THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND Mary's PetertK>rou8h St Mary's Church Peterborough ANNUAL REPORT & STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS FOR 2021 I I'ii,: The Diocese of ¥ Peterborough _St Mary’s Church is part of the Diocese of Peterborough within the Church of England._ _The correspondence address is St Mary’s Church, New Road, Peterborough PE1 1TT._ _The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Mary Boongate Peterborough is a body corporate (PCC Powers Measure 1956, Church Representation Rules 2006) and registered with the Charity Commission in September 2018. Its Registered Charity Number is 1180032._ ## **PCC members who served at any time during 2021 are:** _Ex-officio members_ : - Incumbent: The Reverend Canon Michael Moore (Chair of PCC as Trustees of St Mary’s) - Curate: The Reverend Keri Morrow - Associate Priest: The Reverend Carol Rowles - Churchwardens: Mrs Mary Manna, Mr Chi-man Mau - Readers: Mrs Elizabeth Pedley, Mr Robert Robinson - Lay Pastoral Ministers: Mrs Jayne Ellis, Mrs Susan Moore, Mrs Sheila Sutherland _(until May 2021)_ - Parish Evangelist: Mr Andrew Christie, elected representative on Deanery Synod _Elected members:_ - Mr Norman Billyard - Mrs Vicky Brett _(elected General Synod member from October 2021)_ - Mrs Helen Brown - Mr David Christie - Mrs Gillian Christie - Mr David Dawson, representative on Deanery Synod - Mrs Hilary Dawson, _PCC Secretary_ , representative on Diocesan and Deanery Synods - Mr Jonathan Goodes _(from May 2021)_ - Mr Victor Jones - Mr George Kirk, representative on Deanery Synod - Mr Andrew Maywhort _(until May 2021)_ - Mrs Mairwen Peasnell _(Lay Chair for PCC meetings)_ - Mr Stuart Pedley _(Lay Worship Leader)_ - Mr Paul Riddler - Mr Richard Smith, _Treasurer_ - Mrs Angela Turner - Mrs Elena Turner _(from May 2021)_ |Authorised Lay Pioneers:|Mr Keith Brett, Mrs Vicky Brett| |---|---| |Electoral Roll Officer:
|Mrs Janette Jones-Pipe_(from May 2021)_| |Safeguarding Officer:
|Mrs Jayne Ellis| |Health & Safety Officer:|Mr Mark Stevens| |Independent Examiner:|Mr N J Burroughs FCA,| ||45 Farleigh Fields, Orton Wistow, Peterborough| |Banking details:
|St Mary’s Peterborough PCC General Account is at Barclays Bank,| ||1 Church Street Peterborough PE1 1XB| ||St Mary’s Peterborough Restricted Accounts are held by the| ||Peterborough Diocesan Board of Finance_(Registered Charity no. 250569)_| **Our Vicar, Revd. Canon Michael Moore, summarises 2021 at St Mary’s** ## GROWTH Covid has many things to answer for. Events were cancelled many times and then re-arranged. We were unable to do various things. However, things still go on, and during 2021 we adapted to meet the new challenges, and started new things. People are slowly returning to church. New people have started to come. Attendance online is holding up well with people joining us from all over the country and the world - from Miami to St Vincent, from Hampshire to Lincolnshire. Our church services have been produced with many people helping and using their gifts, and acquiring new skills too. More people than we would have ever expected watched online each Sunday, and Friday Night Worship too. Thank you to all those who stepped up during 2021 and helped in so many ways to keep St Mary’s growing. ## PRAYER As well as focusing on God’s Word at St Mary’s, we continued to be an actively praying church throughout 2021. I am grateful to those who lead our ‘Thursday Prayers online’; these are now sent via email and we gather together at home, but are praying as one. Our ‘Prayer Link’ continues to be a great support to those in need of urgent prayer throughout the local community and across the country and the world. Our monthly prayer evenings in church on a Tuesday were suspended during the pandemic, but resumed early in 2022. EXPANDING THE TEAM During 2021, many people asked if they could help the church, with more involved with church than ever before, taking on new roles and helping in new ways. We had over 60 people reading on a Sunday and leading the prayers – young people, older people and in between. ## REACHING OUT TO OUR COMMUNITY St Mary’s continues to be an outward-looking church. We raised a huge amount for our 2021 Summer Fundraiser; £2,600 of this went to the Peterborough and District Samaritans. The other half to St Mary’s to put towards the purchase of new equipment to improve the streaming of our online services. This amazing amount is testament to the huge generosity of our church members and their families and friends. With our other giving, it totalled £15,000. We collected for the Peterborough Foodbank each week too. Although covid stopped much of our work, the people of St Mary’s rallied round looking after people, keeping in touch with them via phone and email and doing shopping as needed and to make sure everyone was well and safe. We have done our best to keep in contact with all our church members. Our streaming of services also helped people to feel connected and many in the community, who never came to church before, now watch our service. In 2021 we spent over £30,000 on our new sound system, wi-fi network and filming and live streaming system to make sure we can broadcast our weekly services across the city and the world. We also streamed funeral services, which was a great comfort to those who could not attend them physically due to covid. During 2021, we managed to continue our links with our local primary schools using Microsoft Teams to reach into the classrooms. We also invited schools back into the church, with Newark Hill Academy and Lime Academy Abbotsmede visiting on several occasions throughout the year. ## FINANCES We knew finances were going to be tough for us at St Mary’s in 2021 with less money coming in from lettings, which were only just starting up again. However, further cost savings were made. Also, several people stepped up to the mark and gave to the church sacrificially, and I do mean sacrificially, with some giving things up so they could donate the money to the church. This kind generosity meant we finished 2021 with a surplus. Because of this, in 2022 we will be looking at renewing the lighting in our building to make it more efficient and environmentally friendly and repainting parts that were starting to look shabby. We also plan to renew the damaged steps at the front of the church. This is only happening because of the commitment and generosity of those who attend the church both physically and virtually. 