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2020-12-31-accounts

St James Parish Church, Silsden Our Vision To be a Jesus Shaped Church

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PEOPLE
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TEACHING

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BUILDING
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PRAYER
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PROPHETIC
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Annual Parochial Church Meeting 2021 with reports for 2020 St James, Silsden, 25[th] April 2021 12.15 in the Church Hall or via Zoom

OUR MISSION PRAYER

God of Mission, who alone brings growth to your Church, we pray for your Church here in Silsden. We pray for our fellowship here at St. James; that we may grow in number and in faith. Send your Holy Spirit on us to bring vision to our planning, wisdom to our actions, faith to our lives, hope to our community, and love to our hearts. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St James PCC is Registered as a Charity with the Charity – Commission – Charity Number 1180781 Official Charity Name : The Parochial Church Council Of The . Ecclesiastical Parish Of St James Silsden

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St James the Great, Silsden

Vestry Meeting and Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Sunday 25[th] April 2021 at 12.15pm

Vestry Meeting

  1. The meeting opens with prayer

  2. Apologies for absence

  3. Minutes of last year’s Vestry meeting

  4. Appointment of tellers

  5. Election of churchwardens

  6. Archdeacon’s Visitations

Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM)

  1. Minutes of last year’s APCM

  2. Matters arising

  3. Reports – most of the required reports have been circulated in advance, allowing for summaries and questions

a)Incumbent

b)PCC Report

c) Mission Groups

g)Churchwardens’ Report

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h)Electoral Roll

i) Safeguarding

iii. Prayer Group 

  - iv. Social Media

  1. Elections

  2. Parochial Church Council

11. Appointment of independent examiner of accounts

  1. Data Protection

  2. Any other business

  3. Date of next meeting

  4. Closing prayers

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Minutes of the 2020 Vestry Meeting and 2020 Annual Parochial Church Meeting held in person and via Zoom on Sunday 18 October 2020

Vestry Meeting

  1. David Griffiths opened the meeting and welcomed both those in person in the hall and those joining via Zoom.

  2. There were no apologies for absence.

  3. Minutes of the last meeting were approved. Proposed Steve Anderson, seconded Alison Rohatynskj

  4. Tellers – Not required

  5. Election of Churchwardens:- Neil Whitaker was appointed to serve as Churchwarden.

  6. There will be no Archdeacon’s visitations this year.

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

  1. Minutes of the last Annual Parochial Church Meeting were accepted. Proposed Pam Rycroft, seconded Jayne Robinson.

  2. Matters Arising – None

  3. Reports, these were pre-printed.

The reports were accepted as printed with no comments on the majority of the reports.

Adoption of Accounts – The accounts were accepted. Proposed Deborah Thorley, seconded Neil Whitaker.

Electoral Roll- In 2020 there are 86 on the electoral roll with 7 being non residents.

  1. Elections:

PCC: The following were elected to the PCC:- Connor Anderson, Steve Anderson and Joanne Towers

Deanery Synod: Michael Wilkinson and Malcolm Hudson were elected.

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Welcomers/Sides: No new welcomers were elected. Electoral Roll Officer: Deborah Thorley was elected.

  1. Appointment of independent examiner of accounts: David thanked Bob Smith for his past work. He is willing to continue in the role.

  2. Data Protection: Neil spoke to the meeting stressing the importance of Data Protection. Members need to be vigilant and not give out private information without the persons’ knowledge

  3. There was no any other business.

  4. Date of Next PCC meeting: 8[th] December.

  5. David closed the meeting with prayer.

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2020 Reports and Accounts for the Parochial Church Council of St James the Great, Silsden

St James’ PCC has the responsibility of cooperating with the incumbent, the Reverend David Griffiths, in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The PCC is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of the church and hall of St James the Great, Silsden.

VICAR’S REPORT for 2020

In line with our New Year's church resolution "let's fail more in 2021" because we are trying more new things!

PRAYER

Making prayer, for each of us, a central and natural

conversation with God.

Prayer is one of our vision priorities that we want to encourage and deepen this as a church and as individuals.

