

Mid Pandemic, Sunday 6 September 2020, Dianne Scott was licensed as a Lay Reader. It was a privilege to be in St Alban’s Abbey as Dianne was licensed. A time of joy and celebration. That evening Dianne presided at Evening Prayer. I look forward to being able to celebrate Dianne’s licensing with the whole parish.

Surveys were undertaken to ensure that everyone was able to share their thoughts on the worship and communication they had experienced and to look forward to returning to church, including how they felt God was encouraging them to get involved in the life of the church.

As a parish we have not stopped trying to encourage and enable people to deepen their relationship with God. The first ever Start Course hosted by the parish began in St Anne’s Church on a Wednesday afternoon in October. The course ran in St Anne’s until it was necessary to return to gathering online only. Zoom again was used to enable this course to be completed. This is a really good accessible course for anyone just starting out, wanting a new start, or wanting to support others in their journey with Christ. The Parish also ran an Advent Course on Zoom entitled Songs of Advent.

To add a little positivity as the pandemic continued to drag on, the idea of creating a Parish COVID-19 scrapbook began to be considered.

We participated in the Prayer for the Nation, clapped for the NHS and lit candles of hope. We have displayed rainbows in our windows and demonstrated that we are a part of our local community. We have knitted hearts, angels, flowers, baby hats and hats for the ladies of Azalea. We have collected food and have prayed for and with many people. As a community of faith, we have demonstrated God’s love for all of his people.

So a big thank you to each of you. You will know how you have helped, for the ways you have been involved in serving the needs of God’s people during this most challenging of years.

Thank you.

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Revd Anne

Aims and Purposes

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of the Parish of Luton, St Anne with St Christopher, has the responsibility of cooperating with the incumbent, the Reverend Anne Crosby, in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The PCC is also responsible for the maintenance of the two parish churches, St Anne’s and St Christopher’s, in Luton.

Objectives and Activities

The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship in our churches and to become part of the parish community.

When planning our activities for the year, we have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and the supplementary guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. We try to enable people to live out their faith as part of the parish community through:

To facilitate this work, it is important that we maintain the fabric of the two churches and their halls.

Achievement and Performance

The PCC is keen to offer a range of services across the parish during the week and over the year that our community find both beneficial and spiritually fulfilling. This year, the pandemic has impacted on our ability to hold in-person services. However, where possible the PCC has ensured that corrected risk assessed, and stewarded services took place. To be as inclusive as possible, services have been live streamed to Facebook and later uploaded to YouTube. Services have also been offered through Zoom, live streamed to Facebook. These include weekday Morning and Evening Prayer, and occasional services of Compline which provide quiet and reflective environments for prayer. Both churches have been open for Individual Prayer on a weekly basis between the second and third lockdown - September to December 2020.

The year began with Sunday Morning worship being a mixture of sacramental worship being shared in both St Anne’s and St Christopher’s twice a month, with a monthly service of Holy Eucharist with anointing for healing at one of the regular service times. Once a month each church had a Sunday morning service, which provided an opportunity for more outgoing and lively worship through the All Together informal service. Midweek services of Holy Eucharist, Morning Worship and Wednesday Praise also gave opportunity for worship for those who are

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unable for family and other reasons to attend on a Sunday. Patronal festivals and other special days continued to be celebrated with evening services of Holy Eucharist.

With the onset of Corona Virus, all worship went online via Facebook live, initially live streaming from both churches, until the Church of England instructed that we were not allowed to travel to the church. We moved to live streaming from the Vicarage. Later when regulations changed, we moved back into St Christopher’s Church for live streaming, again in line with Church of England guidance that worship could be live streamed by one person from the nearest church to the vicarage. Holy Eucharist and Daily Offices have been live streamed in line with the existing current guidelines and in line with the Parish, PCC approved Risk Assessments. The parish offering has this year included an online, live streamed Novena held over nine consecutive days, Stations of the Cross, Meditations and an Evening of Prayer

Times of fellowship after the services went online. After each Sunday and Wednesday service of Holy Eucharist a time of Virtual Refreshments was held.

As the year began, we were continuing with our increasingly popular opportunities for people to gather for refreshments. St Anne’s Community Refreshment Stop and the well-established and popular Bacon Butty Morning. St Christopher’s Coffee-in-Church twice a month and a regular Saturday Coffee Morning. Until the first lockdown we continued to work in partnership with Nevilles, funeral Directors and Keech Hospice offering a safe space called ‘Talking Elephants ’for the bereaved to meet. The Neville’s employee who coordinated this work was made redundant during the summer of 2020.

