Co-ordinated Parochial Church Council held on 19th September 2024 in Church Cottage, Wheldrake
Present: The Revd. J Doyle-Brett (Chair), The Revd D Long, Mr P Botting (W) (Minutes), Mr E Smith (W), Mr N Black (W), Mr I Broster (E), Dr A Stead (E), Mrs T Martin (W), Mrs B Carter (W), Dr A Hodgson (W), Mrs J Patrick (T), Mrs J Crowder (T),Mr S Reilly-Usher (S), Mrs E Garnham (T), Mrs R Smith (W), Mrs E Sherbourne-Spence (S), Dr D Mawer (W) and Mrs J Bartram (SF)
Apologies: Mr K Jaynes (W), Mrs M Rawet (W), Mr G Denby (W), Mrs B Urwin (W), Mr S Fell (T), and Mrs A Dodd (W)
Opening worship: Prayer was led by The Revd. J Doyle-Brett
Mrs Jenny Bartram Warden from Stillingfleet was introduced to the meeting
| COMMENT | ACTION | |
| 30/24 | The Deanery Financial Advisor – Mr Phil McBride came to speak to the CPCC about our Free Will Offer. He outlined where we currently stand covering the cost of ministry within the partnership. We are well on our way to meeting our target of £80,000 but by 2031 there will be a potential increase of 2% more due to inflation costs. There was a question about the cost of running the Diocesan Office, he replied that these cost had been pared right back. Increases in staffing are being met by bids for money from the Church Commissioners. It was explained that the money the Commissioners administer are endowments which are locked up, so only the interest can be distributed. | |
| 31/24 | Declaration of Interest: None | |
| 32/24 | Correction and adoption of minutes from 1st July 2024. The minutes were accepted as a correct record proposed by Dr A Hodgson and seconded by Mrs T Martin and agreed nem con. | |
| 33/24 | Action points from last meeting: There were none | |
| 34/24 | Priest in Charge’s report: The report had been circulated and was taken as read. I hope everyone had a lovely sabbath month of August and managed to have a holiday or rest from the usual things of life. September still feels like the start of a new term to me! I am delighted to be able to announce that our new House for Duty is the Reverend Robert Owen who was previously the Chaplain at Queen Margarets school. We will formally announce on Sunday the 15th. (So, if you are reading this before, please keep it confidential until then). Robert will be licensed at Wheldrake on the 14th of October at 7.30 by the Archdeacon in the meantime Robert will begin to worship across the partnership. I am also delighted to say that our new curate Debbie has made a great start, has settled in quickly and is enjoying her new role. The update on Francis is that he doing well and making a good recovery. As you know Bishop Flora will be joining us soon here in the York Diocese. Her consecration is at 11am on the 10th at York Minster. Bishop Flora will be preaching and presiding at Selby Abbey on November the 3rd at 3.30pm. All welcome. Bishop Flora is provisionally booked to come to us on the 2nd of March for a confirmation service. In July we had our PCC Away Day which was such a great day, I felt really inspired by everyone’s enthusiasm and commitment. Many of the hopes expressed was that we continue to build our ethos of ‘working together – supporting each other’ as we commit to becoming a congregation of congregations, living Christ’s story to make God’s love visible in our villages. Thank you so much to everyone involved. 5 Marks of Mission update following the away day discussions – I can tell you that we now have one of our new home groups starting at Elvington (details to follow). I have also made progress with our home communion group of volunteers and we will have some training etc at the beginning of next month (tba). At the Church Officers meeting we spoke about a new initiative by the Mothers Union which has been endorsed by the Archbishop of York and is called Rise Up. It is a campaign about Domestic Violence and how people can access help and support. The church wardens felt that this was an important campaign that we should also support across the partnership. Please discuss at PCCs. It very much ties in with both the Tend and Transform marks of mission. We also have a new Tend Team co-ordinator Bryony Beresford and when Robert starts, he will lead the Teach Team. We have beautiful churches across the Rivers Partnership, most are in good repair and some need a lot of repairs. At Stillingfleet we are trying to raise £90,000 pounds to replace part of the roof. We are of course applying for lots of grants but recently the grant providers have asked for our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy (EDI). We have produced a standard one (attached) please could I ask you to add to AOB for discussion and approval. It is important for grant applications but as churches who are endeavouring to be accessible and inclusive it is also very important that we adopt the EDI policy. A bit of very good news – after 12 months of monitoring the Sutton church tower it has been assessed as stable and has not moved further away from the nave | |
