## **Parish of Gornal and Sedgley** ## **2020 Report and Accounts for the Parochial Church Council of the Parish of Gornal and Sedgley**[1] Please note - This report is based on the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM), approved 16th May 2021, which include the 2020 end or year accounts. ## **Aims and purposes** Gornal and Sedgley’s Parochial Church Council (PCC) has the responsibility of co-operating with the Team Rector (Rev Guy Hewlett) and Team Vicar (Rev Catherine Mitchell), in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The PCC has overall responsibility to oversee the maintenance of our churches and halls. However, specific responsibility for the day to day running and maintenance is delegated to the respective District Church Councils (DCC); namely All Saints’ church and hall, Sedgley, All Saints DCC; St Peter’s church and hall, Upper Gornal, St Peter’s DCC; St Andrew’s church and hall, St Andrew’s DCC. ## **Objectives and Activities** The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at our churches and to become part of our parish community. ## **Safeguarding** The PCC, and the people of the parish are committed to their Safeguarding responsibilities. The PCC has complied with its duty to have due regard to the House of Bishops guidance in relation to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults in the Parish. There have been no safeguarding allegations or concerns regarding children or vulnerable adults, no domestic abuse allegations and no serious incidents reported to the Charity Commission. Advice has been sought from the ADSA on one occasion and her recommendations have been followed with her support. 1The Parish of Gornal and Sedgley includes the churches of All Saints’, Sedgley St Peter’s, Upper Gornal and St Andrew’s, The Straits. Page 1 of 10 The policies relating to safeguarding were reviewed and renewed by the PCC via email in February 2021. 4 DBS applications have been processed 2 renewals and 2 new to post, all with clear outcomes. Training courses have been changed and updated. All were available online this year due to Covid 19 restrictions, which prevented face to face meetings. 23 people in the Parish were due to renew, of which 15 have successfully completed the required course. Some of our volunteers have been unable to renew their training due to lack of internet access. The DSA has been advised of this and has agreed to the training being postponed until the restrictions are lifted and face to face meetings are possible. There are 3 people waiting for places on the C2 Leadership course and they will be notified of new dates as they become available. Thank you to all those who successfully completed a training course this year. All children’s and young people’s activities have been suspended due to Covid restrictions. All groups and activities will require new risk assessments to ensure they comply with the guidelines when they restart. The Parish is adhering to the Safer Recruitment guidance, references are obtained and DBS checks requested where required. As part of our action plan we are developing a simplified application /recruitment form. The Parish Dashboard continues to be used which enables the DSA/ADSA to view safeguarding in the Parish. Access to the Dashboard will be extended to The Clergy and Church Wardens and the action plans produced will be presented to the DCCs and PCC. PSO support meetings have continued on Zoom and the information from these meetings has been shared with the DCCs and PCC. The PCC wish to thank our safeguarding officer Barbara Baker for all her hard work during the past 12 months. ## **Achievements and Performance** The Parish of Gornal and Sedgley and the Diocese of Worcester continues to be in a time of change – but with great potential. The year 2020 is a year of experiences in our parish’s life which has not previously been experienced and we hope will not be again! The Parish of Gornal and Sedgley and the Diocese of Worcester with the whole country and world continues to be in a time of change and challenge with Corona Virus Pandemic. Nearly all of us know people who have been very poorly and also those who have died. May they rest in peace and rise in Glory. Page 2 of 10 We, with the whole nation, are so grateful for the work of all our carer’s and the National Health Service along with all key workers. As a parish, we have continued to be greatly blessed by the incredible amount of hard work and ministry that so many are contributing to God’s work in this place. Our Standing Committee and Church Councils have worked to help steer the parish forward, giving a great deal of time and energy. Our church wardens, church councils, group leaders, Authorized Lay Ministers and Canon Jan and so many others who contribute so much, have blessed us all and deserve our deep thanks. Our buildings have been closed but the church has not. A great deal of work in 2020 has gone