The Church of St Mary - Great Sankey Liverpool Road, Great Sankey, Warrington WA5 1RE Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council For the year ending 31st December 2021 1 ## **St. Mary’s, Great Sankey** ## **Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council For the year ended 31st December 2021** ## **A member of the West Warrington Church Team** ## **1. Reference and Administrative Information** The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Mary, Great Sankey is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Charity registration number: 1180928. St. Mary’s Church is located on Liverpool Road, Great Sankey, Warrington, WA5 1RE. The parish is part of the Diocese of Liverpool. Official correspondence should be sent to the Rev. Jeremy Tear, St. Mary’s Church, Liverpool Road, Great Sankey, Warrington WA5 1RE For the period 1[st] January 2021 until the date of approval of this report, the following people served as members of the Parochial Church Council: ## **Pioneer Team Rector Chair** Rev. Jeremy Tear **Churchwardens** Mrs. Lynn Parish (re-appointed APCM 2021) **Elected members** Leanne Turner (Vice chair, appointed October 2020) Julie Shaw (Treasurer, appointed October 2021) John Taylor (appointed October 2021) Susan Gibbons (appointed April 2021) Roxy Jones (appointed October 2020) Gemma Tocher (appointed October 2020) Sarah Lavelle (stepped down April 2021) Jean Lawrence (stepped down April 2021) **Ex-officio members** Rev. Martin Thorpe, Pioneer Team Vicar Rev. Sarah Peppiatt, Pioneer Team Vicar **Deanery Synod** Roxy Jones (appointed April 2021) **Representatives** **Electoral Roll** Jean Lawrence **DBS Verifier and** Clare Grimes **Safeguarding Officer** 2 **Finance Assistant** Fiona Barnard, appointed 2018. Fiona was invited to attend meetings but could not vote. Fiona has kindly been taking the minutes of meetings. **Assistant Warden** Kate Forrest and Ian Knight were re-appointed in April 2021 but are not members of the PCC. **Employees** Gail Cordon, Laura Hampton, Derek Bowden, and Lynn Parish undertook ad hoc duties as vergers/bell ringers ## **Treasurer’s Report** See attached. **Independent** D Carty FCA, 70 Longbarn Lane, Woolston, Warrington, WA1 4QR **Examiner** ## **2. Structure, Management and Governance** St. Mary’s Sankey PCC is a body corporate and operates under the _Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956_ and the _Church Representation Rules_ . The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. All church members are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC. Day to day management of the Church was delegated by the PCC to the Standing Committee: **Rev. Jeremy Tear** (Pioneer Team Vicar appointed 2015) **Lynn Parish** (Churchwarden from July 2017), **Jean Lawrence** (term ended April 2021), **Leanne Turner** (Vice Chair of PCC, appointed April 2021) and **Gemma Tocher** (appointed April 2021) The **Standing Committee** can be contacted by telephone as shown in the Church Suite app; Rev Jeremy Tear can be contacted by e-mail at: revjeremytear@gmail.com or phone on 01925-485288. ## _**Safeguarding Procedures**_ The PCC has complied with its duty to have regard to the House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. Individual PCC members receive online training as and when deemed appropriate. The Safeguarding Officer undertook Diocesan training (after an initial session with Diocesan Advisor Ruth Reed in 2018) and the whole PCC received training in child protection policy and procedures during this session. All members of the PCC are in the process of completing DBS checks. We received additional training on GDPR by Helen Aghanian, our Church Administrator in 2018. 3 ## _**Risk Assessments**_ The PCC undertook a programme of risk assessments to identify their major risks. Procedures were then put in place to manage those risks and minimise their impact on the life of the church. ## _**Financial Risk**_ An annual budget is prepared to ensure short term viability. Actual results compared with budget are reported to the PCC every half year. The charity has two main sources of income; namely the giving by members to the Church by cash on plates, legacies, Parish Giving Scheme & envelopes; and baptisms, weddings and funerals. The PCC review their investments regularly. Investments are only made in approved low risk funds. All assets are insured. A review was carried out in 2018 to ensure cover at an appropriate level. The PCC has approved internal and external controls for annual accounts. - _Compliance with Law and Regulation_ - A health and safety review was undertaken by a member of the church with specific experience in this area. The PCC was appraised of the risks and the necessary requirements and these are undergoing compliance. ## ● _Operational risk_ - Regular maintenance checks are done on the building by way of a Quinquennial on the structure and checks on internal electrical items like boiler, heating system, fire extinguishers, fire & security alarms. ## **3. Objectives and Activities** The general functions of the PCC are stated within section 2 of the _Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956._ At St. Mary’s our vision statement says that we desire ‘to be a growing church making a growing difference’. We desire to grow both numerically, spiritually and through the facilities we offer. At the PCC’s away day in July 2021, we devised a three-year strategy document for the period 20212023. 4 When planning our activities for the year, the PCC gave consideration to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance to charities concerned with the advancement of religion. 