2 This past year has been a real joy to me in seeing people grow in their faith, and seeing many grow in their skills and confidence, and in seeing the church coming together and supporting one another. We have reached out into the community with God’s love through our online services and, through that, we have ourselves been blessed as a church. We have reached out into the community with our parish magazine (which completed ten years of publication in November), telling people what is happening in the church. There is great need in our community, not just financially but also spiritually. We are excited that the new university in Peterborough is in our parish, and we are exploring ways in which we can link up with them, and help the students too. Together at St Mary’s we are making a difference to people’s lives in this city. 2022 will still be a challenge, but as covid restrictions are lifted, we pray that we will continue to innovate and be open to new ways of helping our community around us and spreading God’s word. With us all working together, much will be accomplished. ## **Our Parish of St Mary’s, Peterborough** The church of St Mary Boongate was constituted on 27th August 1857 to serve those living on the eastern side of Peterborough, principally the poor of the Boongate slums. Much of the parish was rural then, but the 20th century brought considerable residential, industrial and commercial development, particularly between 1970 and 1990 when Peterborough Development Corporation transformed the area. As part of that change, the mid-Victorian church building was demolished, and replaced with a modern building incorporating a church and chapel, with halls, meeting rooms, kitchens and toilets on two floors. Our parish broadly equates to the civil Peterborough East Ward together with small parts of the neighbouring Central, Park and Dogsthorpe Wards. Covering an area of 3.6 square miles it forms a wedge, stretching out almost three miles north-eastwards from the city centre, from the Eastgate estates (which replaced the old Boongate slums in the 1970s), through the post-war suburb of Eastfield to the newer township of Parnwell. It also includes the extensive Eastern Industrial estates and part of the city’s retail and commercial centre. The church building is situated in the south-western corner of the parish, close to the city centre. The population is around 15,900, roughly half of whom are white British. It is relatively young - 21% of those living in the parish in 2019 were under 15 years of age, slightly above the figure of 18% for England as a whole (Church of England Research & Statistics Unit Parish data Jan. 2022). It is one of the 10% most deprived parishes in the country (based on the indicators of poverty used by the Church of England Research & Statistics Unit and the Church Urban Fund), for each of child, working-age and pensioner poverty. The number of people living in the parish is expected to grow, and several housing developments are either planned or underway, including the large Northminster scheme on the former site of the City Market, close to the church. Within our parish we have five primary schools (Bishop Creighton Academy; Lime Academy Abbotsmede; Lime Academy Parnwell; Newark Hill Academy; St Thomas More RC Primary), two Secondary Schools (City of Peterborough Academy, St John Fisher RC High School) and two Special Schools (Medeshamstede Academy, NeneGate School) and a Further Education College (City College). The new Peterborough campus of Anglia Ruskin University, currently preparing to welcome its first students in September 2022, is also in our parish. ## **The primary purpose of St Mary’s Church** Our principal objective at St Mary’s is to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the doctrines and practices of the Church of England. Like all churches, St Mary’s attempts to look three ways at once in its mission, because at all times we strive to be open to and engage with our Living God, with our community neighbours and with our own ‘church family’. These three fundamental functions underpin our mission as a church. St Mary’s Parochial Church Council is committed to growing our church – not just numerically, but to grow nearer to God through worship, to grow in faith and spiritual understanding, to grow 3 out into our local community and to grow in fellowship with each other. To facilitate this growth we consider it important to maintain the fabric and contents of our church and centre building, and also to ensure that we have sufficient resources, human, technological and monetary. As a church, our first priority at St Mary’s is worship and prayer, and we are committed to holding regular public worship that is open to all, and to provide a sacred space for personal prayer and contemplation. We teach the Christian faith through sermons, courses and small groups, and offer a pastoral ministry to the sick and bereaved. We want to promote the whole mission of the church through the provision of activities of benefit to people in our local community, and want in particular to work with the schools within our parish. St Mary’s PCC is focused on the advancement of religion for the public benefit. When compiling our action plans for each year, we consider the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, particularly the specific guidance given to charities concerned with the advancement of religion. We also consider the wider needs of the local community which we serve. ## **Structure, governance and management** St Mary’s Peterborough PCC is a body corporate operating under the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956 and the Church Representation Rules. In essence its role is to work with Revd. Michael, as our Vicar, in all church activities, including the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social & ecumenical; participating in local Deanery and Diocesan events; looking after our building and contents; managing our finances and ensuring that things successfully happen. St Mary’s PCC is specifically responsible for the maintenance of the Church Centre complex, which is spread over two floors and comprises the church, the chapel, two halls, two kitchens, three small meeting rooms, three vestries and an office. This modern, purpose-built building was opened in 1991, replacing the original Victorian church which was in a very poor state of repair and had no community facilities. Given its wide responsibilities, the PCC has a number of committees and teams and authorises individuals to be responsible for particular areas of church activity, such as safeguarding, health and safety, stewardship, pastoral visiting and Churches Together liaison. It also employs two people: a part-time administrative assistant and a part-time cleaner/caretaker. The day-to-day management of St Mary’s Church is exercised by