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2020-12-31-accounts

“Deeper in and further out”

Annual Report 2020

for the Annual Parochial General Meeting of 2021

Contents

Page 1 Annual Parochial Meetng Agenda
Page 2-4 Vicar’s Report
Page 5 Parochial Church Council 2020
Page 6 PCC Meetngs & Deanery Synod
Page 7 Church Warden’s Report
Page 8 Accounts
Page 9 Budget 2021
Page 10 Safeguarding & Prayer Ministry
Page 11 Children, Youth & Families
Page 12 Pastoral Care
Page 13 Life Groups
Page 14 Community Charity Shop
Page 15 Our Parish & Our Mission

Annual Parochial Meeting Agenda

Annual Parish Meeting

  1. Minutes

  2. Election of Church Wardens

  3. Election of Deputy Wardens

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

  1. Minutes

  2. Matters Arising

  3. Electoral Roll and Election of Electoral Roll Officer

  4. Proceedings of the PCC

  5. Finances

  6. Church Buildings and Fabric

  7. Deanery Synod

  8. Other Areas of Church Life

  9. Clergy Comments

  10. Election of Secretary and Treasurer

  11. Election of PCC Members

  12. Election of Deanery Synod Representative

  13. A.O.B.

  14. Future Vision

1

Vicar’s Report

This report will be very different because we’ve had a difficult and very different year.

Empowering leadership

Gift-orientated ministry

I begin with a ‘thank you’ to all of you and all who have given time and talents over the last year. Thank you to all who have ministered in leadership. In 2018 we created a new larger Leadership team. It has been exciting to work with this team and see them stepping up in leadership. A new Pastoral team was created, trained and launched early 2020. This has taken up the need to connect with people and particularly those not in Life Groups during the pandemic.

Passionate spirituality

Our corporate prayer meetings on Thursdays at 7pm have been well supported. We switched this to Wednesday during Lockdown with a mix of in-person— outdoors and in— and zoom, depending on the lockdown restrictions. A faithful group have kept meeting and praying.

The deepening encounter with God’s presence in gathered worship continued in the spring, then life changed dramatically. I have been encouraged with the engagement by so many of the congregation with the Bible readings and thankful for so many contributing to written reflections.

Inspiring worship

We began the year with real excitement and a deep sense of God’s presence with us. My thanks go to Si and our musicians, leaders and preachers. From March we have had the mix of lockdowns and restricted opening. We have had both in-person masked and distanced communion and a mix of online worship. The zoom services

2

from September have worked well with around 35 participating each week. Thank you to those who have been actively involved in all of the social media and IT support.

Holistc small Groups

We encourage all congregation members to connect with a Life Group to grow their own discipleship, to support each other and share in mission. In 2017 we had 5 Life Groups; in 2019 we had 7 groups meeting. These groups are a key part of discipleship and fellowship. During 2020 the Life Groups found different ways of meeting and have been invaluable in supporting each other.

Need-orientated outreach

As a church we support the Food Banks. A Life Group has links with St. Judes residential home. The Community Charity Shop is a place where people can be supported. In 2019 and early 2020 the shop grew in volunteer numbers and also in its efficient running. We were able to be generous in giving away profits to the community. JIGSAW and Open Doors are activities where we invite in the community and continue to meet needs. These had to be put on hold from March. The group producing prayer shawls is thriving and these are being received with thanks. The ‘Community Fun Day’ in May had to be postponed. We saw congregation members join Hope Coventry. It’s a blessing to support them.

Loving relatonships

The pandemic has seen many church members step up in showing love and care to congregation members and neighbours.

Functonal Structures

The PCC along with the leadership team have met and help to lead us forward. In September 2018 we had a Church Away Day to look at vision. With two tracks of growth identified: A. Growing as disciples who make Disciples, and B: Meeting and transforming the community .

3

We are thankful to Hannah for the wonderful job she does in the church office; she makes a huge contribution to the smooth running of the church.