5 Our activities in 2021 provided the following public benefits: - ●Regular public worship open to all, both on Sundays, midweek and for funerals, weddings and baptisms, as well as online worship provided during periods of national lockdown and when the church was open. The Church has easy access and was awarded a ‘ **Child Friendly Award** ’ in 2017 by the Liverpool Diocese. - ●The provision of sacred space for personal prayer and contemplation and praying for those who ask for assistance. - ●Pastoral work, including visiting the sick and bereaved. Home Communion is taken out to some who are unable to attend church by a small authorised team. - ●Due to the coronavirus crisis, we were not able to take religious assemblies in local Primary Schools (Park Road, Great Sankey & Barrow Hall Lane Primary Schools) but we did hold Christmas services in church for Great Sankey and Barrow Hall Schools, and provided an online assembly for Park Road School. Kids Planet Nursery school were also unable to attend services in church but we did go into nursery to read bible stories for pre-school children during the year and to take part in their Christmas event. - ●Sunday school activities for those aged 4-11 called ‘Lightnings’, both in church and online. - ●Supporting other charities in the UK and overseas with 10% of income, plus special collections. Also, practical support for the Food Bank in Warrington, and for children in need in our town through a Toy Service. - ●We held a Summer and Christmas Fair to raise funds for the church and to provide opportunities for the community to reconnect with one another - ●We rented out the church to a local Pilates teacher for weekly sessions. ## _**Churches Together in West Warrington**_ St. Mary’s Church continues to work with other churches in West Warrington. This included a Churches Together Prayer Walk on Ascension Day. Members took part in small group studies in Lent through Churches Together in West Warrington. We also worked with other churches in West Warrington to share God’s love through providing ‘Open the Book’ bible story telling sessions in local schools ## _**West Warrington Team Ministry**_ On a team note, St. Mary’s is part of the West Warrington Team Ministry which comprises St. Mary’s, Great Sankey; St. Paul’s, Penketh; St. James’, Hood Manor; and St. Philip’s, Westbrook. The clergy meet together regularly, and the churches worship together on specific occasions throughout the year. 6 ## _**Church Buildings**_ A variety of general maintenance tasks were completed ## _**Charitable giving policy**_ At St. Mary’s we give away a tithe (10%) of our annual giving through the Parish Giving Scheme, a weekly envelope scheme, standing orders and cash on the plate. We also support the following charities: - Leprosy Mission, Church Army, Church Mission Society, The Children’s Society, and The Food Bank in Warrington (part of the Trussell Trust). ## **4. Achievements and performance** ## _**Electoral roll**_ There were 100 people registered on the electoral roll at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting in 2021. ## _**Worship**_ Average attendance at Sunday Services in 2021 (excluding the 3 months we were closed due to the lockdown) was around 10 people attending the 8am communion service and around 36 adults/children attending an average 10am service. We also had a consistent figure of around 9 attending the Wednesday Holy Communion service. However, it should be noted that figures were much lower for 10 am services due to the limits on numbers we could safely accommodate within the building. We also have had a regular 20 adults/children who have attended our online services at 10am on Sunday mornings during the lockdown but this figure has decreased since we returned to services in-person. ## _**Pastoral care and service to our community**_ It has always been a top priority of the church to care for members and to serve the local community. This takes place within both regular and special church services (including an annual memorial service for the bereaved), and monthly home communion visits. During the pandemic, we also had a telephone visiting scheme in place for church members, and the Vicar wrote a weekly letter sent by email and a monthly letter sent by email/post. 7 ## _**Growing in Faith**_ In spring 2021, we ran an online Growing in Faith course, followed by The Talking Jesus course in the summer, which was also online. In the autumn, we ran an in-person Alpha course which was attended by members of the church and those connected to it. ## **5** . **Financial review** See Treasurer’s Report. ## **Reserves Policy** We keep a reserve of £5,000. ## **6. Plans for the future** See ‘Strategy Document for 2021-2023’ which we have reviewed at PCC. ## **Pioneer Team Rector’s Report** As I write this report on National Reflection Day, to mark the second anniversary of the first coronavirus lockdown in March 2020, it seems a very appropriate time to reflect on the life of our team here in West Warrington. 2021 was, once again, a very unusual year with the third lockdown between January to March and various restrictions continuing to be in place for much of it, meaning that a lot of our church life continued online. With the easing of restrictions, we all resumed worship in person at Easter and gradually began to return to some kind of normality as a result. Given the above, we had an online Team Ash Wednesday service this year, and a number of people from our churches joined in the online Churches Together Lent course looking at the environment and how we care for it. During Holy Week, we managed to hold a vigil on Maundy Thursday at St. Mary’s as well as an online Service on Good Friday afternoon, streamed live from St. Philip’s. By Ascension, we had returned to our Team/Churches Together prayer walk for Thy Kingdom Come around West Warrington and in October we held our Team memorial Service at St. Mary’s once again, plus we joined together for worship on the Sunday after Christmas. During the year we continued as a team to operate the West Warrington Church Befriending Scheme, offering a valuable listening ear to all in our local community who wanted it, with volunteers from our churches. Just before Christmas, we reviewed the Scheme and decided that with falling numbers of volunteers, it was the right time to stop this. However, I would like to place on record again my thanks to Heather Copperwheat from St. Philip’s who administered the scheme and all those from our churches who gave up their time to be part of this valuable outreach. 8 As well as the bi-weekly meetings of the core team of clergy, ordinand and local missional leaders, the Team Fund Committee continued to meet on a termly basis to consider how we use the team funds available to us. During 2021, we supported applications from St. James for their Easter outreach, from St. Mary’s for their autumn Alpha course, from St. Paul’s for their Light Party at Halloween, from St. Philip’s for their Muddy Church, and from St. Mary’s and St. Paul’s for a youth worker to be shared with Youth for Christ. We also agreed once again to offer churches a grant of half their usual team clergy expenses for 2022 (in view of the challenging financial situation we continued to face), and so St. Mary’s and St. James were offered £2,000 each, and St. Pauls’ and St. Philip’s £1,000 each (since they share Sarah as their Vicar). I am very grateful to Rosie Cox who kindly agreed to deal with the Team accounts for 2021 and who also dealt with the clergy expenses reconciliation exercise. The good news to report this year, on the financial front, is that we appointed John Harrop as our team treasurer in the autumn, and so he will be taking on responsibility for these matters in the future – thank you John. As we look to continue building back as team churches in 2022, I want to share with you our new team bible verse for the year from 1 Philippians chapter 3 verses 13b-14: **Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.