## **CHURCHILL METHODIST CHURCH** ## **ANNUAL REPORT 2023/2024** ## **Reference and administrative details** - Churchill Methodist Church of the Methodist Church is a Registered Charity, No 1196677. ## **Correspondence Addresses:** Mr. S. M Seel, 4 The Chestnuts, Winscombe BS25 1LD churchillmethodistchurch@gmail.com ## **MANAGING TRUSTEES** Rev. Meg Slingo Janet Brown Edward Chaplin Jackie Hawkesby Jeannette Jones Trevor Jones Brian Price Judith Price Ann Pursey Jacquelene Seel Stuart Seel Chris Shaw Queenie Storey Ruth Thomas Sharon Wilkinson Ken Young ## **STRUCTURE & GOVERNANCE** Minister in Charge – Rev. Meg Slingo Pastor – Ken Young Community Development Worker – Jacquelene Seel Safeguarding Officer – Ruth Thomas GDPR Co-ordinator – Stuart Seel Stewards – Jackie Hawkesby, Brian Price, Judith Price, Stuart Seel & Ken Young Property Team Leader – Queenie Storey Pastoral Team Leaders – Jackie Hawkesby & Sharon Wilkinson Treasurer – Stuart Seel Church Council Secretary – Stuart Seel Page 1 of 8 **Church Council –** meets twice a year (minimum) and can convene extra meetings as and when required. Meeting is open to all trustees (see above) plus a representative of the Somerset Mendip Circuit. This meeting is the controlling body of the church. **– General Church Meeting** meets once a year and is open to all the church family. This meeting appoints the Church Stewards and appoints representatives to the Church Council **Stewards Meeting –** meets quarterly and is attended by the stewards, the Community Development Worker and the Minister in Charge **Property Team –** meets quarterly and is attended by the Property Team Leader plus two trustees **Pastoral Team –** meets bi-annually and is attended by the Pastoral Team Leaders, the Minster in Charge and the Pastoral Visitors ## **REPORTS ON CHURCH ACTIVITIES FROM CHURCH GROUPS** ## **PASTORAL REPORT** Jackie and I would once again like to thank the Pastoral Team for all the time and commitment, they spend on taking care of their allocated church family. Also thank you Ann for all your phone calls which are so important to the receivers. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rev Meg for her support to all the Pastoral team and the wider church family. Our meetings have always been informative as well as fun. Thank you Meg. We wish you and Graham every happiness in your new church. We have our last meeting with Meg on 24th July, when I am sure we will be putting everything in order, for the arrival of the new Minister. We look forward to meeting the new Minister and working alongside him. Hopefully we can make a date with him to arrange for him to meet the whole Pastoral team and also everyone on the Pastoral list, maybe at our annual Christmas Coffee and Mince pies? Sharon Wilkinson & Jackie Hawkesby ## **STEWARDS** The current steward’s team comprises Judith Price, Brian Price, Jackie Hawkesby, Ken Young and Stuart Seel. It is good to have five stewards given that Ken Young is much in demand as a preacher throughout the circuit so he is limited in the number of Sunday duties he can fulfil. Thanks also need to be expressed to all those who have helped by providing cover at Sunday worship for the steward’s team when not enough Stewards have been available for duty and also at the larger events such as weddings and funerals. Sadly, in the past year there have been too many of the latter. The stewards would also like to thank everyone who contributes to the worship services, either by reading, or prayers etc. and also want to say a big thank you again to Paul Beechey for his very valued contribution as musician and reader. Rev. Meg Slingo will be leaving the circuit at the end of August 2024 and a circuit leaving tea followed by a farewell service will be held at Churchill on the afternoon of Sunday 28[th] July. The stewards wish to thank Meg for all her work at the church during Page 2 of 8 the last 5 years and wish her (and Graham) every blessing as she moves to become a Superintendent Minister in North Devon. Rev. Andrew Bell will be joining the circuit in September 2024 and will be Meg’s replacement and we look forward to welcoming him and working with him. Stuart Seel ## **FINANCE** ## **2023/2024 ACCOUNTS** **----- Start of picture text -----**
CATEGORY EXPENDITURE INCOME
CIRCUIT ASSESSMENT £ 13,800.00 £ -
UTILITIES £ 4,846.64 £ 39.18
INSURANCE £ 3,819.38 £ -
OFFERTORY £ - £ 10,138.54
GIFT AID £ - £ -
LUNCH CLUB £ - £ 1,205.00
BABY & TODDLER GROUP £ 227.29 £ 375.56
MEN GET COOKING £ 49.99 £ 374.00
MAINTENANCE £ 1,468.00 £ -
PLANS AND NOTICES £ 134.64 £ -
INTEREST £ - £ 5,142.30
MISCELLANEOUS £ 779.12 £ 972.29
LETTINGS £ - £ 922.50
COPYRIGHT LICENCES £ 377.30 £ -
DONATIONS £ - £ 12,076.60
SHOEBOX CARRY OVER £ - £ 141.00
FUND RAISING £ - £ 934.58
TOTAL - CORE ITEMS £ 25,502.36 £ 32,321.55 £6,819.19
ANNUAL CHARITY £ 290.90 £ -
OTHER CHARITIES £ 756.19 £ 961.18
FUND RAISING £ - £ 934.58
TOTAL - CHARITY £ 1,047.09 £ 1,895.76 £848.67
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
£ 9,340.01 £ 5,033.88
WORKER
