Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Minutes of the meeting of 22nd May 2022 held in St Matthew’s Church

Present: Reverend Stephen Hanscombe (Chair), Jan Carnell (Secretary) and 21 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 prayer.

Apologies: Carol Leaman

Minutes of the Parishioners Meeting 2021: Eileen Jackson proposed, and Dave Spashett 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:

Bob Mathews

Chris Wheatley

As there were no other nominations Bob and Chris were re-elected as Churchwardens for the coming year.

Stephen thanked them for all the work they have undertaken this year and supporting us in the leadership of our church once again. It is a real strength for us that we have a full set of Churchwardens both here and at Bellerby which is truly a blessing for us all.

Jan Carnell will continue as Deputy Churchwarden to support the work of Stephen, Bob and Chris.

Stephen thanked Bob for standing again and thanked Chris and Jan for their offers of support.

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 22nd May 2022 held in St Matthew’s Church

Present: Reverend Stephen Hanscombe (Chair), Jan Carnell (Secretary) and 21 Parishioners

Business of the Church Meeting

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

Apologies: Carol Leaman

Minutes of the Business of the Church Meeting 2021: Janet Chester proposed, and Alex Pearson 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.

Electoral Roll Report: There were 43 names on the roll at the APCM 2021 since then 5 names have been added and no names have been removed therefore the number of names on the Leyburn Parish Electoral Roll is 48. The next full revision of the Roll is in 2025.

Annual Report of the PCC: There was a query about the reference to exploring and developing interactive experience for visitors within the report. Stephen clarified that he and Jan are putting together a Matthew Mouse Trail which takes visitors around the church looking for the Mouseman carvings in certain items of furniture within the church.

Annual Report of the Financial Affairs of the Parish: The 2021 Annual Report and Financial Statement had already been approved by the PCC. A copy of the accounts has been available for inspection with the APCM booklet.

Paul added a few notes to clarify some points:

We had a deficit of £13,334 last year.

This is because of all of the payments we made from our Restricted Funds most of which were from our Re-Ordering and Repair Fund.

Our 2021 receipts increased because of fewer lockdowns. Some of the payment for our Parish Share was diverted to Askrigg to enable them to pay their share instead of going straight to the Diocese.

We had a £3,000 deficit in our Unrestricted Fund which is the money we use for the day-to-day running of the church.

Our total cash funds are down but this is because of the deficit

Stephen thanked Paul for his hard work and enthusiasm and thanks also went to Janet Chester for banking all of the money that comes into church.

Appointment of the Independent Examiner: Paul Carnell proposed and Chris Wheatley seconded that David Liddell continue as our Independent Examiner. All agreed

A report upon the fabric, goods and ornaments of the church: Bob didn’t want to add anything else to the report in the booklet. Although, he did want to share with us his thoughts on ‘looking ahead’ and his recent experiences of listening to Bishop Helen-Ann speaking.

Bishop Helen-Ann has been talking about reflecting on where the church is. He wanted to pass on her thanks because the church is all of us gathered here and the church is sound because of this.

As we come out of Covid we are all exhausted and we need to move on from this slowly. This is what she refers to as ‘Slow Church’. The theme Bob has for the church this coming year is very much how to pace ourselves as we move slowly forward.

We all need to be resilient at this time. Just knowing how difficult the last year has been and the threats ahead of us as we look forward means we have to have resilience.

Our building is fragile at the moment. There is a hole in the roof and we lost a lot of slates last year. It will not be a quick process to replace the roof.

So, the roof is fragile, and as Paul’s accounts show our finances are very fragile and all of our plans depend on money.

This is where the spiritual and the practical join to become all in one because we’re really going to have to depend on God this year in order to fill the gap that there is in our financial accounts.

Bishop Helen-Ann talked about Cardboard Church. This is with reference to the new Cathedral in Christchurch that has been rebuilt using cardboard having fallen down in the earthquake. Cardboard is actually a much, much better material to build out of when your foundations are being shaken. Bob feels that the coming year may shake some of our foundations and he is looking at how to build a church out of cardboard both perhaps spiritually and physically. Over the past year we have turned the building into a space we can use for the community and our challenge over the coming year is how we can use this space for the benefit of the community.