** As I said in my recent team Rector’s letter, it is not that we should, or can, forget the hurts and the pains of these past two years of Covid, but rather we felt that as a core team we didn’t want to be held back by them as we seek to move forward into the future under God’s direction and guidance. One of the things we shall be doing this year is restarting the Team Growing Leaders course in May, both in person and online, as well as continuing to offer opportunities to worship together as a team throughout the year. It may be there are other ways we can join together in ministry and mission this year as well. Finally, I would like to thank my clergy colleagues, Revds. Martin Thorpe and Sarah Peppiatt, the Local Missional Leaders Marise Seville, June Dunning and Paul Smalley, the ordinand at St. James’ Rebecca Lloyd, and our retired clergy including Revds. Steve Parish and Andrew Hetherington for all their help and support in various ways across our team churches this past year. _Jeremy Tear, March 2022_ ## **Pioneer Team Vicar’s Report** It seems hard to believe that another year has gone by and what a year that has been! A further lockdown followed by the gradual easing of restrictions has meant that we now have some degree of normality back 9 into our life together as a church community. But we are still on a journey of returning to the new normal, and so I want to begin by thanking you for your patience as we do that. The effects of the past two years of lockdowns, restrictions, infections, hospital admissions and of course deaths have been massive, ground shaking if you like, for us and for our world. Having a faith in Jesus, who as the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, is ‘the same, yesterday, today and forever’ has, I have found, been a great comfort and source of stability, as I hope it has been for you. Given the pandemic, online worship (and meetings), have once again been a key feature of this past year. I am so grateful that we have had Zoom for this! Numbers on Zoom remained strong during the third lockdown, and there is still a smaller group who are currently engaging in worship this way. The return to in-person worship during Holy Week was a source of great joy, and relief, to me, and it has been encouraging to see the return to worship of many of our congregation since. Indeed, it is great to note that numbers in church are now back to what they were prepandemic, aided by a very welcome influx of new members from the Hong Kong community. During the year, fundraising and finance were two of the big themes. We held a very well attended late Summer and Christmas Fair, and I am grateful to all who contributed in any way, including Sarah Lavelle and Clare Archibald who masterminded these for us. We also had a very successful Gift Day last Easter, raising over £11,000 (including Gift Aid) which enables us to deal with some of the financial challenges of the pandemic. I am very grateful to all who contributed. We also saw some real spiritual growth emerging out of the Growing in Faith, Talking Jesus and Alpha courses we have run this past year and it was wonderful to see four of our newer members (Kathryn Hayward, John Taylor, Julie Shaw, and Jane Hampton) being confirmed by Paul Bayes, the recently retired Bishop of Liverpool, last October. It was also a great sadness to see Kathryn and Phil Hayward leave our fellowship to move over to the east side of the town, where they are now contributing to the life of a different church. We said farewell also to Jack Lloyd, a sterling member of our gardening team and member of our 8 o’clock congregation, who died in August. 2021 also saw some changes in terms of our baptism and funeral coordinators, with Jean Morris and Ella Finnegan steeping down from their roles after 18 months of excellent service. It has been great to have Sue Chinn and Margaret Emsley take over from them, and I remain grateful to them and to Jane Hampton for her ongoing work with funerals and interments. 10 Building wise, we also finally agreed as a PCC on plans for the extension and our faculty has been submitted and we are awaiting the outcome of the DAC meeting at the end of March as I write. Obtaining the relevant permissions from the diocese and the council is likely to take some time however, but I am hopeful that we may be able to receive these by the end of this year and start work soon afterwards. We are also hoping to start work soon on the quinquennial works needed to the building, and to have the new chairs (and tables) installed, thanks to the generosity of the Co-op. Finally, I would like to thank Lynn Parish who has continued to do a sterling job as our sole Warden since April 2020, ably supported by Ian Knight and Kate Forrest as Assistant Wardens. Thanks also to our PCC members and in particular to Julie Shaw, who has taken on the role of treasurer. If you would like to serve as Churchwarden, on the PCC or Deanery Synod, do let me know as elections will be due at our APCM this year on Sunday 8 May. Finally, my thanks to our clergy – Martin, Sarah, and Steve for all their help this past year - and to each and every one of you for the countless number of ways in which you have contributed to St. Mary’s through your giving, service, and prayer. _Jeremy Tear, March 2022_ ## **Church Warden’s Report** We have had another year with the pandemic and restrictions meant that our PCC has had to have regard for government and Church of England guidelines. Our church has been kept open and has kept people attending services keeping people as safe as possible. Wearing masks when moving in and around the church and when singing. Risk assessments were made and updated when necessary. The church voted to change the current chairs and we applied for a faculty to