## **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.
Following on from the Pandemic of March 2020 to February 2022 that affected worship, social activities, hall hire and the loss of production of our Parish Magazine, we are pleased to note that many activities have started to develop again.
The negative impact is that we have lost connection with many families and have had to re-think certain activities, and it has not been possible to re-start the magazine at this stage. Some have been hesitant to return and the worshipping patterns of some seems to have changed. It is difficult to fully determine what impact the pandemic lockdowns will have in the longer term.
On a positive note, we have seen hall hire income return to acceptable levels and have seen an upturn in generosity from the community for the stock of items that we manage to help supply the local Foodbank and other causes. Our online worship presence on Facebook still seems popular and the intension is to continue with this
whilst resources allow. It was also encouraging to see attendance at Christmas services almost back to pre-pandemic levels.
Guide and Scout organisations continue to hold Parade Services in the church two or three times a year.
We endeavour 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. 10 names were added during the year and 7 were removed either through death or because they moved away from the parish. The average weekly attendance, counted during October, was 75, 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 10 baptisms in church. Our minister has carried out 31 funerals this year, most of which were at the local crematorium. We have had 1 wedding - historically St Nicholas Church has not held many weddings, most likely to the modern nature of the building.
Fiona Higgs, Children, Families & Schools Minister has developed a Chaplaincy role within our local primary schools and leads assemblies, supports classrooms and the staff. She has developed significant relationships with the schools and, at their, request, she has re-started the Explorers after school clubs at Allington and Palace Wood Primary Schools.
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.
## _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 (youth group), which meets monthly, went on an outing to Westminster Abbey.
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, in care homes, or in hospital. Our Prayer and Pastoral care co-ordinator, Angela Redford maintains ongoing contact with many members of the congregation, particularly the elderly.
Care Home ministry is provided through the Anna Chaplaincy network that draws from all denominations across the town and visits most care homes once a month.
## **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 regularly connect with St Nicholas in other ways.
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. Our incumbent has attended Leaders Breakfasts that are held each month and involve all Christian denominations from across the town.
## **Financial Review**
Total income for the year amounted to £131,284 (2021 - £122,905) of which £3,511 related to restricted income. There is a net surplus for the year of £16,887 (2021 £1817 surplus), of which £10,316 related to general funds. At the year end unrestricted funds totalled £94,932 (2021 - £79,616) of which £37,143 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 £15,000 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 six times during the year with an average level of attendance of 78%. 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) – **retired 22 February 2023** Church Wardens: Mr Nigel Smetham, Mrs Jenny Stone Children, Families & Schools Minister: Mrs Fiona Higgs
Elected members:
Mrs Sarah Lavender – representative on Deanery Synod – **left 22 February 2023** Mr Michael Evans – representative of Deanery Synod – **left December 2022** Mrs Gill Waite – Treasurer Ms June Bagshaw Mrs Gill Poole Mrs Martina Tidball Mrs Nicola Tulip Mr David Salvage Ms Jacqueline Wilkinson Ms Ruth Brind Mrs Angela Redford
Approved by the PCC on 20th March 2023 and signed on their behalf by Nigel Smetham (Acting PCC chairman – Parish in vacancy)
##
##
|Designated: Building fund
Bequest fund (unrestricted)|Balance b/f
10000
22143
32143!|Receipts
Ol|Payments
Ol|Transfers
5000
5000!|Balance
15000
22143
37143|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Sunday Lunch Club
Fellowship
Halls Deposit
Heating Grant
Flag pole
Special charity appeals|-21
430
0
0
0
69|1159
200
1000
1152|728
1254
60|102|410
430
200
1000
0
9|
||4781|3s111|2042!|
1021|2049|
##
##
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|3.**ReceiptsandPaymentsanalysisctd**||**2022**||||**2021**|
||**General**|**Designated**|**Restricted**|**Total**||**Total**|
||**fUnd**|**funds**|**fUnds**|**fUnds**||**fUnds**|
|d.Church**activities**-**payments**|||||||
|Charitablepayments|||||||
|Overseas|1100|||1100||110|
|ChristianReliefandDevelopment|300|||300||1260|
|HomeMission|**485**||60|**545**||100|
||1885||60|1945||1470|
|Clergyexpenses
Churchrunningexpenses
Hallsrunningexpenses|6983
23910||**1254**|0
8237
23910||459
8332
16441|
|Salaries,wagesandhonoraria|20836|||20836||19101|
|Administrationexpenses|3037|||3037|-|1746|
|YouthWork|**465**|||465||207|
|Fundraising|635|||635||**88**|
|SundayLunchClub|||728|728||212|
|Covid19||||0||8097|
|StAndrewsWages||||0||2745|
|Sundries||||0||12|
|HallsDeposit||||0||100|
||5TT51|0|2042|59793||59010|
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Christopher McLaughlin
Chartered Accountant
St Nitholas Church
Parish Office
Poplar Grove
Maidstone
ME16 ODE
Apr612023
Dear slr l Madam
In
dent reviewof Allln
on PCC HTr4nclal Ststements
I hereby confim that I have completed an independent review of the financial Statements of
Allington PCC forthe year ending 31 December 2022 and found them to be in good order.
Yours faithfully
Chrlstopher Mdau8hlln- CGMA
2 ah*den aose.AMrytw.
M4Wone, Ken¢ ME160PQ
me16Cwehw.co.uk
4147956781829