Holy Baptism takes place at mutually convenient Services. During 2020, in total there were no baptisms in the parish. Families who approached the parish decided to postpone until they could bring their families together for the celebration.

Funeral ministry is undertaken by clergy. In 2020, a total of fifteen were taken on behalf of the parish.

Weddings take place at both St Anne’s and St Christopher’s. In 2020, one wedding was booked. The couple decided to postpone until they can gather without restrictions on numbers able to attend.

The renewed Church Electoral Roll in 2020 has one hundred and one parishioners, of whom sixty eight are residents and thirty three non-residents.

The average weekly attendance (which includes midweek services, both churches, but only counting people once), recorded during October as the Statistics for Mission require, was twenty eight adults and three children and young people who participated in in-person

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worship. The average number of people who participated per service online during this period was thirty six.

The parish is part of the Inclusive Church Network.

Deanery Synod

Two members sit on the Deanery Synod, and there is also one vacancy along with the Vicar. These members are part of our PCC.

The Churches

Various maintenance tasks have been completed in both churches, details of which are in the accompanying Churchwardens ’reports.

Both churches ’halls are regularly hired out to local community groups, including uniformed youth groups, dancing classes, and martial arts groups to name but a few. At St Christopher’s this includes the Round Green Pre-School. Since the start of Corona Virus, hall lettings have ceased, with the exception of the Round Green Pre-School who have continued to operate as they are a part of the Early Years provision.

Both churches have gardens to keep in order and have working parties for that purpose, made up of volunteers. At St Christopher’s, since the start of the pandemic a member of the local community has volunteered his services, cutting the grass and keeping the borders in order. This has been supplemented by volunteers from the Church community and the Community Pay Back Scheme. St Anne’s and St Christopher’s both receive working parties from the Community Pay Back Scheme. These groups of people undertake gardening and maintenance work in the church and the grounds under supervision from their supervisor. The Garden of Remembrance in St Christopher’s grounds is significant for the community and is a place where parishioners may have the ashes of their loved ones interred.

A positive relationship has been maintained between the parish, specifically St Christopher’s Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church who traditionally hire the church each Sunday and twice during the week. Until the first lock down hiring continued in the usual and accepted pattern. Since this first lockdown we have been unable to make the necessary arrangements to enable this church community to hire St Christopher’s Church and Hall.

Pastoral Care

Some members of the parish are unable to attend church due to sickness or age. The vicar visits and takes Holy Communion as appropriate. Parishioners are also visited in hospital. Hospitality is available after most services, which supports the pastoral care for the congregations. During the pandemic, a few of the elderly and infirm members of St Christopher’s congregation have taken the decision that they will not be returning to inperson worship.

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As 2020 began, the Parish Pop-In Club, for toddlers and their carers, continued to thrive. The young people were beginning to be established in attending Luton Unite, an ecumenical town wide gathering of Christian young people meeting at Youthscape. The Wednesday Guild, a group serving the needs of the older members of the congregations and wider, had not recommenced its meetings for 2020 before lockdown began.

The group leaders have made every effort to maintain contact with those in their groups throughout the year.

These groups all have a Christian foundation, including appropriate worship and valuable fellowship.

Mission and Evangelism

A parish committee recommended to the PCC which charities would be supported locally, nationally and internationally. In total £4,198.07 was given to missions and charities, which is around 10% of our non-designated and unrestricted income.

At the beginning of 2020 the parish continued to publish the Outreach magazine monthly and a Parish News quarterly, both of which are without charge. Both include a list of services each month, a calendar of events and a letter from the vicar that is aimed at those who rarely or never worship at one or other of the churches. The parish offers a quarterly magazine (Parish News) and around 500 are printed and distributed, and a simpler and smaller magazine (Outreach) has 830 copies printed and distributed each month. Since the pandemic began, these have ceased to be published. However, the parish went online distributing, to all contacts who had given or gave their permission, a regular newsletter from the Revd Anne. This was sent by email to those for whom this was possible, some were printed and posted, while others were printed, and hand delivered.

Across the whole parish, Christmas cards are delivered to 3,000 homes. These cards shared the Church of England’s message of Comfort and Joy along with Christmas greetings from the parish. They were greatly appreciated.