change the heavy red chairs for lighter ones. Much thanks to those members who kept in touch with church contacts by email, phone or safe face to face to help keep spirits up; gardens and church building have been kept in good order. My thanks to Jeremy for his continuing support and to Ian and Kate who have assisted in helping me as sole Churchwarden. _Lynn Parish, Church Warden_ ## **Treasurer’s Report** 11 This is a Summary Report of the church’s financial position as of 31[st] December 2021 ## **1.Overall Balance and Fund balance details** The overall balance of Church funds amounts to £220,574 which is (£103) less than the 2020 balance. These balances are split over several different bank accounts held by St Mary’s. They represent several different funds set aside for the Church’s operation. **1a) Church Hall Fund** (Designated Fund) balance £183,718 which is an increase on 2020 of £355 due to Interest earned on the Charity Bank and the Nationwide accounts. **1b) Building & Restoration & Roof Funds** (Restricted Funds) balance £1276 with a reduction of £8908 based on £11,283 payments to GAC and Shafer for Organ Chamber & Roof work carried out in 2020. We received in £2,290 Vat refund on the invoices paid and £85 in donations. **1c) Co Op for Chairs** (Restricted Fund) balance £8,579 we have transferred £4,639 into this fund from the Postbox, Community Lunch, Magazine, Defib to cover the cost of the chairs to be purchased in 2022. **1d) General Fund** (Unrestricted Fund) pays for the normal running costs of the church. The balance is £10,169 which is £5,100 higher than 2020 even allowing for a negative Team Fund expense of £4,219 **1e) Tithing** (Restricted Fund) balance of £6392 which is £438 higher than 2020.We have paid out £4,809 in charitable donations (listed below) and received income of £5247. Charitable donations have been made this year to: Locally: Youth for Christ, Church Army, Bethany Church International and others: Church Missionary Society, Church Army, Leprosy Mission. **1f) Garden and Flower Funds** (Restricted Funds) The Garden fund balance is £278 which is £212 less than 2020 which is made up income and expenditure during the year. The Flower fund balance is £232 which is £61 less than 2020 again due to income and expenditure during the year. **1g) Other Restricted & Designated** – Designated balance £7,883 Restricted balance £2,047 ## **2. Parish Share** The Parish Share is an amount payable to the Diocese as a contribution to the overall running costs to all Churches in the Diocese. 12 The monthly payment due from St Mary’s was £5,414. per month but an agreement was reached by the PCC for us to repay £4,000 per month for 11 months and £6,000 for 1 month totaling £50k (for 2021). At the end of the previous year, we owed £39,600 Parish Share. Our 2021 contribution of £64,973 was added to this balance. This has now been reduced by a Legacy of £25k and the agreed reduced payments for 2021. This leaves a current amount owing to the Diocese of £26,724. ## **3. Income** The income for the year amounted to £118,571 which included £25k Legacy. Last year in 2020 our income fell by £19,000 due to the Covid Epidemic. In 2021 we recovered to our normal level of income due to the Pledge Weekend and income from the increased number of Church services and Hall rental. ## **4. Expenditure** Our major expenditure during the year included the increased Parish Share payments and the building work that was deferred from 2020 (£12k). The rest is the general running costs of the church, church maintenance, fire and burglar alarms, utilities and staff costs. ## **5. Support** I would like to thank all the staff at St Mary’s who continue to support the Church and myself with day to day running, services and financial information. This report has been prepared in a slightly different format to previous years which is due to the changeover in Treasurers and different working methods. The figures have been rounded and detailed figures can be found in the Church’s full year end accounts (2021). The Parish share balance owed is a note to the accounts and not on the reports. _Julie Shaw, St Mary’s Treasurer_ ## **– Planned Giving Report Gift Aid Envelopes** This report excludes giving and tax recovery made through The Parish Giving Scheme and by direct payments to the Church general bank account. During 2021 the Covid-19 pandemic continued to cause disruption to church services and restricted church attendance. This contributed to a continued reduction in the amount donated through gift aid envelopes and loose cash donation compared to earlier years. 13 The total donated via gift aid envelopes in 2021 was £5,874 (£8,447 in 2020). The amount of gift aid tax recoverable on these donations is expected to be around £2,020 subject to HMRC approval. A further £1,440 was given by regular envelopes donors not eligible for tax relief (£1,233 in 2021). The government continues to provide limited tax recovery on small individual cash donations of up to £30 – subject to a maximum reclaim of £2,000 – via the Gift Aid Small Donation Scheme (GASDS). The amount of such cash donations in 2021 was £5,289 (2020 £3,805) resulting in a potential tax reclaim of £1,322. If anyone would like any information regarding their eligibility to gift aid their donations, or on donations generally, please see me in church or telephone me on 07955 126429. _Terry Finnegan, Gift Aid Coordinator_ ## **Electoral Roll Report for St Mary’s Parish Church** Over the past year, 5 people have been added to the Electoral Roll and 1 person has been removed. The total number of people currently on the **R** oll stands at 104. _Jean Lawrence, Electoral Roll Officer_ ## **Safer Recruitment and Safeguarding Report** We continue as a Church community and PCC to follow the Diocese safer recruiting and safeguarding guidelines and aim to ensure all volunteers and employees in our community go through the relevant checks for recruitment. This year we have renewed our safeguarding process in line with the new safeguarding training guidelines and 10 people have renewed their training using both basic and where required foundation courses. We continue to ensure our volunteers receive a DBS check where required and are currently undergoing 2 check processes and have already renewed 7 DBS since the last report. We will continue to recruit in this way and pledge to keep up to date records at all times. Over the last year, no safeguarding issues for the church have been brought to my attention. 