the Standing Committee: Revd. Canon Michael Moore (Vicar), Mary Manna, Chi-man Mau (Churchwardens), Hilary Dawson (PCC Secretary), Richard Smith (Treasurer) and Elizabeth Pedley. This is the only committee required by law, and it has the power to transact business between PCC meetings and consider issues which may affect the church. PCC members are appointed in accordance with the Church of England Representation Rules and are elected at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM), normally held each May. By decision of a previous APCM, elected members serve for one year only (except for those elected to Synod, who generally serve for three years). Everyone who regularly attends St Mary’s is encouraged to join our Electoral Roll and to stand for election to the PCC. All members of the PCC are required to be DBS checked and to complete safeguarding training at a level appropriate to their role. They may also receive other external training as and when deemed appropriate. Fortunately the slight easing of covid restrictions meant we were able to hold our APCM in May 2021, albeit under strict social distancing conditions. This meeting elected two churchwardens and thirteen PCC members for one year. Elections of four people to represent St Mary’s on Peterborough Deanery Synod, delayed from 2020, were also held. St Mary’s PCC met eight times during 2021. Four of the meetings were held on Zoom, because of covid safety concerns, with special provision made for those without IT access. Four of the meetings were held ‘in person’, including a Focus morning to consider our priority actions for 2022. The average level of attendance during 2021 was 81%. Meetings are chaired by an elected Lay Chair at the request of the Vicar, who otherwise retains chairmanship of the PCC as Trustees of St Mary’s. 4 ## **Our Plans for the future - the next five years:** During 2019 St Mary’s PCC set a new five year growth agenda for the years 2020 — 2025, which we felt would help strengthen our commitment to the core functions forming the basis of our on-going purpose, namely: - to worship God, - to help each other grow in faith and fellowship, and - to spread the love of Jesus Christ and the Gospel message throughout our local community. ## **Our 5 Year Plan (2020 to 2025) identifies specific ways in which we hope to grow, and things we wish to achieve:** ## **To grow nearer to God through worship:** By offering worship opportunities in a range of different styles and on different days of the week By encouraging those who come to attend more regularly ## **To grow in faith and spiritual understanding:** **----- Start of picture text -----**
By encouraging more of the congregation to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the
Christian faith through attendance at the activities we offer (e.g. Bible Study, House Groups,
Lent Course)
By ensuring that our children and young people have firm foundations on which to grow their
Christian faith
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## **To grow in fellowship with one another:** By ensuring that everyone who walks through our doors is greeted with the same high standards of warmth and hospitality, and made to feel a valued member of our community By offering a range of social and fund-raising activities appropriate to the age and interests of both our diverse congregation and our wider church community By living out the principles of Inclusive Church By developing a close partnership with our local Christian churches By actively supporting specific charities through fundraising events **----- Start of picture text -----**
To grow out into our local community through mission and outreach:
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By making contact with residents throughout the parish By making contact with local offices and businesses, including those on the Eastern Industrial Estates By strengthening our links with local schools By offering activities for local children and young people ## **To grow in numbers:** By working to increase the numbers of those who attend our Sunday and weekday services on a regular basis ## **And in order to achieve these aims, we want to ensure that we:** Have sufficient numbers of people from various age-groups with the necessary skills and training to get things done Have appropriate, well-maintained facilities, with improvements made where necessary Have enough money, whilst giving a tenth of our income away to charity each year Limit the damage we may be causing to our planet Our implementation plans have been adversely affected by the covid pandemic, disrupting the original timetable and altering our views on what to regard as a priority. However it has not altered our purpose as a Church, or changed our intention to achieve these aims. 5 ## **What PCC wanted to achieve in 2021** The covid pandemic prompted St Mary’s PCC to take a pragmatic approach to planning, because we couldn’t know when it would be over and when it would be safe for people to start mixing again. But we knew we didn’t want to return to exactly what we did before, but wanted to move on. We wanted to build on the good things we have discovered during the pandemic. Our two key priorities for 2021 were therefore to: - To spend time thinking about the shape of St Mary’s post-pandemic; and to consider carefully and prayerfully how each of our activities should look in the future. We wanted to start planning now even if we aren’t able to put our ideas into action for sometime. - To make sure we have the resources available to action our plans when we are able to do so. ## **And this is what we managed to do in 2021. We:** Continued to make public worship a priority, even when our building was closed (between January and Easter 2021): - Moved online and adapted our pattern of services, whilst endeavouring to involve as many church members as possible with recorded readings and prayers - Opened our church for services when it was safe to do so, following national and Diocesan guidelines on covid precautions - Live streamed our Sunday morning services in church to enable those who watch our online services to continue to join us this way if they wish - Invited bereaved families to join our ’Service of Remembering’ in November - Restarted our weekly Wednesday morning Communion service in December Took steps to grow in faith and spiritual understanding: - Held an online Lent Course on the ‘Letter to the Hebrews’ - Held weekly Advent Reflections via Zoom - Held weekly Bible Study sessions and monthly House Group meetings “by distance” - Hosted Peterborough Deanery Prayer Day in October Took steps to maintain fellowship with one another: - Emailed