Annual Report for 2021

S^T ANDREW'S CHURCH, ROXBOURNE

                                     at 11.10 am Sunday, 25^th April 2021 in the Church

Present (for both meetings) 30 members (listed at the end of the minutes)

Apologies had been received from Judi Grice and Pam Storey.

A.        Meeting of Parishioners for the Election of Churchwardens

Minutes

1. The Minutes of the Meeting of Parishioners held on 28^th October 2020 were approved by the meeting.   (Proposed: Joyce Nickolay;  Seconded David Alleyne); 

2. The following person was elected unopposed as Churchwarden for the year 2020-2021.

Kemi Aina     (Proposed: Kulan Mill; Seconded: David Alleyne)

3. The Chairman (Rev. Lyndon North) closed the meeting at 11.25 am.

B.        Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Minutes

1. The Minutes of the Meeting held on 28^th October 2020 were approved by the meeting. (Proposer Enid Scott-Kerr; seconder Barbara North).

2. The Annual Report on the Electoral Roll was presented by Joyce Nickolay.  The current number of people on the Electoral Roll was 147 with 80 persons resident in the parish, and 67 persons resident outside the parish.  She would be updating the Parish Directory shortly.

3. The Annual Report on the Proceedings of the Parochial Church Council and the Activities of the Parish generally for the year ended 31^st December 2020 was received.  The report had been circulated and there were no questions

4. The independently examined Financial Statements of the Parochial Church Council for the year ended 31^st December 2020, and approved by that Council at its 12^th April 2020 meeting, were received.  Kulan Mills spoke to the report.  He explained that the accounts pack of eight pages included his commentary and urged everyone to study the pack as it reflects the financial picture of the parish that they would not otherwise have. Many will find information such as where the money comes from and where it is spent interesting and useful.   Entirely due to the effect of the pandemic lockdown, income for the year was a £29k loss, which is an adverse change of £41k from the £12k surplus of 2019.  The substantial drop in hall lettings income was the main reason.  As we did not have regular church services the service collections too dropped.  However, thanks to faithful stewardship givers our income on that account was sustained and it even increased little.  56 Members contribute by paying directly into our bank account with almost all of them paying monthly.  Our largest item of expenditure was our Diocesan Common Fund contribution of £78k.  It was a pre-agreed commitment that we faithfully fulfilled in 2020, but for 2021 we were able to agree a revised contribution of £40k.    Many churches had defaulted paying their agreed 2020 contribution and the Diocese had written off those debts.  The London Diocese is currently carrying out a review of its finances and operations and has canvassed the views of parish officers through a survey.  We expect to negotiate our contribution figure for 2022 towards the end of this year.

Due to careful cash management we needed to withdraw only £15k from our savings deposit in 2020, and in 2021 we expect to restore that. 

Robert Crowhurst queried how St. Andrew’s reduced contribution to the Diocese compared with the settlements of other churches in the Deanery.  The Vicar responded that this information had not been available this year but he would take up the matter with the Diocese in the interest of transparency.

5. The Annual Report upon the Fabric, Goods and Ornaments of the Church was received.   Paul Hart thanked Marita Brown for her work on Safeguarding. He reported that David Alleyne had taken on responsibility for maintenance of the field and that the Large Hall playgroup was not operating any more because of financial difficulties.

6. The Annual Report on the Proceedings of the Harrow Deanery Synod was received by the meeting.  Sue McLeod said that meetings had not taken place for much of the year until they resumed by Zoom.  Each church in the Harrow Deanery (which also included Northwood) sent representatives the meetings. The in-person meetings normally rotating around the churches were helpful as it gave an insight into how other churches operated. There were three representatives from St. Andrew’s in addition to the Vicar.

7. The following people were elected unopposed to the Parochial Church Council to serve 3   years from 2021 to 2024.

Marita Brown (Proposed: Paul Hart; Seconded: Annie Dawson)

Gary Williams (Proposed: Paul Hart; Seconded Marita Brown)

Orley McIntyre (Proposed: Robert Crowhurst;  Seconded David Alleyne)

Gill Moore (Proposed: Annie Dawson;  Seconded Barbara North)

Joyce Nickolay (Proposed: David Alleyne;  Seconded Barbara North)

Kulan Mills (Proposed: David Alleyne;  Seconded Barbara North)

Two members had resigned:  Simon Narayan and Jonathan Roast.

The Secretary said she would check from the Diocese the number of members directly electable allowed on the PCC; this would exclude members who are Wardens or Synod members who are ex officio members..

8. Noel Rajaratnam was re-appointed by unanimous decision as Independent Examiner to the Council for the year 2021-2022.

9. Chairman’s Report and Any Other Business

The Chairman, Rev. Lyndon North, gave thanks to the many members for their contribution, diligence and care in the running of the church.

David Alleyne (statutory stand-down from the PCC for a year after 6 years’ serving)

Paul Hart (for his 3 years’ serving as Church Warden)

Kemi Aina (still continuing to serve as Church Warden after two years’)

Joyce Nickolay as PCC Secretary and Kulan Mills as Church Treasurer

Wendy Godwin and Keith Nicholls for their commitment and Alan Heyes as church organist.

The leaders of the Lent study groups which he thought the best ever achieved.

Marita Brown as Safeguarding Officer and Pam Storey for taking care of Star Friends..

Maureen and Les Pattison for tending the memorial garden over many years; now taken over by Sue Jull.To Raymond Stockwell for grass cutting.

To Sue McLeod for producing Star Link each week.

Robert Crowhurst in producing the church rotas.

The church cleaners, the flower arrangers and sides-persons.

Those who ring the Bells each Sunday

Those who look after and clean the church linen

The Vicar mentioned his ministering at Northwick Park Hospital as a deeply leveling experience.

He reported that the Youth Group had resumed meeting the previous Friday.Barbara North reminded the meeting that we should be prepared to accommodate people from different cultural backgrounds such as those people who may be departing Hong Kong.

Stuart Hobbs gave thanks to those members who had worshipped at the church for 30-40 years and pointed out that if someone had contributed £1 a week for 50 years that would amount to £2,500.

A relatively new member, Joyce Hughes, was welcomed to her first APCM meeting.

To general applause Robert Crowhurst thanked the Vicar and his wife for their work.

10. The Chairman closed the meeting with the Grace at 12.15 pm.

Signed                                         (Rev. Lyndon North, Chairman)

Signed                                         (Joyce Nickolay, PCC Secretary)

Present:  (in alphabetical order)   30 members

Olukemi Aina, David Alleyne, Ola Amode, Elizabeth Bello, Marita Brown,

Robert Crowhurst, Annie Dawson, Dorothy Dowse, Malcolm George, Sheelagh Gillard,

Wendy Godwin, Paul Hart, Stuart & Yvonne Hobbs and family, Joyce Hughes, Susan Jull,

Susan McLeod, Orley McIntyre, Chris & Kulan Mills, Gillian Moore, Keith Nicholls,

John & Joyce Nickolay, Barbara & Lyndon North, Enid Scott-Kerr, Brenda Udall,

Gary Williams