Prayer group - this has not been meeting physically monthly as it did previously but a weekly prayer meeting using Zoom has been seeing 3 - 6 people meeting for just 15 minutes - it works surprisingly well! I want to see more of these small prayer groups coming into action and ask you to see this important aspect of our church life improve.

A prayer course for the church is planned for later in the year.

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TEACHING

Knowing and understanding the Bible and learning about our faith from each other.

Encouraging greater confidence as Christians is one of our vision priorities that we want to encourage and deepen as a church and as individuals.

Workshops - suspended - the future of our youth work is uncertain and of some concern to me. I hope that we can restart the Gaming Day that we began last year as one expression of our Mission to younger people.

Home Groups - continue to enhance our church life and faith journey greatly and it has been a joy to learn of people trying things that they have never done before. We are very grateful to the leaders and hosts of the Home Groups for their service to us. The number of groups has been 2 this last year led by Neil and John, Val and Brian. We have launched a 3rd group coming out of our Alpha 4 course led by Alison Loryman and Jayne Robinson. We are looking to launch a 4th Home Group to meet during the day. These groups are part of our vision to build confident Christians and to develop new leaders. Thank you Lord!

Sunday Gathering - 10.30am - this has been running now for 4.5 years and Val and Brian, and home group members have joined the leading of this service on Zoom. This has meant that our goal to offer this service weekly has been achieved! Numbers of people attending have fallen and we have not seen many new faces. However, we have seen some and for 1 person they have yet to come to a physical church service.

We have been pushed into new ways of being church, using music and teaching resources more imaginatively and seeing more people "have a go" at ‘breakout room' leading, prayers, bible reading which is great and provides pipelines for leadership training and experience.

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As we begin to meet physically we are looking to keep this service as our focus to attract younger people to meet with Jesus and it will therefore remain in a state of some fluidity as we try new things that may or may not succeed. This may well be a combination of service delivery using Zoom and physical meetings. It will mean experimenting with doing "church" differently - getting out of our church buildings and being 'church' in the community - getting behind community activities, already up and running, whose aims align with our Kingdom values - helping with the environment - beck clean ups, litter picks, greening initiatives - helping in the park and then holding a service outside for any to attend.

Holy Communion Service - 9.30am - thank you to the Anderson crew for all the work they are putting in with the Wi-Fi in church and hall and sorting the tech out that enables us to Zoom and Stream this service. As we begin to meet physically again we are also committed to continue to Stream and Zoom this service as part of our Mission. Indeed there will be a commitment to always, if possible, Stream and Zoom all our Mission events and church meetings.

Alpha- We had our first ALPHA Course in 2019 - it was small but was very encouraging as we saw people touched by God and we were too! We have just finished our 4th. course and are running a 5th in autumn of this [ 2021 ] year. Thanks to Neil who has led this, Alison, Brian, Malcolm, Michael and Jayne the discussion leaders, and tech. support helpers.

PROPHETIC CHALLENGE Speaking out against injustice and acting to build God's Kingdom.

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Prophetic action and challenge is one of our vision priorities that we want to encourage and deepen as a church and as individuals.

Food Bank - Locally we continue to be involved with supporting the food bank at the Salvation Army in Keighley. Our local Co-Op and Aldi stores send their redundant fresh food and donated items to the Army via our church on Wednesdays. At the Vicarage we are keeping some food to hand out on behalf of CTIS [Churches Together in Silsden] to about 6 people. This situation is being monitored and discussions have taken place with Keighley Salvation Army about the possibility of us being a satellite food bank for them in Silsden.

Plastic - one of our vision objectives is environmental as we try to reduce our negative impact on the environment. This has taken a real hit with all the PPE and plastic test kits BUT this remains one of our vision actions - please do what you can NOT to purchase excessive plastic - go for the paper and cardboard which will not last for 200 years and end up in our grandchildren's stomachs!

Modern Slavery - we have made a start on this with Brian Gregory and the Mission Group's lead. We will be getting better informed and acting to oppose this godless crime.

'PROJECT 200 +' - See the Fabric Mission Group report.