church members each week to keep them informed - Rethought our main fundraising events so they could continue on line, and raised £2,600 for the Peterborough Samaritans, with a similar amount for our church funds in our Summer Fundraiser; and £1,875 during Christian Aid Week - Established and grew our Saturday morning Youth Club, moving it from Zoom to ‘live’ from September - Resumed our well-attended After-Church Coffee sessions on Sunday mornings from September Took steps to maintain contact with our local community: - Restarted our weekly ‘Chill & Chat’ group in October, and distributed leaflets to advertise it - Restarted our weekly Parent & Toddler group in November, and distributed leaflets to advertise it - Started ‘Pray Around the Parish’ to encourage church members to pray for a different road in our parish each day - Took steps to ensure that we have appropriate resources and facilities to achieve our plans: - Improved our wi-fi reception by replacing our internet connection with fibre - Scoped costs for replacing all our remaining fluorescent and halogen lights with LED - Installed, with diocesan permission, a second screen, a second permanent projector and two fixed cameras in the church, together with a new sound system. 6 **Achievements & Performance** ## Numbers on our Electoral Roll At the start of 2021 there were 119 names on our Electoral Roll, 61% of whom were women and 39% men. 52 (44%) lived within the parish, and 67 (56%) outside. By May 2021, and following the revision of the Electoral Roll prior to the Annual Church Meeting in accordance with Church Regulations, numbers had increased to 121, 61% women and 39% men. 41% lived in the parish and 59% outside. Numbers have increased slightly since, bringing our Roll to 123 by December 2021. ## Worship All are welcome to attend our regular services. We recognise that not everyone finds it helpful to worship God in the same way, and we encourage everyone to explore new ways of worship as they try to come closer to God. Our main Sunday morning service is Family Communion, but our regular pattern of services covers a wide range to suit different tastes and offer different worship experiences. Our popular monthly café style ‘Friday Night Worship’ appeals to those who enjoy informal worship with a live band, whilst those who value time for silent prayer and reflection are also catered for. Until lockdown in March 2020 we offered two Sunday evening services each month, a Compline service and a lay-led Evensong. Our Lay Pioneer Ministers lead ‘Inclusive Church Peterborough’ at St Mary’s on Sunday evenings. When our church building was closed by the pandemic in March 2020 we were immediately able to move our services online via YouTube, thanks to the technical expertise of church members. This online service has been offered each week since then, even when the church was re-opened, and viewing figures have been encouraging, with 152 registered subscribers. The move to online services has proved to be a positive and much-appreciated development which has enabled us to move out into a wider sphere. We know from feedback that people living miles away from St Mary’s, including some from different continents, watch our services regularly. Some have an existing contact with St Mary’s, others seem to have found us by chance and stayed. At the same time our pattern for Sunday evenings was revised, and a weekly Compline service was offered online, led by Mr and Mrs Pedley (Lay Worship Leader and Reader). They also made YouTube videos for our monthly online ‘Friday Night Worship’, together with special services for Holy Week and Christmas. During 2021 our church-based services were again affected by the pandemic, particularly in the early part of the year when we were affected by lockdown closures and government restrictions. Covid rates in Peterborough were frequently above the national average , and it was necessary for us to take a cautious approach to protect our church members. For several months we worshipped under very different conditions, with no singing allowed and very little social interaction. The situation eased sufficiently for us to hold our annual Remembering Service for the bereaved in church in November, but a rise in infections in December required us to hold our Christmas Carol Service online for reasons of safety. Children’s work in church is very important. The normal pattern (which we were able to resume in late 2021 after restrictions were lifted) is for children to leave part way through the Family Communion service for their own ‘Children’s Church’ activities, but once a month they stay in for our All Age Communion service, and are encouraged to take an active part. This involvement was continued as an important part of our online services, with the readings and prayers given by children on the first Sunday of each month. As well as our regular services, we enable people in our community to commemorate, and thank God for, life’s milestones of birth, marriage and death. Unfortunately covid restrictions continued to affect family gatherings for much of the year, but we held three weddings and nine baptisms in church. Sadly there were more funerals — a total of twenty-seven, with twelve in church and fifteen at the crematorium. 7 Children, young people and families in our church and local community Our newly re-established Youth Group, for school-aged young people in Year 6 and above, had a successful year. They meet once a month on Saturday mornings, and by the end of 2021 were able to move into our building after several months online - a popular move as it enabled them to enjoy breakfast together, as well as discussion and fun activities. Children and families in our local community **:** We are particularly keen to build stronger links with local families, but unfortunately the pandemic has made this difficult. Our popular and wellestablished St Mary’s Parent & Toddler group was restarted in November 2021 after a twenty month suspension, but has taken time to re-establish with a new cohort of children. We were unable to hold our annual Family Fun Day because of the restrictions. Contact with our local primary schools has been severely curtailed by the virus, but Revd. Michael has been able to maintain links via Microsoft Teams. Our ‘Open the Book’ team were unable to take any Assemblies at Bishop Creighton Academy during 2021, but plan to resume their visits in 2022. In the autumn we welcomed pupils from both Newark Hill Academy and Lime Academy Abbotsmede into St Mary’s as part of their Religious Education about Christian places of worship. ## Pastoral Care to our local community & our church Pastoral care and service