Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Minutes of the Procedural Meeting of the Parochial Church Council held on the 22nd May 2022 in St Matthew’s Church

Present: Reverend Stephen Hanscombe, Jan Carnell (Secretary) and PCC members

Stephen thanked everyone for joining the PCC for the coming year and explained that at this procedural meeting we would be appointing our officers.

Election of Lay Vice-Chair: As this role traditionally falls to a Churchwarden Eileen Jackson proposed, and Chris Wheatley seconded that Bob Mathews be re-elected as Lay Vice-Chair. As there were no other nominations Bob was duly re-elected. He will Chair meetings in Stephen’s absence.

Appointment of Treasurer: Bob Mathews proposed, and Eileen Jackson seconded that Paul Carnell continue in his role as PCC Treasurer, all agreed.

Appointment of PCC Secretary: Bob Mathews proposed, and Anne Wilkinson seconded that Jan Carnell be appointed as PCC Secretary, all agreed.

Electoral Roll Officer: Jan is happy to continue in this role.

Jan has said that she will continue for another year but would appreciate someone else stepping forward to take on this role from the next APCM.

Parish Environment Officer: Chris Wheatley has offered to step into this role and everyone thanked him for doing this.

Matter of Business: Bob Mathews proposed, and Chris Wheatley seconded that we once again make our 10% extra payment of our Parish Share to Askrigg rather than direct to the Diocese. It would be best to pay them now instead of at the end of the year so that they are able to make a payment and not appear on the Bishop’s list as a total zero payment. All agreed.

The first meeting of this new PCC will be on Tuesday 26th July at 7 p.m. in St Matthew’s Church.

Electoral Roll Report

Following a personal review of the Electoral Roll in August 2022, historical errors were found. Having corrected these and with the addition of 2 names and the removal of 1 name at the APCM 2023 the number on the roll now stands at 50.

Jan Carnell Electoral Roll Officer

Pcc Secretary Report

With meetings back in full swing following the restrictions of the pandemic it was good to be able to get back together once again on a regular basis. Many of the things that had been put on hold could now be moved forward and put into action.

Following the appointment of Marcia Singleton as Benefice Safeguarding Officer, safeguarding has been a major talking point for members. Marcia has worked tirelessly to get everything up to date and in place, undertake training, oversee the training now required by members and maintain our Safeguarding Dashboard. All of this is important work ensures that our church is a safe place for all. Thank you, Marcia.

The main point of discussion this year has of course been the repairs to the roof. A massive undertaking financially, we were so lucky to have been blessed with extremely generous donations to help us with this work. I have personally been involved in researching grants and undertaking Diocese training to help us better understand how to be more successful in our grant applications. We held a Gift Day in April and thanks to Kath Spashett, her enthusiasm and her brilliant ideas (keep them coming Kath – when she’s on a roll there’s no stopping her!) we held some fundraising events to help us top our roof pot up a bit further. I was able to secure us a conditional grant of £2,000 for the roof via the Diocese Church Building Grant Scheme which we will receive once we have started the work. Fingers crossed and funds in place, this will be before winter 2023.

The PCC also considered the best method of communication. How to get information about what’s happening in church out into the community is always a bit of a dilemma. We have our website and Facebook page (lovingly curated by Gillian – thank you), our Weekly News and posters and flyers but is this enough? I would really appreciate any thoughts you might have on how we can improve our communications with you and what your preferred method would be.

Our Quinquennial inspection was due this year and we received a comprehensive summary of the architect’s findings. Thanks, as always, go to Bob for his unstintingly dogged determination when it comes to all things maintenance and fabric of the church. However, lack of funds may prevent us moving forward with some of the required repairs and so some creative thinking around fundraising and getting money into the repair fund will have to take place. Maintaining a church is always a worry for a PCC but we are determined to ensure that this vital work is carried out so that we can preserve the church for future generations.

We are also grateful to Chris Wheatley for taking on the role of our Environmental Officer and he has been engaged in some very interesting research and work to comply with the Diocese wish that all churches become carbon net-zero by 2030 which he has been presenting at meetings. We look forward to seeing how this will affect change in the coming months and years.

The PCC continue to reflect on our future vision for St Matthew’s and the opportunities this may hold. I look forward to some interesting, challenging and future-making discussions at forthcoming meetings.

Jan Carnell PCC Secretary

TREASURER’S REPORT

Firstly and most importantly, I’d like to thank all those who are members of our ‘Planned Giving’. Your regular donations accounted for 53% of St Matthew’s General Fund income in 2022. May I also take this opportunity to encourage all those who attend St Matthew’s and all those on the church’s Electoral Roll who do not already give in this way to consider joining the people who give to St Matthew’s via the Parish Giving Scheme, or by setting up a bank Standing Order directly to the church. Details can be obtained either from myself or from our website, www.leyburn.church.

