## **. CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN, WHEATLEY ANNUAL REPORT 2020** The PCC of St Mary the Virgin Church, Wheatley, has the responsibility to promote, in the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the Church – pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. It also has the responsibility for maintaining the fabric of the Church. ## 1. **Wheatley Ministry, Local Ecumenical Partnership and Wheatley Area** **Churches** : The Rev. Nigel Hawkes is our minister licensed by the Bishop to take services at St Mary’s. Wheatley is part of a Benefice with Albury, Holton, Waterperry and Waterstock with Nigel as its vicar and he is assisted by Rev. David BendorSamuel, an Associate Priest, based at Holton who in the main looks after the four additional parishes. Alexandra Hewitt is licensed to serve as LLM to preach and assist with pastoral work in this benefice. **Local Ecumenical Partnership** : The Church has an ecumenical partnership with the United Reformed Church and St Bartholomew’s, Holton. Close links are maintained; joint services and social activities are shared. **Wheatley Area Churches** : The WAC consists of St Mary’s Church, United Reformed Church, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, St Bartholomew’s Church and Wheatley Community Church. Despite the restrictions of the past year Wheatley Area of Churches (WAC) has continued to work together in supporting each other and the wider village community in many different ways. The service for the week of Prayer for Christian Unity and some of the Lent Lunches for Christian Aid were held before lockdown. Easter services were held on Zoom alongside website meditations, videos and prayers by phone and emails. On Zoom Wac supported the dramatization of the Book of Job, a Remembrance Service, set up a virtual prayer wall and supported the Village Carol and Crib Services. New this year doorstep village carol singing on Sundays in December were held assisted by Radio Oxford. Twenty- four brightly decorated windows to produce an ‘Advent Calendar’ throughout the village, encouraging evening walks. Four small groups of six carol singers in the village were enjoyed by all. ## **2. Administrative Information** St Mary the Virgin Wheatley is situated in Church Road, Wheatley. It is part of the Diocese of Oxford within the Church of England. The correspondence address is the Vicarage, London Road, Wheatley, Oxford, OX33 1YA Registered Charity Number 1159100. The PCC members are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to the parish including how the funds of the PCC are to be spent. The full PCC has met six times during the year with an average level of attendance of 90 %. 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, mission and outreach, fabric and finance, are all responsible to the PCC and report back regularly with notes of their decisions being received by the full PCC and discussed as necessary. PCC members who have served at any time from 1[st] January 2020 until the date the report was approved are:- : *Ex Officio members: *** Incumbent** The Reverend Nigel Hawkes (Chairman) *** LLM** Mrs Alexandra Hewitt ***Church Wardens** Mrs Jane Fanning Mrs. Anne Walker (till January 2021)) Mrs Zannifer Mason (from January 2021) ## *** Deanery Synod Representative** Mrs. Valerie Farmer Ms Margaret Jackson (from November 2020) **Elected Members** Mrs Karen Benny Mrs Zannifer Mason (till January 2021 Ms. Ruth Burdett Mrs Anne Walker (from January 2021) Mr Chris Clements (Vice Chair) Mr. Tony Wigley Mr Peter Fanning (Treasurer) Mrs. Margaret Wilson (Secretary) Ms. Samantha Knight * URC Representative Mr. Malcolm Benson ## **3. Worship** **BCP Holy Communion** : Sundays at 8.00am **Parish Eucharist** : Sundays at 10.00am with a Family Service on the first Sunday of each month. **Holy Communion** : Wednesdays at 12 noon. Until lockdown and restrictions due to the Covid pandemic all services were held in Church. Thereafter when safe services as above were held in Church for the 8.00am and 12 noon as well as on Zoom platform, otherwise all services were held on Zoom. Link to Diocesan live streaming were sent out weekly. Many thanks to Alexandra and Ed Hewitt who managed to provide us with wonderful music to join in singing hymns at home during the services. Everyone has appreciated the expertise and creativity of Alexandra Hewitt and Revd. Nigel Hawkes in adapting and setting up the Zoom platform to enable so many people to attend and feel part of our virtual services. **Special Services and Events** : The following services and events were held during the year: -Christingle, Healing Service, Benefice Epiphany Carol Service at St Bartholomew’s, and Ash Wednesday Service. Evensong to celebrate Edward King in March. Other services held via Zoom include an Evensong, Lent group, Palm Sunday, Ascension Day, Harvest. All Souls, a Remembrance Service of Thanksgiving for those who serve others and an Advent Carol Service were held in November. Village Carol Service, Crib Service and Christmas Day Services in December. Morning Prayer and Healing Group met for prayers every day. Fair traded café and chat on Saturdays have been replaced with coffee and chat online Wednesday and Fridays. Prayer requests by email are sent out weekly or more frequently as required. ## **Deanery Synod** From November two members have represented us on the Deanery Synod. This provides the PCC with an important link between parish and the wider structures of the Church. Please see Deanery Synod Report. **Music** : Please see Music Report. ## **Servers, Sacristans, Sidespersons and Bellringers** One Sacristan prepares for our church services and a rota of Servers and Eucharistic Assistants carried out their duties, when the Church was open. Anne Walker co-ordinated the 12 sidespersons, who support the Churchwardens in welcoming those who come to worship, when needed this year. Please see Bellringers Report. ## **Attendance 2020** It is impossible to give a year, by year comparison concerning Church attendance this year as the Church has been closed many Sundays during the pandemic and when it has been open for services the numbers were understandably low. However, there has been a very good virtual attendance on Zoom for all services which has been very pleasing indeed and the overall combined figure would appear to be roughly the same as last year possibly a little more. Easter day we had an attendance of 86 on Zoom which was excellent. Christmas Eve & Christmas Day we had an attendance of 62 together with a virtual attendance on Zoom of 113. These attendances were extremely good considering the circumstances. The graph below includes Sunday attendance (8am + 10am) plus other occasions e.g. funerals, Ash Wednesday etc. mainly on Zoom during lockdown. The key message is that the trend was pretty flat. The dip in August was a mixture