to our community is very important to St Mary’s. Our Pastoral Team of fifteen is co-ordinated by Sue Moore, one of our Lay Pastoral Ministers, and normally meets three times a year. Unfortunately, the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns meant they were not able to meet as usual during 2021. The pandemic also changed how they worked. The Team’s normal role is to co-ordinate visiting and take House Communion to church members who are unable to attend services. They would also take Holy Communion to several residential homes in our parish on a regular basis (Broadleigh, Friary Court, Heritage Court, Lavender House, Philia Lodge, the Star and Stephenson Court), and over the years have built strong links between St Mary’s and the staff and residents. These visits were unfortunately curtailed during the pandemic, but Pastoral Team members have kept in touch with the residential care homes they visit and given support via telephone calls and prayer. Pastoral Team members would normally be actively involved in social activities which are open to members of our local community, such as the weekly ‘Chill & Chat’ mornings. They would also normally deliver free copies of our parish magazine ‘News Around St Mary’s’ to schools, medical centres, sheltered housing schemes, residential homes and hairdressers in our local community, but this did not prove possible during 2021. They also organise the ‘Prayer Link’ for urgent prayer requests (extremely busy during 2021), and keep our church Prayer Board updated. Covid restrictions over much of 2021 meant that the Pastoral Contact Scheme set up in March 2020 stayed in place, so church members were supported via phone and email, and with shopping volunteers. With more people now back at church and out and about, contact has changed, and is increasingly face to face for many. However, as St Mary’s continues to broadcast services online, regular contact and encouragement is made via YouTube and Facebook messaging and via email to our many viewers locally, and throughout the UK and the world. Members of St Mary’s Church continue to support Peterborough Food Bank, with the regular collection of food items in church, or help at local distribution centres. Normally, some members would volunteer for shifts at the Winter Night Shelter project run by Light Project Peterborough but with government regulations not allowing this, our support for the local homeless has been through prayer, and donations of money, clothing and gifts. Our Pastoral Team Co-ordinator is a member of the Light Project Peterborough Steering Group (‘Christians for Social Action’), and keeps us up to date with projects, campaigns, events and needs locally. 8 ## Social events for church and community Our policy at St Mary’s has been to open our social events to anyone in our local community who wanted to attend, but sadly the pandemic curtailed our usual programme of quizzes and beetle drives, and delayed our plans to offer family film sessions. However our popular weekly ‘Chill and Chat’ coffee mornings were able to resume from October, and have been well attended. A preChristmas afternoon tea before the Christingle Service was also well attended. The resumption in September of After-Service Coffee on Sunday mornings was keenly welcomed. It is an important part of our church fellowship, and was much missed during the pandemic. ## Our Church Centre St Mary’s is fortunate in having a well-designed modern building incorporating church, chapel, two halls, meeting rooms, kitchens and toilets, all offering good access for the disabled, including ramp entrance, wide doors and a lift. Until it was closed by the pandemic, this Church Centre was well-used, both for events run by St Mary’s Church and by various groups who hire rooms on a regular or occasional basis. By mid 2021 it was once again coming back into life. Extended Hands (a small local charity supporting women at risk of feeling lonely, isolated or marginalised) rent one of our rooms as their office base and regularly used rooms in our Centre for their sewing and craft sessions, IT skills classes, fitness sessions and coffee mornings. Inclusive Church Peterborough, led by our Lay Pioneer Ministers, meets each Sunday evening in our Centre. Our policy has been to offer free or reduced rate meeting space in our Centre to several local charities, including Samaritans, Peterborough Christian Aid Committee, and the Peterborough Inter-Faith Council. Prior to the pandemic the Peterborough Street Pastors used it as their base. Our Church Administrator, Denise Thomas, worked remotely from home during the pandemic and we are very grateful to her for continuing to manage our Centre bookings so efficiently. ## Maintaining our church building Like all buildings, St Mary’s needs regular maintenance and repair to prevent deterioration. The Churchwardens, in consultation with Standing Committee, are responsible for advising the PCC on any necessary maintenance work, and PCC then makes a decision based on funds available. Minor tasks are completed by a team of church volunteers, with more specialist work undertaken by Robert Woods for general repairs and Nick Elks for electrical work. Both are local tradesmen with links to St Mary’s Church, and we are most grateful for their continued assistance. Covid restrictions prevented us from organising our full programme of maintenance activities, but some gardening maintenance by a team of church volunteers was possible later in the year when restrictions were eased. The cleaning of the church and chapel by our team of volunteers was similarly affected; it was suspended from March 2020 due to covid restrictions, but resumed from October 2021 when restrictions eased. The Churchwardens have spent time during 2021 scoping work to be done during 2022. They carried out a survey of all the lights in the church building, with a view to replacing all the ageing halogen and fluorescent lights with more energy efficient LED lighting. They also contacted local building contractors for quotes to replace the damaged and ageing steps at the front of the church during 2022. We are very grateful to Denise and Ray Howard for the professional expertise they bring to their work cleaning our building, during 2021, to keep the building safe during the pandemic. We are also grateful to David Divers, for everything he does over the year as our unpaid Estate Manager, regularly coming into church to liaise with tradesmen and deal with countless day-to-day issues. 