Service collections saw a 73% increase and an additional donor to the Parish Giving Scheme saw those donations rise by 12%. Most gratifyingly, many of our donors on the Scheme allow their monthly donations (and the gift-aid claimed on them) to rise with inflation.

Fund-raising was starting to get back in full swing, post-pandemic. This included £334 raised at September’s Bellerby Quiz Night and £649 at the

Christmas Fair (the proceeds of both events were shared between St John’s and St Matthews). Our Gift Day in May generated an amazing £10,390 which went into our newly-opened Designated Roof Repair Fund.

The 2022 Parish Share Request that goes to the Diocese of Leeds to help pay clergy stipends and housing costs was £12,406. The PCC once again chose to pay more than was asked of it, sending an extra 10% to the Parochial Church Council of Askrigg to help them with their Parish Share Request, consequently adding to the amount contributed by Wensley Deanery.

Our Restricted funds were reduced from £14,664 to £6,462, major payments being the £5,970 which was the second half of the cost of the 60 new chairs and the £4,177 for carpeting St Matthew’s.

Paul Carnell Treasurer

CHURCHWARDENS’ REPORT

Building Fabric

Over the last year we have focused on repairs to the roofs. We have prepared specifications and gone out to tender and are now in negotiation with the best tenderer to allow us to replace the covering on the southern side of the roofs. We have failed to raise adequate funds to allow us to repair all the roofs.

We have not been able to proceed with any other work on the planned heating improvements because of lack of funds.

Because of cash shortage we cannot progress with the plans for an office and vestry in the North Aisle.

A quinquennial inspection was undertaken and as well as repairs to roof there is a list of other maintenance work recommended in the next five years with costs estimated to be £172,650.

We have searched for grants and been told that there are none available. Therefore, we have to note that our liabilities exceed our available funding and we have no means to maintain the building fabric as recommended by the Architect.

The church has in place a Maintenance Plan, which requires maintenance to be considered by the PCC on an ongoing regular basis between each Quinquennial Survey, and all necessary work has been completed. At present apart from the roofs there are no significant outstanding items.

Terriers and Church Logbook

The Terriers and Logbook are in place but last dated 2005. A check shows that there are no significant discrepancies in the Terriers. Due to pressure on the churchwardens these have not been updated. Once Jan and Paul have some time in their schedule they will work with Stephen, Bob and Chris to remedy this.

A recent review of the Logbook shows the last recorded update was 2005 and time and effort will be needed to transfer the data from the Churchwarden’s electronic records into the logbook.

Registers

The legal registers have been kept up-to-date and they are stored as required in the safe. The whole system for marriage registration has now been changed and put online.

Health & Safety

There have been no Health and Safety issues during the past year. The Policies and Risk Assessments were reviewed in January. No issues arose from this

Services

Since Covid services have returned to a normal routine although we have continue to stream Sunday morning communion services.

Morning prayer takes place three times per week by zoom. Evening prayer twice per week in church.

We have started an informal midweek communion on Wednesdays.

We are planning an informal family service called LIGHT Church on the afternoon of the last Sunday in the month.

Vision

Since Covid we have not met for a Vision Day. Although we have continued to undertake small steps as part of delivering our vision.

Mission and Growth

The projects to support the town, Leyburn good Neighbours and Soup n Pud had grown slowly and steadily through the year. A new person is still required to support Marj Blake’s excellent work to ensure that members of the congregation own these schemes, especially Good Neighbours. Last year we enabled a Parents and Toddlers group to start every Tuesday morning in term time. This has been successful with about 17 parents attending and slightly more toddlers.

The House Group continues and we have run LLF discussion groups and Lent and Advent groups.

Message in the Movies ceased during Covid and now takes place in the Lower Wensley Benefice.

Benefice Website

The website www.leyburn.church gives extensive information about the Benefice, and is maintained by our Treasurer Paul Carnell with some input from Churchwarden Chris Wheatley.

Bob Mathews and Chris Wheatley Churchwardens

A Report On The Proceedings Of The Wensley Deanery Synod

This year has been dominated by a discussion of net zero carbon and environmental issues. The aim was to allow the subject to be thoroughly discussed with feedback from PCCs, and actions undertaken. The actions needs to continue if we are to reach net zero by 2030 and the feedback was patchy and so the relationship between deanery and PCCs needs to be worked on. This year has seen us continue with a nearly full complement of clergy. The only gap being the curate post in Lower Swale which remains unfilled.