of administration problems and WAC services which were not recorded. A real credit to all those involved in the services. ## **Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals** There has been 1 Baptism and 2 weddings. There were 6 funeral services held in Church and there were a further 3 at the Crematorium plus committal/burial of ashes of another 1. ## **4. Church Activities: Social Events and Fundraising:** The Events Committee had planned to organise a number of events, but due to restriction only managed to hold a Quiz and March Bazaar at the beginning of the year. Parishioners took part in the Oxfordshire Historic Trust Ride and Stride. The above raised £2,602. ## **Mission and Outreach** £3,025 (excluding any Gift Aid declarations) was raised to support mission projects at home and overseas. St Mary’s along with Wheatley Area Churches, shared in the distribution of Christmas cards to every household in the village. St Mary’s parishioners have continued to support the Community Foodbank, Children’s Society boxes and Christian Aid. ## **Pastoral Care Report** This is very much part of our daily life at St Mary's - even more so during the Pandemic and we have set up a call system where an individual member of the Pastoral Group or PCC will keep in touch with those that live alone during this difficult period. Not that it didn’t go on before but in a more informal way and there is even more emphasis on it now. This has developed through the year and is very well received by all. Our services have taken place on Zoom during the Pandemic and look set for a while yet. The Chat room facility following the Sunday service is very well received and often a job to close the session down after everyone wants to hear everyone’s news which is in itself good pastoral work. The system is also opened for a similar chat on two weekday afternoons, Wednesday & Friday for those who just want a natter about anything - again good pastoral work. Overall pastoral care both within the Church and Village as a whole has been very much to the fore even if it has not been face to face. ## **The Church Magazine** Usually, the Church magazine is produced on a monthly basis, but has not been produced since April. It has been replaced by news on Facebook, A Church near You and the weekly newsletter from the Vicar. ## **St Mary’s Guild,** Have been unable to meet this year due to restrictions They are hoping that they will be able to have their AGM in September. We have kept in touch with members as best we can. Wendy Rogers February 2021 ## **House Group** We have made ourselves a cup of coffee or tea, then on line have exchanged views and enjoyed friendship since March. Every Tuesday at 10.30am six of us have joined Alexandra on zoom, for a small service of worship and some bible study. Recently we have been working our way through a set of bible reflections on ‘making more disciples’, but previously have looked and pondered over the Gospel of John and the letters written from his prison cell, by Paul. For our small group it is an uplifting time of joint reflection, where after due consideration we quite often agree to differ. Meg Barbour ## **Xplore** The year began with sessions looking at what we believe about God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the Bible. We also had prayer and praise sessions and prayers for healing, led by some of the students. We continued to have around 6-8 students attending each week. While most students were studying from home during the summer term, an activity sheet was sent round in the hope of keeping the connection going. Sadly, external visitors have not been allowed in since the lockdown started, even when the school was open to all students. Additionally, the need for ‘year group bubbles’ has meant that our cross-year group has been unable to meet. Please pray that when we are allowed to restart, that the young people will be keen to return and invite their friends, and that the next generation will still get the opportunity to grow in a leadership role. ## **Light Party** Covid restrictions meant that we were not able to hold a Light Party in 2020. We hope to be able to restore this event in 2021. ## **Wheatley CE Primary Academy Schoo** l The confidence in the new leadership team is apparent with the school continuing to progress well this year. When school is only caring for vulnerable children and children of key workers in school, they are keeping in touch and supporting the children working online at home. The School has been working hard on their online learning, and the staff are doing a fantastic job in keeping everything moving forward. The new RE Resources which church members purchased for the school are being well used and appreciated. Revd Nigel Hawkes is recording weekly video assemblies for the children. ## **Project 2020 - Re-ordering of St. Mary’s Church, Wheatley** Our aim for this ongoing project is to make St Mary’s a more welcoming place of worship and refurbish the building to meet the wider needs of the community. Due to the restrictions work on this has been slower, but has steadily moving forward under the very capable hands of Richard Cosier and David Benny. The Faculty application has been completed for the building work and we a now awaiting the judgement from the Diocesan Chancellor. Once have been granted a faculty, we are ready to start to apply for grants. We have so far raised £350,000 for the project. Grateful thanks to Richard Cosier, David Benny for their expertise and work for the building and faculty side and Michael Worthington for his work on grant applications. ## **Safeguarding Report** We continue to take safeguarding seriously and it is constantly an Agenda item for the PCC Agenda. It has been a difficult year owing to the Coronavirus pandemic as there has been no face to face meeting since March 2020. During the year two more members of the PCC have completed the Safeguarding Basic Awareness Course on line, we are trying to encourage more to take this course and then to take the next step a more advanced course. One member of the PCC attended a Domestic Violence (Virtual Course) run by the Diocese and general feedback is that they are good courses. An advanced DBS check is carried out on those that require them owing to their voluntary work within the parishes and we use APCS for this purpose an organisation recommended by the Diocese. Both the Safeguarding Officer and the Deputy can arrange these checks. (Tony Wigley & Margaret Wilson). Our Safeguarding Policy document has been revisited prior to this meeting, updated and signed by the Vicar and Churchwardens. Paroehlal Church Council of St Mary the Virgin, Wheatley Wheatley St•¢¢ments for the yur ¢*ded 31 December 20211 Parochi￿ ofst M*rythtViryityWkAlley P&ro¢hiAI cou￿¢11 of St Mary the Virgin. Wb¢allty Ch4*itJ ￿￿. 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