DEVELOPMENT £ 3,324.00 £ -
-
TOTAL - EXTRAORDINARY £ 12,664.01 £ 5,033.88 £7,630.13
BUDGET SUB TOTAL £ 38,166.37 £ 37,355.43 -£810.95
**----- End of picture text -----**
Page 3 of 8 |**TRANSFER FROM RESERVES**||**£4,000.00**|£
3,189.06| |---|---|---|---| ||||| |**BUDGET GRAND TOTAL**|**£ 38,166.37**|**£ 41,355.43**|£
3,189.06| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ## **FUNDS HELD** **----- Start of picture text -----**
STARTING BALANCE POSITION AS AT
ACCOUNT
SEPTEMBER 2023 30/6/2024
£
£ 7,854.31
CURRENT ACCOUNT - SANTANDER 16,140.82
CFB - CHURCHILL METHODIST £
£ 3,248.24
CHURCH 249.57
£
£ 2,005.20
CFB - SYDNEY SIMON HILL TRUST 947.87
TMCP - CHARLES GWYN KINGTON £
£ 200.00
BEQUEST 201.87
£
£ 65,057.29
TMCP - CFB MANAGED FUND 69,133.08
£
£ 90,978.56
TMCP -INVESTMENT FUND 86,978.56
£169,343.60 £173,651.77 £4,308.17
**----- End of picture text -----**
- The church’s funds have improved during the year to date 30/6/2024 - To date, only £4,000 has been drawn down from the church’s invested funds for day to day running costs out of the £8,000 facility that was agreed by the church council. A substantial donation has helped the balance sheet and, as things stand, I do not expect to draw down any further money from TMCP this year for day to day expenses. However, money will be drawn down to pay for the secondary glazing in the hall. The timing of the work and therefore the drawdown is not fixed as yet. - The budget for offertory in thus financial year was £12,000 and this target is very likely to be met as offerings to date stand at circa £10,000. - The church will receive a bequest from the will of the late Jean Darby. Probate has been granted but the receipt of the bequest depends upon the sale of Jean’s house. - The circuit assessment for 2024/25 was agreed as £19,300 in February and then increased to £23,500 in May when the lay worker post was due to move to the Page 4 of 8 circuit. The church council to be held 7[th] July will reconsider this figure in light of new information from the circuit. ## Stuart Seel ## **CLEANING** I would like to express my sincere thanks to the small band (Queenie Storey, Chris Shaw, Jeannette Jones, Trevor Jones and Maureen Milward) who clean our church premises and keep dust and cobwebs etc. at bay. Sadly, Queenie Storey moved to Banwell church earlier this year so the cleaning team is even more reduced. Cleaning of the church, hall and associated rooms continues to take place 3 weeks out of four. The lavatories still get weekly attention and I would like to express my thanks to Maureen for this. Deeper cleaning tasks are undertaken at our regular maintenance days, the last of which was on Saturday 15[th] June. The hall carpet was also thoroughly cleaned in May. We ask groups to clean up after themselves, in respect of the rooms they use but this does not always happen. If anyone would like to volunteer to clean please contact me and I will be happy to explain what needs to happen and to attach you to one of the existing cleaning teams. ## Stuart Seel ## **PROPERTY** Our property is generally in good condition as reported in our last quinquennial although as with all old structures a programme of maintenance is required to keep things up to scratch. Our most recent issues is water ingress to the porch, probably an issue with the lead roof flashing, it is still there we’ve checked! Our ongoing project is the secondary glazing for the hall. Our conservation officer made some good recommendations on this resulting in some improvements to the design and inevitably some extra cost. The new design and increased finance have been approved by church council and the revised plan submitted to Manchester, final approval is awaited. The front wall of the church behind the communion table is slowly deteriorating although the extensive work carried out by Trevor and Edward has lasted well having been carried out over a decade ago. More work will be required, probably next summer. We wish to pass on a special thanks to Queenie who has relinquished the lead on property this year and moved to Banwell due to health issues, she did a great job of keeping order, both building and those of us who do the work on it over many years. Ken Young ## **SAFEGUARDING** The Safeguarding Policy was approved at the February Church Council meeting and is available on the noticeboard in the schoolroom. Safeguarding is an important aspect in our work at the Church so it is helpful if everyone is familiar with the policy. Page 5 of 8 DBS checks and safeguarding training are required to be renewed every 4 years, for those who are appointed to roles that require these and, therefore, there is an ongoing programme of checks and training. For information, a District Safeguarding Audit was planned for May this year but it has been postponed until September. Any safeguarding concerns that have been raised over the past year have been addressed as appropriate. Everyone is reminded to contact me if they have any concerns about safeguarding concerns within our Church, either