St. John’s Church, Bellerby

Annual Reports of the Parochial Church Council for the year ended 31st December 2022

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

25th May 2023

Reverend Stephen Hanscombe, The Vicarage, I’Anson Close, Leyburn DL8 5LF

25th May 2023 at 7 p.m. in St John’s Church, Bellerby

2023 Agenda

Worship / Opening Prayers

Business of the Parishioners Meeting

Opening Prayers

Apologies for absence

Approval of the minutes of the Business of the Parishioners Meeting 2022

Matters arising

Election of Churchwardens

Business of the Church Meeting

Apologies for absence

Approval of the minutes of the Business of the Church Meeting 2022

Matters arising

Reports:

Electoral Roll Report

PCC Secretary Report

Treasurer’s Report

Churchwardens’ Report

Deanery Synod Report

Environmental Report

Safeguarding Report

Curate’s Report

Vicar’s Report

Election of the PCC

Election of Deanery Synod Representative

Appointment of Independent Examiner

Governance

Any Other Business

Closing Worship / prayers

Followed by procedural meeting to elect Lay Vice-Chair of PCC and to appoint Treasurer, PCC Secretary and Electoral Roll Officer

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Minutes of the meeting of 19th May 2022 held in St John’s Church

Present: Reverend Stephen Hanscombe (Chair), Jan Carnell (Secretary) and 10 Parishioners

Business of the Parishioners Meeting

Reverend Stephen Hanscombe welcomed everyone to the meeting which is open to anyone living in the Parish.

The meeting opened with a reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans which talks about hope and trust and with prayer.

Apologies: Howard Binks

Minutes of the Parishioners Meeting 2021: Marcia Singleton proposed, and Kathleen Fuller seconded that as there were no comments or corrections that the Chair sign them as a correct record of the meeting. All agreed.

Matters Arising: None.

Election of Churchwardens 2022:

Two nominations for Churchwarden had been received from:

Hilda Price and Roger Jay

As there were no other nominations Hilda was duly re-elected Churchwarden and Roger was elected as Churchwarden for the coming year.

Stephen thanked Hilda and Roger for taking on the role of Churchwarden and said that it was a real bonus for the church community that we once again have two Churchwardens.

Stephen thanked Hilda for standing again and for all her work during the last year and thanked Roger for standing and wanting to work with us and be part of the leadership of the church.

This concluded the business of the Parishioners Meeting, and the Chair called the meeting to a close.

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Minutes of the meeting of 19th May 2022 held in St John’s Church

Present: Reverend Stephen Hanscombe (Chair), Jan Carnell (Secretary) and 10 Parishioners

Business of the Church Meeting

This meeting is open to all those on the Electoral Roll of the church.

Apologies: Howard Binks

Minutes of the Business of the Church Meeting 2021: Steve Wilkinson proposed, and Kathleen Fuller seconded that as there were no comments or corrections that the Chair sign them as a correct record of the meeting. All agreed.

Matters Arising: The bell is now back in place.

Traditionally it is rung a few minutes before the service on a Sunday morning.

If there are people who would like to have a go at ringing the bell that would be great. Roger will put a rota together of those willing to ring.

We also need to establish at what other services, events and special occasions the bell should be rung. We will discuss this at the next PCC meeting.

Electoral Roll Report: There were 30 names on the revised roll at the 2021 APCM. Since then, no names have been added and two names have been removed making a total of 28 names on the Bellerby Parish Electoral Roll at the APCM 2022. The next full revision of the roll will be in 2025.

Annual Report of the PCC: There were no comments or questions and Stephen thanked Jan for her report.

Annual Report and Financial Statement 2021: The Annual Report and Financial Statement 2021 had already been approved by the PCC. Paul is producing the annual accounts in line with the Diocese’s recommendations, which makes them much easier to read and interpret. At the end of 2021 the deficit was £8,589 and we ended up with reserves of £17,275. The good news is that planned giving has increased, however we’re still not getting enough in through our planned giving to cover the church’s basis running costs.

We need to encourage people to give by either standing order or the Parish Giving Scheme rather than putting cash in the plate. This will allow us to plan ahead. We will consider how to approach this.

Stephen thanked Paul for his work on our finances.

Appointment of the Independent Examiner: Bob Walker proposed, and Marcia Singleton seconded that David Liddell continues as our Independent Examiner. All agreed.

Fabric Report: We have had the architect to carry out the Quinquennial inspection. There will be some things raised from this, but the architect says that on the whole the building is sound which is very encouraging. We need to make sure that all our electrical testing is done on a regular basis and kept up to date so we have had the PAT testing done this week.

We can find no record of the lightning conductor ever having been serviced so we have arranged for this to be carried out and a contract put in place.

The Electrical Condition Installation Report was last done 5 years ago and is due again in July. Jan has contacted the electricians this morning to organise this to be carried out.

We will hopefully have the Quinquennial Report within the next month where we will get more details of anything further that needs our attention.

Election of Deanery Synod Representatives: Bellerby is entitled to 1 representative on the Deanery Synod. There were no nominations and so Bellerby continues to be unrepresented. Stephen urged that if anyone was interested in being involved with the Deanery Synod that they should speak to him. We have included reports in the booklet from Deanery Lay Chair Bob Matthew’s and Robin Newsam who is the Deanery Synod representative at Leyburn.

The Deanery Synod is seeking to be more proactive and to try and get a voice for the parishes and people of Wensley Deanery to Diocesan Synod because if we don’t speak out they won’t know what our challenges are. It is our place to have a voice and be part of the decision-making process.

Safeguarding Report: There were no questions on the report.

Vicar’s Report: Stephen expanded on his Booklet Report.

When reflecting on the last year it was almost a challenge to remember what happened as the year began with more lockdowns. However, it was good to start getting the worshipping communities back together as the year went on and in particular starting our new pattern of worship across the benefice in September. The response to these changes has been very encouraging. The Christmas Fair was a great success as we worked together with those at St

Matthews.

We need to look forward not back and try and focus on what God is telling us through all that we have done. He is telling us, calling us, to focus on the good news of the Gospel. He is telling us of the importance and value of community. This community here in Bellerby is really good at coming together, working together and supporting each other and that reflects out into the community because it signifies who we are.

There is strength in numbers and by working together as the two churches we can do so much more, and Stephen is encouraged by the work we have done so far.

God is telling us to look at the new green shoots and not the dead wood – the things that are going well and helping us to move forward.

Stephen wanted to thank everyone here for the part they play within the church and community. Here everyone just gets on and does stuff and that is such a reassurance to him, and it feels like real support. He thinks that here at Bellerby we are on a really positive road and way forward.

Election of the PCC: St Johns’s has 6 elected places for laity onto the PCC.

The following nominations were received:

Kathleen Fuller

Caroline Humphris

Liz Scott

Marcia Singleton

Bob Walker

Steve Wilkinson

Howard Binks has today resigned his place on the PCC but he will continue to support us from the pews. Stephen thanked Caroline for standing for PCC – it is good to have a new voice joining us.

As there were no other nominations all were duly elected to serve on the PCC for the coming year.

Any Other Business: None

The meeting was duly closed and followed by a presentation on Safeguarding by Marcia Singleton who was appointed as Benefice Safeguarding Officer earlier in the year.

Stephen thanked Marcia for all the work she has done in her safeguarding role over the past few months.