## **CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN, WHEATLEY ANNUAL REPORT 2021** 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 Bendor-Samuel, an Associate Priest, based at Holton who in the main looks after the four additional parishes. The Revd. Michael Dormandy has joined us at St Mary’s as curate in July this year to assist the vicar in pastoral work in the parish. Alexandra Hewitt is licensed to serve as LLM to preach and assist with pastoral work in this benefice. **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. Easter services were held on Zoom alongside website meditations. A good Friday virtual pilgrimage was set up around the village starting at St Mary’s with QR codes to produce video’s at each of the 7 stops. Easter cards were delivered. Support was given for refugees and the setting up of a Wheatley Good Neighbours Scheme and Clubs and Societies Fair. The Fusion Encounter event and service was a great success in bringing the community together under a big top at the Primary School field. Remembrance Sunday Service was in Church without the usual parade. The Advent windows this year had QR codes beside them to pass on a spiritual message. The village Carol Service was on Zoom and Christmas cards were distributed throughout the village. ## **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 7 times on Zoom platform during the year with an average attendance of 95%. 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 responsble 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 2021 until the date the report was approved are :- ## * **Ex Officio members** . ***Incumbent** Reverend Nigel Hawkes (Chairman) ***Curate** Reverent Michael Dormandy (from July 2021) ***LLM** Mrs Alexandra Hewitt ## ***Churchwardens** Mrs Jane Fanning Mrs Zannifer Mason ## ***Deanery Synod Representatives** Mrs Valerie Farmer (till April 2021) Mrs Margaret Jackson ## **Elected Members** Mrs Karen Benny Mrs Samantha Knight Mrs Ruth Burdett (till April 2021) Mrs Anne Walker Mr Chris Clements (Vice Chair) Mr Tony Wigley Mr Peter Fanning (Treasurer) Mrs Margaret Wilson (Secretary) Mrs Valerie Farmer (from April 2021) ## * **URC** Representative Dr Malcolm Benson ## **3. Worship** **BCP Holy Communion:** Sunday 8.00am **Parish Eucharist:** Sundays at 10.00am with a Family Service on the first Sunday of each month. **Holy Communion** : Wednesday at 12 noon. 2021 proved to be another challenging year for Church Services due to various restrictions and regulations concerning the ongoing Covid pandemic. When we couldn’t meet in Church, we met on Zoom only. When we could meet in Church we did so as well as on Zoom for the Sunday services. When we were able and it was safe the Wednesday services were in Church. Our thanks to all who made it possible 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. On Zoom Bethlehem Reflects a retelling of the Christmas Story, Ash Wednesday service, World Day of Prayer and Mothering Sunday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday art and meditation and All Souls Commemoration of the Faithful Departed and The Village Carol Service. In the Churchyard we had an Easter Fire Service, Parish Eucharists in May, June and July, Ascension Day. Choral Evensongs for Dedication Festival and Harvest. Advent Carol Service, Crib Service and Christmas Day services were held in Church. Morning Prayer and Healing Group met for prayers every day. Prayer requests by email are sent out weekly or more frequently if required. Coffee and chat online continued on Wednesday and Fridays until end of April. Two sessions of Grave talk were held, bringing people together to talk over tea and cake about death, dying and funerals. An open PCC discussion using the Living in Love and Faith course covering Christian teaching and learning about Identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage also took place online. ## **Deanery Synod** We were represented by two members until April and one member has represented us on the Deanery Synod since then. 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. **Bellringers** : Please see Bellringers Report ## **Servers, Sacristans, Sidespersons** Due to covid restrictions the servers, sacristans and sidespersons have been unable to carry out their normal duties. The Churchwardens have been standing in for them. ## **Attendance 2021** It would be impossible to give a year, by year comparison concerning Church Attendance this year as there have been so many obstacles/differences/initiatives throughout the two separate years of the pandemic making them so different in many ways. There has been a mixture of Face to Face and Zoom services and more than often both to choose from which is clearly a blessing for some that find difficulty in attending for mobility reasons. On the whole our figures have remained much about the same throughout the year. Easter Day had an attendance of 104 which was excellent. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we had an adult attendance of 188 with some 23 young people attending the Crib Service. There is a noticeable reduction in numbers attending the midnight service. ## **Baptism, Marriages and Funerals** There has been 7 Baptisms and 1 wedding. There were 4 funeral services held in Church and a further 3 at the Crematorium plus a further 5 committal/burial of ashes. ## 4. **Church Activities; Social Events and Fundraising** ## **Events Group** Members provided refreshments at Clubs & Societies Fair, and organised a quiz at new club which raised £199.39. They are looking forward to more events in 2022. Parishioners took part in the Oxfordshire Historic Trust Ride and Stride and raised £1397 of which £698.50 was given to St Mary’s ## **Mission and Outreach** £2,400 (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 and Easter 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** Daily life at St Mary's is very much pastoral care orientated and has been even more so during the pandemic. We have continued with our phone round/keeping in touch to ensure people living alone or poorly are not left out of the equation. There is no doubt that when Zoom was the only form of service and we shared the chit chat after the service