| 35/24 | Deanery Partnership report: Minutes of meeting held in St Helen’s Skipwith on 10 June 2024 at 7.30pm. Present: Revd Jackie Doyle-Brett (Area Dean and Chair), Revd Nick Garside, Revd Kath McBride, Revd Darius Traves, Claire Bale, Mr Paul Botting (Lay Chair), Mrs Margaret Eldridge, Mr John Ellwood, Mrs Alison Gilmour (secretary), Mrs Anne Gray, Mrs Judith Hewitt, Mr Phil McBride, Mrs Anne Saunders, Mrs Caroline Wandless. Julian Gray (treasurer, Osbaldwick w Murton) also attended. Revd Jackie introduced Revd Darius Traves (curate at Osbaldwick w. Murton), and gave notices of future dates across the Deanery parishes. 1 Revd Jackie invited us to pray in stillness and quiet for our own benefices and for the Deanery. We shared our aspirations and thanks. 2 Apologies for absence: Apologies for absence were received from Canon Linda Ali, Tracy Carr, Annie Hodgson, Susan Sellars, Joan Verrier 3 Minutes of the previous meeting: Minutes of the meeting of 29 January 2024 were proposed as correct by Judith Hewitt, seconded by Margaret Eldridge and accepted unanimously. There were no matters arising. 4 Living Christ’s Story; review of updated Deanery Plan: Page 1 has been amended and updated to reflect the current position and include our ALMs. Page 11 has details of progress with our action points (establishment of monthly on-line evening prayer, a Deanery Prayer calendar, making prayer the focus of our annual Deanery Quiet Days, more joint PCC meetings, Stewardship month planned for September with pulpit swaps on 4 successive Sundays – with the same message throughout from every pulpit). We intend to make the Diocese and Deanery visible as part of the body of Christ throughout the Deanery and emphasise that our Plan is grounded in prayer. It was agreed to remove the reference on page 5 to “Snappy”, Revd Darius asked us to look at accessibility (which O&M are learning about through working with Darius). Revd Jackie said it is not a choice to be compliant – we must survey our premises and find out what we can do while acknowledging what is not possible at the moment. Revd Jackie felt encouraged by people moving towards all vocations, including those following the formal ALM, LLM and ordination pathways from within our Deanery. 5 Treasurer’s report: Judith, Deanery Treasurer, reported that she had received £437 in donations towards a leaving gift for Bishop John and Sue (mostly presented to them as garden centre vouchers with cash and flowers making up the balance). We requested, in January, a donation of £25 per parish to Deanery funds (to be used for Deanery expenses, e.g. expenses and/or gift to speakers) and only 12 of the 17 parish units have responded positively, i.e. £300, giving us a cash balance of £424.97. 6 Financial report from DFA: Our Deanery Financial Adviser, Phil McBride, had circulated papers before the meeting and he updated us on our current position. Overall our Deanery members have paid more than our expenditure in support of our deanery clergy. Our generosity assists deficits from others across the Diocese and supports safeguarding. The average giving to the Diocese per deanery was 97% and we achieved 106%. Our pledge this year is greater than we need to support our current clergy, but when an appointment House for Duty priest is appointed to replace Revd Maxine we will be below by £5k. So far in 2024 we have paid over one-third of our pledge to the Diocese after one-third of the year. The next hurdle will be 2025 (our pledge for 2024 is less than that for 2023). Several parishes have not completed the Diocesan Energy footprint tool – it must be completed to let the Diocese look at grants to parishes. 7 Reports: Reports from our DLT and both synods had been circulated. Revd Jackie spoke of the General Synod motion regarding Bullying by Lay Officers (page 3 of 6) to consider whether a Code of Conduct was necessary. The motion was carried. Questions were raised around whether safeguarding/a code of conduct would create barriers to volunteering, whether a course could be in-person or online (different barriers there according to personal preference). We concluded that we need to communicate, look after each other, behave with consideration towards each other. Revd Jackie commended us each to take the Good News and prayer back to the parishes, remembering monthly Zoom Evening Prayer and our Prayer Calendar. She thanked our secretary, Alison, for her work. Revd Jackie closed the meeting with the Grace. The meeting closed at 9.05pm. | |
| 36/24 | Fees structure across the benefices: This was deferred. | |
| 37/24 | Safeguarding: – Photographic guidelines A document had been received from our parish safeguarding officer regarding the code of safer working practice on the safeguarding dashboard. The majority of the document was clear but one question had arisen, regarding the taking of photographs on church events with children. The guidelines say that personal phones should not be used as the image would them be stored on someone else’s personal device. The CPCC is to ensure that only a designated person takes photos at events featuring children, and once they have been uploaded, the photos must be deleted from the personal phone. Mr Broster asked for a copy of the document. Thanks were offered to Mrs Jo Young who has just stepped down from being our benefice safeguarding officer. Mr Mike Beresford will take over from her shortly. | PJB |
