2018 Annual Report
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All Saints' Church Curry Mallet - Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council for the Year Ended 31 December 2018 All Saints' Church is situated in Curry Mallet, Somerset. It is part of the Diocese of Bath and Wells within the Church of England. The correspondence address is The Rectory, Stoke St Mary, Taunton, TA3 5BX. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) is a charity excepted from registration with the Charity Commission. PCC members who have served from 19 April 2018 until the date this report is approved are:
Structure, governance and management The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. All church attendees are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for the PCC. The church holds its account at Lloyds, Taunton. Peter Hounsell, Hatch Beauchamp, is the Independent Examiner. All Saints' PCC has the responsibility of cooperating with the incumbent, the Revd Paul Reynolds, in promoting in the parish the whole mission of the Church. It also has the maintenance responsibilities for the church-building in Curry Mallet, Somerset. There were 27 parishioners on the Church Electoral Roll. No names were added but one was deleted during the year. The average attendance across the two services counted in October, including Harvest was 16, including children. Overall, attendance continues to decline, mainly through frailty. Any increase has been through incomers to the village. Some months, over 20 attended one of the two services, Communion or ‘Worship for All' service. At major festivals with ‘all-age' services and for personal celebrations such as weddings and baptisms, and at funerals, attendance was much higher. The full PCC met four times during the year with an average attendance of 87.5% . We are grateful to Sally and John Down for inviting us to use their home as the venue for meetings, and to Mike and Pam Ive for meeting at Headwell. The Communion Services, held on the first Sunday of each month, had an average attendance of 19. Attendance at the second Sunday ‘Worship for All' service - led by members of the congregation - varied from 6 to 16 with a noticeable drop over the year in children attending with their families. A number of members regularly help with the monthly Benefice wide ‘Messy Church' meeting. The Plough Sunday service was a success with good attendance, and the Church was decorated with flowers and farming artefacts. Rob Walrond gave a thoughtful sermon that was very well received. The Harvest festival was held in the church building, again well decorated and included produce that was given by the congregation which was donated to Taunton foodbank. Christmas Day this year was a morning communion service with 27 in the congregation. The church building was used early in the year for 3 funeral services, 2 of which had burials in the churchyard. In September James and Laura Down were married in a service conducted by Revd Paul Reynolds, one of his last before his retirement. We are very grateful to Giles Adams for his continual support playing the organ for all the services throughout the year. Curry Mallet Bell-ringers are still short of ringers and are grateful to Beercrocombe ringers for helping out to enable ringing at services. Curry Mallet help out at Beercrocombe in return. Church members attended services held by the school in the church building. As usual in July the PCC gave a bible to each of the children leaving the school. In November, during the 100 year anniversary of the end of 1st World War, the school and community members displayed poppies and work related to remembrance in various forms. Lyndsey Welfare also produced a history of all the named soldiers on the memorial plaque, and it is displayed for all to see. The Community and School Carol Service in December also marked the retirement of Headteacher Wendy Devereux, and in a packed church with standing-room only, tributes were paid to her time at the school. The PCC presented Wendy with a retirement gift and thanked her for her work with the children and the church. Revd Paul Reynolds who has been Rector since 2006 announced that his retirement would commence at the end of October, and chaired his last Curry Mallet PCC meeting in July. A retirement gift from the PCC was presented to Paul and Kate at that meeting. Paul officiated at a Benefice communion service held at St Peters church Staple Fitzpaine in October, attended by over 200 people. Afterwards, a bring-and-share lunch was held at Neroche hall where Paul and Kate were presented with a photo album of their time in the Benefice, and gift of money collected in the seven parishes. The interregnum began in October and the PCC elected Tim Frazer as chairman of the PCC during this time. Stephen Jones was licenced at St Johns Church Hatch Beauchamp on 30th August as House-for-Duty Associate Vicar, Stephen and his wife Jill moved into the