MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL, ST. BARNABAS CHURCH, LINSLADE, HELD ON THURSDAY,

24th JULY 2008, AT 8.00PM IN THE CHOIR VESTRY

 

 

 

Present:                        Bernard Minton                        Jo Thomson

John Deighton               Carolyn Birch              

                                    Nick Moore                             Russell Stannard

                                    Pat Faulkner                             Janet Miller                                                                   Carol Oakman                                   Marlene Richardson     

                                    Vicki Faiers                              Fran Morrow

                                    Ian Woodward                         Sarah Woodward

                                     

Apologies:                                          

David Throssell                         Maureen Gadsby        

Simon Soper                            Bruce Benedickter

Miranda Soper                         Wyn Jones

 

Bernard opened the meeting with prayers.  The minutes of the meeting of 29th May were approved. Proposed by Ian, seconded by Carol. All agreed.

                                                                                   

Matters arising:

 

 

47/07   Fundraising

 

            The “Open Gardens” event did not take place, but refreshments were provided at the recent dog show and raised over £100 for funds. The Linsdale singers performed at the Strawberry teas, not Octad.

 

1/08     Appointments

 

            There is still no named person to accompany Wyn at Churches Together.

 

3/08     PCC signatories

 

            The signatories on the PCC accounts have now been changed to Bernard, Nick and Jo.

 

5/08     c) Parish fair – This was extremely successful and raised over £2,600, as well as increasing the awareness of the church in the community. The fair committee are looking at ways to further improve the event next year.

 

            d) Sign writer – no progress to date – Nick will make more enquiries.

                                                                                    Action: Nick

            f) “Stations of the Cross” – If these were to remain up all year, a faculty will be needed, there may be issues around Christmas, and they could become less noticed. Bernard proposed that they are put up for Lent and Easter and taken down after Trinity Sunday. All agreed.     

 

New items for this meeting:

 

Items for AOB – Bernard explained that items for discussion under AOB should be declared at this point – there were 3 items to be considered.

 

6/08    Vicar’s report

 

Bernard said that it is very easy to forget why the Church and the PCC are here. We need to be God’s Kingdom and to reveal God’s Kingdom to the local community. We must not lose focus and think how we are working as Christians and with mission, here in Linslade considering what our community needs and how to bring it about.

                                                                                            

7/08     Child Protection.

 

            The “Team” does not have a group Child protection policy. There does not seem to be any reason why the same person could not do CRB clearance and Child protection. Our current policy is out of date and Bernard will check with St Alban’s for information.

                                                                                                         Action: Bernard

 

8/08     Hall funding

 

            As reported last meeting, there are insufficient funds to pay for the current phase of work on the hall.  We have a moral and legal duty to pay for work that has been completed and it is proposed to have a loan from a restricted fund with an agreed repayment scheme. The exact amount owed is still not finalised but Jo has checked with St Alban’s that the idea for a loan is in order.

            Nick proposed and John seconded that PCC agree in principle for a loan from restricted funds; the amount and repayment terms to be agreed at a later date. Agreed with 2 abstentions.

                                                                                             Action: Jo/ Treasurer

                                

9/08     Treasurer’s report

 

            Jo had spoken in church on 13th July about the state of church finances. Giving needs to be increased as soon as possible in order to meet our commitments. She reminded PCC that she will be standing down as treasurer from 31st August – plans are in place for a replacement.

                                                                                 Action: Bernard/Nick/John

 

 

 

 

10/08     Stewardship report

 

Russell presented a plan for Stewardship activities from now until Vision for Giving Sunday on 5th October. He referred to a paper distributed in church on 13th July entitled “St Barnabas Church needs your help – NOW” and explained why the campaign was started in July instead of waiting until October. Giving in the envelope scheme has been going down and many people have not increased their giving for many years. With income going down and costs going up, we are already in deficit of £270.00 each week. If giving does not increase we shall have to look at ways of cutting expenditure. People need to understand that the church needs to meet our running costs from current funds. Various ideas were discussed to help this happen and will be considered by the Stewardship Committee.

Bernard proposed that we accept the draft plan (copy on file). All agreed.

                                                                                                Action: Russell

 

11/08   Deanery Synod report

 

Nick, Ian and Wyn had attended the Dunstable Deanery Synod meeting on 1st July and Nick gave a brief report of the proceedings. There was a talk from Revd Monica Robinson, the Agricultural Chaplain for Bedfordshire, the Lay Chair was elected, and appointment of the secretary and treasurer was confirmed. The structure of the Standing and Pastoral Committees was explained and our PCC needs to appoint a representative for the pastoral committee.

Bernard proposed Ian. All agreed.

 

12/08   Baptism rota

 

The rota had been circulated – any one who cannot do their date is asked to change with another member.

 

13/08   Standing Committee report  

 

Some of the items in the Standing committee report had already been covered. The Harvest Festival will be an All Age Eucharist on 21st September and will be the first service of a regular less formal, more interactive Eucharist. The collection will go to the Bishop of St Alban’s Harvest Appeal that is supporting GRAT, a Christian Aid partner in Mali, which is teaching local fishermen in villages along the River Niger to become farmers. The Outreach group will organise the Harvest supper and beetle drive on 20th September.

The Pet service will be on 14th September at 11.30 am.

All committees should give a brief report of their meetings to the PCC.

Lay Ministers of Communion – Bernard said the procedures are different in St Alban’s. He has received permission for the persons on the submitted list to administer the elements in church but this does not cover outside of the church, at Elm Lodge for example. Bernard has written to the Bishop for clarification and current practices will continue until he gets further information

.

           

14/08   Any other business

 

a)      Dates – The Christmas Fair is on 15th November between 11am and 3 pm. The hall and church are booked and the fair committee will be looking for volunteers to help make it a success. A jumble sale will be held on 18th October to provide some funds for the raffle etc.

 

 

b)      The DAC had visited on 11th July and made various suggestions, both at St Barnabas and St Mary’s. One of the suggestions is to remove more pews and the back of the church does need to be sorted out. Janet had asked that a plaque in memory of Elaine Evershed be put in the choir stalls where she sat and this looks likely to be permissible.

 

 

c)      Vicki had raised concerns about the depleting members of the Mothers’ Union and asked if they could hold their meetings in the Tower vestry now that it was not used as a crèche. They could display information and books more easily that could be used by more members of the congregation. Bernard agreed that they could use the Tower vestry. The question of the display boards will be looked at when plans are considered for the back of the church.

 

 

The next full PCC meeting will be on Thursday, 25th September.

 

The meeting concluded with The Grace at 10.00 pm.