The Church’s Life, Ministry and Mission is always on the agendas of the Church Councils as a set item, so that we are reminded of our need for mission and evangelism within the everyday life of the churches. This year six people attended a Leading your Church into Growth conference in Swanwick at the Hayes Conference Centre. This was specifically for parishes in the St Albans ’Diocese. The group who attended this conference have combined with those who had already participated in the Reaching New People training to form the parish Mission Planning Group, which is looking at ideas for the next Mission Action Plan and how these can be implemented, so that all we do seeks to look out into our community, seeking to transform the lives of our neighbours, as we grow in faith and enable others to come to know Jesus.

Ecumenical Relationships

Our two churches are the only two church buildings within the parish. We have good relationships with the Romanian Orthodox Church at St Christopher’s. Revd Anne meets with

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other local clergy in the east of Luton. During the first lockdown this was weekly prayerful support, later returning to a monthly gathering. Revd Anne also attends monthly prayer meetings with church leaders of all denominations from across the town and serves on the Luton Churches Together executive committee.

Financial Review

The parish has one bank account and set of accounts for the general funds, and alongside this is a bank account for each church which holds the building and fabric funds. The PCC has responsibility for the parish’s finances, supported by the Parish Standing and Finance Committee.

The parish as a whole had an income in 2020 of £72,628.25 and payments of £78,924.40. The overall bank balance at 31st December 2020 was £130,920.82. The full details and report are printed in the annual report, which is available to all those on the Electoral Roll before the Annual Church Meeting.

Reserves Policy

The policy states that we plan to have to hand the equivalent of three months ’regular expenditure, excluding Building and Fabric costs, money that has been designated for specific projects and restricted funds.

For several years now, we have had a policy to ensure that, year on year, we have not run with a deficit to our regular income and expenditure accounts. This year, however, due to the reduced income from hall hire and fund raising, the PCC decided to pay a little more of the Parish Share than our income allowed in order to support the Diocese of St Albans by spending from our reserves.

Stewardship is an area for development.

Risk Management

All regular worshippers in the parish have been, and continue to be, encouraged to give generously. During the Corona Virus we have developed new ways to enable people to give. Both churches now have a contactless payment machine. The parish Facebook page and A Church Near You have options to enable people to financially support the parish and an Easy Fundraising account has been established. Everyone is encouraged to be part of the stewardship scheme, and if they are taxpayers, to gift-aid their giving.

St Christopher’s is considerably dependent on rental income to meet most of its essential expenses. If the Pre-school closed and the Romanian Orthodox Church decided to cease hiring the building, there would be major problems. Most of the regular congregation at the church are not full-time wage-earners, the majority being aged 60 and above. There seems no easy way of managing these risks at present.

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General Policies

The PCC has now agreed a total of seventeen parish policies which will be reviewed annually, namely:

Volunteers

There are a number of volunteers who give of their time and effort and work so hard to keep the parish a lively and vibrant community. We follow the diocesan guidelines regarding child protection and DBS checking. We are grateful to our two churchwardens, Ann Moore and Michelle Reeves, the parish treasurer Jackie Ives, and safeguarding officer Emma Reid, who have wonderfully fulfilled their duties and responsibilities.

Structure and Governance

The Parochial Church Council is a corporate body established by the Church of England. The PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Powers Measure. The PCC is a registered charity.

The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules.

During 2020 the PCC met ten times, of which two were in person and eight were via Zoom

Administrative Information

The Parish of Luton, St Anne with St Christopher, is situated in the Deanery of Luton. It is part of the St Albans Diocese in the Church of England. The Registered Charity number is 1134772.

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At the beginning of 2020 the parish appointed a part time Parish Administrator, working nine hours per week. The parish administrator was not furloughed, and continued to work, often from home when this was advised throughout the lockdowns.

The Parish Office is located at: Parish Office, St. Christopher’s Church Hall, Felix Avenue, Luton, LU2 7LE. Further details in the reports from groups and other financial details can be requested from this address.

Safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in The Parish of Luton, St Anne’s with St Christopher’s.

Parish Safeguarding Officer – Emma Reid

The PCC endorsed the updated Safeguarding policy on 3[rd] December 2019. In addition, the parish has policies regarding domestic violence, safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Within the guidelines for the Diocese, DBS checks have been carried out with most of our PCC members, junior church leaders and our pop-in team. Our Clergy and Reader have been checked externally through the Diocese. These will be renewed in 3 years time.

This year our training has consisted of 11 people completing the CO, 9 people have completed a C1- both these are online courses. 2 people have completed a C2 and a further 2 completing a C3 – these have been face to face training.

In addition, as we endeavour to ensure all are safe in our churches, the parish has introduced risk assessments for activities and allergens are now identified where food is available.