'PROJECT 300 +' - having served us and our community for 300 years our church building also needs modernising for the next 300 years and we are planning to do this but when we do not know. We are applying for a grant to carry out a stain glass window condition survey having seen that the East window has problems as we cleaned it this last summer.

PEOPLE

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Becoming confident Christians, led by the Holy Spirit, enabled to show God's love to all people.

SILSDEN'S GRAND JULY - Has not been meeting and there are no plans for any events this year. Although not a church group, Neil is Chair and Deborah is Treasurer. It is a great Ecumenical platform and has other community members with no church or religious affiliation.

SILSDEN'S GALA TEAM - There is only David on this committee at the moment and others from St. James and the other churches would be great. We are planning a modest Gala this year with no procession but are staying "light on our organisational feet"!

SILSDEN EMERGENCY COMMITTEE - David is the rep. on this committee and needs to be replaced as we look to succession planning as he approaches retirement. This committee came out of the Silsden's 'Gasgate' in order to be better prepared for any town emergencies and has, with Brad. Met., prepared a plan and has resources stored at the Town Hall. We have met to plan and go through mock emergencies using Zoom.

The committee has also done a great job offering a Telephone Help Line, Chat Service and practical assistance follow up when needed during the Covid pandemic.

CHRISTIAN AID COMMITTEE - This committee has joined with CTIS [Churches Together in Silsden] and the two groups have joint meetings on Zoom - activities have been limited but we have plans in place for Christian Aid Week next month.

PERSONAL GROWTH and LEADERSHIP COURSE -

We have 10 of us on this diocesan course - the 2nd that we have attended. It is going well, is pretty intense, thought provoking and is helping us to be intentional, try new things - pushing our own, often self-imposed, limitations.

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We need to attract and train new, younger leaders and that will be part of our Vision 2021 aims that are currently being revised.

Please consider coming on the next one.

CHURCH TOWER 'BROADCASTS’ - this threw up some interesting issues for our Mission as it proved popular, seemed to scratch an itch "out there"although illegal. It was well received by many people and 1 person has come to church as a result. Why aren't people coming to our church then!?

GRAVEYARD RENOVATIONS - another unexpected area that could be part of our Mission. As we have built on Brad. Met's. work to stabilise the dangerous headstones in our graveyard by getting £15,000 of grants to resurrect fallen headstones; community members are responding positively. We have seen 6 people turn up to help work on the graveyard and church as a result and I plan to organise more Community Work Days when we can. Our Church Work Days could join with these as part of our Mission. We could use a Gathering service time to do this - take food together at the conclusion and invite the nonchurch folks to come to a short service at the end.

TEAM BUILDING

Encouraging everyone to be part of a world-wide community of Christians, with servant hearts and on a shared adventure.

The Parochial Church Council [PCC] - a big thanks to the outgoing PCC - it has been a challenging year and the technology challenge has divided church and some members of the PCC as the availability of Wi-Fi and the equipment and ability to employ platforms like Zoom meant that some people have lost out.

PCC Mission Groups - These are composed of Mission Groups for Mission, Social, Fabric and Worship aspects of our church life and have been reorganised, meeting bi-monthly and have wider remits. Thank you to all the

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leaders of the Mission Groups - Michael Wilkinson – Worship; Deborah Thorley – Social; Neil Whitaker – Mission; and David leads the Fabric group at the moment.

The Churches Together in Silsden - has been meeting on Zoom [wish I had some shares in it]. Our Chair - Barbara Ayrton, Secretary - Pam Lloyd and Jayne Robinson and Treasurer - Pam Lloyd. We are planning for unlock, should it come, and Ruth from the Methodists is technically on the ball and has produced some evening services and a Good Friday March film. Thank you to Jayne who is our church rep. If anyone else would like to be rep. please contact David.

We are getting behind the effort to get electricity into the Band Stand and Cenotaph to enhance what we can do there as CTIS and other community events.

The Parish Share - our part to the running costs of the Diocese was not paid in full for 2020 = £55,627. We paid £35,000 towards the Share which was 63% of that requested. We were short by £22,627. Thank you for your giving - if you can increase it please do as we are in "financially challenging" waters!