Throughout the year the Deanery Synod met four times

4th May 2022 in person at Chantry Hall in Bedale for a prophetic talk by Bishop Helen-Ann

7th June 2022 in person at St. Michael’s Church, Kirklington

14th September 2022 in person at St Matthew’s Church, Leyburn

15th November 2022 by Zoom

The Standing committee has continued to meet by Zoom.

10th May 2022

3rd August 2022

18th October 2022

There have been presentations by: Bishop Helen-Ann

Reverend Jeff Payne and Jemima Parker, Diocese Environment Officer on the Diocesan Environmental and Zero Carbon Plan.

Dave Bookless from A Rocha International on the Theology of Environmental Care

Anne Readshaw about biodiversity

Jude Smith on Barnabas encouraging confidence

There have been discussions on:

Environmental and Zero Carbon Plans

Feedback from PCCs on the environment

Safeguarding

Focus for 2023 on The Barnabas initiative ‘encouraging confidence

All other business was of a routine nature.

The Finance Task Group has visited the following benefices to support them in meeting Parish Share

Upper Wensleydale

Penhill

Jervaulx

The Finance Task Group aims to visit other Benefices over the next year

The following Deanery events were undertaken:.

Ascension Day Open Air Joint Service with the Methodists at Jervaulx Abbey 7pm, Thursday 26th May 2022

Members of the Deanery supported the Wensleydale show with the Church on Show stand

Deanery Prayer meetings have continued in the churches around the Deanery, but attendance has been limited to a few dedicated individuals.

Bob Matthews Lay Chair, Wensley Deanery

During the year I have been reporting on the activity of the Deanery Synod for both the parishes of the Benefice and as St. Matthew’s lay representative. I passed on to the Deanery St. Matthew’s response to the objective of making our church carbon net zero. We now have a Parish Environmental Officer to take our environmental concerns forward.

It was interesting for the Deanery Synod to hear the insights of our area Bishop on mission as seen from an episcopal perspective, although these insights turned out to be closing remarks as she has moved on to become the new Bishop of Newcastle.

The Deanery Synod starts its year in January and so the last meeting mentioned in Bob’s report is the first of four in which the resourcing of the church’s future mission is going to be addressed as part of what has become known as the Barnabas Initiative. I will continue to report on this to the church councils during the rest of this synod, whose three-year term finishes at the end of this calendar year. Lay representatives for the next three years are due to be elected at this Annual Parochial Church Meeting.

Robin Newsam Lay Representative

Environmental Report

As part of our commitment to achieving carbon net zero by 2030, we have: Switched our power supply to a green (renewable tariff) with SSE. Offset our carbon use for 2021 by calculating this and paying £173.34 to Climate Stewards, who carry out various community carbon projects around the world, such as providing Fireless cookers in Uganda, smokeless metal stoves in Nepal, and plastic recycling in Uganda, as well as planting trees in various countries. We now need to do the same for 2022.

Begun formulating plans to switch our heating to electricity but must wait until we have the funds available.

Registered with ‘A Rocha’, the Eco-Church award scheme and achieved Silver in Worship and Teaching, and Bronze in Church Building, but not made much progress with the other sections; Land, Community and Global Engagement, and Lifestyle. I don’t think we can do much with the land, and are not willing to do anything with Lifestyle, because it means obtaining details of travel costs etc from all our congregation! However, regarding community engagement, Gillian came across a group called “North Yorkshire Rotters” who attend schools, groups, and meetings to give talks on environmental projects. Their website indicates that they give talks on three topics; home composting; reduce, reuse and recycling; or a love/hate waste campaign. If we feel this is something we would like to support, would we want to host them in St Matthew’s or somewhere else?

Recently been approached by a group at the Catholic Church, wondering if we could combine efforts in engaging with the community. We have agreed to do this, but have yet to have a meeting. When we do, I could discuss the Rotters with them. Or they may have other suggestions that we would prefer.

Started to liaise with Steve Wilkinson, Parish Environment Officer for St John’s Church, Bellerby, with the aim of combining our efforts for the whole Benefice.

Chris Wheatley Parish Environmental Officer

Safeguarding Report

We have progressed well throughout the year with making St Matthews a safer Church for all. All policies are now in place which underpin our practice.

As discussed at last PCC meeting we have to progress this year with Domestic Abuse training and making sure my recruitment follows The Church of England guidance in recruitment as all other Church groups now follow.

There are Church groups that the PCC has authorised and many members of the congregation help to run. We have to make sure all groups have a safer recruitment process and this is gradually being rolled out.