Personal Notes

Thank you to Kathy for her support of me and her sacrificial ministry to the church. I have found the pandemic a very stressful time and had stress related stomach issues. My thanks also go to those who have encouraged and supported Kathy and I, and who have upheld us in prayer, please keep praying for us. We really value the encouragement.

Yours in the Father's love,

Rev. Steve Burch

Looking forward in 2021:

Phase 1 Begin return to gathered worship and activity: April - June. Phase 2 renewing relationships and setting vision: July- September. Phase 3 Learning together and loving others: October - December.

Focus on: A: Growing as disciples, who make disciples,

and B: Meeting and transforming the community .

Parochial Church Council 2020

The Clergy: Steve Burch (Vicar since 2004)

Officers: Tim Pollard (Warden since 2019)

Marlene Pearson (Warden since 2019)

Hannah McGough (Secretary 2018– Oct 2020)

Des French (Secretary since Oct 2020)

Lorna Russell (Treasurer since 2012)

Members:

Sue Mace (until Oct 2020)

Dwayne Cooke, Emmanuel Davidson, Anne Lancaster (until 2021)

Arthur Street, Helen Kearney, vacancy (until 2022)

Dave Cuttler, Jonathan Burch, vacancy (until 2023)

Other Roles:

Anne Lancaster (Parish Safeguarding Officer since 2017)

Jonathan Burch (Gift Aid Official since 2016)

Hannah McGough (Electoral Roll Officer since 2017)

Deanery Synod Reps:

Tim Pollard, Lorna Russell, Jess Day-Pollard

5

PCC Meetings

The PCC met 6 times in 2020. Buildings, Finance and Safeguarding are set items. A number of items were agreed, including changes due to COVID-19 and charity giving.

Our charitable giving in 2020 included our eight Core Charities and extra giving, as follows:

Core Charities: £1000 Coventry City Mission, £900 Coventry Youth for Christ, £900 Barnabas Aid, £900 Gilead Health Development, £900 Bible Society, £1200 Kidz Klub, £600 Theophilus Bible Club, £600 Enkisuma.

Extra: £1500 HOPE Coventry, £200 Trussell Trust, £300 Christians Against Poverty

Deanery Synod

Deanery Synod meetings migrated mid-year to Zoom, this year we had three Synod meetings in 2020 which included talks on “General Synod and Synodical Structures”, “Collective Trauma”, and “an introduction from the (then) new Archdeacon Missioner”. Also this year the previous Area-Dean stood down, and Rev Matt Taylor (of St Martin’s, Finham) has been appointed as the new Area-Dean. I have been re-elected for another term as Lay-Chair.

The Deanery also has sub-committees for discussing and agreeing parish share, and others for discussing parishes in vacancy and longer term strategy – including preparing a draft deanery plan that will be presented at synod soon.

6

Church Wardens’ Report

For obvious reasons being a church warden in 2020 was quite different to 2019. Many thanks to Steve who has continued to regularly check the church building, managed producing risk-assessments for reopening periods and led planning for how to carry out services.

I was encouraged by our attempt to do a streaming service for Christmas Carols – as well as streaming PCC meetings and the AGM via Zoom. Some have had ‘mixed’ success, but overall it was a good year at ‘keeping church going’ even if not always in the church building.

Church Hall

It will not be any surprise to regular members that the hall is falling apart and needs serious work. This may mean demolishing and rebuilding. A working party has been established at a recent PCC meeting to look at the various options. We will explore the future requirements of the hall (as we come out of lockdown) and consider what may be the best way forward (bringing future proposals to PCC). Various options have been explored in the past – we are hoping to get more clarity on what is possible and what is necessary (and where God is calling us).

My thanks to all those who have assisted with the various building issues and risk assessments. Hopefully next year will be more normal.

Fabric

Inspection of Church Inventory was carried out by the Church Wardens Tim Pollard and Marlene Pearson in March 2020. We have not had a chance to repeat this in 2021; but do not envisage any changes due to the building being closed to public services for large parts of the year.

