PCC MEETING 18TH MAY 2006
Father Stephen was unwell and Peter Ginnings presided over the meeting of the PCC held on 18th May 2006. Having welcomed new members, Natasha Blumenthal, Teri Weber and Steve Clark, we appointed officers for the year; Gaynor Bassey as electoral roll officer, Robert Welsford as stewardship secretary and Inigo Woolf as treasurer.
As matters arising we heard that although the overall cost of painting the churchyard railings had increased to £20,000 (and now included the ABG railings) only £5,000 was needed to complete the work which it was hoped might be raised by a mailing to the Hampstead and Heath Society. There was no news yet on a replacement for Father Terence.
Alison Berryman, Melanie Batley, Richard Batley, Wayne Buckingham, Judith Bumpus, Patricia Edwards, Charles Fish, Nicholas Hobson, Ms Olayinka, Wendy Rix, Kevin Josling were welcomed on to the electoral roll, bringing the total to 467 names.
John Willmer tabled a report on the area council meeting on 3rd May, amplifying what he had been written about PSALM which was a separate charity, the due purpose of developing care for the elderly and harnessing the human resources of the elderly. A list of seminars and courses will be available on the church notice board and he encouraged members of the PCC to join the charity and participate in its work.
The main business of the business was to discuss volunteering in the Parish. Peter opened the discussion by pointing out that the mission action plan prepared last year had contained many good ideas, few of which had been realised. Why was that? He suggested there were four key questions:
* What was it important for the Parish to do more of and less of? * What keeps the clergy so busy and how might they use their time differently? * If there no constraints on staffing, what would be the most useful staff to have and what extra gifts might we want to recruit (either in clergy or lay help)? * Why do we have problems in finding volunteers? Were people waiting to be asked? How do we find out who is capable and willing to do more?
We then divided into smaller groups to discuss these questions and the following points emerged from the plenary discussion afterwards.
1. Some thought there should be more work with young single people (especially in conjunction with other churches) and less concerts and services (in particular midweek morning communions). Many saw a building programme to improve the office space, provide space for meeting and a general renovation as a priority. The 12.15 service of Holy Communion was often poorly attended, although valued by those who did attend. Its timing meant that clergy, especially when they were thin on the ground, could not meet parishioners after the 10:30 service. Thought should be given to, for example, changing the times (and perhaps length) of services to allow the clergy more time to meet with the parishioners. The present pattern of services, both weekday and on Sundays, had been established on the basis of there being three priests available; there was obvious strain when there was only one priest. 2. In an ideal world, the Parish would employ a fundraiser, and a communications officer, both to improve communications within the Parish and draw more people into its work and communication with outside bodies. Besides employing full-time senior curate, it was suggested that an “official presence” in the church would be helpful at times when it was open but there was no service. This might be in a form of a verger or some other person on duty to help visitors on questions ranging from architecture to social services, but chiefly to emphasise that the building was a living institution, when not in use for services.
3. The first step in encouraging people to volunteer was to find out what they had to offer and another survey of the skills, experience, available among the congregation was proposed. It might be better to elicit this information by meeting new members of the congregation on a social occasion. New members were likely to be relatively free of commitment and willing to volunteer.
4. It was clear that each element in the mission action plan needed a champion, an individual or group committed to realising its aims and raising the support to do so. Equally, if members of the congregation could be encouraged to feel that they “owned” a project (whether because they asked for it, voted for it, or had otherwise been part of its initiation) then they would feel an obligation to support it, whether the time, money or skills. It was observed that there was a divide between the American and English experience; in the US a positive decision was needed to join a church and membership had a meaning.. The Church of England, as the established church, was what you belong to if you did not belong to anything else and accordingly had far less corporate sense of commitment.
In my absence, the PCC resolved to approve my nomination as a candidate for readership and to give me support in practice and prayer in this project- which I shall need.
We then moved on to faculty matters and Handley Stevens explained the need for the proposed moveable platform for the piano. It was accepted that such a platform was not ideal, although he thought that most of the objections had been met in the design. Other ways of raising the piano for special concerts would be investigated and he would re-visit the question at the next meeting in the light of that information. An application for a new memorial stone incorporating Dionys Moore’s name on a replacement stone for her parents was approved.
The Parochial School wished to give a wall hanging to go behind the altar on the (compass) south side of the church, but no designs were yet available. The gift was part of the sesquicentennial celebrations on 4th July, which would be before the next PCC meeting. So a small group was appointed to assist the vicar in approving the design in order to apply for a temporary archdeacon’s faculty.
Finally, Angela Gardner and Nina Trebilcock were appointed as PCC Governors of the school.