In light of last year’s report, an additional recruiter has been appointed – Revd Anne.

With a view to next year, the Diocese have recently updated their training requirements, this will involve our leaders who work with children attending a C2 training session.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL as at 31[st] December 2020

Churchwardens:

Ann Moore (Deanery Synod Rep) Michelle Reeves

Vicar and chairperson:

Revd Anne Crosby

Elected Members:

Carol Mitchell

Dianne Scott (Deanery Synod rep)

Emma Reid Jackie Ives Yvonne Stone

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Sally Philp Jason Reid Verma Denny Sandra Tuffnell

To be approved by the PCC on 31 March 2021 and signed on their behalf by the Revd Anne Crosby (PCC Chair)

PARISH OFFICERS’ REPORTS

PARISH CHURCHWARDENS’ REPORT

PARISH CHURCHWARDENS’ REPORT Ann Moore and Michelle Reeves Within the Parish of Luton, St Anne with St Christopher there still continues to be just two Churchwardens. Both Churchwardens have responsibility for the whole Parish, however for practical reasons each Churchwarden has particular responsibility for one of the Church, but they work together on Parish issues and matters which pertain to both churches. In this way each Churchwarden is aware of what is happening in the Parish and each Church.

Nothing could have prepared us for the impact of a pandemic on the Parish and thus the work of the Churchwardens. Regular meetings have continued to take place with the Vicar, Revd Anne and the Parish Lay Reader Dianne Scott (who was licensed in September 2020) but all via Zoom, email or WhatsApp rather than in person.

It is probably true to say that all Churches, not only the two in this Parish have been closed more than they have been open in 2020, due to Church and Government Guidelines put in place to ensure the health and safety of the whole population. During these periods of closure the Churchwardens have still been required to carry out a weekly health and safety check in the buildings to comply with the guidelines from the insurance company used by the Parish.

When Church and Government Guidelines have permitted Churches to open for public worship, much thought, prayer and planning have gone into the decision to comply with this. Stringent Risk Assessments have been written and adhered to and constantly updated as the Guidelines change, Maximum numbers for service have been worked out, hand sanitiser dispensers have been installed, appropriate cleaning materials have been sourced, the list is endless!!

At those times when Guidelines have permitted, contractors have visited the buildings in order that regular servicing of equipment could take place.

The Quinquennial Inspection of St Christopher’s Church took place in October; however the report is still to be received.

Thank you to everyone who has been able to help and support the Churchwardens while keeping themselves safe. A particular thank you to the volunteers from the local community and to the Community Payback team who have all helped to keep the Church Grounds so wonderfully tidy.

(PCC Secretary until October 2020)

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The Parochial Church Council for the Parish of Luton St Anne with St Christopher met mostly via Zoom meetings during 2020/20. The Annual Parochial Council Meeting (APCM) and election of Church Wardens was postponed until October 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The PCC agenda covers a wide variety of items that are pertinent to the Parish. The Churchwardens can also raise items that need to be discussed. Any forthcoming events are also highlighted.

Items discussed at the PCC meetings in 2020/21 were as follows: -

REPORTS FOR THE WHOLE PARISH

LUTON DEANERY SYNOD REPORT 2020

Dianne Scott

Luton Deanery consists of the Anglican Parishes of Luton plus Woodside and Caddington in the Archdeaconry of Bedford. The Synod is a body consisting of clergy together with Lay representatives from every parish elected on a three- yearly basis. 2020 was an election year, and at our parish Annual Meeting (deferred to October) Anne Moore and myself were elected to serve you. Meetings usually consist of a guest speaker, followed by news, planning, business and financial reports.

Deanery Synod got off to a flying start in 2020 by convening the first meeting of the year at our own St. Anne’s Church in February. There was a good turn-out of clergy, representatives and guests who were treated to excellent refreshments provided by our team. Revd Anne led those gathered in a short act of worship which was followed by a very interesting talk by guest speaker, Kelvin Woolmer who informed us about The Clewer Initiative to stop Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking.

And then came Covid-19, lockdown, and so much uncertainty to mission and ministry in our town.

By the Summer, Synod meetings had transferred to Zoom.

Revd Canon Dr Tim Bull (then Director of Ministry in the Diocese of St. Albans) addressed Synod on the subject of clergy wellbeing in June.

In September, the newly appointed Assistant Minister at All saints with St. Peter’s, Revd Jo Burke, talked about her ongoing work addressing the physical and spiritual welfare of refugees housed in the area during lockdown.