Rectory at Hatch Beauchamp. The Ministry team are covering all the services with the help of retired Mary Godin taking the occasional service. The Benefice Churchwardens held vacancy-meetings at the end of this year, planning a profile to be drawn up for advertising for a new incumbent. In May this year the Quinquennial survey was carried out by Architect Annie Evans. The PCC have acted on some of the recommendations and completed a long standing removal of a pew and repair of floorboards in the North West corner of the church. The Bier is now able to be displayed in that space. An urgent repair to ridge tiles on the chancel roof, and at the same time, repointing of large areas around the building was completed. Further work needs to be done when funds become available. A new Benefice Safeguarding officer, Helen Hossel, was appointed after Marilyn Hayward stood down this year. General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR came into force in May 2018. Many thanks to Mike Ive for taking on this task of interpreting the new regulations and implementing this policy concerning data collected by the PCC. A clean-up of the church building, inside and out, was held in September. We are grateful to all the volunteers for their help in cleaning, clearing gutters, cutting back ivy and other jobs that needed doing. Thanks also, to all those that provide altar-flowers and decorate the church with florial displays at festivals during the year. Fund-raising from a spring plant-sale and a variety-show at the village hall were both successful. We thank those involved for all the hard work that went into these initiatives. As in previous years, as part of our service to the wider community, the PCC supported charities outside of the immediate church-community - further information in the Financial Review. The Curry Mallet home-group met weekly for 2 hours, during term-time, usually at the home of Tim and Lizzie Frazer. Attendance varied from 3-7, with time spent on bible-study, prayer and sharing ‘our common-life'. It is much appreciated by all who attend. This report focuses on what the PCC has been doing over the year and the particular issues it has sought to address. There was of course much more happening in the life of the church that is not covered here, and the PCC acknowledges all that is done by people to help strengthen the Christian community in the parish. We thank all involved for their dedication and commitment. M Bawler March 2019 Financial Review Total receipts to general unrestricted funds were £14,072 with £7,754 from Gift Aid and £1,493 from voluntary donations. Once again, the PCC received a generous donation from the Duke of Cornwall's Benevolent Fund. A further £2,106 was raised from tax refund on Gift Aid giving and also a grant of £300 from the Parish Council towards the upkeep of the churchyard. Through the work of the Magazine Committee and the magazine distributors, £923 was received as the parish's allocation of the magazine surplus, which is distributed among the seven parishes in the Benefice. £15,280 was spent from unrestricted funds to provide the Christian ministry from All Saints' Church. This included the contribution of £8,817 for the Parish Share payable to the Bath and Wells Diocesan Board of Finance. The Parish Share largely provides the stipends and housing for the clergy. The overall sum that the parishes within the deanery have to find is shared between them according to a formula that is based on membership. Payments were made to 3 charities - the Varanasi Welfare Foundation (£500), The Farming Community Network (£250) and the DEC Indonesia Tsunami Appeal (£250). £67 was transferred to the Roof Repair Fund to enable the final payment for the release of the retention owed to the builders (Ellis & Co) to be made. The net result for the year was a deficit of receipts over payments of £1,275 on unrestricted funds. Adding bank and deposit balances brought forward at the beginning of the year, the balances carried forward at 31st December on unrestricted funds totalled £20,255. Total receipts to the Fabric Fund were £3,089 which included a donation of £1,500, together with a tax refund of £375 on Gift Aid and £1,212 from fund raising. £1,198 was spent on external repointing and repairs. The account balance at 31st December totalled £4,772. Following the final payment to the builders (£2,987 plus VAT £598) from the Roof Repair Fund a grant from the Listed places of Worship for £598 was received (to offset the VAT).This sum was transferred to the Fabric Fund as part repayment of the loan made in August 2015 to help launch the Fund. The Roof Repair Fund balance now stands at £1 with no outstanding debts. Reserves Policy To date the PCC has had no formal policy for reserves. For several years the balance on unrestricted funds has equalled approximately 12 months of unrestricted payments. Fund balances are invested with Lloyds Bank. M H Townrow, 24 March 2019. | |||||||||||||