into becoming ‘Covid 19 Secure’ with complex risk assessments and the equipping of the church and hall with everything from sanitizer to social distancing measures and to the installation of a Wi-Fi bridge in All Saints church to enabling online worship during lockdown periods and engaging with those who do not normally attend church. Many have learnt a whole new language and many new technical skills to enable worship and meetings to happen on Zoom and Facebook Live. But this year has been challenging beyond measure for us. Not everyone has been able to meet online. Many have felt alone and isolated. Many have been bereaved and as a parish we have taken very many funeral services. We have been grateful to the team who have assisted with services in church. Thanks are due to our pastoral team contact has been maintained through countless telephone calls. This in addition to our support received from our friendship groups. The importance for accurate personal information was never clearer! Our main parish priorities into the beginning of 2020 were to have continued to be a focus on prayer and our work with children and young people and their families. Our prayer times online in the mornings and the Parish Prayer meeting in an afternoon and an evening have helped to give a rhythm of prayer in the parish through very challenging times, and the Thursday evening fellowship online has grown. Many have consistently met to pray and worship online and new people have joined the congregation through this. The views of our services online have been in the hundreds for which we are grateful. Our children’s work across the parish was dramatically affected by the pandemic. Broadly had to stop but with some noticeable exceptions. Singing Angels were on Facebook for much of 2020, a great video from the Open the Book team went into Woodsetton school, our support of children’s worker Paul Wilmott continued, and he created outstanding teaching videos for our local schools and craft packages were delivered to 71 or so children several times. Throughout the year the Baptismal Books project was sent to our baptismal Page 3 of 10 families. However, the Calling Young Disciples group was very disappointed that the very significant programme of events planned for 2020 could not happen. We pray that we are able to re-establish this work in the coming months. Our parish Safeguarding Officer Barbara Baker has worked hard with us to ensure that all are safe, and all appropriate training and checks have been done or are being done. We thank Gail Griffiths for all her support and commitment in the parish office. A great deal of work was done in the rearranging of weddings and baptisms and our thanks go to Chris Williams for this. At All Saints, the refurbished hall was used only briefly because of lockdown. We still hope the Mayor of Dudley will join us for the ‘relaunch’ and thanks again to John Anderson for his hard work on this project. As a church, All Saints, played a key role in applying for grants for the new Sedgley War Memorial and its installation. We were able to hold a simple act of remembrance in November. St Peters church building; Due to remote working by Diocese staff and the Church Commissioners the closure of the church building of St Peter, is still awaiting closure notices to be displayed in the community and the Pastoral Scheme approved by the Bishop. We continue, when allowed with local restrictions, to worship in the hall. Early in 2020 a meeting was held with Mark Carter from the Diocese, Evenwood Projects and DCC representatives to start the process for refurbishing the hall. This work was put on hold due to the pandemic. Early in 2021, the DCC met to discuss moving forward with the hall refurbishment. The DCC decided rather than a complete refurbishment, we would explore initially ensuring repairs and architects recommendations were completed, followed by potential additional works identified by the DCC. This work is ongoing. Our ecumenical relationships between the local church leaders have blossomed and this led to 3 Alpha Courses being planned in 2020 and then delivered in early 2021. There have been about 50 participants online. Sadly, each of our 3 churches has not been able to pay the full parish share asked of us. Although this is understood by the Diocese it continues to be a real concern. But thanks again to our treasurer Sheila Moss for all her hard work with the accounts. A good number of our parish went along to the Open Conversations organized by the Diocese online and the Diocesan Synod on the 29th February 2020 received the report from the conversations and this is informing the plans for the future of the Diocese. We know that re-structuring is happening and that the number of stipendiary clergy is reducing by 15 from about 98. We still cannot know at this time how this will affect us as a parish. At the same Page 4 of 10 time the new parish share system is being