9 ## Keeping us safe ## HEALTH & SAFETY: We take our Health and Safety responsibilities seriously so we can provide a safe environment for everyone to enjoy the facilities that St Mary’s Church has to offer. The annual Health and Safety inspection was held-over to 2022 due to covid restrictions. Throughout the pandemic we maintained the covid health and safety measures at St Mary’s in accordance with national and diocesan guidance, including mandatory booking and registration, socially-distanced seating, hand-sanitising, temperature checks, insistence on mask-wearing, and the scanning of the NHS ‘track and trace’ app until restrictions were eased in the summer. Our approach was to proceed slowly with the re-opening, and only when it was safe to do so during the latter part of the year. Despite the reduced availability of the church, we continued to ensure that our equipment is in good working order, with regular inspections carried out within required timescales by registered contractors working to professional industry standards. The lift is regularly serviced by Morris Vermaport, who also complete the statutory LOLER (safety) tests. All our safety certificates are up-to-date. Our fire safety equipment is maintained and checked by Churches Fire who test the fire alarm, fire extinguishers and emergency lighting. Following the recommendations from the inspections, we compiled a Fire Safety Floor plan in 2021, which is now on display. Our boiler is inspected annually by Blounts, our heating engineers, who also complete the necessary checks for our Gas Safety Certificate. Our portable electrical appliances have all been PAT tested. ## SAFEGUARDING We take Safeguarding very seriously. Our Safeguarding Officer is Mrs Jayne Ellis, who has many years experience of working with children and young people in the NHS, where she is the professionally trained safeguarding lead for her service. During 2021 she kept PCC fully informed on policy and practice, and updated them on new safeguarding advice from Peterborough Diocese. In late autumn PCC, acting on diocesan advice, agreed to combine our two existing safeguarding policies for children and vulnerable adults into one policy based on Church of England guidance, ‘Safer Church. Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults: Policy & Practice’. PCC adopted this at their meeting in January 2022, and will next review it in January 2023. Copies of our safeguarding policy are displayed on the lobby noticeboards and published on the church website, with links to the Diocesan Safeguarding website. Any safeguarding concerns are followed up promptly and discreetly in accordance with diocesan guidelines. St Mary’s Church is registered with the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS), through which renewals and new clearances for the statutory Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) registration are made. All licensed ministers, PCC members and staff working with children have been DBS registered. The Vicar, Curate, licensed lay ministers, and PCC members have all completed or renewed the modules of diocesan safeguarding training at the appropriate levels for their roles, and understand that they cannot continue in their roles unless they do so. ## DATA PROTECTION The way in which St Mary’s collects, stores and processes data on our church members was reviewed in 2018 in order to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). PCC agreed a new Data Privacy notice, which is on display on our noticeboard together with our Health & Safety and Safeguarding policy statements. All members of the church have completed a Consents Form to give, or withhold, permissions on how their personal information can be used by St Mary’s Church. This put us in a strong position during the pandemic as we have been able to keep in touch with all our members by email or telephone knowing that we had their full consent to contact them in this way. 10 ## Finance and Giving The year was once again dominated by the consequences of the pandemic which continued to affect church finances in both negative and positive ways. Our second main income source - hiring out our halls and meeting rooms - fell again due to the closure of the church building for a large part of the year. However, this was offset by an increase in regular giving from St Mary’s members, supplemented by a number of generous oneoff donations totalling over £38,000. This also helped to increase our Gift Tax reclaim to £9,589. In addition St Mary’s received covid-related grants worth nearly £5,000. This meant we were able to end the year with a surplus. New avenues of giving, via text and online, brought in over £2,000, and we are hopeful that this income stream will grow further in future years. The main expenditure during the year was to overhaul our antiquated sound system and update our audio/visual equipment. This cost over £22,000, but now enables services to be streamed in a professional manner. There was no significant increase in energy bills and other running costs during the year. Reserves: Our Policy, which has been formally agreed by PCC, is to keep sufficient money in our reserves to cover three months running costs, plus £20,000 . ## Our links with the wider church Our links with the wider church are strong. Our Vicar, Revd. Michael is Rural Dean of Peterborough Deanery, and we have four lay representatives on Peterborough Deanery Synod. The spring and summer meetings of Synod were via Zoom, on the community support arrangements put in place by Peterborough City Council during the pandemic, and an update by the Peterborough Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser. In October two well-attended events were held at St Mary’s; one was a Deanery Prayer Day, and the other a networking event for Churchwardens, Treasurers and Secretaries of local churches. Two members of St Mary’s currently represent Peterborough Deanery on Peterborough Diocesan Synod. This met twice in 2021 via Zoom to agree the new Diocesan Environmental Policy, and to discuss finances and agree the annual accounts. One of our church members was elected in October 2021 to General Synod as one of the three lay representatives for Peterborough Diocese. St Mary’s is part of the Inclusive Church network and Inclusive Church Peterborough meets in our building each week, led by our Lay Pioneer Ministers. They met throughout 2021, using Zoom when they could not meet in person because of the pandemic. St Mary’s is also an active member of Churches Together in Central Peterborough (CTiCP), an ecumenical group of nine city centre churches of various different denominations. Its main aims are to pray and worship together, although the pandemic prevented many of its usual events such as the Good Friday Walk of Witness or the Advent Reflection Day from happening during 2021, although we were able to support the monthly prayer meetings via Zoom. St Mary’s PCC is delighted with what we managed to achieve in 2021 in another difficult year. Very little of this would have been possible without ... **...our Volunteers** Almost all the work at St Mary’s is done by volunteers. Revd. Michael, the Churchwardens and PCC would like to thank them all for giving their time and talents free to enable St Mary’s Church—whether the ‘physical’ church in the building, or our online presence, to function, week in and week out. **Thank you!