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In November, Revd Tim Madeley of Christchurch Bushmead was introduced to Synod as the new Assistant Area Dean. The Area Dean, David Kesterton, spoke about how it had been a difficult year all round due to the wide-reaching effects of the pandemic.

For myself, I am sad that people have left the Deanery without the usual send-offs, and people have arrived without the welcomes usually offered. We have not been able to visit neighbouring churches to worship God together as we are used to doing.

In view of this, I am including here the words of the Deanery of Luton prayer, which I ask you to pray as we look forward in hope to a future together Living God’s Love in this town.

Eternal Father, look with love

upon your people of Luton

and pour upon us the gifts of your Spirit.

Draw us to you and to one another

that our growing unity

may bring healing and life to all;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

HEALING MEETING REPORT

Ann Moore

The Healing Group was able to meet monthly at the very beginning of 2020. These meetings provided an opportunity for spiritual refreshment, teaching and prayer.

The Group has been unable to meet together since February as a result of the pandemic which led to various lockdowns and other restrictions.

The members of the Group still support anyone who requests prayer for healing. All requests are circulated via the telephone, and each member of the group offers prayers for the person concerned. Requests are treated in strict confidence.

If you, or someone in your family need our prayers please contact Revd Anne, Dianne Scott or Ann Moore, and there will be a chain of people praying for you.

PRAYER MEETING REPORT

Dianne Scott

A small group of faithful intercessors have met weekly in St. Christopher’s Church for many years bringing the needs of the Church, the world and individuals before our loving Heavenly Father in prayer.

When the Covid-19 lockdown was announced in March, it was clear that prayer could not be abandoned even though meeting in person was now not permitted. It was not easy to find a practical format for this group that could accommodate everyone. Therefore, after some experimenting with group telephone prayer, it was decided that intercessions would be prayed on Thursday evenings as: Evening Prayer with Extended Intercessions and transmitted online via Facebook Live. In the late Autumn we began to use Zoom so that more voices could be heard.

We give thanks to God for the gift of technology that has actually enabled more people to participate in these weekly intercessions than before. However, we also long for a time when members of our fellowship will be able to pray together in person again.

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PARISH CHARITIES COMMITTEE

Dianne Scott

It is the policy of the Parish of Luton, St. Anne with St. Christopher to donate 10% of our unrestricted income each year to charity. The Parish Charities Committee, therefore, met in September via Zoom to thank God for his generosity, to pray together and discuss how our charitable giving might be distributed for 2020.

We considered how the Covid-19 pandemic was causing a great call on the work of charities at the same time as raising funds became more challenging for them.

It was agreed to allocate our donations for 2020 to charities which we considered to truly reflect the values of our parish as follows:

1/3 LOCAL: AZALEA 1/3 NATIONAL: CHURCH URBAN FUND 1/3 INTERNATIONAL: USPG

The work of this committee relates only to those donations that are made directly from our church income. However, it is good to remember that the people of this parish continue to generously support many other charities and good causes through specific fundraising. Even though our usual events were severely disrupted through 2020, many appeals were made and responded to.

Mission Planning Group (Previously Reaching New People) 2020

This Group has continued to meet regularly throughout the pandemic, all meetings since March 2020 have been via Zoom.

We were fortunate to have a team of representatives present at The Jolly Topers monthly quiz night in both January and February. One of the questions at the February quiz night was - what is the name of the virus currently affecting parts of the world? Unbelievably, someone could remember it was Covid but no-one could remember the number!

This year the group started reviewing the Parish Mission Action Plan. Our aim was that it would reflect the way forward within the parish both now and after the pandemic.

In our work on reviewing the Mission Action Plan we have been supported by the Diocesan Flourishing Churches Team. Revd. Paul Davies (Church Growth Officer) attended our meeting in December 2020 and offered some thought provoking comments and ideas. The Flourishing Churches Team organised a very helpful event, via Zoom, called “Mission Action Plan Refresh”, several members of the Parish Mission Planning Group were able to attend, and this further informed the revision of our Parish Mission Action Plan.

Also, the Parish Mission Statement has also been reviewed, it was felt that the previous one was rather wordy and not easy to memorise. So we set ourselves the task of revising the statement to make it shorter, but still appropriate and more readily memorable.

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After much prayer, reflection and conversation the final Parish Mission Statement is now ‘Love, pray, give, share’, the written statement is supported with visual symbols for each aspect within it.

