## ANNUAL REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020 TO AUGUST 2021 ## BARTON AND BRIGG CIRCUIT ## **Trustees Annual Report for the year ended 31[st] August 2021** ## **Objectives and Activities** Barton and Brigg Methodist Circuit (Circuit) exists to advance the mission of the Methodist Church throughout the Circuit by providing support for the ten churches in line with the Connexional priorities. The Circuit comprises of 10 local Methodist churches served by a ministerial team of some 3 ordained ministers plus a number of part time active retired ministers, lay workers and volunteers. The Circuit was led by an Acting Superintendent Minister assisted by Superintendent Ministers from the 3 neighbouring Circuits of Grimsby and Cleethorpes and Wolds and Trent, Scunthorpe and Epworth plus a Deacon. The Circuit Meeting, which met 4 times during the year, sets the policy for the Circuit, serving as a link between the Lincolnshire Methodist District, the Methodist Conference and the Connexional team on the one hand and the local churches on the other. It has oversight of all Circuit affairs, formulating and promoting policies, through its various officers and committees to assist the mission of the Church, to give inspiration to the leaders in the churches and to ensure the interrelation of all aspects of the Church’s life throughout the Circuit. The members of the Circuit meeting are the trustees of the charity registered with the Charity Commission. As a registered charity, the Circuit takes seriously its responsibilities to the Charity Commissioners and adheres to their guidance concerning public benefit in relation to charitable objectives. The day to day work of the Circuit is carried out by the Circuit Leadership Team, which consists of the Superintendent Minister, the Deacon, four volunteer Circuit Stewards and the Circuit Safeguarding Officer, with the additional assistance of a Circuit Administrator and Circuit Minute Secretary. ## **OUR MISSION STATEMENT** The Barton & Brigg Methodist Circuit follows ‘Our Calling’ priorities for mission. The Circuit and Circuit Leadership Team aimed to support each church in their community, and encouraged them to be a vibrant place of worship, service, learning and fellowship, and take risks for the gospel outreach. We encouraged churches to discover the needs of their communities and prayerfully consider how God calls them to respond, both inside and outside the church building, working ecumenically wherever possible. We encouraged churches to - explore new forms of worship - work with children and young people in schools, messy church, school assemblies, creative crafts - to be a ‘presence’ at community events and mark major events in the nation and locally with invitational acts of worship - support and raise awareness of the world church through justice and peace – support for mission eg All We Can, Christian Aid, Action for Children, Methodist Homes for the Aged, Methodist Ministers’ Housing Society, Food Banks, Homelessness Project. ## We did this by - strengthening and supporting our Local Preachers and Worship Leaders - finding resources that are accessible and interesting for congregations - encouraging Mission Audits, and Healthy Church Audits - enabling congregations to have a rich prayer life and spirituality, with ’Space to Be’ - Be Still, Be Silent, Be Creative; Bible Study; Local Preacher groups and monthly Circuit Prayer groups - providing opportunities for discipleship including abundant hospitality and generous giving; costly service and radical grace eg OIKOS-BRIGG which became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation during the year, and through Foodbanks in both Brigg and Barton and a Homelessness Project in Barton. We do none of this in our own strength; we rely upon the grace of God, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the example of Christ who is with each one of us in this pilgrimage of faith. ## **Achievements and Performance** The year 2020/2021 will be remembered for the Covid 19 pandemic. Churches experienced periods of closure and the cessation of all activities in person followed by a gradual return to more familiar ways of meeting and working. The Circuit responded by changing to online meetings, events and worship, and in many instances these have proved to be very fruitful, engaging greater numbers of people than would usually meet face to face. Work on conversations across the 3 Circuits of Barton & Brigg, Epworth & Scunthorpe, and Wolds & Trent which was given impetus by the curtailment of Rev Nichola Jones as superintendent for Barton & Brigg is continuing, albeit in a changed fashion due to the restrictions we find ourselves in. 2 morning sessions with stewards, local preachers and others looking at the imperative for mission and the life of the Circuits were held in December and the small oversight group working alongside Tim Peebles (consultant for this work) is looking at developing resources so that those ideas and questions might be rolled out on a wider scale to encourage both the Circuits and local churches to examine how they might be able to do to identify what their mission is in their places. The prevailing image is that of seasons; what season is your church in? Realistically for many that will be autumn or winter, but even in these seasons there is opportunity for re-seeding the ground with a new crop. That crop may be radically different to what grew before but there may still be fruitfulness to come. But, with the growth of digital church