The detailed Inventory was last shared with the PCC members on 18[th] March 2020, we will aim to share a new copy later in 2021 once the church re-opens.

7

Accounts

Income
Collections
Fees and Rents
Misc
FME Grant
Furlough Refund from HMRC
Donations
INCOME TOTAL		 2019
Act Dec		 2020
Act Dec		 2020
2021
budget
budget		 2020
2021
budget
budget
79093
73613
83000
68000
24865
13807
23600
22300
8712
2884
1340
4900
3520
3000
0

7166
3500
295
1120
2000
0
112965
102110
112940
98700
Expenditure
Contributions: wider Church
Church Buildings
Worship resources
Hall
PCC houses
Vicarage
Parish Office/Comms
Ministry Expenses
Fees
Outreach
Education
Giving
Pastoral & Social
Expenses Total
Excess (Income- Expenses)		 2019
Act Dec		 2020
Act Dec		 2020
2021
budget
budget
60500
50000
60000
50000
18465
14010
16450
14000
3876
1672
2880
2650
3968
4558
5050
4375
393
1124
2300
825
0
0
200
0
9498
9630
9950
9500
2421
3330
2250
3450
537
560
0
0
6909
6825
7700
7032
410
0
600
400
9312
10000
10000
10000
112
0
100
50
116400
101709
117480
102282

-3435
402
-4540
-3582

8

Budget 2021

ministry building office mission Sunday giving

Budget 2021 (Expenditure)

Ministry £53450 (Parish share intern cost) Buildings £19200 (Church, hall, house: insurance & repairs, utility cleaner)

Mission £7482 (Family and children’s enabler) Office £9500 (support officer telephone print) Sunday £2650 (copyright, organ and church supplies) Giving £10000 Total £102282

This is a reduced budget from last year: 2020: £117480

giving rent/fee grants misc

Income 2020 & Budget 21

Congregation Giving £74733 Budget 21 £68000 Buildings Rent/Fees £13807 Budget 21 £22300 Grants £3520 Budget 21 £2500 Misc. £10050 (inc. furlough) Budget 21 £5900 Total: £102110 Budget 21 £98700

Our 2021 budget means a deficit of approx. £3582.

This means our income needs to rise by a minimum of £300 per month.

9

Safeguarding

One Person has renewed their DBS certificate.

Four people have completed Leadership (C2) safeguarding training.

No new safeguarding concerns have been notified.

A core group that was formed with the diocese over an existing concern has met virtually. The group concluded that the person involved should no longer work with children, but continue with all other activities.

No role description reviews were carried out as all the activities have temporarily ceased due to the pandemic restrictions.

The PCC has complied with the duty to have “due regard” to the House of Bishops guidance in relation to safeguarding.

Prayer Ministry

Due to the fact that we have had very limited services in church the formal prayer ministry on these occasions has not been taking place. However, informal prayer support at has continued. Life Groups have stepped up to the mark and continued this ministry and also individuals have taken on this mantle as before.

The Emergency Prayer Chain has flourished; over 60 messages have been circulated either via text or email and many, many people have been supported in this way. We praise God for answered prayer.

The Prayer Vine has 18 members who undertake to pray for each other on a regular basis. This is a vital support for the church and not too onerous, as you only pray for one person each week.

The weekly Prayer and Praise continues via Zoom with a small core of people for half an hour on a Wednesday evening.

We would love to encourage more people to join in these activities.

10

Children, Youth & Families

In April of 2020 I was put on furlough and therefore not permitted to do work of any kind within church. In July, it became possible to be semi-furloughed so I was able to work first 5, then 8 hours a week.

I began by running a summer online holiday club, “Adventuring with God at Home”. It ran daily for a week with resources made through a collaboration of churches in Coventry and Warwickshire. I sent out packs of materials to the 14 children registered.

In September I started making weekly videos of stories, songs and crafts, following the same theme and Bible passage as church. These are uploaded to Facebook every Sunday morning. As I became more adept at editing and uploading, and as my hours increased, I have developed a Facebook group where I can add weekly files of crafts and activities. I’ve also been sharing useful posts from other sites.