The Parish Events Diary for 2021 was devised in the autumn months and following on from that the Mission Planning Group looked carefully at all the events to ensure that all the objectives set in the Parish Mission Action Plan were covered. As with all planning, we have stressed the need to be flexible and at all times follow guidelines to make sure that as and when anything is able to happen it happens in a safe way.

All meetings have been grounded in prayer. We look forward to the challenges 2021 will bring!

If you would like to know any more, please speak to Revd Anne, Dianne Scott, Carol Mitchell, Emma Reid, Annette Considine or Ann Moore

PARISH NEWS

Hilary Stubbs (Editor)

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we were only able to produce the Spring copy of the Parish News. This was out for distribution on 1 March and for the first time we found that some copies were incomplete. The printer has agreed that allowance will be made for these misprinted copies in the cost when we next produce a Parish News.

In 2020 we were able to add two new advertisers to the magazine- they were Penrose, the Estate Agent at Round Green and Print & Frame It based on Flowers Industrial Estate, Latimer Road. As they only had one edition instead of four in which to advertise, they, together with our other six advertisers will be given the opportunity to advertise free in three editions of the Parish News whenever it is published again.

Hopefully we will be able to resume our church services and activities later this year.

I am grateful to Alan and Maureen Fitzgerald, who help with the proof reading and setting out of the copy and also to Jude Chapman, who has so kindly designed the covers for the Parish News for a number of years.

I also appreciate any photographs or reports on the activities at the churches.

OUTREACH MAGAZINE

Sally Philp

Production of the Outreach magazine was halted in March due to the Coronavirus pandemic and, as yet, has not been resumed. It has meant, unfortunately, that there has been limited contact with those in the community and those outside the Parish who receive the magazine monthly.

The magazine is an important outlet to give those in the parish a view of what goes on at the Church and includes a monthly message from Reverend Anne.

GROUP REPORTS FOR ST ANNE’S CHURCH

CRAFT GROUP

Coordinator: Denise Dove

As the new year started little did, we all know what 2020 had in store. It has been impossible to meet as the craft group in 2020 after February, however a few of us met in late spring and

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then in the summer and started gardening within the church grounds as the garden began to look unkept. When it came to November, we then put up a display of poppies outside. Christmas came next and as we could not take part or support St Christopher’s tree festival an idea came to the group that perhaps we could craft Christmas trees and display outside St Anne’s. I was very pleased at the response we received. (All activity’s taken were within gov guidelines). We now have had some good ideas put forward for St Christopher’s tree festival this year which emerged from the need to be joyfully and keeping positive. Some of us have continued carrying on creating items for the community and NHS. The group have stayed in contact with each other throughout this past year giving support where needed or just to check in for a chat. We are ever hopeful ready excited and looking forward to this year to be able to meet again safely.

WEDNESDAY GUILD

President: Sandra Riley

Wednesday Guild has not met since December 2019. The Guild traditionally does not meet in January or February due to the likelihood of bad weather conditions. The first meeting for 2020 was therefore scheduled to be in March but due to Covid 19 this meeting, together with all meetings for the remainder of the year was cancelled.

Contact with Guild members has been maintained throughout the closure period by telephone calls and cards.

We look forward to the time when we can safely meet again and discuss the future of the Guild.

WIDE EYES CLUB

Mavis Knowles

This small group usually meets every six weeks or so to discuss a chosen topic, through stories, poems, music etc. Unfortunately due to the pandemic we were unable to meet in 2020.

OPEN CHURCH

Vicky McDowell

St Anne’s is looking forward to welcoming visitors back to our Open Church soon. The stewards will be here to ensure everyone is safe and to make our visitors very welcome.

ST ANNE’S LIBRARY

Vicky McDowell

Looking forward to our church library being used once again as soon as restrictions allow. Please do spend a few minutes looking to see if there is a book you would like to borrow, we have plenty of choice.

POP-IN CLUB

Carol Mitchell

We started the year well and there were plans to make an Easter frieze for the main hall which we all enjoy doing. Plans obviously came to an abrupt halt.

We managed to have a meeting in Wardown Park in the summer so we could say goodbye to the children that were moving on to big school. Thanks to Anna Hutchinson for arranging this. It was a lovely warm afternoon and great to catch up with everyone social distancing of course.

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I hope we can soon get back to meeting again at church.

We are looking for volunteers to help when we do restart.

It doesn't have to be a weekly thing just as and when you can.

Looking forward to when we can start again.