14 _Clare Grimes, DBS Verifier and Safeguarding Officer_ ## **St. Mary’s Sunday School Lightnings Report** The year from April 2021 to April 2022 has continued to be dominated by the effects of the Covid pandemic. In April 2021, Clare Grimes, Jane Pearson and I, supported by Nicola Asprey and David Scarisbrick continued to hold Zoom sessions on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sundays of the month. As previously, we had a small group of regular attendees. We also continued to post each lesson on Facebook, including pictures of the lovely craft work completed after the session. This pattern continued until October. As Christmas approached and restrictions were lifted a little, we planned to produce a simple nativity performance. The children came to church and rehearsed their parts. However, just before the planned performance, several of the children and adults contracted Covid and unfortunately the children’s nativity could not take place. This was a huge disappointment for all. We were also sad to see Nicola Asprey step down as helper. We are very grateful for all the help we received from Nicola and wish her well. We have attempted to cover three Sundays per month in the new 2022 rota, recognising that with less leaders and helpers, this may not always be possible, In January, Jane sent an email to all families announcing that Lightnings was going to be restarting in Church. Some adjustments were made in light of the circumstances. Children would now sit at the back of church in a couple of reserved rows and leave for the family room after the first hymn. All leaders and helpers would take a lateral flow test the evening before the service. We also limited numbers to twelve people in the family room. Jane also outlined plans to give the children an opportunity to do a performance on Mothering Sunday, to make up for the disappointment of the cancelled nativity. Sessions resumed on January 9th. It was good to be back in church, however the number of children attending was very low. At our scheduled meeting in February, we discussed how we might encourage families back to church. Each leader contacted three families directly, to inform them of the plans for the Mothering Day service. We had a great response and welcomed eight children to Lightnings the following Sunday. We made Mother’s Day cards and “Thank You” jars. We were delighted that seven children read poems and showed their crafts on Mothering Sunday. The congregation were very appreciative of the children’s efforts. 15 We look forward in 2022 to the continued growth of Lightnings at St Mary’s. We would like to pray for all the children within the West Warrington Team and wish them well on their journey through faith. _Jean Lawrence_ ## **Report for Great Sankey Primary and Barrow Hall Primary Schools** ## School Services Christmas 2021 Two services were held for Great Sankey Primary school and two for Barrow Hall Primary School on 14th and 16th December respectively. In the region of four hundred children, teachers and assistants attended to hear the story of the Nativity. Once again, a great group of lay church members worked hard together to bring the ‘Word’ to children. Before leaving each child was given a drink of fruit juice or water. Feedback from both schools was very good. ## _George Jones_ ## **Report for Kids Planet Nursery and Park Road Primary School** in 2021, I provided bible stories for the nursery on Zoom and reverted to giving these in person later in the year. The nursery dropped off goods to church for the foodbank at Harvest time. They were due to come to church for their Christmas singalongs but the rise of the Omicron variant put paid to that. I did however go to provide a Christmas story outdoors in their garden as part of their singalong there. I gave an online assembly for Park Road Primary at Easter however despite offering further assemblies, I have had no contact from the school since. I am hoping that this may be re-established this year. In the meantime, I have been asked by Great Sankey High to lead their annual service of remembrance for former students and staff in March. ## _Jeremy Tear_ 16 ## **Open House Report** Open House, which is our weekly drop in on Wednesdays open to all in our community for a cuppa and a chat has not restarted this past year due to the ongoing lockdowns and subsequent restrictions. The Open House team did have a meeting at the end of August and we agreed to revisit the possibility of restarting in the spring of 2022. If we do restart, we will need more people on the team. Do let me know if you would be interested in helping out on a monthly rota basis ## _Jeremy Tear_ ## **Deanery Synod Report** Deanery Synod met three times during 2021 – by Zoom on 20[th] January and 21[st] April and at St Elphin’s on 13[th] October. A summary of the key areas covered is given below. ## **1. Warrington Collective** Church Collective (previously called Transform North West) is planting small, organic communities around the town centre, engaging in the local community, worshipping creatively, loving generously and serving locally. Active groups are based in Howley, Orford Park, hopefully shortly online, in the University of Chester campus in the town centre, and also a Youth Collective. Prayer from across the Deanery would be appreciated, especially for the newly appointed leaders, Simon Renison and Heather Haddow ## **2. Parish Share** This continues to be a concern for individual churches, especially as the Deanery is to be largely responsible for how it is apportioned and spent in the future. For now, we continue with our original formula, but we can expect change and some difficult discussions going forward. National Church has provided some financial support via a Parish Share Credit Scheme during the pandemic, and the final round of this is due to be released shortly. Our Diocese has put in requests for some of this funding, which is a gift. ## **3. Deanery Mission Planning Framework** Closely associated with planning for changes in Parish Share, the DMPF is a detailed self-assessment tool from which three key areas for future work have arisen. i) Resourcing growth and prayer to reverse decline ii) Paying our way with parish share without transitional relief. iii) Supporting the Transform project 17 - iv) In response to the first of these, the Deanery has now enrolled in the Diocese-promoted Leading your Church into Growth scheme which, it is hoped, will produce