For October 31st, I made a Light Party video and sent out activity packs to families. 16 of these went out, mostly to non-church families. In Advent I shared daily Muddy Church activities and at Christmas I made a sheep trail around the local businesses.

When churches briefly reopened, face to face children’s work was not recommended within the weekly service. We considered starting a ‘picnic church’ which we were calling Family Fuel, but took no bookings. We managed one successful face to face service just before Christmas which was a Christingle. 5 families attended and were given packs of everything that they need to make the Christingles as well as other crafts to do at home. I’m currently in the process of making up Lent boxes which will be posted to church families.

I’ve found it supportive to connect online with other local children and youth leaders and have attended a number of online conferences and training sessions. I’m grateful that, while furlough limits what I can do practically, I am not prevented from praying for our children, families and young people.

11

Pastoral Care

The Pastoral Care Team, which consists of 8 members, were commissioned in November 2019 and had 2 meetings before the country went into lockdown on 17[th] March 2020. At those meetings each member of the team was allocated several people who were not in Life Groups to stay in contact with once permission was gained.

Life Groups would stay in regular contact with their own members and give assistance if support was needed. During this year of lockdown the team have stayed in regular contact with their allocated people either by telephone conversations, texts, emails or on some occasions socially distanced face to face meetings when support was needed. The team have offered prayer support, assistance with shopping and also passed on prayer shawls and prayed for those in need.

The team has offered prayer and support to one another and occasional emails, texts and phone calls to ensure that they too are coping. As a team we value one another’s opinions which is vital to ensure that we provide the best support for those in our care.

Feedback has been good from those we have supported. Our contact has been appreciated as many of the people have been isolated and living alone. Each member of the Pastoral Care Team has felt equally blessed staying in touch with the people of St James’ and giving them physical, social, emotional and spiritual support when needed.

Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“

We would never have imagined when the team was being developed that it would be thrown into a pandemic and be so vital in supporting our brothers and sisters in Christ. We thank the Lord for his gifts and the blessings he has bestowed on us as a team, so that we can bless others and give all the glory to our Lord Jesus Christ.

12

Life Groups

Life Groups are a valuable support network for our faith journeys. They allow members to safely ask questions, pray for each other, study the Word, have fun together, challenge each other and learn from each other. This year, changes have been made to adapt to the regulations against meeting in person, but Life Groups have continued in some form.

Fiona and Hannah’s ladies group have kept in contact daily on WhatsApp for prayer, encouragement, sharing verses/photos/videos/stories/songs. They’ve had weekly WhatsApp video calls to catch up and each discuss a Psalm, and have engaged in YouVersion Bible App plans together. It has been a time of great support, growth in faith and answers to prayer.

Rosie has been supporting Janet in a leadership role for their group. They have been texting and calling each other frequently. Rosie sends an email out once a fortnight to update everyone on each other and share a ‘God moment’; an encouraging Bible story, incident, or answer to prayer.

Kathy’s group have been using Zoom to meet socially on a fortnightly basis. They have been praying for each other between group times and have experienced several answers to prayer.

Dwayne, Sandra & Jonathan’s Young Adults group have continued to meet weekly on Zoom. They ‘check in’, each answering 3 questions: “how are you?”, “what 5 things are you thankful for this week?” and “how are you and God and where do you see God working in your life?”. They have fortnightly Bible reflections, each preparing something a given chapter, and a weekly prayer list from which they have experienced answers to prayer.

Anne’s group have been meeting on Zoom to study Ephesians together. Members find the regular contact important for their spiritual lives and have been able to share helpful comments.

Helen’s group kept in touch by phone calls and texts until they were able to set up meeting on weekly group phone calls towards the end of the year. They have been able to share the highs and lows of life, and support one another in prayer and thankfulness for answered prayer.

