Report on the year ending 31[st] December 2025 for the Parochial Church Council of
Shrivenham with Watchfield and Bourton
Aim and purposes
The Parochial Church Council (PCC) has the responsibility of cooperating with the incumbent, 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 three churches and to become part of our parish community. To achieve this, we have a wide range of services to facilitate the requirements of everyone within the parish. 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, we have considered the Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the supplementary guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. 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 our churches.
Achievements and Performance
Incumbent’s Report
Services, Streaming and Study Groups
One of the greatest moments of 2025 was welcoming Revd Janet and her family in a cheerful and well-attended service at St Mary’s Longcot. Janet’s arrival has allowed the Benefice to have the desired Holy Communion services. Janet brings vast experience from her many years of ministry in rural churches. I am grateful for her wonderful work and fruitful ministry already being witnessed across the Benefice. I am also happy to be working with the LLM Graham Weller, who is so passionate about ministry in our benefice. Graham brings experience gained from his years of ministry as an LLM.
I must thank my clergy colleagues (Revd Robin Cardwell, Revd Geoff Price, Revd Jim Mynors, and lay worship leaders ( Alex & Becky Peal, Jane & Frank Venables, Maggie & Roger Simons, Rosy & Chris Taylor, Brenda & Vic Garman; Ann & Julian Stevens, Ruth Holman, Sandy Gipps, David & Jane Ahern, Pam Mullin and Hugh Baxter) for their willingness to lead services last year – and to continue to do so. Without their support, it would not have been possible to continue to reflect the breadth and beauty of Anglican liturgy through so many and such different services in churches, schools, crematorium and churchyards.
We have continued to live stream at least one service each Sunday, as well as special services, midweek communion services and morning prayer. We know how much this is valued by those unable to attend church on a regular basis, as well as by families whose friends or relatives have been unable to attend weddings, baptisms, or funerals. Another important part of our life and worship, both online and face to face, during the year was the opportunity to join with the Methodist Church for services and through Café Inspire. Stations of Nativity in Ashbury was also another important event which brought a large number of people together to remember and celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Wednesday study groups have continued to meet weekly in term time, both in person and online. I am grateful to David Ahern and Graham Weller for leading the Bible study groups. David and Jane Ahern also hosted a bring and share lunch, which allowed us all to get together in person. St Mary’s Ashbury has a Bible study group too, which is doing so well. I am grateful to everyone who takes part in leading the discussions and those who attend. There is a new Bible study group meeting on a Tuesday and is being led by Brenda and Vic. We thank them for this new inspiration, which is a sign of church growth.
Singing and Ringing
We are blessed to have three bell towers with active teams of ringers who play an important part in both our regular worship, weddings, funerals and for school services. Thank you for always responding so positively to requests to ring. Children of all ages appreciate the opportunity to ring the bells at the start of services, and we are now often asked specially for this at baptisms: in time this may help ensure the future of ringing in the Benefice. And, of course, our Christmas services would not be the same without the handbells, nor Café Inspire without the bell plates.
The Benefice choir continues to flourish musically and numerically under Claire Hartley’s guidance. We now have an established pattern of welcoming them to every “last Sunday” service; they also sang for choral evensongs, Maundy Thursday, Easter Eve, Ascension Day, Corpus Christi, All Souls, Remembrance Day and five carol services as well as the Advent service in Watchfield.
Children, Schools and Families
One area in which our ministry is increasing is with children and families. We are happy that we have started a Youth club in Shrivenham, and it is bringing together many young people every Monday evening. We are running this together with the Methodists in their church space. We continue to share collective worship in all three Church schools weekly, as well as being part of special services both in school and in church. Messy Church, Café Inspire, Christingle, crib services, and the St Andrew’s family service are also important here. Thank you to the teams for the creativity and joy you bring to our worship. We managed to do a Christingle service in St Mary’s Longcot after some years of it not being done. The baby and toddler group has continued to run in St Andrew’s on Thursday mornings during school term, and we are grateful to Hazel Morris and her team, together with Pip Dudley and Margaret Hern from St Andrew’s for making this possible.
