The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

The PCC’s last meeting of 2017 was held on 13 November.

We received reports from the Pastoral Care, Social Action and Children & Young People’s Working Parties.  Chris Money and Marilyn Brooks, who have jointly chaired the CYPWP for several years, are standing down in January and the PCC approved the appointment of Vanessa Fitzpatrick and Anna Aston to take over from them.  Chris is also standing down as a Governor of Hampstead Parochial School, and we approved the appointment of Ciaran Foulkes to replace her.
  
The Vicar also announced the appointment of our new Director of Music, Peter Foggitt, and our prospective curate (from June 2018) Ayla Lepine. 
 
We discussed the arrangements for the C4WS Night Shelter and received an update on the plans for the church to sponsor a Syrian refugee family – in particular we were delighted to learn that an offer of accommodation had now been received and that pledges of financial support were well in excess of the minimum requirement.

As a first step towards the planned redecoration of the church, we are starting to consider the renewal of the interior lighting.  This will require specialist professional advice, and after reviewing proposals from two firms the PCC has agreed to engage Light Perceptions, a design consultancy with extensive experience of lighting design for historic buildings, including Hereford Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey and many smaller churches, to provide an initial concept design report for a new lighting scheme.  We also considered possible proposals to place solar panels on the church roof as our contribution to the Church of England’s objective of increasing the use of renewable energy.  We agreed that there should be further research into the feasibility and economic viability of this idea and the PCC will then give it further consideration. 

The PCC’s next regular meeting will be on 19 February, but we have also arranged an “Away Day” on Saturday 27 January when the PCC Members will have an opportunity to discuss in more depth the Parish’s Mission Action Plan for the next five years, taking into account the responses to the recent Parish Survey.