new leaders across all forms of mission across the Deanery ## **4. Fit for Mission** Supported by funding from national church, Fit for Mission works on ways of introducing people to Jesus, deepening discipleship, devoting Christian leaders and working for justice. It aims to reduce the burden on individual parishes by providing funding for specialist help over a wide range of functions, eg finance, building oversight, thus releasing more committed lay people to get directly involved in mission. There is currently pilot scheme in Wigan that would be used as a template for work in Warrington to start in 2022-3. ## **5. Living in Love and Faith** All churches in the deanery were encouraged to take part in a national consultation about issues of sexuality, gender and relationships. The scheme included a number of face to face and online meetings, following a course designed by the national church. It helped participants explore their own attitudes and to look at their churches and how they welcome all into their number. _Jeremy Tear_ ## **10th Warrington (Sankey St Mary’s) Scout Group Report** The on-going covid restrictions in 2021 meant that a lot of our activities needed to be outside as our hut is not large enough to maintain social distance between 40 scouts. This is no bad thing however when it comes to scouting and the leaders adapted their programme to suit. Some stand-out activities during the year were the cubs and scouts both trying out climbing at North West Face, scouts water-based fun at Wild Shore Delamere, and with added mud at Manley Mere, cubs night walk around Walton, cubs and scouts Christmas parties at Gravity trampoline centre, and our AGM held on Zoom again. Highlight of the year was our full group camp in September at Sandiway where we had well over 100 people camping for the weekend or visiting for the day as a Beaver. A really great team effort and a fantastic reintroduction to scout camping after the enforced break. We also once again held our group awards evening in October, celebrating all of the successes and achievements of young people throughout the year. 18 The number of young people in the group has continued to grow again last year. At this moment, we have around 95 on our roll. This is definitely down to the varied and engaging programme of activities that the leaders deliver week-in week-out. Our scouts spent some time helping to tidy the cemetery in preparation for Remembrance day. The group also refreshed the poppy pebbles that we first did in 2020. On the day we had a great turnout from our Group which is good to see the importance our community places on this annual event. We made great progress last year with the project to replace our worn-out kitchen and toilet block. Demolition of the old structure was completed on a sunny day in April. There was some difficulty finding a builder due to the post-pandemic surge in demand. Construction started in July and we had a water-tight building by January this year. Things have not gone as smoothly as we would have hoped with building regulations being more onerous than we envisaged and difficulties in sourcing some materials. The building is already in use but we hope to have it completely finished in time for our AGM in June. It was great recently to finally get back to attending the monthly All-age services now that rules allow. We will look to build our numbers in attendance and get more involved in the proceedings for the benefit of our young people. Unfortunately, last year our spring bedding plant sale was not able to go ahead. However, it is back for 2022 so watch out for the publicity and support us if you can. Lastly, if you know any young people who are interested in joining scouts, or anyone who would be interested in helping us, please put them in touch and we will be happy to have a chat. _Ian Skilling, Group Scout Leader_ ## **Girlguiding Report** We have as an organisation only met face to face from September 2021 when girlguiding guidance restricted meetings. Keeping units across our Sankey District has been a challenge, hand delivering packs to unit members or using Zoom sessions for those able. We have Rainbow, Brownies, Guides and Rangers. St Mary’s Rainbows, Brownies and Guides Units are still operating although we are hoping to start again when guidance changes. 19 Some units have changed hands as leaders have retired but all units are active albeit with changes to face to face meetings and risk assessed. Numbers dropped throughout last year due to no face to face but we are beginning to see numbers increase again which is encouraging. For example, our St Mary’s 35[th] Rainbow Unit has seen a steady 70% increase in new girls since September 2021. _Lynn Parish_ ## **St. Mary’s Community Lunch Report** Since the start of COVID we have not restarted the monthly lunch. We have had several meetings with a small number of volunteers and it was decided we will try and start the lunch again, the second Monday or Tuesday in May. To make this happen we need more people to commit to it. I hope the congregation will seriously think about this. _Carole Rafter, a member of the team_ ## **Alpha/Growing in Faith** Despite another year of lockdown and restrictions, we managed to run three courses exploring faith at St. Mary’s this past year. In early 2021, we ran our second ‘Growing in Faith’ course online. This built on Alpha and we used material from the Church of England Pilgrim course, exploring what faith looks like in terms of our prayer, giving, time at home and at work, our relationships, justice and the environment. In the summer of 2021, we ran our first ever ‘Talking Jesus’ course. Talking Jesus is a course produced by the Church of England, the Hope charity and Kingsway Community Church, designed to help get Christians talking about their faith. It ran for 6 weeks and proved helpful in enabling us to think about how we ‘gossip the gospel’ in our everyday lives Then in the autumn of 2021 and spring 2022, we held another in-person Alpha course at church, which consisted of 10 people plus Joan Rotheram, John Taylor and myself as co-leaders (ably assisted by Gaynor Smith who helped with serving food and doing the washing up!). It was good to be meeting in person again and it was humbling to see how God was at work in people’s lives over the duration of the course, including another Away Day at St. Joseph’s prayer centre in Formby. It's worth saying that 4 people who have completed our Alpha and Growing in Faith courses were confirmed by Bishop Paul at St. Mary’s on Sunday 17 October, namely Kathryn Hayward, John Taylor, Julie Shaw and Jane Hampton. 