Pastoral support for families in the wider sense has continued in a variety of (often unseen) ways throughout the year, and I know how much this is appreciated. The bereavement group
continues to meet once a month; members of the ASK team also meet monthly to pray for the leaves on the prayer tree in St Andrew’s, as well as organising the monthly communion service, whose collection often supports local charities and good causes, including the foodbank and community larder.
Although safeguarding is not restricted to the care of children but applies to any vulnerable person, it is perhaps appropriate to mention it here. As a Benefice, we continue to make every effort to comply not only with the letter but with the spirit of the regulations, and to make our churches safe as well as sacred spaces. Thank you to Lucy Laird for being our safeguarding lead on top of everything else, keeping us up to date with all the requirements.
The Deanery, Fundraising and Eco Church
The Deanery action plan has five key areas: climate change, parish share, support for young people, maintaining our presence as a rural church and making the best use of IT. Each Benefice is approaching this in the way which works best for them, and I hope you can see from the report so far how much we are doing in the last three categories.
Being a church is about more than parish share and building maintenance (and all our churches need funds for that): it is about everything that happens in, from or because of the building and the congregation, only some of which has appeared in this report. We are so grateful for the generous response to our various fundraising initiatives during the year (concerts, lunches, coffee mornings, open gardens etc) and will continue to try to offer a variety of events. And although the money is much needed, the fundraising events are also about coming together with other people in our communities – forging relationships and building trust, so people know the church is there when they need us.
Being part of our communities also means looking after the environment. Caring for creation is one of the ways we live out our faith in God, so here I must thank everyone who cares for our
churchyards, together with the cleaners and flower arrangers who beautify the church interiors and we must never forget that welcoming and offering refreshments are part of that caring, too. Churchwardens and Treasurers
A special thank you to the churchwardens and treasurers who bear so much of the workload in ensuring that our churches are open, safe, accessible and solvent. Dickie Green, Ruth Holman, Sarah Howell, Joanna Lambert, Maggie Simons, Chris Taylor, David Watson, Jimmy Watson, Dennis Blease, Jane Ormondroyd, Claire Routley and Louise Slater – never think that your work is underestimated or unappreciated. I feel blessed to work with you as a team.
Finally
Thank you everyone for all the work you do for the glory of God. I have seen growth in our Benefice in the past year. Now with a complete ministry team in place, I am hoping that we will be more effective in reaching out to parishes, schools and communities. This year I hope to find out more on where we want to see ourselves in the next 5 years as a Benefice. This can be achieved through sharing ideas, listening and collective discernment. Together let us continue ‘ To mirror the hospitality of God’ .
Blessings
Revd Patrick Mabhunu
Associate Vicar’s Report
September to December 2025 saw myself and my family so warmly welcomed into the Benefice of Shrivenham and Ashbury. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make my licensing service such a super occasion. Also thank you to everyone for ‘bearing with’ as I struggled to get used to the Benefice rota and how things are done in each of our church buildings and in our church communities. I enjoyed getting to know our church school communities in this time as well, going in to lead collective worship sessions in each of our church schools. Another highlight for me was being part of the Benefice Choir, getting to sing with people and join in with as many of the carol services as possible. As 2025 drew to a close, with a Benefice service at Fernham, celebrating the feast day of St John the Evangelist, I knew that 2026 would continue to bring challenge while we worked out what my part-time role would grow into, whilst also giving thanks for the goodness of God in 2025.
Revd Dr Janet Anderson-MacKenzie
Treasurer’s Report
The total receipts on unrestricted and designated funds were £118,278 of which £59,352 comprised unrestricted voluntary donations and a further £16,411 was recovered through the PCC’s Gift Aid claim. Restricted donations and restricted fundraising totalled £38,713 (nearly all for the Restoration Fund). Our claim for Gift Aid proves a valuable means of adding to PCC income and we are very grateful to all those who confirm their giving is gift aided. Church supporters are encouraged to join the Parish Giving Scheme and there are thirty-two donors on the scheme. Planned giving in general, over the year, has slightly decreased by £1500. Cash collections at services have also slightly reduced by £950 which includes receipts from the SumUp card-readers in our Churches.
