St. Thomas’ Church, Crosscrake
Aim and purposes
St. Thomas’ Parochial Church Council (PCC) has the responsibility of cooperating with the Associate Vicar, the Reverend Terry Wilcock, in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical.
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 Crosscrake. The PCC maintains an overview of worship throughout the parish and makes suggestions on how our services can involve the many groups that live within our parish. Our services and worship put faith into practice through prayer and scripture, music and sacrament.
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 Crosscrake Church. We are currently pursuing a project to build a hall in the grounds of the church as a hub for the community in the absence of any hall in the village of Crosscrake.
Achievements and Performance
Worship and Prayer
Each Sunday the main service is Holy Communion which is adapted on the first Sunday of the month to be combined with an All Age Worship service which also gives the opportunity of including a baptism. Usually on the third Sunday of the month, for children aged tots to teens a Sunday Club Discovering Jesus is held simultaneously with the main service of Holy Communion. Other groups meet monthly in church including Teddy Thomas’ Tots and the Mother’s Union.
All are welcome to attend our regular services. At present there are 78 parishioners on the Church Electoral Roll, 7 of whom are not resident within the parish. Three names were added during the year and 5 were removed either through death or because they moved away form the parish. When
we could not meet in church because of Covid a service was recorded each week which was vital to help people to keep in touch at home. Now that we are back to worshipping in church numbers are slowly increasing to where they were pre-Covid. The average weekly attendance is building back up to 40 with much higher numbers attending on special occasions such as Easter and Christmas and for Harvest Festival.
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 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 celebrated 5 baptisms and 3 weddings and held 8 funerals in our church 2021-2.
Deanery Synod
One member of the PCC sits on the deanery synod. This provides the PCC with an important link between the parish and the wider structure of the Church. A key issue for parishes in the deanery is the most effective deployment of stipendiary and non-stipendiary clergy.
The Church Building
We keep our church open to our community for private prayer and the main door operates on a timer allowing the building to remain open during the daylight hours. A major refurbishment including a kitchen was completed ten years ago and the building remains in a good state. However storm damage last autumn led to damage to the roof and the organ not all of which was covered by the insurance.
Pastoral Care
The kitchen allows us to serve coffee after service and also to hold coffee mornings for charitable causes. During Lent, Covid permitting, we hold weekly lunches in the parish hall in Sedgwick, a mile away. To celebrate the New Year or the Harvest Festival a meal has been arranged in the local pub.
From time to time members of the parish may be unable to attend church due to sickness or age. Rev. Terry Wilcock has visited all church members who have requested it, to celebrate communion with them either at their homes or in hospital.
Mission and Evangelism
Helping those in need is a demonstration of our faith. Funds are raised and distributed to support a variety of good causes the Children’s Society, Christian Aid and the Bishop’s Appeal and locally Manna House and St. Thomas Community Connections.
Our parish magazine is produced monthly and is available in the Church as well as being distributed to subscribers. In addition Christmas and Easter
cards are distributed to every household in the parish giving details of the special services around each festival.
Financial Review
Total receipts on unrestricted funds were £30 756 in 2021. The fall in income of almost £2 000 compared with 2020 was mainly due to our not being able to hold fund-raising events like a spring Plant Sale and the Christmas market because of Covid restrictions.
£20 831 was spent to provide the Christian ministry from St. Thomas’ Church, including the contribution to the diocesan parish share.
The net result for the year was an excess of payments over receipts of £1 736. The balances of unrestricted funds carried forward at 31 December 2021 was £21 439. In addition there is a separate account, the Hub account, which has the money we have started to raise for the church hall project.
Reserves Policy
It is PCC policy to try and give 10% of our income from planned giving and collections in grants or charitable giving. This has been achieved in recent years but not in 2021 because of limited opportunities to stage fund0raising events due to Covid.
The Virgin Money account was opened following a generous legacy for use for any unexpected expenditure particularly in connection with maintenance of the church building.
Volunteers
We would like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard to make our Church the lively and caring community it is. In particular we want to mention our churchwardens, Mike Critchlow and Marlene Little, who work so tirelessly on our behalf.
Structure, governance and management
At Crosscrake Church the membership of the PCC consists of our Associate Vicar, churchwardens 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 PCC met six times during the year with an average level of attendance of 85%.
The full PCC met six times during the year with an average level of attendance of 85%.
Administrative information
St. Thomas Church is situated in Crosscrake, near Kendal. It is part of the Diocese of Carlisle within the Church of England. The correspondence address is:
4 Abbey Drive, Natland, Kendal, LA9 7QN
PCC members who have served from 8[th] May 2022 until the date this report was approved are:
Ex Officio members Associate Priest: The Reverend TerryWilcock Wardens: Mr Michael Critchlow Mrs Marlene Little Elected members: Mr Alan Frostick Treasurer - 2024 Mrs Gill Frostick Representative on Deanery Synod until 2023 Mr John Fisher Secretary until 2023 Mr Robert Cowley until 2024 Mrs Brenda Richardson until 2024 Mrs Michelle O’Hara until 2023 Mrs Julie Blackburn until 2023 Mrs Kathryn Pym until 2025 Mrs Elizabeth Ward until 2025 Mr Daniel Mason until 2025