Parish of Portslade St. Nicolas & St. Andrew and Mile Oak Good Shepherd,
Minutes from the PCC meeting on 27th February at 7:30pm
in The Church of the Good Shepherd.
1. Opening prayer by Fr Andrew Perry
2. Present: Terry Boxall; JohnWright; Brian Taylor; Marian Burke; Dave Sharp; Doug Beard; Ann Beard; Alan Langridge; David Quantrill; Debbie Cook; Averil Mitchell; Angela MacMillan; Sarah Peck; Roger Reeve; Ted Wilks; Gill Wilks; Andy Stove; Fr. Andrew Birks; Fr. Andrew Perry. Apologies for absence: Fr David Swyer, Clive Holding and Stuart Hutchin
3. Agreement of previous minutes agreed nem con.
4. Matters Arising: Letter received from Archdeacon in support of placing the Royal British Legion's Women’s Section standard in St Nicolas church. This has now been forwarded to the Chancellor of Diocese of Chichester, for a dispensation from Faculty. The RBL have asked for the flag placing to be done as part of a Sunday service. Some confusion over telephone line(s) into St Nicolas Parish Centre and whether the parish or Baby Ducks are responsible for the bill. Andy Stove to get copy of phone bill and check this out.
5. Correspondence: A thank you letter from the Children’s Society for the £118.80 received from the Christingle celebration.
6. Financial Report : Andy Stove presented the 2016 annual Statement of Accounts, which need to be approved by the Accountant before being signed off. Figures shown in bracket are negative. Net expenditure is much higher than income due to work on improving St Nicolas and the Good Shepherd churches and both halls. Restricted funds are slightly different than predicted and Unrestricted funds are better than expected. We will have to be careful with cash flow and general expenditure while building expenses are going on. Ted Wilks asked what was included under “Other Expenditure” on page 7 of the accounts. Andy Stove noted that one major factor was £6,993.00 pilgrimage expenses which was noted separately. Another major element was fees being repaid to the diocese, which could be “tidied up” by following the recommended practice of quoting fee income net of what would have to be repaid. This change will be made before the accounts are submitted for examination. It is hoped that next PCC will be able to approve the Accounts ahead of the APCM. Andy Stove also conï¬rmed all utilities are now moved to the Utility Warehouse and that the latest Southern Water bill for St Andrews is not excessive.
7. Reports i. Deanery Synod met 7th Feb. Andy Stove reported the Deanery had a windfall from the sale of Holy Trinity, the Deanery Chairman has proposed using the money as a “Revolving fund” for Mission from which parishes could borrow. This has been agreed in principle by Diocesan Board of Finance and the Deanery Synod ofï¬cers are in the process of setting up a charitable fund. There was also a presentation by Diane Kutar about the latest workings of the General Synod.
ii. Churches Together in Portslade met 16 Jan. New ofï¬cers were elected: Janet Walker (Baptist) Chairperson, Susan Edwards (Baptist) Secretary and Jean Cranford (URC) Treasurer. There will be no annual subscription to CTiP this year. They are hoping to do some collecting for Christian Aid in Station Road in May. Next meeting 13th March, then 15th May in St. Nicolas. iii. Standing committee not met. iv. Development of St. Nicolas: a meeting is scheduled with the architect 7 March 2pm to ï¬nalise some details before going to the Chancellor for Faculty. v. Social and Fund Raising committee. Met 17 January. List of events attached. vi. Fabric committee: not met vii. Mission and Outreach committee: meeting postponed. A question was raised about the Toddler Group Fund (£200) and its purpose. It was agreed that this should be available for any project for Children’s Ministry in the parish. Materials for a Messy Church project on 5 May were suggested.
8. St.Nicolas School: Regular contact is still being made, now by all three clergy. Fr Andrew Perry recently had a group in church to talk about baptism.
9. Any other business See blue sheet for dates on Holy Week. Proposal for Portslade Green Village Fayre to be run in the future by a local committee with representatives from local voluntary groups. PCC discussed all items from yellow sheet. It was noted it would be too late to invite schools to attend this year. Andy Stove suggested the church offer to be banker for ï¬rst year. General feelings in favour of this direction. St Nicolas churchyard wall proposal : “The PCC conï¬rms approval of routine repair and restoration works to the St. Nicolas churchyard walls by the local authority experienced stonemasons in accordance with a schedule of works to be prepared and veriï¬ed by the church architect, including speciï¬cation of mortar mixes.” Proposed Fr. Perry, seconded by BrianTaylor, voting 18 for; 0 against; 0 abstentions.
10. Closing prayer
Meeting ended 20.59 DoNM 5 April 2017: APCM Sunday 9 April 2pm