Church Wardens - we have been served this last year by Neil and a big thank you to him. This has been further enhanced by Brian Goddard our Deputy Church Warden - I have valued greatly their help during these challenging days.

Leadership Mission Team - has been a great blessing too as we meet for brief meetings twice a week via Zoom. The team comes from, and is answerable to, the PCC. Its members are the Church Warden Neil, Deputy Church Wardens, Brian and Jayne, Val, Susan and David.

Pastoral Care Team - a big thanks to all who have stepped up or put up with all the changes in this area of our church life. We have set up a communication system using emails with a Weekly Newssheet - thank

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you Deborah, Neil and Susan for this. We have also been sending out paper communications by hand monthly for those not on the internet- thank you to the delivery crew. We have also set up a pastoral "tree" where 1 person rings 6 others weekly to see how they are and there is a system to provide further assistance should it be needed.

On the community front David has made contact with areas of the town where more vulnerable people live and made contact with the key community people in those areas and has offered to be an avenue of assistance should it be required. This has been regularly followed up with telephone calls and visits.

Some vulnerable people shielding have been teamed up with a person to assist with shopping and moral maintenance.

Administration - A big thanks to Deborah our Administrator.

Maintenance - a big thanks to Avril our Cleaner, the Gardening crew, Brass Polishing team and flowers and church decoration crews.

Our church runs on all sorts of groups made up of you individuals giving your gifts back to God in service and I say a big THANK YOU to you all.

Love David

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) 2020 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PCC

The St James PCC

Clergy: - David Griffiths, Susan Griffiths

Deanery Reps: - Michael Wilkinson, Malcolm Hudson

Churchwarden:- Neil Whitaker (lay vice chair]

PCC Members:-

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2018:- Derek Smithson, Leanne Newsome, Jayne Robinson

[Secretary and Deputy Churchwarden]

2019:- Deborah Thorley (Treasurer), Val Goddard, Brian Goddard (Deputy Churchwarden)

2020:- Steve Anderson, Connor Anderson, Joanne Towers

The PCC meet bi-monthly via Zoom

A big thank you to all the PCC members as there is a lot to consider these days from policies of all sorts to buildings and building God's Kingdom through it all - please thank them yourselves and pray for them. Chair - David Griffiths

Mission Groups

FABRIC MISSION GROUP

Thanks to all the members of this group who bring expertise and experience to the table - Mags Croft, Deborah Thorley, Derek Smithson, Brian Goddard, Connor Anderson, Malcolm Hudson, Steve Anderson.

In spite of everything it has been a busy year.

Some of the works -

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We have met by Zoom bi-monthly with catch up mini meetings when passing each other or on site.

PROJECT 200 +

We are very grateful to everyone who has kindly supported the project this year. The amount given has enabled us to proceed with some key aspects of the works - Phase 1 - heating is now complete after some poor installation issues have been rectified. Phase 2 is complete - bi-fold doors + disabled access outside works.

Event fund raising has not been possible but plans are in place as soon as we can meet physically and some events are booked - thank you to the Events Fund Raising Group which has now widened its brief to also do some fund raising events for church fund raising with the title Social Mission Group led by Deborah who will report on their activities. A special thanks we give to Cath Liddle who is our publicity officer for PROJECT 200 + - preparing our press releases and advising us on general publicity.

Also thanks to Martin Williamson our local artist for his mugs and magnets and the lovely Nativity painting that he has donated and that has been framed beautifully as a gift to us by Pellers - Steve Brayshaw - 07779 058051. Martin will be producing Christmas cards from the painting for our fund raising.

Our application to the National Lottery Community Fund has borne fruit - £96,725 worth! It has been a 2.5 year haul and thanks goes to Derek Smithson and Brian Goddard for sticking in there! Brian's skills with IT have meant that our presentations are slick and accurate and have impressed the National Lottery.

We have also been given a further £15,000 for the church WC and a pledge of £15,000 for Phase 4 [2022] by The Bernard Sunley Foundation.

