## **REPORT FOR CHARITY COMMISSION** ## **Aims and purposes** St Nicholas Allington Parochial Church Council (the PCC) has the responsibility of cooperating with our joint priest-in-charge in promoting the whole mission of the church – pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The PCC is also responsible for maintaining the church building, halls and church grounds (but not the Rectory which is the responsibility of the Diocese). ## **Objectives and activities** The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at our church and to become part of our parish community at St. Nicholas. The PCC maintains an overview of worship throughout the parish and makes suggestions on how our services can involve the many groups that live within our parish. Our services and worship put faith into practice through prayer and scripture, music and sacrament. When planning our activities for the year, we have considered the Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the supplementary guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. In particular, we try to enable ordinary people to live out their faith as part of our parish community through: • Worship and prayer; learning about the Gospel; and developing their knowledge and trust in Jesus through a range of formal and informal worship, with and without communion. The church is committed to providing the Church of England 'occasional offices' of baptism, marriage and funerals. - Provision of pastoral care for people living in the parish. - Missionary and outreach work. To facilitate this work, it is important that we maintain the fabric of the Church of St. Nicholas and the Church Halls. The PCC has complied with Section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016 (duty to have due regard to the House of Bishops guidance on Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults). ## **Achievements and Performance** ## _Worship and Prayer_ The PCC is keen to offer a range of services during the week and over the course of the year that our community find both beneficial and spiritually fulfilling. For example, a range of worship services from Morning Worship, Holy Communion and informal worship at Oasis Communion and Oasis with contemporary worship songs. The Pandemic of March 2020 to February 2022 had a major impact on the activities of St Nicholas Church. Worship in church ceased during ‘lockdown’ periods, all social activities ceased, and the production and distribution of the Grapevine Parish Magazine ended. Hall hire activities were cancelled, and significant income was lost. On a positive note, worship developed ‘online’ and greater community engagement took place through; - Significant Foodbank collections and donations that have continued at a high level. - Liaising with local government for grants to assist those in particular need. - Help line developed collecting prescriptions and shopping for those isolating. Guide and Scout organisations hold Parade Services in the church two or three times a year. In church, we have continued to make our services easy for visitors to follow using Power Point projection, enlarged texts, or printed out in short booklets. The church sound system helps all visitors, as well as the hearing-impaired. All are welcome to attend our regular services. At present there are 126 parishioners on the Church Electoral Roll. 2 names were added during the year and 2 were removed either through death or because they moved away from the parish. The average weekly attendance, counted during October, was 73, but this number increased at festivals including Christmas. As well as our regular services, we enable our community to celebrate and thank God at the milestones of the journey through life. Through baptism we thank God for the gift of life, and through funeral services friends and family express their grief and give thanks for the life which is now complete in this world and to commend the person into God's keeping. We have celebrated 3 baptisms in church as numbers have been reduced due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Our minister has carried out 46 funerals this year, most of which were at the local crematorium. We have not had any weddings, possibly due to the modern design of the building - historically St Nicholas Church has not held many weddings. Fiona Higgs, Children, Families & Schools Minister has developed a Chaplaincy role within our local primary schools and leads assemblies, supports classrooms and the staff. St Nicholas has an active Mothers’ Union group with monthly Holy Communion services. We also run St Nicholas’ Fellowship, a social group for the elderly. Residential Homes are visited, and services conducted there ## _Deanery Synod_ Two members of the PCC sit on the deanery synod. This provides the PCC with an important link between the parish and the wider structures of the church. This year St Nicholas has completed building work to improve our environmental impact including changing lights to LED. ## _The Church and Church Halls_ St Nicholas is open every day to our community for private prayer and is used on a regular basis. Our present church, consecrated in 1975, is a square building mainly, recently reordered by the replacement of pews with chairs. The church space is used for worship every Sunday and Wednesday and at other times as required. It