presence there are opportunities which are verymuch of spring. At a Circuit level as well as asking that same question, this work is also developing some conversation about how the Circuits can resource local mission most helpfully and, in the interest of efficiency and not re-inventing the wheel in all 3 Circuits, how we might be able to pool our efforts. This latter conversation crosses over with a request from the Chair of District for every Circuit to have conversations with neighbouring Circuits about how we work. The eye of the ‘Faithful and True’ conversations is undoubtedly on Circuit boundaries and does put the question of whether larger Circuits would make more sense. The 3 Circuit leadership teams have identified a number of areas where we may be able to create cross-Circuit teams. It is likely that people from all 3 Circuits involved in these bits of work will be invited to participate in conversations about what would make their lives easier and what might be possible. As well as existing areas of what could be seen as more functional requirements. The 3 Circuits aspect looks to stretch this model to include new areas of mission resourcing as mentioned above. Our work with young people continued during the pandemic, finding new ways to do ‘Messy Church’ and delivering ‘Open the Book’ stories via video links through you tube, as well as recorded Worship which was ‘streamed’ into classroom rather than face to face assemblies. A new Superintendent Minister has been appointed to the Circuit to commence on 1[st] September 2021 and we look forward to working with her. ## **Plans for the future** As identified in the 3Circuit discussions we will further explore the following possible Cross-Circuit Groups: (Not a definitive list) - Safer recruitment - for Circuit posts only, or also acting for chapels? - Safeguarding oversight for the Circuit safeguarding officers? - Property - overseeing schemes? - Property - helping churches review their buildings? - Finance - a team to help chapels do their accounts? - Finance - a team who can look over cash-flow/trends/budgets etc? - What other admin stuff could we streamline? - Is there newsletter/website stuff we could streamline? Co-ordinating Connexional or local news? - GDPR - Digital church - Work with young people - Work with Third Age groups - Eco-church matter Seek a Presbyter to be appointed from September 2022 to work with the churches at the South end of the Circuit. Seek volunteers to continue the work with schools that has begun and not to lose momentum for this as the Deacon responsible for the success of this leaves the Circuit in August 2022 A proposal for a 5- year appointment of a Family Outreach Worker, based in Brigg ## **Financial review** The circuit finances are in a strong position. In part due to a staffing level of one during 2020/21 and the sale of Barnetby the circuit finances had risen to £424,000. This compares with a reserves policy requiring £80,000 and requires us to think about spending that money wisely At the Circuit meeting in June 2021 a number of resolutions were proposed with the prime intention of supporting mission:- **Resolution 1:** We should retain the decision of the March 2019 Circuit Meeting to set the Circuit budget in line with financing 2 full-time members of staff from present income i.e. assessments **Resolution 2:** As churches are still recovering from the last year, we should repeat the offer to refund 50% of one quarter’s assessment during 2021/22, to those churches which request this (and intend to pay their assessments in full) **Resolution 3:** We should set a budget of £15,000 to cover supernumerary costs and this should come out of reserves. **Resolution 4:** We should reserve £50,000 of the circuit monies to fund a **loan scheme.** **Resolution 5:** We should allocate the remaining monies to be available as **grants to fund missional projects** . (The cap on these is that the Circuit funds will not go below £130,000 within the next 5- year plan: £80,000 as 6 months reserves plus the £50,000 for the loan scheme) **Resolution 6:** That we make £6,000 available to cover the extension of the Outreach Worker for the Elderly at Barton, should it be needed. **Resolution 7:** That we adopt an application process for loans/grants. All resolutions were accepted by the meeting. . ## **The Circuit has the following principal sources of Income** Assessment on Churches in the Circuit The letting of; Brigg Manse for £895 per month. Hibaldstow manse for £675 per month. Sectioii B Siateiiieiii ol assets and liabilities at the end of the period D•t•ils 1(112 4JYJ fuTrJ• funds 0•￿ D￿11¥ Za74 Ir CCXX R2 *•Jrt•lSS 1￿1r￿0 Name of Organisalion Charity Number Accounting Period Oikas4rigg 1184694 1st April 202141st March 2022 Ind•p•nd•nt Examin•r's St•t•m•nt I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have corrE lo my attention in connection with Ihe examination lolher than thal disclosed below.) which give me cause to believe that in, any maten81 respect.. the ac￿lIntIng records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act.. or the account5 do not accord wrth the accounting records. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connedion with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enabk a proper understsnding of the accounts to be reached. signatu￿ of independent examiner Name of independent examiner Jom Relevant professional qualificatKJn of independent examiner Name of firm (where appropriatel Post Code DAia SH7 Date delete or circle as appropriate Se*22