introduced – this relates more to the actual cost for each parish to have their clergy in post with adjustment for the financial context of the church members in the parish. Kingdom People, with its emphasis on the Gospel main stays of love, compassion, justice and freedom, and the signs of the Kingdom, which describe 8 characteristics of a Kingdom People church which is healthy, continues to give us a structure to formulate the mission of the parish. Over the coming months in 2021 we will hopefully settle into a ‘new normal’ and we continue to pray for safety. We are still in a challenging and worrying phase of the ministry for the parish and there is a great deal of work to do. Not least of all we need to continue to ensure that we are stable in our financial resources for mission and so will need to continue explore our stewardship and we will need to continue to ensure that our buildings are fit for purpose. However, we are hopeful and trusting in God. There are too many to mention by name but thankyou to all who have given so much. Thank you all for all you are in the Lord and for all you are doing. Together with God we will move forward! The following outlines, with these eight characteristics, the achievements and performance of the parish 1. Deeply rooted in prayer and study of the scriptures, - Prayer is the most important activity we do as Christians. There are several opportunities that have been established within he parish; morning prayer each week at 9:15, which moved on line from the start of the pandemic, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Also, two prayer meetings have continued once a month on a Tuesday afternoon, and once a month on a Tuesday evening, both are now on line. - Sadly, the Monday home group stopped at the start of the year, however the Thursday evening home group continued to meet together and studying together on line. 2. Renewed and transformed by regular worship, - Face to face church services were suspended in March 2020 and all services went on-line via Zoom and Facebook Live. During the first lockdown Communion services were broadcast from the homes of ministers. During the mid-summer to Christmas there were Covid secure Face to Face services in all the three churches. Sadly, postChristmas Face to Face services were once again moved on-line and Page 5 of 10 broadcast from All Saints Church. The PCC made the decision that face to face services would resume from Easter Day 2021. 3. Equipped to witness to the Gospel of love, compassion, justice and freedom, - Sadly, the pandemic has had an impact on the parish moving forward to gain confidence and experience in sharing God’s love. - The ministry team, over the past year, sadly have taken many more funerals than would have been during a normal year, enabling connections with bereaved families. Sadly, during this time, there have been restrictions on numbers attending services and also bereavement support. 4. Dedicated to helping children and young people to belong and be nurtured in faith, - Sadly, the plans we had made for Children and Young people during the year had to be cancelled. The main activity that able to continue on line was Singing Angels, however, sadly this too stopped in Sept 2020. - `o` We have continued to engage with the diocesan CYD project “Baptism Books” sending out the resources each month to baptism families. - Sadly the “Open the Book” team was not able to visit school during the year, but the team created a video of the nativity story which was appreciated. The Team also kept in touch with the school. 5. Devoted to growing deeply as disciples, offering our time, talents and money to God - We continue to be blessed by many people in the parish working hard to keep the buildings in good order through the pandemic, especially as we returned briefly, in the second half of the year, to face to face services. Face to face services brought the requirement for additional cleaning within churches to make them COVID safe. - Despite the hard work of our treasurers, each of our 3 churches has not been able to pay the full parish share asked of us. - The Charity Commission advised the parish of a historical charity associated with the parish that was dormant (Sedgley United Charities) which the Treasurer of All Saints has been researching. The conclusion of the transfer of funds and governance will be concluded during 2021. 6. Resourced and released to minister to others - Within the parish we are blessed with several people who minster to the church and individuals; we have a licensed lay minister, Canon Jan Humphries and appreciate and value her ministry with us. There are also several Authorized Lay Ministers (ALM’s) who take on specific Page 6 of 10 roles within the parish within worship, pastoral care and youth. With two new pastoral ALM’s in training during year. - At the beginning of the pandemic a pastoral team was formed to keep in regular contact with parishioners. 