We can have many policies in place but it is caring for one another that brings safeguarding alive and makes it everyone's business

Marcia Singleton Benefice Safeguarding Officer

CURATE’S REPORT

It hardly seems possible but the time has just flown since I became Assistant Curate in the Benefice of Leyburn and Bellerby on Saturday 2nd July at Wakefield Cathedral. Curacy began with such a welcoming Joint Benefice Service held in St Matthew's Church, Leyburn followed by what can only be described as a feast. We have been made so welcome as a family and we are very very grateful for the support, kindness and friendship shown by everyone.

My first trip out as a brand new, slightly nervous curate was to Bellerby Open Gardens which was a great introduction to village life, and the connection has continued including the delights of being asked to bless the Queen's Jubilee Rose, and the Harvest Service in the Community Garden.

I can honestly say I have loved every moment of being a curate so far, with all the ups and downs of parish life. Who would have thought that in a few short months there would have been such variety (and in no particular order!)Remembrance Sunday events, the death of The Queen, the Leeds Diocesan Clergy Conference, Harvest services, Warm Spaces, Bellerby Ladies' Bible Study Group, Advent Group, Advent and Christmas services including Crib, the first Christingle in Bellerby, Lessons and Carols in both Leyburn and Bellerby, Carols in the pub, the lighting of the tree, PCC meetings, Soup and Pud, Leyburn Jazz Festival, the Christmas Fair, Christmas dinner, the Bellerby Quiz and Supper, Parent and Toddler Group, becoming Chaplain to the Cadets in Wensleydale School, visiting Wensleydale School and Leyburn Primary School, the Bellerby Posada, my first baptism, assisting at a wedding, several funerals, many Sunday Services, Morning Prayer in person and on Zoom, Evening Prayer, Compline and many many conversations, cups of tea and cake!

Thank you so much for such variety in the first few months, and a huge thank you to Stephen for his patience, encouragement and care.

Reverend Gillian Lunn Assistant Curate

VICAR’S REPORT

We have certainly had a great year, one in which we have finally been able to focus on our building of God’s kingdom in our parish and in our Benefice. We have had to work out ways to ensure that we have the finances to enable our church to run on a day by day, week by week basis as well as work to secure finances to enable us to do the vital work to repair and maintain our building. This is going to be an ongoing concern for the church nationally as well as us locally here in Leyburn.

However, having finally got our carpeted area at the back of church we have seen our building used in different ways and we have seen many people come through our doors. So many people just pop into church and find it a place to encounter the divine (we even had some well known visitors during the year; Reverend Richard Coles, Reverend Kate Bottley and the Archbishop of York). The Parent and Toddler Group on a Tuesday is a great success and I am so pleased that so many children, parents, grandparents and carers are taking the opportunity to come along and they have built a great community of support and care for each other. I am also very grateful for the volunteers from our churches (both Leyburn and Bellerby) who take the time to come along and serve tea and coffee and also prepare the fruit and mountains of toast that are consumed at snack time. What a blessing this all is.

We have seen the church used for concerts, particularly during the Jazz Festival and there are exciting ideas for coming years in the pipeline so watch this space.

It was amazing to see how the local community came into church during the 10 days following the death of The Queen and how good that we could offer this as a place of sanctuary for people.

We have been so blessed by Gillian joining us this year. The service and lunch on the day following her ordination as a Deacon was a wonderful celebration and a great way to meet her and her family. Gillian has already brought so much to our Benefice and I know that her ministry is touching so many people. Please pray for her as she approaches her ordination to the priesthood and we look forward to all that she will bring to us during the rest of her curacy.

We have continued to run different groups during the week: Bob and Alison’s Thursday group, Living in Love and Faith Course, the Bellerby based group looking at Women in The Bible, and the Advent Course based on the Archbishops of York’s Book, ‘Walking Backwards to Christmas’. It is so good to come together in these groups and reflect on different aspects of scripture and our faith.

We have a truly wonderful and welcoming church community which people who visit or who have moved into the town value when they come along. We have had many memorable services during the year and I am grateful for the ministry of others including Carol Monk, Bob Mathews and David Cleeves which is an encouragement to us all. We have seen God truly working in our community and I will never forget the wonderful Easter Service in April where we were joined by so many people and also the many services at Christmas where people came to be part of the worship happening (there were over 100 at the Crib Service), the Remembrance Service and the services to remember and mourn the death of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Please continue to pray for the building of God’s Kingdom here.

I would like to thank everyone for their love and faithfulness, for the offering of gifts and talents which are too numerous to mention and all who contribute to the life of the church.

Rev. Stephen Hanscombe