** 11 ## **Our Priorities for 2022:** During 2022 St Mary’s PCC plans to focus on the following steps towards achieving the goals we set ourselves in our Five Year Plan [page 5]. We hope that covid won’t cause any further disruption, but if necessary we will take the same pragmatic and flexible approach we adopted in 2020 and 2021, and think of different ways to achieve what we believe God wants us to do. ## **During 2022 we hope to achieve the following, assuming that it is safe to do so:** ## **To grow nearer to God through worship:** By encouraging those we haven’t seen since the pandemic started, to come back to church ## **To grow in faith and spiritual understanding:** By exploring ways to offer online fellowship groups, especially for those who do not live locally ## **To grow in fellowship with one another:** By improving the accuracy, consistency and accessibility of our communications, so that all are aware of forthcoming activities and feel invited By restarting ‘Men’s Breakfasts’ and ‘Meals Out’ (when safe to do so) By raising awareness of Inclusivity by offering a ‘Living in Love and Faith’ course during Lent By encouraging more events with other local churches ## **To grow out into our local community through mission and outreach:** By distributing copies of ‘ _News Around St Mary’s’_ to new houses in the parish By opening our chapel, on a trial basis, to the public for ‘Prayer in the Chapel’ sessions By forging links with the new ARU Peterborough university, opening in September 2022 By reviving our ‘Open the Book’ contact with local schools By establishing free family-friendly film sessions (when safe to do so) By establishing ‘Come & Sing’ sessions for the elderly (when safe to do so) - **And in order to achieve these aims, we want to improve our facilities :** By installing a new permanent projector in the Lower Hall **We also want to limit the damage we might cause to our planet:** By installing solar panels on our south facing roof By improving our recycling practices ## **Lord Jesus, Living God,** May we always remember that You are the head of this church, Inspire us with Your Spirit to do Your work, May ours be the eyes through which You look out in compassion on the world, May ours be the feet with which You go about doing good, May ours be the hands with which You bless Your people. Lord Jesus, show us how best we can be Your hands, feet and eyes as we seek to do Your will. Amen Based on a prayer used by St Teresa of Avila 12 **Financial Review for 2021** _**[Detailed accounts on pages 14-17]**_ ## Report from our Treasurer, Richard Smith The total balance on our General Fund at 31[st ] December 2021 [page 17] is £84,541 an increase of £27,151 over the previous year. Payments (expenditure) were £125,431 [page 15] against Receipts (income) of £152,581 [page 14]. Significant movements in income [page 14] were: - Stewardship giving rose by nearly 10% to £80,800. - Centre income declined by 23% to £5,452. - Gift Aid increased over 50% to £9,589. - One-off donations were received totalling £38,731 - Grants were received totalling £4,871 Within expenditure [page 15] the significant items included: - Repairs and maintenance rose from £5,502 to £27,840 (reflecting expenditure on the new audio/visual system). - Energy costs remained constant at £3,967. Our Restricted Funds – Hebden Trust, Eastgate Mission – total £6,629. Our General Fund’s closing position [page 17] is £84,541. Our Total cash and assets (that include Restricted Funds) [page 17] increased to £91,170. ## External Charity Giving St Mary’s PCC aim to give 10% of our income to charity each year, in obedience to the tithing principle. Part of this giving is in reduced or no-cost rent to local charities who use our rooms, principally to Extended Hands, who use our Church Centre as their office base, and this giving does not show in these formal accounts. During 2021 we gave £8,800 in direct donations to the following national and local charities: Alzheimer’s Society; Breaking Barriers; Christians Against Poverty; Christian Aid; Hope into Action; Peterborough Foodbank; Peterborough Light Project; Peterborough Samaritans; Red Cross (for Afghan, Haiti and Yemen appeals); UNICEF Not shown in these accounts are the indirect donations, amounting to £900, to The Children’s Society and HMP Peterborough and the £1,575 raised by our St Mary’s Just Giving page set up for Christian Aid Week in May 2021. Sales from our monthly Traidcraft Stall increased during 2021, benefiting the charitable work of Traidcraft as well as St Mary’s Church. 13 ## **Statement of Accounts for the calendar year 2021** St Mary's PCC: General Fund Receipts and Payments Account |**RECEIPTS**
Incoming resources from donors
Collections
- Stewardship
- Loose cash
Inland Revenue covenant rebates
Online Giving
Other voluntary incoming resources
Donations and bequests
Fayres and events
Miscellaneous income
Income from investments
Bank interest
War stock interest and capital repayment
Investment interest - CBF deposit fund
Income from charitable and ancillary trading
Magazine and book stall sales (net)
Wedding and funeral fees
Centre income
Traidcraft income
Transfers
Church Hall
Eastgate Mission Fund
Money charitable
**Total Receipts**
**Total Payments (see page 15 for detail)**
**Excess/(deficit) of receipts over pay-**
**ments**
Bank current and deposit accounts at 1 January 2021
Bank current and deposit accounts at 31 December
2021|2021
2020
£
£
£
£
80,800
73,606
3,096
1,759
9,589
5,999
2,309
95,794
81,364
38,731
2,116
4,674
5,859
120
41
43,525
8,016
2
17
4,871
8
65
4,881
82
10
65
2,469
1,343
5,452
7,053
450
315
8,381
8,776
301
0
301
152,581
98,539
(125,431)
(98,765)
27,151
(226)

57,390
57,617
£84,541
57,390| |---|---| ||| ||| 14 St Mary’s PCC: General Fund Receipts and Payments Account |**PAYMENTS**
Activities relating directly to the work of the Church
Vicar’s expenses
Locum
Readers Expenses
Salaries paid by Diocese
Upkeep of services
Organists
Water
Light and heat
Repairs and maintenance
Insurance
Telephones
Parish share
Magazine
Donations (Overseas and sundry):
Tithe
Disaster appeals
Other giving
Sunday Club/Youth expenses