So Phase 3 is to commence on 26 July next consisting of -

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We plan to commission the remainder of the works as our finances permit. Elements of the project still to be funded include kitchen modernisation, more efficient office and meeting room layout, new double-glazed windows throughout the hall, dedicated storage areas for main hall users, electrical rewiring, refurbished roofing, new rain water fittings and refurbishment of the main hall itself - ceiling removed, light well etc.

We have begun the fund raising for the anticipated further 2 phases to complete the project by 2023 - please keep praying + give if you can + thank you Lord!!!!!

Chair - David Griffiths

SOCIAL MISSION GROUP

The social mission group are:- Deborah Thorley (chair), Joanne Towers, Louise Outhwaite, Leanne Newsome, Mags Croft, Alison Rohatynskyj and Jackie Hudson.

We were very disappointed that we were not able to have any events in 2020 but we are now planning for some in 2021. Our remit is to look at both the social side of our church life and to raise funds for all projects. If you have any ideas, then please do let us know. Chair – Deborah Thorley

MISSION (MISSION) GROUP

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The Mission Group is one of 4 mission groups set up by the PCC in 2020 (the other mission groups are Fabric mission group, Worship mission group and Social mission group).

The Mission Group is looking at what God wants his church here in Silsden to do and say – to build His Kingdom through service and to tell the Good News of the Gospels.

We had our first meeting in July and have met regularly since then (all meetings on Zoom so far!)

Mission Group led the 10.30am service on 24 January when we gave an introduction to the work of the Group (which included the diagram we had prepared to show how important mission is to being church) and we considered all the mission we engage with at St James.

With the connections we have with Rev Brian Gregory and his anti-slavery charity we suggested to the PCC that we could usefully run a campaign to raise awareness of modern day slavery here in Silsden, which PCC agreed. We introduced that to the church at our 10.30am service on 14 March (when Brian Gregory was our special guest) and are now starting to put together a programme.

Whilst that project will take up quite a bit of our time we will still continue to consider how St James church can keep working for God’s mission.

Chair – Neil Whitaker

WORSHIP MISSION GROUP

Nearly a year ago we had our first meeting and we have continued to meet every two months except for November/December time when we had a break due to another lockdown which was going to delay reopening. Our remit from the PCC was to review our Sunday services, home groups and anything else relating to our services here at St James.

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We have been working on a new pattern of Sunday services to start when we are back in church without restrictions.

This pattern is still to be ratified by the PCC so it isn’t available at the time of my writing this.

We also discussed a big day of celebration sometime in the future when we are back in church. This will be done in discussion with both the mission & social mission groups.

Chair - Michael

Deanery Synod Report

Meetings have been on Zoom as was part of last year.

Unfortunately we have nothing to report as we have been unable to attend any meetings due to clashing with Alpha courses.

Michael & Malcolm

Financial Review 2020

Total receipts on unrestricted funds were £61854.78. Planned giving gave us £28156.30, and £8314.66 was claimed as Gift Aid from this, some donations and by the small donations scheme. £11382.78 came into general funds from church hall lettings. Details of all the income strands is given in the full accounts.

Total receipts on restricted funds were £15303.70. We continue to receive income from a legacy for works to the churchyard and also in 2020 received a grant of £5000 from the Harry Tillotson Trust for further churchyard work. (Silsden Town Council also allocated a grant of £10000 to churchyard work).

In 2019 we paid £35000 towards the Share requested by the Diocese – this was 63% of the request. We

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carried out some repair works to the church (£9606.38) and started work on the churchyard (£2679.73).

From Project 200+ we spend £11290.31 which included £7388.361 on architect fees.

Full details of all expenditure can be found in the full accounts.

Reserves Policy

It is the PCC policy to hold at least £1,000 in the unrestricted funds at the end of the year. At the end of 2020 there was £2153.46 held in unrestricted reserves.

2020 has been a difficult year. I say a big thank you to everyone who has continued to give to the work of the church. The amount given as planned giving has only fallen by 6%. The main drop in income in 2020 was due to a reduction in hall use and fund raising activities.