is also used for PCC Meetings, a weekly prayer group, a monthly meeting of mums and babes and other groups, and for appropriate community activities. To one side are the clergy vestry, Parish Office used three mornings a week and three toilets, with disabled access. The church has kitchen facilities in the main body of the church. There are two church halls in a building adjacent to the church that provide facilities to many local groups and businesses - these halls have a kitchen and toilet facilities, including a baby change and disabled toilets. Both church and halls have disabled access. A wide range of social and fund-raising events held throughout the year that are open to the larger community. The Christmas Market draws many people into our buildings and is supported by a number of small local businesses. Carol singing takes place at Christmas time at the local shopping centre. The outside Notice Board advertising our services and events is always well presented The St Nicholas Lunch club meets the stringent health and safety requirements with 5 rating and allows us to continue the old people’s luncheon club 6 times a year and approx. 40 people regularly attend. Each Tuesday a Community Café takes place in St Nicholas Church which is run by a team of volunteers, is registered with Maidstone Borough Council, and is attended by approx. 60 people each week. During the week the hall is used by many local groups and organisations including a mother and toddlers’ group on Tuesdays. We run a monthly Mum & Babes group in St Nicholas which has led to a Faith Explorers group led by our Children, Families & Schools Minister. During the summer the youth group – Jahfa, which meets monthly, went on an outing to Deal Castle. Our church halls offer valuable meeting places for a wide variety of community and commercial activities, including the numerous branches of the Guide and Scout organisations. The halls are booked frequently for private bookings by local residents. From a financial perspective our reserves have held up fairly well and income is returning now that hall hire is once again taking place. The church building is also being used more as a space for hire to the community. ## **Pastoral Care** Some members of our parish are unable to attend church due to sickness or age. Reverend Chris Lavender has visited all church members who have requested it, to celebrate communion with them either at their homes or in hospital. Our Prayer and Pastoral care co-ordinator, Angela Redford has kept a telephone tree running during lockdown and has maintained ongoing contact with many members of the congregation, particularly the elderly. ## **Mission and Evangelism** Helping those in need is a demonstration of our faith. St Nicholas gives monthly to a range of charities both local and abroad including Alongside Africa. St Nicholas provides a weekly online service via Facebook and the church website to over 250 people, the majority of whom do not connect with St Nicholas at present. Rev Chris Lavender writes a weekly update that is emailed to approx.. 200 people and paper copies are delivered to 33 homes for those who are not on the internet. We maintain a significant presence in the Primary Schools, which are non-church, through the work of our Children’s, Families & Schools Minister. ## **Ecumenical Relationships** The church is a member of Churches Together in Maidstone. We worked with the other local churches during covid including Allington Baptist to support our community. ## **Financial Review** Total income for the year amounted to £122,905 (2020 - £116,866) of which £8,646 related to restricted income. There is a net surplus for the year of £1,817 (2020 -£8,292 deficit), of which £835 related to general funds. At the year end unrestricted funds totalled £79,616 (2020- £73,781) of which £32,143 is held in designated funds. From a financial perspective our reserves have held up fairly well and income is returning now that hall hire is once again taking place. Current levels of hall hire income, post-pandemic, are at about half of pre-pandemic levels and the true nature of how this recovers will need to be seen in this coming year. The church building is also being used more as a space for hire to the community to increase income, greatly aided by the more flexible space that has been developed. ## **Reserves Policy** The PCC aims to maintain reserves to a level of six months of annual expenditure. The building reserve of £10,000 is designated for possible roof repairs needed in the future. ## **Volunteers** We would like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard to make our church the lively and vibrant community it is. In particular we want to mention our Tuesday Café team and the finance team who has helped us all to understand the church’s accounts. ## **Structure, governance and management** The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. At St. Nicholas the membership of the PCC consists of the incumbent (our vicar), churchwardens and members elected by those members of the congregation who are on the electoral roll of the church. All those who attend our services / members of the congregation are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC. The PCC members are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to the parish including deciding on how the