ST ANNE’S FLOWER MINISTRY

Sally Philp

Up until the end of March when Churches were closed for worship, Sandra and Madge continued to ensure there was always a display in Church. I wish to thank them for their continued help and support.

When St Anne’s reopened in September the guidance stated that we could not have flower arrangements. Hopefully, this will change at some point in 2021 as the displays give pleasure to a lot of people.

JUNIOR CHURCH

Brenda Biley

Junior church unfortunately has not been able to meet from March 2020 due to the ongoing epidemic of covid 19.

It has been difficult for us not being able to interact with the children.

We have kept in touch with sending cards in the first lockdown, Christmas and again in the New Year and will do so again for Easter.

We look forward to seeing the children in the future.

SOCIAL AND FUNDRAISING GROUP

Sally Philp

There was a full year of events planned but due to the Coronavirus pandemic the majority had to be cancelled.

We did manage to go ahead with the Film Night in January, the February Half-Term Coffee Morning, and the Pancake Party, also in February. Thank you to Michelle and Pauline for cooking the pancakes and to those that helped at the other events.

Of all the events cancelled I was most disappointed that the Tea Party planned to mark the 75[th] Anniversary of VE Day could not go ahead. Revd Anne organised a Tea Party via Zoom.

I hope that we will be able to hold some form of events later in 2021 as it important for us to get together socially and to engage with the wider community.

SCOUTS

Tanya Allen

2020 has been a year like no other, we were lucky to get our Santa Camp in during February having great fun at Haverings. Beavers, Cubs and Scouts spent the weekend playing with ‘snow’, having campfires and finishing off with a lovely Christmas Dinner. On the 23[rd] of March 2020 we had our last face to face meeting just before the first lockdown came in.

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Since then we have carried on Scouting, meeting virtually each Monday, even through the summer holidays, and while it may not be what we have been used to, wow, have we had some fun. We have virtually met the birds of prey from Joe’s Bows, had a visit from the Flying Army and escaped from Hogwarts. We have camped at Home and hiked to the moon, clocking up miles and miles with each young person walking in their garden or local area with their family. For VE Day, we had tea parties in our front garden and made over 30 packed up afternoon teas that we are safely dropped to friends and neighbours.

We have managed to present Chief Scout awards to all sections and invested our new Beavers, Cubs and Scouts – all from the safety of our own homes.

Leaders have dropped 3 lots of activity bags out to the whole group with badge work, craft and some fun activities in, we even managed to drop a goodbye gift off to our outgoing chairman as we couldn’t let his hard work and support go unmarked.

At Christmas we joined in with St. Christopher’s Christmas Tree festival and displayed some of our artwork on the fence outside the church.

A fun filled year, but we are now looking forward with much excitement to when we can meet again, busily planning camps and group hikes for later this year.

We would like to thank our fantastic executive committee for their support throughout a particularly challenging year, and of course we simply wouldn’t work without all our young people and their families who have joined in the fun and continued to Scout in ways we had never imagined until we needed to stay safely in our own homes.

We are also very lucky to have a great team of leaders, both young and old who have spent hours learning new technology, collecting activity material and thinking up new ways to make sitting in front of a screen fun.

Maybe 2020 was not a year we would want to repeat but we have made some memories along the way and are proud to have such a great group of young people still Scouting with us, here’s to more adventures in 2021!

GROUP REPORTS FOR ST CHRISTOPHER’S CHURCH

SOCIAL AND FUNDRAISING GROUP

Ann Moore

Little did we realise when we meet in 2019 to plan the Parish Diary of Events for 2020 how few of the events would be able to take place. Covid 19 has meant that since March 2020 we have not been able to meet together for our planned social events.

We were fortunate that we were able to have a Craft Fair in the Church on Saturday 1[st] February, this was well supported particularly by members of the local crafting community.

We were also able to hold the second Fair Trade Baking Competition on Saturday 29[th] February. This was again well supported, both in terms of those entering the competition and those of us who came along to judge the cakes by tasting them!!

Our regular Saturday coffee mornings in the church, were only able to take place in January and February.

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We have planned a Parish Diary of Events for 2021, and we look forward to seeing you at any of the planned events that are able to take place safely as allowed by local and national guidelines.

CRAFT GROUP

Ann Moore

When St Christopher’s Craft Group took the decision that they would reduce their meetings to once a month in 2020, little did they realise that from the middle of March they would not be able to meet together again that year as a result of the restrictions both locally and nationally due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Although we have not been able to meet together, we have continued to craft and kept in touch through phone calls. Throughout the year we made items for our bazaars which were not able to take place, but everything is stored safely and hygienically for when we are next able to have a bazaar or sale.