7. Ready to engage with and serve our community - The parish continued to support and serve at the local foodbank throughout the year. - Unfortunately, the summer and Christmas fairs could not go ahead, which was not only a loss in income, but also opportunities to engage with the community. 8. Committed to making our buildings fit for purpose as a spiritual and community resource - As a church St Peter’s made the difficult decision in 2018 to request the PCC to petition for closure of the church building, due to the considerable repair costs which the DCC and church community have no ability to raise. We continue to wait the final closure of the building. The church (the people) will continue to worship in the hall, and to seek funding to enable the hall to become more of a combined worship and community space. - All of our buildings have comprehensive COVID Secure risk assessments and cleaning schedules, that have been regularly updated in line with Government and Church of England guidelines. - The church building of St Andrew continues to be at the heart of the local community, and is blessed by fund raising and legacies to replace many of the windows. - The usage of the hall at St Andrews by local groups reduced during 2020 it is hoped that this will increase again in 2021, COVID restrictions allowing. The sharing agreement with a local independent church (The Bridge) ceased, although we continue to maintain a good relationship with them. - The church of All Saints has fulfilled all the immediate items outlined in the quinquennial report, and is well maintained. At the beginning of the pandemic a WiFi bridge from the hall was installed, which has enabled services to be accessible via Zoom and Facebook live. - The parish hall at All Saints lost income as regular hirers were not able to use the hall for most of the year, however, a COVID Grant of £11334 was secured which helped with the significant loss of income. A grant from ASDA was also secured which enabled the hall to be refurbished and equipment brought up to modern standards. A grant was also secured from Dudley Council that enabled a professional audio-visual system to be installed. It is hoped that the installation of the audio- Page 7 of 10 visual system will enable an initiative known as "reeling in the years" to support those in the community with dementia. - The PCC and DCC’s of the churches continue to discern how we can make our buildings more flexible and appealing for both worship and community resources. ## **Financial Review** From 2020 financial accounts |Income|£200,276| |---|---| |Expenditure|£233,404| |Excess|(-)£33,128| |Balance brought forward from 31st Dec 2019 £223,266|| |Increase in value of shares|£11,402| |Balance at 31st December 2020|£201,540| See also Statement of Financial Activities for the Year ended 31st December 2020 for further information. ## **Reserves Policy** All three churches now have reserves policies in place ## **Social Media Policy** A Social Media Policy has been approved for the parish ## **Volunteers** We would like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard to make our churches friendly and welcoming places, and in building the community. In particular we want to mention our licensed lay minister Canon Jan Humphries and our church wardens Mr John Anderson, Mr Keith Tomlinson, Mr Dave Moss and Mr Edward Grist. We would also like to thank all of our PCC and DCC members, and all who give so much of their time for the church community. ## **Structures, governance and management** The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. In the Parish of Gornal and Sedgley the membership of the PCC consists of the Team Rector and the Team Vicar, churchwardens from the three churches, the licensed lay minister, the Page 8 of 10 Treasures from each Church, together with members elected by the members of the congregations who are on the electoral rolls of our three churches, ex-oficio members (Deanery reps) and Co-Opted members. 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, are the executive body of the parish and responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern for the whole parish, including on how any funds of the PCC are to be spent. The PCC delegates specific responsibilities to the individual church councils (DCC’s) as set out in the Pastoral Scheme dated April 2008. New members of the PCC receive initial training into the workings of the PCC. There were only two meetings of the PCC in 2020. During the national lockdown commencing March 2020 and subsequent restrictions all year, many decisions were delegated to the Standing Committee. The PCC met on 14.08.20 and then 20.08.20 after the later than usual APCM. The average attendance was 72.5%. These were in person, socially distanced meetings plus the option to join via Zoom. Members unable to attend either in person or by Zoom received paper copies of minutes and