funds of the PCC are to be spent. New members receive initial training into the workings of the PCC. The full PCC met five times during the year with an average level of attendance of 80%. Given its wide responsibilities the PCC has a number of committees each dealing with a particular aspect of parish life. These committees, which include worship, social, halls, fabric and finance, are all responsible to the PCC and report back to it regularly with minutes of their decisions being received by the full PCC and discussed as necessary. ## **Administrative information** St. Nicholas Church is situated on Poplar Grove, Allington, Maidstone. It is part of the Diocese of Canterbury within the Church of England. The parish is legally known as the Parish of St Nicholas, Allington with St Peter, Maidstone. Roughly it stretches at its western edge from the Park and Ride, either side of the London Road, toward the town centre down to the river and Lockmeadow. The river end of the parish is the area which formerly came under the previous St Peter’s Church, no longer in use. The running of the parish comes under two Churchwardens and the Parochial Church Council or PCC. Ministry and worship comes under a Priest-in-Charge and a Children's and Families Minister. The correspondence address is The Parish Office, Poplar Grove, Maidstone, Kent ME16 0DE. The PCC is a body corporate (PCC Powers Measure 1956, Church Representation Rules 2006) and a charity registered with the Charity Commission. PCC members who have served at any time from 1st January 2021 until the date this report was approved are: Incumbent: Rev. Christopher Lavender (Chairman) Church Wardens: Mr Caleb Howarth, Mrs Jenny Stone Children, Families & Schools Minister: Mrs Fiona Higgs Elected members: Mrs Sarah Lavender – representative on Deanery Synod Mrs Gill Waite – Treasurer Ms June Bagshaw Mrs Gill Poole Mrs Christine Colyer Mrs Debbie Hayles Mr David Salvage Mr Nigel Smetham Ms Jacqueline Wilkinson Ms Ruth Brind Approved by the PCC on 14th March 2022 and signed on their behalf by the Reverend Christopher Lavender (PCC chairman) ALLINGTON P C C FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 OECEMBER 2021 RECEIPTS PAYMEIITS ACCOUIIT X*21 D••ignat• 2020 Total lund* G•n•ial lund R•*lricl•d Tot•1 RECEIPT8 Vduntsry Rqc•¥ts 47710 11447 3967 63124 47710 11447 7639 12125 63124 28220 3694 28857 io 61877 7605 3164 26 28￿17 10 240 156 114059 1229D5 PAYMENTS Churthac*wL¥ 62078 6728 62078 59)10 65137 Ctrrp4y￿Thts 12282 12282 121088 125156 4418 4011 1117 4292 Cmh atOIP)1121 27143 78277 C4•h •t 31112tt1 47473 32143 71 8tst•ffi•nt￿AM•1¥ 4ndLknblllO•• 21 Z020 Toi•l fvnda 0••1gna Total fvn c*￿ Fw 16231 CBF Cwbrf FurAI 11W 11587 47473 32143 471 2915 15 iity 2n4 56J# 2n4 68J$ 3163 1Q) 107 171 178 533 OJ NOTES l. Fu•d 141•11 r•th￿Id lorchurth In ts trY•r olptsr¢￿￿. Th• tr*o¢hur¢h halLq pr•¥￿ty •hown fiA•d¥wts h•v•in ur•d v*l••lipproxuNl•ty É16CrfI.&)O. rw•M'. BaLW Recwts P• nts Transf• B31anGe 10C 22143 32143 qLwI 22143 2714) 50 49 41 212 41 130 T￿￿YclI0 19Gwrt¥ b5 C4F¥ 417 491 Ic¢) 2Y ILN) 370 12282 305 69 478 .582 I RK•W1ndP•￿th 21 2020 Tothl To¥1 27Y 2010 2XI tLW1 442$ TW2 4425 28220 26 94 J164 28?86 75 ioj 19 lilli I￿1 75 20617 .'K•ipts andP•yrnnts anatrfiii ¢bJ 2021 Drttynaled lundi 2020 Totsl Gen•ral R•stri¢tsd Totsl hattsbie pay￿ 10 fJ7 1170 370 1470 459 8332 2807 1312 459 ChurthTUMWa¢YW IU41 18Y3 1746 16281 18184 3125 1746 y￿thW Futhwrs 207 Sundtylurrthc 212 918 133 2745 2745 12 100 59010 46r28 Sl Nicholas chl￿ Ali on-l ndent Examu)ern R for the Year Endi 31.12 21 Independent Examinw5 Salèment.. I have comthted my èxamination and rewt on fv aLwunt8 ol St Nicholas Church Allington for the year 31.12.21. I reFth in respect of my examination Carried OLrt under sedion 145 of th8 Charities Ad 2011 (The Act) and folknmng the direction given by the Chanty Comi$$ion in 14515llbl in The Ad. I confim that no rnatte￿ have CLvne to my attent￿ gNing ffle eause lo believe that.. 1. A￿oUn￿n9 re¢ords were not kept in res￿¢* of IIN? charty as fequired by 130 of The Act. 2. The accounts do not *¢cord with Ihose rewds 3. The accounts do not comply wilh requiremn¢s w￿ming the fiym arKI contents of 8ccounls set out in the Chariti88 Regul8th￿s 2￿8 I have no corwns and ha¥* comg auoss no olher matters in CA￿￿?￿10N vnih I examinabon lo which attenlion shouKI be drawn N) tho (•port in order lo wubl• 8 understanding ol the ac¢ounts lo be r¢athed. Helèn Rogorn 7 Haz1￿ Drive MaKlslo K•nl ME16 OEG Signed.... l Nichol88 c1m￿th Ah. 31.1 I have c¢mplèled my exam1n81￿ rewt on acC￿M￿ of Sl Church liffjton for the year eThling 31.12.21. I rgport in ol my exarninalion carrnd urbjer sedlon 145 olthe Charthes AL* 2011 he Acll followry ts directitin gNen by the Charity c￿l￿10n in 145(5llbl in Th& Act. I confirn thal no mattern have Gome to my attent*M me cauao to l￿[0¥0 thaL 1. A¢counting rew(ts V•we not kept in ie8r*ct of charity 88 tsjwred by sectw 130 ofTheArt 2. Th• xo)urrty do not accord with those recL*ds 3. Th• ￿COuntS do not compty with the reqUir￿n￿$ eoncemww the fm and contents of acctyxrt8 out in th• ct￿111￿ RegulatK￿¥ 2L I have no cor￿emS and have come acmss no other mattern in connedion with the examinalion lo which attenlion 8houkl ￿ dr•*n in this reF4xI in ordor to enabkn a proper urKler¥tarwJing of Ihg a¢>))Lmt8 lo be reathed. Helen R¢)yrn 7 Hazlth Drive Matdsto Kent ME16 OEG