about an individual or about good practice. Ruth Thomas Church Safeguarding Officer ## **COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKER** ## **INTRODUCTION** It has been a very busy year, fitting in quite a lot of varied outreach activities and training courses, while progressing my own training for Youthscape and Facebook. A huge thank you for everyone’s prayer and practical support. ## **Worship** We have continued to welcome newcomers to our community worship via CREATE!Sunday. This gives many good opportunities to talk about importance of faith and real life issues. Thank you Rev Meg, Ken Young, Judith & Brian Price, Stuart Seel; also thank you to Trevor and Jeanette Jones for regular support. Our Christmas services were well supported, with several Toddler Group and CREATESunday families, plus several totally unknown newcomers who had seen our publicity on Facebook (using the Connexional Christmas Campaign). **Church Led Groups and Training** - a) **Churchill Baby& Toddler** continues to grow in terms of the average number of families per session. Not all families come every week, so the total number of families on our WhatsApp group has risen to 50. Thank you to our very welcoming and committed team: Ruth Thomas, Judith & Brian Price, Stuart Seel, Chris Clarke and Trevor Jones. - b) **Men Get Cooking** continues to be popular with all cohorts keen to do further, follow on weeks. Many recent trainees supported the February Pudding Night. - c) **Time Out for Parents** led by CDW and Zoe Maitland Round, supported by a creche run by Judith and Brian Price with a number of helpers, has been much appreciated by a small number of parents, some new to us. ## **ECUMENICAL OUTREACH** - a) **Churchill Academy Christmas Services** Thanks to liaison with Caz Carter (Congresbury Youth Worker) and her daughter, we were able to reword Take That’s well known song ‘ Rule the World’ for a puppet nativity; copies of ‘Little Book of Help’ were given to students and staff. - b) **Pop Up Easter Café** was the only Easter outreach in our vicinity and was very well attended. We included an egg hunt in the sanctuary and a simple story – ‘The Easter Fix’. ## **COMMUNITY PROFILE** - a) **Operation Christmas Child shoebox campaign** – was very well supported by donations, including a record number of handmade gifts. We become an official public Drop Off location for the first time. Page 6 of 8 - b) **Health& Wellbeing Events** have been well supported, including craft and pottery painting evenings. - c) **Publicity** is vital to invite people to join in and for them to understand what our church believes is important. This generates many newcomers trying us, in addition to those from personal recommendation. Regular monthly publicity includes: - posters on church and local noticeboards - weekly church notices (thank you Paul Beechey) - monthly features in New Signpost (Winscombe, Sandford and Churchill Parish magasine) - church ( thank you to Stuart Seel) and Circuit website - Facebook (thank you to joint admins Jacqueline Hawkesby and Stuart Seel) ## Jacquelene Seel ## **BIBLE STUDY** The bible study meets regularly on a Monday evening in the Oasis from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. We are a small group, normal attendance is 4-6, so more members would be most welcome. We undertake self-guided individual studies each week, sometimes lingering for longer in a complex book. We recently completed a look at Job over several weeks. We use our study to try to gain an insight into God’s will and Jesus’ teaching on contemporary issues. Although most of our time is spent with the Bible we also like to sing a few hymns and have a short time of prayer. A time of fellowship with coffee and biscuits is also part of the proceedings so do come along. ## Ken Young ## **THURSDAY LUNCHES** The number of diners remains fairly constant between 18 and 24 mainly depending on medical appointments. We have changed to our summer menu of ham or cheese ploughman’s with new potatoes, hot or cold pudding and tea or coffee. Sadly at Christmas we lost our hand washer up Sandra (Joyce Harvey’s daughter- a few of you may remember Joyce). Sandra helped up for about 10 years; unfortunately she was found collapsed in her lounge one Thursday morning having had a stroke, so she is now in a nursing home in Midsummer Norton and we miss her as part of the team. Our nest full meal will be for Harvest and the diners look forward to these meals at Christmas and Easter. My thanks go to the team Niamh, Sue, Angela, Alison, Maureen and, of course, Jeannette who fills in for us to keep the wheels turning. Of course also we lost Queenie who has now gone to Banwell. She also had ben a member of the team for 12 – 14 years. Janet Brown ## **Public benefit statement** Page 7 of 8 The trustees of CMC have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the charity commission in exercising their responsibilities. Signed………………………………………………………….. Date ……………………………….. Rev Meg Slingo – Minister In Charge Page 8 of 8