agendas. The Standing Committee met nine times during 2020 and comprised of clergy, church wardens, treasurers, and PCC secretary. Additional advice and support was also provided when needed for implementation of cleaning routines and risk assessments. The number of electors on the roll for the Gornal and Sedgley Team Ministry at 16th May 2021 is 208 a decrease of 6 from 2020. There are 49 electors at St Peter’s, 131 at All Saints’ and 22 at St Andrew’s. (from the electoral roll officer report 16th May 2021) ## **Administrative Information** The Benefice and Parish of Gornal and Sedgley, consists of the Parish Church of All Saints’, Sedgley; the Parish church of St Peter’s, Upper Gornal; and the Church of St Andrew’s, The Straits. It is in the Kingswinford Deanery, being part of the Diocese of Worcester within the Church of England. The correspondence address and administrative centre is All Saints Parish Office, Ladies Walk, Dudley, DY3 3UA Page 9 of 10 The PCC is a body corporate (PCC Powers Measures 1956m Church Representation Rules 2006).[2] PCC members who have served during the period of 2020-2021 Ex Officio members : - Team Rector: The Reverend Guy Hewlett (Chair) - From 3-9-17 - Team Vicar: The Reverend Catherine Mitchell - From 7-5-17 - Licensed Lay Minister, Deanery Rep and Warden (St Andrew’s) Canon Jan Humphries - Wardens: Mr John Anderson (Also Treasurer) (All Saint’s), Mr Keith Tomlinson (All Saints’), Mr Dave Moss (St Peter’s),Mr Edward Grist (St Peter’s). - PCC Secretary Mrs Kathryn Elaine Apperley (PCC Secretary – APCM 7[th] April 2019) - Deanery Reps: Mr Christopher John Williams, Mrs Joan Sullivan, Mrs Rosemary Sybel Reed, Mrs Sheila Joyce Moss (also PCC Treasurer for St Peter’s) - Mrs Barbara Baker (Parish Safeguarding Officer) ## Elected Members: - Mrs Tracey Bate - Ms Suzanne Bradley - Mrs Joan (Margaret) Dain - Mrs Pam Oliver - Mr Alan Turner - Mrs Claire Cox - Mrs Maureen Matthews Co-opted - Elizabeth Jeanne Williams (PCC Electoral Roll Officer) Report approved by the Parochial Church Council of the Parish of Gornal and Sedgley by email > 2 The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in Clause 4.4.5 of the Pastoral Scheme for the Parish of Gornal & Sedgley, dated 27th April 2008. (The scheme is pursuant to Church Representation Rule 18.) Page 10 of 10 ## **2020 Accounts for the Parochial Church Council** ## **of the Parish of Gornal and Sedgley** 1 GORNALAND &EDGLEY P*ROCtrIALCHURCHC0UP￿L $IMPSORD DEANEftY STATEFAEPIT OF ￿liA1￿l&LAC￿vI￿E5 FOR YEAR ENDED JI OECEMBER 2020 Ll¥o&trl¢tsd Fw RéstActad F￿ld $t P01¥￿ St 16555 5174 744 3491 5554 T¢rtal Tax•(f￿￿t gtwmg OthÉPP￿nfft8d gt¥ 44494 7375 65450 15262 65480 15262 2709 1544 6061 16247 3593 3683 24565 22878 94 13303 977 22878 LFgaKip5 fjooo 6QOQ fjooo 37104 175282 yo 10776 3158 E073 4280 35002 70 71 433 15¥ 2149Q 347*3 Total In2orn4 Gn155￿9)Th hum1vnd￿￿g •ndB. ￿l￿r811 lrnm ppJp•rty 95455 1403*5 yo 6814 J158 8UY3 36 733 978 6707 3962 6936 2856 TOT*L INCOMNG RESOL￿￿8 jes 12585 109090 200271 RESOURCES EXPENDED FUnd￿￿Tr￿ a(IMbB5 IEQ5ls & pash￿nt￿l donatWn5 297 297 297 143Q 341e 3418 B4381 10262 7200 520 53000 9542 20D 10262 919 20D 858É 2007 20Q7 nd •vJng•knco Runnmy expÈnsès Lwb Tradng cost 2576 26281 762 32664 59707 1¥6fj Z456 097 23007 4U1 4441 4441 Repa￿ lo Hal vtc. 34211 Total and•x 3￿￿3 10152 153435 74972 22916• CQ5t5 other0￿1g￿￿9 TOT*L RESOLRCES EXPEP4)EO 231 12J43 313 233404 59807 10552¢ 157670 762 74972 NFI ol |ncon*iowgndrtur4 BgK4ncès lomgtd ffom Jlsl DO￿￿•￿12019 54Z 19505 26J86 20029 762 223266 InaEa5B 01va￿e ol sha￿5 n 2020 10324 16294 20911 24676 07890 133548 ZO1511J GORNALAND SEDGLEY PAROCHiAL CHURCH C(XINCIL KINGSWIMFCIID DEAMERY HEE DE EMB CURRENT ASSETS ST.PETEKS ST. AJ4DREW6 ALL SAJPITS. Unrntrct RABlrfct Unratrct R•strlct 5,490 2020 TOTNL 2011 TOTAL CBF Doposts of CBF ShaTr Accounis Cun*fl Atth)unts Bank 25.345 25.23T 138.J54 25.335 1Q.358 100,S95 3.499 4.919 8.582 17.8eu 24.629 12,539 94 S¢t*ty ai(4 $h In CEF lund Il Dts¢*S* Va￿• ol Twst Fund ai DAMse Isnarnsl 24,ga3 693 24.ge3 693 ego 1.325 26.762 21,928 Suo TOL31 94 24.e76 133,54e 212.008 10.40B 226.294 J.028 223 268 Totsi 94 24 676 133 54e Parish of Gornal and Sedgley All Saint's, Sedgley St Peter's, Upper Gornal St Andrew's, The Straits Team Vi¢ar: Rev Catherine Mitchell 26th July 2021 Re: Independent Examlners Reports for accounts Year endlng 31112120 The Parish of Gornal and Sedgley Year End Accounts Statement is an amalgamated statement containing the year end accounts statements for each church, therefore there is no Overall Independent Examiners Report. Each church is responsible for ils own finances an(i accounts as per Pastoral Scheme in 2009. at the creation of the Parish of Gornal and Sedgley. The end of year accounts for each church are examined by independent examiners and the reports are contained within this document. for year ending 31 December 2020. Rev Catherine Mitchell, Team Vicar Parish of Gornal and Sedgley