20 If you would be interested in attending the Alpha/Growing in Faith/Talking Jesus courses, do have a word with me. It’s always good to explore your faith, grow in it and have the confidence to share that with others (and it’s never too late to be confirmed!) _Jeremy Tear_ ## **Music Group** We met in church to practice singing from September 2021 and then onwards restrictions meant we sing with masks on. We now have live music rather than YouTube and Glyn playing keyboard. We have welcomed two new young oboists to our group which has made a great difference to the sound which has been appreciated by church members. _Lynn Parish_ 21 ## **Traidcraft** Traidcraft goods have been accessible using the catalogue, advertised in our bimonthly church magazine and through pre-ordering Easter eggs and Advent calendars. The restrictions have reduced the orders. St Mary’s uses Fairtrade tea bags and instant coffee, although we have not been able to offer refreshments. We hope that we can start again with refreshments in the week and after services. Following Fairtrade fortnight March 2022 Traidcraft goods are now on sale at the back for everyone to access. ## _Lynn Parish_ ## **Church Mission Society (CMS)** As a church, we support Eric and Sandra Reed, who are our CMS mission partners in the Philippines. They work on an organic farm and help local church leaders to reach out to their communities by both words and deeds. They have two children, Peter and Atiyyah, who are studying in this country. Last year we agreed to give £2,000 to support the Reeds from our tithing fund. It was great to be able to welcome Eric and Sandra to share with us during our recent All Age Service in March this year, whilst they were on leave, and to hear what life has been like for them during the challenges of the coronavirus crisis. We are looking for a new CMS representative to champion its work in our congregation, so if you would be interested in doing this, please let me know _Jeremy Tear_ ## **Church Army Report** In September we had a visit from Cherith Withington , the Church Army Evangelist, based at The Liverpool Centre of Mission at Norris Green . She talked about how she is involved there and showed slides and video. At the Church Fair two weeks later I had a stall and raised £ 135 for the Liverpool Centre. Every two months Church Army send their Prayer diary/ Catalyst booklet and I distribute them to twelve members of the congregation. Many thanks to all who support the Church Army through prayer and donations. _Janet Kerswell_ 22 ## **The Leprosy Mission** In February we had a speaker from The Leprosy Mission, Marilyn Gregory, who gave an inspiring talk about the mission and its work helping with research, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare for those suffering with leprosy. She also spoke about the need to support the rebuilding of laboratories at Anandaban Hospital in Nepal, which carries out vital research. As a result of this information The Leprosy Mission received £600 as a donation. Our church giving fund also supports TLM on an annual basis plus four people have TLM boxes. Twelve people take the TLM New Day magazine, and the same number receive the annual prayer diary. Many thanks to all who support the Leprosy Mission through prayer and donations. _Janet Kerswell_ ## **PCC Secretary’s Report** There were 10 PCC meetings held during another unusual year. The 20[th] January, 23[rd] February, 17[th] March, 19[th] May and 17[th] November meetings were held on Zoom, with the 25[th] April meeting (after the APCM) in the Church. The 16[th] June, 24[th] July (Away Day), 15[th] September, 21[st] October meetings were also held in Church. There were no meetings planned in August and December. The APCM was held on 25[th] April. The Church Forum also met on 11[th] July in the Church. The PCC reviewed the minutes from each of the seven Standing Committee meetings, which were held on 4[th] January, 13[th] January, 1[st] March, 11[th] May, 19[th] July, 7[th] September and 3[rd] November. The Giving Group usually meets twice a year and this year it met on 24[th] February (on Skype) and 19[th] July (in Church), with its recommendations reviewed at the following PCC meeting. As well as general church business, some items of PCC focus this year have been the replacement of the current wooden chairs, vision and strategy, Covid measures, the Quinquennial building report, the Parish Review Meeting with Archdeacon Simon in October, the level of Parish Share we can pay in the future and the plans for an extension. 23 _Fiona Barnard, PCC Secretary_ ## **The Children's Society Report** The Children’s Society are a charity that help vulnerable and needy children, many in our local area. One of their traditional ways of collection is to give people ‘House Boxes’, small sealed money boxes that people can place loose change in throughout the year. These are collected in the summer and administered by local coordinators. Due to Covid 19, the Children’s Society house boxes were not collected for 2 years. This year’s collection raised a fantastic £1316.41. Many thanks to all box holders and donors for their ongoing support for this very worthy cause. After many years of great organisation, John and Ros Lawrie handed over to John and Claire Taylor, thanks to them for all they have done! The Christingle collections, over both Services, raised a total of £248.57. Some people donated directly through the Society website and their system did not allow us to audit the amount given, due to it all going into the central Christingle pot. They are changing this for 2022. Thanks to all who contributed so generously. This brings the total amount donated to the Children's Society from St. Mary's Church in 2021 to £1564.98. In the summer, we will be offering House Boxes for 2022-23, please consider being part of this wonderful charity. _John and Claire Taylor_ ## **Magazine Report** I am pleased to report that our Church Magazine continues to be produced bi-monthly due to the hard work and expertise of our Editor Jo Jackson. Thank you, Jo, for your efforts which are very much appreciated. The magazine covers most of the events and occasions in church and as a result we know what to look forward to and we also have a permanent record to be able to look back on. The magazine is well planned and is interesting to