Can I please ask that if you give to the church by cheque that you write it out to Silsden Parish Church PCC. If not, the bank will reject it.

Deborah

Bank – Barclays Bank

Independent Examiner – Bob Smith, Lower Park Green, Silsden

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of St James’ PCC

I report on the accounts of the church for the year ending 31 December 2019 which are set out on the following pages.

The church’s trustees (the PCC) are responsible for the preparation of the accounts (delegated responsibility to the PCC Treasurer). The PCC consider that an independent examination of the accounts is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

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Basis of Independent Examiner’s Report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general procedures of the 2011 Act (as explained in the PCC Accountability booklet 5[th] edition).An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records.

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

  2. To keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; and

  3. To prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act have not been met; or

  4. To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable proper understating of the accounts to be reached.

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Churchwardens’ Report

The Churchwardens’ report for last year was written on 12 March 2020. Eleven days later we were in lockdown, all church buildings were closed, and the world had changed.

Here we are 12 months later and the pandemic still continues. There are, though, now positive signs as the vaccine roll-out continues, our church building reopens again and Spring is in the air.

But it has been a hard 12 months, a difficult year, full of sadness, grief, worry, loneliness and isolation for so many - including of course so many of our congregation. So I start this report by pausing to remember what you have each been through over the last year.

The pandemic has brought so much change to our church life – the most obvious change being the severe limitations on our ability to meet together for worship and for fellowship. When, a year ago, all church buildings were closed the Clergy and wardens team had to move quickly. After a crash course for all of us in using Zoom the we were able to have daily meetings – with immediate priorities of ensuring everyone had access to help, and considering what options we had for worship and for everyone keeping in contact. From

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these discussions came the telephone link system, the newssheet and Zoom worship.

Once we were allowed to re-open the church building we then had to spend time on risk assessments and things like track and trace so that the PCC could then decide when we could safely reopen the building. When that time came last September it had to be with conditions which made church attendance very different from normal times – with distancing and face coverings, no singing, and a limit on numbers. Despite all this it was wonderful to be able to re-open the building. However - with the pandemic far from over we could not hold our usual Christmas celebrations in the building – and then came the resurgence of the virus, and the PCC had to make the decision to close the building again.

When we first reopened the building we recognized that with limited numbers allowed in our building then streaming the services to the internet would enable those who had access to the internet to participate in our services from the building remotely, which would also make space within the building for those who could not attend via the internet (we were acutely aware that there were many of our congregation who are not able to access church through the internet).

We were able to set up a system for livestreaming services from the church building. To do this we have had to grapple with copyright, privacy rules, bandwith limits, the vagaries of Zoom and the fickleness of YouTube. It has been a steep learning curve but it has worked and will be a constant work in progress as we seek improvements.

Through developing livestreamed and Zoom services to cover an immediate problem we have realised that there is a mission element to using the internet for sharing our worship – we can reach people who would not otherwise attend the building.

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Certainly livestreaming removes the walls and doors of a building and reaches out to people into their homes or onto their phones. Leaving a service on YouTube for people to access in their own time also means we are increasing our offering from a couple of hours each week on a Sunday to 168 hours each week. That must increase the prospects of people hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

For example our streamed Christingle service this year – including the video Nativity that we produced – has had over 400 viewings, and people appear to be still having a look at it.

So a big thank you to Steve , Connor and Simon Anderson for sorting out the internet we now have in church and for their ingenuity, hard work, dedication and patience in developing and providing (and operating every Sunday morning – up on the balcony) the streaming facility we can now provide. Thank you also to the Diocese for the grant monies which enabled us to buy some important equipment to help the delivery of streaming.

During the last 12 months, as well as using Zoom for online worship, Zoom has been indispensable in enabling the Home Groups to continue to function, for us to carry on with PCC meetings, and as a way of finishing one Alpha course, and delivering two further Alpha courses (thank you to the Alpha hosting team).