13

Community Charity Shop

The Community Charity Shop, 36 Nickson Road is a part of our outreach; a place where we can raise money to support those who need it in the community, and where we can show people God’s love. In 2020 we gained one new volunteer, and although we were closed on and off due to the pandemic, we were still able to make our presence known in the community, support those in need with clothing and other goods, and raise funds for the following causes: HOPE Coventry, Coventry City Mission, Your Local Air Ambulance, Zoe’s Place, The Light House Christian Care Ministry, Coventry Haven Women’s Aid, Tile Hill Food Hub, and funds for computer equipment for the following schools: Mount Nod Primary School, Leigh Church of England Academy and Templars Primary School.

We were really pleased to receive letters of thanks from the children at Templars school and to hear how important the funds had been for various other charities; particularly The Light House, who were able to use the money to provide extra counselling for those struggling during the lockdown period.

14

Our Parish

From Hearsall Common, westwards to the city boundary.

We serve the communities of Tile Hill South, Tile Hill Village, Tile Hill Lane, the ‘trees’ and ‘cotes’, Mount Nod and Coventry Business Park.

Our Mission

The church we envisage is God-centred;

St James Church, 395 Tile Hill Lane, Coventry, CV4 9DP 02476 466262

www.stjamesfletch.org.uk | admin@stjamesfletch.org.uk

@stjamesfletch

@stjamesfletch

St. James Parochial Church Council - Accounts Accounts Income 2019 Aci Dec 79093 24865 2020 2020 2021 Act Dec budget budget 73613 83CxXI 13807 2361X) 2884 1340 Collections Fees and Rents Misc FME Grant Futlough Refund from HMRC t)onations INCOME TOTAL 2231J) 8712 3520 7166 35LX) 295 1120 2CX)O 112965 102110 112940 98700 Expenditure 2019 2020 2020 2021 Act Dec Act Dec bud t bud t Contributions: widei Church Church Biili*"ngs orship Tesources 605 18465 3876 3968 393 50WO 60Cx)0 5CrfXM) 14010 16450 1672 4558 1124 2650 4375 825 5050 231X) PCC houses VicaTage Parish Officelcomms Ministry Expenses Fees Outreach Educats'on Giving Pastoral & Social 200 9950 2250 9498 2421 9630 3330 95CN) 3450 537 6909 410 560 6825 7700 7032 9312 iOt)JO IOCx)O 112 11)0 50 Expenses Total 116400 101709 117480 102282 Excess Ilncome - Expenses .3435 402 J582

St. James Community Shop - Accounts FIPL4L REPORT Cotntnun CarECentr Al￿U[rts for￿eYE￿ 3]2D- s DT 11-G4>>3]2D In￿ffle Tll s￿￿- CA5nrcrEq Tlll ￿3￿5- C 1456.97 1259.C Effort5 16.C Elr￿￿ Pas￿EntS Irrtere&1 1D14D.Fo] 2174ll.19 LESS E Rerrt 3B28. 14D.EJ] Fl43b& Jrts 6D36.C Insut3nEE El£¢tM Fe￿5 T￿eFlIc￿e W3ter Orr￿ Swples c￿lIn 553. ID.B7 55.C 181.36 468.D2 B24.C CbE3nlrg {In￿ whdtYaE 17A] 51A1 472.J4 utplu5 for thE yE3r rNrn 2D19 22235.32 31235.DT Ear& Fle=(fj(4113ton ￿31￿Ce ￿r B ￿IneE￿5 Alarwt 12B7. CD￿￿￿tlY ABrA)￿t 279f4.44 <xrt5t3nllng I[¢￿￿￿errt5 O.DD 31241.94 Effltety ch a.DO

Independent Examiner's Statement The procedures taken for an independent examination 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. In connection to my examination, no matter has come to my attention which gives reasonable cause to believe that in any material aspect the Trustee's responsibility to keep accounting records and prepare accounts which comply with accounting standards have not been met or to which in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understandin8 of the accounts to be reached. Graham Foxwell 134 Torbay Road Coventry