read. The reproduction of the photographs continues to improve, and we are thankful to Emma Thompson from the Sankey Valley Methodist Circuit for the printing and stapling of the magazines. We also have a new Advertiser which helps with our cash flow. 24 Thanks also to Sue Gibbons and Clive Stannard who with Jo continue to distribute magazines and collect the cash or cheques. All the monies collected is forwarded to Julie Shaw our Church Treasurer. On behalf of our Editor, I would encourage our church members to subscribe to the magazine by way of articles or anything which may be of interest to our readers and also to purchase one. 90 magazines were produced in December 21. The Magazine Fund at 31st December 2021 is as follows: Opening Balance **£1601.18** Income **£601.00** (From sale of magazines and income from Advertisers) Outgoing (Printing) **£ 300.44** Closing Balance 2021 **£1901.74** This shows a surplus of **£300.56p** which has gone to Church Funds. Agreement has been reached for **£840.00p** to be taken from the Magazine Fund for the Tree Pollarding and **£365.00** for the increase in the cost of the new chairs. ## _Eric McGonagle, Magazine Treasurer_ . ## **Eco Church Report** Eco Church is a project which has a vision for churches of all denominations to care for creation as an integral part of loving their neighbours and following God faithfully. To participate in the project we, as a church, are required to complete a questionnaire which has 94 questions divided into 5 categories Worship and Teaching: which asks questions such as: Does our church pray for environmental issues? And, if so, how often? Buildings: questions in this section include Is the energy we use generated from renewable resources? Do we use energy saving or LED light bulbs? Do we have cycle racks and recycling facilities? Land: Do we manage our land to encourage native wildlife? ## Community and Global Engagement: Do we participate in campaigns concerning global environmental issues? 25 Do meals provided by the church use food that is grown locally and/or organic and/or uses Fair trade ingredients? ## Lifestyle: Do we encourage a reduction in the use of cars and are our church funds invested ethically? Progress has been made towards completing the questionnaire and it seems very likely that currently we will be eligible for a Bronze award. But even without that as an incentive to encourage us, it is vital that we regard completing the questionnaire as the first step on our journey. Wherever possible we need to ensure the practices we follow in respect of the physical assets we have – our building and our land – are environmentally friendly. We also need to make sure our behaviours in respect of our worship, our community and global engagement and our lifestyle as a church reflect our responsibility to care for God’s creation. So, once we have submitted our application for an award, our next step will be to develop an improvement plan. _Margaret Emsley, a member of the Eco Church Team_ 26 ## **St Marys PCC Great Sankey** ## **Statement of Financial Activities** ## **For the period from 01 January 2021 to 31 December 2021** ||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Endowment**|**Total**|**Prior year**| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**funds**|**funds**|**funds**|**funds**|**total funds**| |**_Receipts_**|||||| |Planned giving|24,754|—|—|24,754|32,590| |Collections and other giving|22,497|—|—|22,497|9,859| |Other voluntary receipts|33,106|6,670|—|39,777|3,532| |Gift Aid recovered|8,373|—|—|8,373|9,507| |Other receipts|4,086|2,290|—|6,376|1,111| |Activities for generating funds|3,825|—|—|3,825|376| |Investment Income|385|—|—|385|1,920| |Receipts from church activities|12,580|—|—|12,580|15,679| |**Total income**|**109,610**|**8,960**|**—**|**118,570**|**74,577**| |**_Payments_**|||||| |Cost of generating funds|1,806|—|—|1,806|123| |Missionary and Charitable Giving|183|4,996|—|5,179|7,100| |Parish Share|73,000|—|—|73,000|32,579| |Clergy and Staffing costs|7,464|—|—|7,464|10,591| |Church Running Expenses|10,185|356|—|10,542|13,322| |Church Repairs & Maintenance|—|14,975|—|14,975|457| |New Building work|—|—|—|—|4,353| |Governance Costs|5,706|—|—|5,706|3,940| |**Total expenditure**|**98,345**|**20,328**|**—**|**118,674**|**72,468**| |**Net income / (expenditure) resources before transfer**|**11,264**|**(11,368)**|**—**|**(103)**|**2,109**| ||||||| |**_Transfers_**|||||| |Gross transfers between funds - in|—|9,968|—|9,968|28,669| |Gross transfers between funds - out|(6,867)|(3,101)|—|(9,968)|(28,669)| |**_Other recognised gains / losses_**|||||| |**Net movement in funds**|**4,397**|**(4,500)**|**—**|**(103)**|**2,109**| |**_Reconciliation of funds_**|||||| |**Total funds brought forward**|**197,301**|**23,376**|**—**|**220,678**|**218,569**| |**Total funds carried forward**|**201,698**|**18,875**|**—**|**220,574**|**220,678**| _**There may be minor discrepancies in the totals if the pence are not being shown**_ 14 March 2022 Page 1 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the truste￿1 members of St Marys PCC Great Sankey On accounts for the year ended 31" De￿mber 2021 Charity no (if any) 1180928 Set out on pages I rèport to the trusteès on my examination of the accounts of the abov8 charity ('the Trust") for the year ended 31112 12021. Responslbllitles and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ltthe Acv). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts Carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145151(bl of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confim that no material matters have come to my attention (other than thal disclosed below ') in connection with the examination which gives me caus8 to believe thal in, any material respect.. accounting records wer8 not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independ8nt examinerfs statement I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order lo enable proper understanding of Ihe accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Slgnod: Date: li) LZ Name: Paul Carty Relevant professional qualifi¢ation(s) or body (if any): Association of Accounting Te¢hniGians Address: 234 Manchester Road WarrIn￿On WA13BD IER October 2018 Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs lo highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. direclions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief detalls of any items that the examiner wishès to disclose. IER October 2018