Annual report of Trustees
Aim and purposes
St. Lawrence’s Parochial Church Council (PCC) has the responsibility of cooperating with the incumbent, the Reverend Mike Saunders, 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.
Objectives and Activities
The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at our church and to become part of our parish community at St. Lawrence’s. The PCC are primarily focused on the advancement of Christianity. All regular public worship is provided free of charge and open to all.
When planning our activities for the year, the incumbent and the PCC have considered the Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. In particular, we try to enable ordinary people to live out their faith as part of our parish community through:
Worship and prayer; learning about the Gospel; and developing their knowledge and trust in Jesus.
Provision of pastoral care for people living in the parish. Missionary and outreach work.
To facilitate this work, it is important that we maintain the fabric of the Church.
Achievements and Performance
Worship and Prayer
The PCC are keen to offer a range of services during the week and over the course of the year that our community find both beneficial and spiritually fulfilling.
This year we have been successful in welcoming more families into our church and we have a worship for all service monthly along with a less formal 4 pm service every week..
In addition, a great deal of time and thought was spent during the year on making best use of the reordered building.
All are welcome to attend our regular services. At present there are 163 parishioners on the Church Electoral Roll, 21 of whom are not resident within the parish. 10 names were added during the year and 7 were removed either through death or because they moved away from the parish. The average weekly attendance, counted during October, was 100 along with about 50 people watching the 10:00 service online, but this number increased at festivals s u c h a s E a s t e r & C h r i s t m a s .
As well as our regular services, we enable our community to celebrate and thank God at the milestones of the journey through life. Through baptism we
Annual report of Trustees
thank God for the gift of life, in marriage public vows are exchanged with God’s blessing and through funeral services friends and family express their grief and give thanks for the life which is now complete in this world and to commend the person into God's keeping.
We have 5 active home groups meeting regularly in their own homes to study the bible and other aspects of our faith.
The building
We want our church to be open to our community for private prayer, as such the building is normally open from about 8.30 am to 5 pm every day.
This year we finally managed to start a £800,000 reordering project at the back of church which was completed in April 2024. This has provided 2 toilets one fully disabled accessible, A new large meeting room capable of being used to seat 40 people for a meal, two new offices / vestry or small meeting rooms upstairs, a new storeroom and kitchen. All this area is electrically heated as an environmental benefit, not only as we use “green” electricity but because heat needs only to be turned on in the areas being used. After much discussion about costs and benefits (including environmental) we have also installed a new oil boiler to replace the broken one to heat the main body of the church. The new glass doors installed early in the year help in cutting drafts and providing a warm welcome to visitors.
Pastoral Care and outreach
The n e w kitchen in the Church meets the stringent health and safety requirements and allow us to start St Lawrence’s lunches monthly in 2024.
During the rebuilding the weekly ABC (mothers & toddlers club) and baby song have continued elsewhere. We regularly get about 15 mothers and toddlers to ABC and up to 10 mothers and babies during term times. After completion of the work these clubs will return to the new hall area. During the summer we run a one week holiday club for primary age children with about 15 – 20 children attending.
Some members of our parish are unable to attend church due to sickness or age. The vicar or other member of the pastoral care team visited all church members who have requested it, to celebrate communion with them either at their homes or in hospital. Additionally, our 10 O’clock service is regularly streamed on you tube and Facebook, we get between 50 and 100 visits to these a week.
With the cooperation of land owners we organise monthly work parties planting trees and tidying up the Kennet and Avon canal which runs through Hungerford.
Mission and Evangelism
Our parish magazine, the bridge is distributed 6 times a year to all who request it. The magazine keeps people informed of the important matters affecting our Church and the town, it also has articles that help develop our knowledge and trust in Jesus.
Ecumenical Relationships
The church is a member of Churches Together in Hungerford.
Annual report of Trustees
We run an Alpha course at least once a year which has led a number of people to attend other church activities and services. We also run a bereavement course, prayer course and wedding preparation courses about once a year.
We have also worked with Hungerford churches together to deliver a flyer to every home in the town advertising the Christmas services of all churches.
Financial Review
Total receipts on unrestricted and designated funds were £155,611 of which £8,582 was investment income allocated to the designated fund set up for the reordering project. Restricted donations of £111,553 were also received and are detailed in the Financial Statements.
£103,204 was spent to provide the Christian ministry from St. Lawrence’s Church, and £299,830 on the reordering project.
The net result for the year was a deficit of receipts over payments of £149,654 this was to be expected due to the size of our building project
Reserves policy
This year we have liquidated all our investments to provide funds for the reordering and liquidity to cover payments before the receipt of grants and listed place of Worship grants to refund the VAT on the building work
Volunteers
We would like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard to make our church the lively and vibrant community it is.
Structure, governance and management
The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. At St. Lawrence’s’s the membership of the PCC consists of the incumbent (our vicar), churchwardens, the curate and lay ministers and members elected by those members of the congregation who are on the electoral roll of the church. All those who attend our services / members of the congregation are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC.
The PCC members are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to the parish including deciding on how the funds of the PCC are to be spent.
The full PCC met 10 times during the year with an average level of attendance of 80%. Given its wide responsibilities the PCC has a number of committees each dealing with a particular aspect of parish life. These committees which include worship, mission and outreach and fabric and finance, are all responsible to the PCC and report back to it regularly with minutes of their deliberations being received by the full PCC and discussed as necessary.
Accounts are attached as a pdf file.
Annual report of Trustees
Administrative information
St. Lawrence’s Church is situated in Parsonage Lane Hungerford. It is part of the Diocese of Oxford within the Church of England. The correspondence address is The Vicarage, parsonage Lane, Hungerford, RG17 0JB.
The PCC is a body corporate (PCC Powers Measure 1956, Church Representation Rules 2006) and a charity registered with the Charity Commission.
PCC members who have served from 1[s][t] January 2009 until the date this report was approved are:
Ex Officio members Incumbent: The Reverend Mike Saunder Chairman Curate: Mrs Marcia Wadham Wardens: Mr George Ham Vice chairman
Elected members: Mrs Silvia Lee, Mrs Kate Newman, Mr Jay Armstrong, Mrs Julie Turner, Mrs Rebecca Mangham, Mrs Jane Pike (treasurer), Mr Neal Pike, Mr Henry Jefferies and Mrs Nour Fayad (secretary).
HUNGERFORD PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023
HUNGERFORD PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023