it was a tremendous support for many of us. Our pastoral care itself stretches beyond our Church members into the village population as well and is very much to the fore even if there has not been so many face to face meet ups. ## **Communications** A weekly Newsletter is produced by the vicar. News is also posted on the Church Facebook page, A Church Near You Website and in the Wheatley Parish Council Newsletter. ## **St Mary’s Guild** The Guild is thriving. But we have been unable to function for a while. We are starting again this month and hope to welcome our friends back. Our numbers are steady and have good speakers. Wendy Rogers ## **House Group** We started the year in Zoom, but over the summer and early autumn we met in Meg’s garden or her conservatory, where we could be reasonably well separated. During the year we have studied Paul’s letter to the Romans and many of Jesus’ parables. We have also worked through a _Holy Habits_ course on ‘making more disciples’. When it became clear that my recovery from illness was going to be rather longer than anticipated, the group decided to take a break for November and December and restarted in January. The group is a wonderful source of refreshment and fellowship, as well as an opportunity to study the Bible and pray, and we would be delighted to welcome new members. ## **Xplore** We were able to restart in September and most of the students have returned. We have also gained 2 new year 7 students. The group seems more stable this year, with most members attending nearly every week. There are 5 boys and 3 girls. We are working through a Scripture Union resource called ‘Absolutely Everything’, which we have used before. It takes the students through key parts of the Bible from Creation to Revelation with fun activities and copious notes. Mostly these sessions are led by 3 older students. Alongside this, guest speakers (Brandan Silcox and Michael Dormandy) and the leaders (Graham West, Head of Sixth Form, and me) take sessions addressing some of the ‘Big Questions’ that the students come up with. In December we held an ‘Xplore Away Evening’ in St Mary’s, where we were able to look at the Christmas story in a more relaxed atmosphere, with plenty of time. 6 students attended, and it was great to be able to have longer conversations and take time to address the questions that they came up with. Being able to take a good 10 minutes for 3 of us to give our responses to ‘Is the Christmas story really true?’ was brilliant. We are looking forward to planning another Away Evening on the theme of ‘Does God respond to us? If so, how?’, which was another student question, that we felt deserved more than a 25 minute lunch-time session. ## **Light Party** We decided that we struggle to find the capacity to organise a Light Party this year, and with continuing covid concerns it seemed best to put this on hold again. ## **Wheatley C E Primary Academy School** Due to Covid restrictions the school started the year with online learning. The staff worked hard to be ready to welcome the children back in March. Teachers have worked hard to deliver the curriculum to the children while tracking and monitoring their progress. Revd Nigel Hawkes led virtual assemblies when he couldn’t attend in person. When possible, he with the help of our curate, lead assemblies in school. He is also a member of the Christian Distinctiveness Committee, which aids the school in developing their Christian ethos. Harvest service this year was held in school instead of church. The school in expecting to have its SIAMS inspection soon, but is well prepared. Even the financial problems have not deterred the school in working hard to produce well rounded individuals. One of the joint heads has resigned to take up a new position, and the remaining head, Gill Standing has become a full time head. The school also took part in some local musical initiatives, Radio Oxford’s Carols on the doorsteps, and a musical Advent Calendar with Oxford University Musical Society. The Y1/2 children decorated their window with angels for the Wheatley Advent Window project. ## **Project – Reordering 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. After a quiet year on the project partly due to the Covid restrictions, but mainly awaiting the judgement of the Chancellor we have been granted a faculty for the work albeit with a revision on the floor finish of the Nave. We have been instructed to work with the professionals and the DAC to come up with a solution to finish the floor in a way that replicates Streets original design. Richard and David have already started negotiations with DAC and the architects to restart the project and look into contractors. Michael has been able to start applying for grants for the project. Our grateful thanks to Richard Cosier and David Benny for their sterling work, which led to the procurement of the faculty, and their expertise in working with the architects and DAC Our grateful thanks also to Michael Worthington for the time and knowledge he has put into researching possible grants and completion of the paperwork. Watch out for the exciting events in the coming year being organised by the fundraising committee ## **Safeguarding Report** Safeguarding is taken very seriously in our Church and is on the agenda at all meetings of the PCC. We have had very few face to face meetings, however it is felt that the pastoral care/safeguarding team are very much aware of its responsibilities. Whilst we have very few younger members in our Church we do have a considerable membership of older people and amongst them are those that need special attention/support, especially those living alone, in poor health or lonely and we try to accommodate their needs. The Diocese is very proactive in its’ safeguarding issues and has had an excellent series of courses available for safeguarding personnel and members of the PCC. It is pleasing that several people have taken advantage of these courses, The DBS system operated by APCS caters for all those that need to have the necessary check made and the Safeguarding Officer operates it from the parish end of things and includes the wider Benefice. 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