With the PCC still being able to meet through Zoom they have been able to carry on with church planning and church business. The PCC has over the last year changed the way it operates – forming the mission groups (Worship, Mission, Fabric and Social) with a view to increasing the capacity of the PCC (and I remind everyone that you can serve on any of these groups without having to be also a member of the PCC). One of the things the PCC did was to reflect on what we at St James could learn from the lockdown. This exercise

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reminded me that the church is the people not the building.

A big thank you to all PCC members who served over the last 12 months (with our 2020 APCM being delayed then, unusually, we’ve had two PCCs during the period covered by this report) and thank you to those who serve on the new mission groups.

There are so many people at St James to thank for their work for our church – over the last year. I’ve already mentioned the streaming team, the Alpha team, the PCC and the mission groups, and I mention the clergy and other wardens below. We say thank you to the Project 200+ team who have really put the hours in to keep that project going and to sort out the funding , even during the pandemic.

I would like to thank David and Susan, and the other members of the wardens team, for their hard work, positivity and adaptability during this difficult 12 month period.

On the wardens side Alison was going to step down as churchwarden last April but stayed in post until much later in the year to help us navigate our way through the unexpected and unprecedented position we found ourselves in. So thank you to Alison. Thank you to Brian Goddard, our Deputy Churchwarden, and thank you to Jayne Robinson who became a second deputy Churchwarden last Autumn.

But there are so many people who work in so many different ways to make our church function – including the running and appearance of the church building and its surroundings; church finances; church administration; in providing ministry and spreading God’s love within our community; and through constant prayer - and who have that kept that going during this particularly challenging year. Thank you to you all – it is very much appreciated. Thank you.

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Neil

Safeguarding

St James Silsden has adopted the Church of England’s Safeguarding policy, which is reviewed annually. We also have in place procedures for ensuring that this policy is applied in all parts of St James’ work.

I am pleased to report that there have been no safeguarding incidents at St James in 2020.

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Other Reports

Mothers' Union

Our report this year is very short one due to the Corona virus which led to the cancellation of all our M.U. meetings after the February one.

January was our A.G.M. meeting with our usual 'bring and share' supper. It was reported that we had 23 members and 3 indoor members: 4 members had lapsed.

Joyce Parker was presented with a bouquet of flowers and thanked for her work as Branch Leader over the years. The M.U. was run by the Committee during 2020. Rev. Pat had agreed to take on the role of contact person.

Sadly one of our M.U. members Cathryn Robinson, also a life long member of St. James Church, died towards the end of the year.

We enjoyed a wonderful quiet, meditative meeting in February when Gillian Coe visited us. She spoke about God's Wonderful World showing photographs she had taken accompanied by scripture verses. A small number of members met together at Joyce Parker’s for the ‘Wave of Prayer’

All our other meetings were cancelled but we hope to re-install them as soon as we are able and it is safe to do so.

We have not tried to have 'Zoom' meetings during the pandemic as when asked the majority of members who come to meetings said that they did not have the technical knowledge, or equipment so would not like meetings to be held in this way.

We have kept in touch with our members by sending Easter cards, ‘Just to Say’ ….. cards with a Christian message during autumn, and Christmas cards with a

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'Daily Strength' booklet as a little token of our love and concern for each of them.

Our outing to 'The Chocolate House' also had to be cancelled but we hope to do this later this year 2021 if it is still operating and we are set free from 'lock-down' regulations.

Unfortunately we have been unable to do any fund raising this year but a letter was sent out to members with regard to remaining members and paying our subscriptions so that some M.U. work and commitment could continue.

All members received a copy of the M.U. 'Wave of Prayer' for 2021 with the above letter along with the date and time.

We look forward with hope that we will soon be able to meet again and that Normal Service will be resumed as soon as possible in our work as M.U. members.

Rev. Pat Smith

Seconded by Mrs J. Towers & Mrs L. Newsome (who share the job of Secretary)

Nursing home/residential homes

We have four teams who normally help take monthly Holy Communion Services at The Gables, The Raikes, Summerfield and Spring Bank with an average attendance of fifteen. It is quite noticeable to me that we now minister to more people with dementia and I am constantly looking for ways to help these people to participate and engage with the Services. I am told that all the Homes appreciate the time and effort we put in on these occasions.