Stewardship envelopes
Office administration
Cleaning and sundry materials
Diocesan fees
Traidcraft
Vestments, robes, albs
Piano and organ expenses
Music licence
Auditor (CROPS)
Car expenses
- Vicar
- Curate
Training
Flowers
Miscellaneous expenditure
**Total payments (to page14)**|2021
2020
£
£
£
£
100
-
-
151
260
-
11,218
9,200
843
561
2,510
1,970
90
304
3,967
3,674
27,840
5,502
1,673
1,666
748
627
63,893
67,268
-
422
8,800
4,552
-
-
-
8,800
-
4,552
117
104
-
-
521
574
330
188
211
-
-
-
-
-
120
132
525
532
150
150
82
92
13
92
-
-
-
-
1,420
1,004
£125,431
£98,765| |---|---| ||| 15 St Mary's PCC: Receipts and Payments Accounts |
2021
£
**HEBDEN TRUST FUND - RESTRICTED**Restricted to spending on education
**Receipts**
Interest
64
Sale of investments
3,115
**Payments**
Transfer to current
0
Bank deposit accounts at 1 January 2021
1,458
Bank deposit accounts at 31 December 2021
£4,637
**MONEY CHARITABLE - RESTRICTED**Restricted to spending on training
**Receipts**
Interest
0
**Payments**
Transfer to current
0
Bank deposit accounts at 1 January 2021
0
Bank deposit accounts at 31 December 2021
£0
**ST. MARY'S CHURCH HALL - ENDOWMENT**
**Receipts**
Interest
0
**Payments**
Transfer to current
0
Bank deposit accounts at 1 January 2021
0
Bank deposit accounts at 31 December 2021
£0
**ST. MARY'S EASTGATE MISSION - ENDOWMENT**
**Receipts**
Interest
1
**Payments**
Transfer to current
0
Bank deposit accounts at 1 January 2021
1,991
Bank deposit accounts at 31 December 2021
£1,992||2020
£
84
0
0
1,374
£1,458
0
(301)
301
£0
0
0
0
£0
9
0
1,982
£1,991| |---|---|---| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| 16 St Mary's PCC: Statement of Assets and Liabilities at 31 December 2021 ## **STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AT 31 DECEMBER 2021** |**Monetary assets**
Cash in hand
Bank - current
- reserve
CBF deposit fund
Peterborough Diocesan
Board of Finance
**Total cash & Assets**|**Restricted Funds :**
**General**
**fund:**
St. Mary's
St. Mary's
Eastgate
Hebden
Money
Church
Mission
General
Trust
Trust
Hall Fund
Fund
£
£
£
£
£
100
43,860
4,637
25,165
15,416
0
0
1,992|**Restricted Funds :**
**General**
**fund:**
St. Mary's
St. Mary's
Eastgate
Hebden
Money
Church
Mission
General
Trust
Trust
Hall Fund
Fund
£
£
£
£
£
100
43,860
4,637
25,165
15,416
0
0
1,992|**Restricted Funds :**
**General**
**fund:**
St. Mary's
St. Mary's
Eastgate
Hebden
Money
Church
Mission
General
Trust
Trust
Hall Fund
Fund
£
£
£
£
£
100
43,860
4,637
25,165
15,416
0
0
1,992|**Restricted Funds :**
**General**
**fund:**
St. Mary's
St. Mary's
Eastgate
Hebden
Money
Church
Mission
General
Trust
Trust
Hall Fund
Fund
£
£
£
£
£
100
43,860
4,637
25,165
15,416
0
0
1,992|**Restricted Funds :**
**General**
**fund:**
St. Mary's
St. Mary's
Eastgate
Hebden
Money
Church
Mission
General
Trust
Trust
Hall Fund
Fund
£
£
£
£
£
100
43,860
4,637
25,165
15,416
0
0
1,992|**Restricted Funds :**
**General**
**fund:**
St. Mary's
St. Mary's
Eastgate
Hebden
Money
Church
Mission
General
Trust
Trust
Hall Fund
Fund
£
£
£
£
£
100
43,860
4,637
25,165
15,416
0
0
1,992|2021
£
100
48,497
25,165
15,416
1,992|2020
£
100
31,087
12,253
15,408
1,991| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||84,541|4,637|0|
0|1,992|91,170|60,839| ## **St Mary’s Parochial Church Council Accounting Policies** The financial statements of the PCC have been prepared in accordance with the Church Accounting Regulations 1997 using the Receipts and Payments basis. ## **Funds** General Funds represent funds of the PCC that are not subject to any special restrictions regarding their use and are available for application to the general purposes of the PCC. These include funds designated for a particular purpose by the PCC. The accounts include monetary transactions, assets and liabilities for which the PCC can be held responsible. They do not include the accounts of other Church groups that owe an affiliation to another body, nor those that are informal gatherings of Church members. Subject to the above, receipts and payments include income as received and expenditure when irrevocably paid. ## **Statement of Assets and Liabilities** The following assets are recognised but not valued in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities: - Movable church furnishings held by the churchwardens on special trust for the PCC and which require a faculty for disposal. - Other fixtures, fittings and office equipment where the PCC is free to dispose of such assets without faculty. - Amounts owing from the Inland Revenue where a formal claim has been made. Closing bank balances as shown in the receipts and payments accounts. 17 ## Independent Examiner's Report to the PCC of St Mary's This report on the accounts of the PCC for the year ended 31 December 2020 which are set out on pages 13 to 16, is in respect of an examination carried out under Regulation 3(3) of the Church Accounting Regulations 1997 to 2001 ('the Regulations') and s.145 of the Charities Act 2011 ('2011 Act'). ## **Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner** As the members of the PCC you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts; you consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 3(3) of the Church Accounting Regulations 1997 and section 144(2) of the 2011 Act do not apply. It is my responsibility to :-. - examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act ; - to follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act; - to state whether particular matters have come to my attention ## **Basis of independent examiner's report** My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act and to be found in the Church guidance issued by the Finance Division of the Archbishops' Council. That examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the PCC and a comparison of the accounts with those records. It also includes considering any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts. ## **Independent examiner's statement** In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: (1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements to keep accounting records in accordance with section 131 of the 2011 Act; and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the requirements of the 2011 Act and the Regulations have not been met ; or (2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. 9 March 2022 **This Annual Report was approved by St Mary’s PCC on 11th May 2022, and signed on their behalf by:** Revd Canon Michael Moore Vicar Chair of Trustees of the ecclesiastical parish of St Mary Boongate Peterborough 18 Mary'5 St Mary's Church and Centre New Road Peterlx)rough PEI ITT www.peterborough-stmarys.org.uk Registered Charity no. 1180032