As for outgoings, £80,977 was spent from unrestricted funds to provide the Christian ministry within our Parish of three Churches. We continued to monitor income on a monthly basis during 2025 with a view to paying the proportion of parish share to the Oxford Diocese which is affordable. Within our stated outgoings, it is pleasing to report that we paid our 2025 Parish share allocation in full of £48100 (after discount for vacancy support).
Larger items of repairs in 2025 for the three Churches include £3100 paid for boiler repairs at St Andrew’s and the Windows’ fund was closed with £4400 used towards the window restoration work. Part of a bequest from the estate of the late Revd Anne Bell was used towards the new CH boiler at St Andrew’s. The work on the garden of remembrance was covered in the main by a generous donation in memory of the late Mrs Melanie Stewart. St Thomas’ church installed a replacement notice board for £1160, £3500 was spent on lime plastering repairs and £2700 on roof repairs. St James’ church spent £1500 on their remedial electrical work. Many thanks are due to the Church Wardens for all their efforts in organising these works.
The net result, in unrestricted and designated funds, was a decrease in funds over the year of £640. Balances carried forward at 31st December 2025 on unrestricted and designated funds totalled £54170.
This is a good opportunity to thank David and Liz Watson and their team for their hard work in making the bottle tombola at the Village Fete in August, once again, such a resounding fundraising success. Thank you too to the bellringers for running the coconut shy at the same event. Also I should like to thank Penny Hockley, Lindsey Skelt, Marilyn Jeans, Daphne Willmett and all the team who worked hard during the year to organise fundraising events at St Andrew’s and Ruth Holman and her team at St Thomas’ and Sue Hayes, Simon French and all their helpers at St James for their fundraising efforts.
Reserves policy
It is the policy of this Parish to hold in reserve the equivalent of three months’ general running costs to include payment of Parish Share and other expenses. This policy is reviewed annually at the PCC meeting convened to approve the accounts.
Three months’ costs are currently equivalent to £20,000 for this PCC. These reserves are held to smooth out fluctuations in cash flow and to meet emergencies. The cash balance of £40,622 held on unrestricted funds at the year-end met this target.
Jane Ormondroyd
Structure, governance and management
The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. The membership of the PCC consists of the incumbent (our vicar), churchwardens, deanery synod representatives, co-opted members along with 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. New members receive initial training into the workings of the PCC. The PCC met seven times during the year.
Administrative information
St. Andrews Church is situated in Church Walk Shrivenham, St Thomas’ Church is in the High Street Watchfield and St James’ in Bishopstone Road Bourton. All are part of the Diocese of Oxford and within the Archdeaconry of Dorchester on Thames within the Church of England. The parish correspondence address is The Vicarage, High Street Shrivenham SN6 8AN. The PCC is a body corporate (PCC Powers Measure 1956, Church Representation Rules 2006) .
The PCC members who have served at any time from 1st January 2025 and the 31[st] December 2025 are:
Ex Officio members:
• Incumbent: The Reverend Patrick Mabhunu (Chairman) Associate Vicar:
The Reverend Dr Janet Anderson-MacKenzie
• Church Wardens: David Watson – Shrivenham Christopher Taylor – Shrivenham Ruth Holman – Watchfield Sarah Howell Bourton • Deanery Synod Representatives: Jayne Venables Lindsey Skelt
• Co-opted members: Jane Ahern – Secretary
• Elected Members: Penny Hockley Tony Crabtree Maureen Coyle Angela Davis Marilyn Jeans Philippa Dudley Roger Parks Jane Ormondroyd Simon French
SHRIVENHAM WITH WATCHFIELD & BOURTON PARISH CHURCH
Annual Report and Accounts
of the Parochial Church Council
for the year ended 31 December 2025
Contents
Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council
Independent Examiner's Report
Receipts and Payments Account Statement of Assets and Liabilities
Notes to the Accounts