During the year we have also made various knitted items to decorate the Church fence. Sunflower bunting decorated the fence for Harvest, and poppies were again displayed for Remembrance Sunday.

Unfortunately, we were not able to have the Christmas Tree Festival in the Church, so we made Christmas tree bunting to decorate the fence. Thanks also to our Scout Group, Hart Hill Nursery and Round Green Pre-School for their contributions to the decorations on the fence. It looked really festive.

The group also supported the appeal by the University Chaplain for knitted angels; the angels were to be given to the students with an appropriate message. Together St Christopher’s Craft Group donated 74 angels for this initiative.

COFFEE IN CHURCH

Ann Moore

We were able to meet for Coffee in Church during January and February but only on the first Friday in March. Little did we realise how the Covid 19 virus would affect our plans for 2020. After the middle of March various lockdowns and restrictions occurred nationally and locally which meant that we were unable to gather together for coffee.

The regular helpers and visitors have kept in touch with occasional phone calls, but we have all missed gathering together. We wait to see what happens in the future.

SUNDAY COFFEE IN CHURCH

Ann Moore

Along with everything else, our Sunday Coffee after the morning service had to stop in March 2020.

FLOWERS IN CHURCH

Ann Moore

This year has been a very different year, from January until March there were flower displays in the Church. Artificial flowers were used for these displays, as it has been agreed that these will be used on a regular basis for the altar displays at St Christopher’s.

At the end of March all flower displays were removed from the building as indicated by various guidelines relating to the way forward with Covid 19 restrictions.

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Robert Bates, who for several years has arranged the floral displays in St Christopher’s moved away from the area. We thank Robert for all his work over the years and we also thank Gill Mardle for working alongside Robert in the latter part of 2019 and then undertaking to arrange the displays as permitted in 2020.

We do now have a good stock of artificial flowers and greenery in the flower cupboard, and displays are arranged in colours to suit the prevailing church season. Once guidelines change and we feel that it is safe and possible to have flowers in the church this will resume.

As previously, donations towards the cost of building up this resource would always be welcome.

Once we are able to resume having flowers in the church, anyone wishing to provide flowers in memory of a loved one or a special event is able to use the Remembrance Corner for this purpose.

As guidelines governing weddings in church change, any floral arrangements for weddings at St Christopher’s will be discussed individually with those involved.

Parish of Luton, St Anne with St Christopher

Treasurer’s Report 2020

Jackie Ives

I have pleasure in presenting the Parish Accounts for 2020, as laid out over the coming pages.

As agreed at last year's APCM the accounts are now reported as one whole Parish and not broken down by individual church and PCC.

The accounts have been audited by Ian Gorton and my thanks is extended to him. Ian has agreed to act as Auditor for the 2021 accounts.

As a Parish there was a loss of £6,250 during what has been a very difficult year. This excludes any restricted income.

The Parish Share for 2021 was £51,323 and of that the Parish paid £31,323. The Parish Share liability is currently recorded at £34,447 and this figure is recorded as a note to the accounts but is not included in any figures as they are operated on a cash basis.

Total income for the year was down by £26,543 when compared to 2019. The major variances being seen in Fundraising, Church Hall and Church hire income, this is a direct result of COVID and lock down. It is to be noted that planned giving was less than the 2019 total by only £1,507.

Expenditure for the year was £19,943 less than that recorded in 2019, again due mainly to a decrease in the running costs of the halls including which includes the associated cleaning costs.

A decision was made in December to use some of the reserves the Parish holds to make another contribution to the Parish Share (£7,323). The Parish still adheres to its Reserves Policy of holding reserves equivalent to at least 3 months running costs.

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This is my final year as Treasurer to the Parish as I am standing down after 13 years as Treasurer to St Christopher’s Church in the first instance and then Parish Treasurer.

A huge debt of thanks goes to the Church Wardens, Ann Moore and Michelle Reeves. Thanks also to Jason Reid for all his support and Robert Bates.

I hope the new Treasurer enjoys this role as much as I have.

Signed on behalf of the PCC

Jackie Ives

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Thank you .to the people of the Parish of Luton, St Anne with St Christopher for sharing and supporting the cost of ministry in the Diocese in an exceptional year. The amount of Parish Share paid in 2020 was: £31,323 WJkn. Bislhip of St Alban5 DIOCESE OF ST ALBANS THE CHURCFI, OF ENGLANC 33