I would like to express my thanks to these teams, who have helped me at the various Homes for some years now. This ministry would not be possible without their help and they cope very well with what are sometimes difficult and challenging circumstances. I do hope most

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of these helpers will feel able to once again take up this Ministry when it is possible to visit the Homes again.

Due to Covid19 we only visited all four Homes twice during 2020 and that was in January and February. One of the Homes was also fortunate to have a Service very early in March as it fell some weeks before the seriousness of the situation became more apparent and ‘Lockdown’ was imposed.

I have kept in regular contact with all of the Homes and assured them that our thoughts and prayers are with, and for, both Residents and Staff.

For Christmas 2020 I recorded a visual Service on my lap-top which I then saved on four memory sticks and, with the help of a neighbour, produced four CD’s with Carols on to accompany the visual recording. These were given to each of the Homes to use in the run-up to Christmas, Christmas Day or throughout the season of Christmas.

I did the same for Easter 2021 when Brian Mason was instrumental in helping to produce a CD with Easter themed hymns to accompany the visually recorded Service. This was again very much appreciated by the Homes and Residents.

As the weather improves I will be exploring with the Homes the possibility of conducting some Services outdoors. Initially this may mean my teams of helpers will not be allowed so the possibility of these happening will depend on whether the Homes have enough staff to help me out.

Revd. Pat Smith

Prayer Group

The Prayer Group has not meet during the Pandemic. But we have issued Prayer Request reports regularly to

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Prayer Group Members for them to include in their weekly prayer times.

Social Media

St James social media has been very busy over the past 12 months – keeping and growing our connections with the local community and far beyond.

We now use 3 platforms - Facebook (Alison & Helen) Instagram (Alison) and Twitter (Neil). We also share the You Tube streaming of services and other videos – Christingle, nativity, Walk of Witness etc

St James Facebook page has seen 100% growth over the past year, and we have over 400 people/organisations who ‘like’ our page (so see what we post automatically). We post about our services and events, and share information and prayer from the Church of England, Diocese and other organisations. We share our posts to ‘Silsden Buzz’ regularly to increase our ‘reach’ to their 12,000 members. We share lots of photos and videos and get lots of positive responses from the community – demonstrating that there is a large ’on the edge’ audience willing to listen to and support us – even if they are not (yet) wanting to join services or Alpha.

As admin on Facebook (and previously as churchwarden/PCC member) I respond to other Facebook posts on Silsden Buzz on behalf of the church or direct people to the website/vicarage for more information - highlights this year have been David’s broadcasts from the church tower, the campaigning for return of the generator for the nativity scene, the work done in the graveyard, not forgetting the reactions to David’s blackboard notices outside church (prompting some lively discussions) and queries about the man in the boiler suit who tends the churchyard….

Instagram is a photos-based platform - so on our St James page we share the same photos as on Twitter

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and Facebook – we have 103 followers including local organisations and businesses (churches, sport, beauty, hair, pubs etc) and those further afield such as CAPUK, Clergy support trust, LYCIG, CRE.

Our Twitter account is run by Neil and has 146 followers - again we share information about our services and events, and share prayers and commentary from other accounts such as the Diocese of Leeds, Bishop Toby, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England, Bishop Nick Baines.

If you haven’t already taken a look – please do so – our pages/accounts are easy to find.

If you want some assistance on how to access social media, want something posted on your behalf or have any questions – please get in touch with me.

Ali Rohatynskyj

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"St. JAMES CHURCH SILSDEN IS TO BE A JESUS SHAPED CHURCH"

We express this Vision using the 5 JSP themes as follows :-

1 PEOPLE Becoming confident Christians, led by the Holy

Spirit, enabled to show God's love to all people.

2 TEACHING

Knowing and understanding the Bible and

learning about our faith from each other.

3 TEAM BUILDING

Encouraging everyone to be part of a world-wide

community of Christians, with servant hearts and on a shared adventure.

Making prayer, for each of us, a central and

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natural conversation with God.

5 PROPHETIC CHALLENGE Speaking out against injustice and acting to build

God's kingdom.

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