Bob then took questions from the floor and a short discussion took place round the repair of the roof. As a listed building, which is part of the heritage of our nation, our church must be preserved as it was constructed and so therefore modern materials cannot be used. When the church was built 150 years ago Welsh slate was the cheapest option but obviously that is no longer the case, and it is now difficult to obtain. However, we must repair with like for like and also a third to half of the cost will be for the scaffolding.

We will apply for a grant from the Co-op Local Community Fund. This supports projects across the UK that their members care about. They support 3 projects a year.

Stephen thanked Bob from everybody for all his hard work especially as much of what he does is unseen. He was given a round of applause.

A report on the proceedings of the Wensley Deanery Synod: We are well represented here in Leyburn with Robin as our Lay Representative, Bob as LayVice Chair and Stephen as Assistant Area Dean. However, we are not fully represented as we are entitled to have two representatives. If anyone would be interested in becoming a Deanery Synod Representative then please speak Bob or Robin for more information on the role.

Our Deanery Synod is a really good source of support and encouragement and is going to be very important over the coming years for the future of the church in Wensleydale.

Stephen thanked Robin for his report.

Election of Deanery Synod Representatives: There were no nominations for the vacancy as Lay Deanery Synod Representative.

Safeguarding: There are no safeguarding issues to report.

Janet Chester has been our Parish Safeguarding Officer for many years but expressed a wish to stand down at last year’s APCM. We are pleased that Marcia Singleton has stepped into this role and Stephen thanked Janet very much for her years of service. She was given a round of applause.

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

He has been reflecting on the year of 2021 with its lockdowns but lots of things did happen last year despite this, culminating with the Christmas Fair when we were able to use this new space and bring people from the community into our church. It showed us how we can use the building to serve the community which was one of the original objectives and this is really encouraging.

Stephen finished his report by asking us to think about what God is telling us for the future. We can look back and say thank you for what has happened but actually we want to be moving forward and Stephen has been reflecting on what God is telling us about where we are and where we’re going.

He is telling us to focus on and be encouraged by the good news of the Gospel because that is our foundation, that is what we are all about in both the good times and the challenging times. God is telling the value and importance of community. Even though we may be smaller in number than we were before, he has brought us together as a real community and there is a strength in that. Working together as a Benefice and with the other churches in the town is really important and shows there is strength in working in numbers.

We need to focus on looking for the ‘green shoots’ not the dead wood because here there is hope. Yes, we have our challenges, but we must focus on being positive and being hopeful.

He thanked everyone for making his job so much easier and for everything people are doing here in God’s name and being blessed with a praying community.

Stephen was given a round of applause.

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

The following nominations were received from:

Jan Carnell

Alison Hunt

Eileen Jackson

Kath Spashett

Anne Wilkinson

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

This means that we have one casual vacancy and Stephen urged that prayerful consideration be given as to whether people would like to become a member of the PCC.

Stephen thanked everyone for serving on our PCC during the last year and for standing again.

Any Other Business: Carol Monk made comment about donating food here in church to the Upper Wensleydale Foodbank. She felt that there should be better signage and notices outside church so that passers by were made aware that we are collecting. This is a good way of showing our involvement in the community. She also suggested that we have a hygiene box that toiletries and feminine hygiene products could be donated into so that people could take these items if they were in particular need.

Dono Leaman raised the subject of people leaving prayers on the prayer board in the Lady Chapel and that these be used during intercessions because of the power of concentrated prayer by all the people in church. There is going to be a prayer box available shortly in the Chapel and any prayers placed in there will be used during Morning and Evening Prayer.

He also raised a point on behalf of his wife Carol who would like the PCC to consider making easier disabled access to the vestry back door for vehicles as this really needs to be better for dropping off and picking up – especially in inclement weather. Jan will put this on the next PCC Agenda.

Stephen thanked everyone for giving their time to attend the meeting.

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.

Roof Appeal: We are today formally launching our roof appeal. Our roof needs repair and we are going to have an appeal to raise money for this. We are going to put our trust in God that he will provide and in fact we have already had a donation of £50,000 towards the repairs.

We are going to start with a Gift Day Coffee Morning next Saturday here in St Matthew’s between 10.00am and 12.30pm. Stephen urged everyone to invite people to come along and make a donation or gift and have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

We have set up a Just Giving page so that people can give online if they prefer. The meeting closed with a Prayer and The Grace.