| 38/24 | Policies: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. This was introduced to the CPCC and they were asked to approve the document in their separate PCC meetings. | |
| 39/24 | AOB: There were no items |
Date of Next Meeting: Monday 11th November in Church Cottage from 7.00pm
Wheldrake Parochial Church Council meeting held on 19th September 2024
Present: (minutes), Mr P Botting (minutes), Mrs R. Smith Mrs T. Martin, Mr N. Black, Mr E Smith, Mrs B Carter (Chair), Dr A Hodgson and Dr D Mawer
Apologies: Mr K. Jaynes, Mrs A Dodd, Mr G Denby, Mrs B Urwin, Mrs M Rawet and Revd. J Doyle-Brett
| COMMENT | ACTION | |
| 47/24 | Declarations of Interest: There were no declarations of interest | |
| 48/24 | Minutes of the meeting 19th September 2024: The minutes were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting, and approved nem con. | |
| 49/24 | Action Points: from Minutes of the meeting on 19th September 2024: 37/24 Quinquennial report – Mr P Botting reported that he had tried again to obtain the report and had asked the Diocesan office to intervene 37/24 Online banking – Mr Jaynes is progressing this 40/24 Harvest Lunch – Mr Botting had passed his records of the event over the Mrs Rawet 41/24 Christmas Fair – Mr Botting reported that these dates didn’t clash with the school 46/24 Bishops permission – Rev Doyle-Brett had sort the Bishops permission for Mr Denby to administer the chalice | |
| 50/24 | Correspondence: All had been circulated to members as it came in. There was a letter from Skipwith Church asking if we would support their fund raising for poverty action by running a stall and advertising the event. Deanery and Diocesan Synod vacancies. We as a parish have one Deanery vacancy It was noted that we have three seats on the synod and only two are filled. We can elect one member as soon as we like. Alson the Deanery Synod would like suggestion of people who would be prepared to join the Diocesan Synod, they do not need to be on Deanery Synod to be eligible. The Deanery has three places and only one is filled. Names should be notified to the Diocesan Synod representative Mr P Botting. Dr Hodgson will look at the Tearfund Big quiz information to see if it can be run online probably in the new year. Emma Mawer had written to ask if the CPCC would to contribute to a book to give out to the school children as an alternative to Halloween. The PCC decided to give £100 towards the cost. Mr Botting to co-ordinate and report back to Mrs Mawer | PJB PJB PJB AH PJB |
| 51/24 | Treasurer’s Report: This was circulated before the meeting. Treasurer’s Report 16.09.2024 My apologies for this brief summary, but I am away on holiday. Current Account stands at approximately £21,500, which is a net figure after payment of all outstanding cheques including a further tranche of £10,000 towards our 2024 Free Will Offer. This leaves a balance of £5,000 to be paid before year end.In addition, an amount of £14,000 remains to be paid as the retention on the Cottage build cost. There will probably be additional architects fees and repair costs. We also need to provide c£4,000 for restricted funds already stated in the 2023 accounts.Our reserves are CCLA general deposit of £11,000, Fabric – £2,700, Organ – £7,000. In addition the CCLA C of E Ethical Fund shares are currently valued at c£81,000. Our income has fallen significantly as a result of lower cash collections and a substantial decline in gift aided regular giving. We are also maintaining the increasing portion of the Multiply ministry costs (Messy Church) together with the majority of the parish administration costs. These are both valuable and, in my view, essential to maintain.In terms of FWO, we have consistently punched above our weight thanks to the legacy. Realistically, our income never justified the size of our FWO commitment against other parishes although it has boosted the overall offering by benefice to a decent level. However, given the additional costs that we continue to bear, noted above, I believe it is now essential to offer only what we can afford and, even now, a figure of £20,000 would need to be subsidised from reserves. | |
| 52/24 | Co-option to the PCC Mrs Martin has resigned from the Deanery Synod, her place on the PCC was ex-officio by virtue of being a synod member. As we have lots of vacancies it was agreed to co-pt Mrs Martin until the next APCM. This was agreed nem. con. | |
| 53/24 | Formation of the Budget Committee Mr Jaynes, Mrs Rawet and Mrs Smith were asked to produce the draft budget for 2025 and report back at the November meeting | |
| 54/24 | Harvest Lunch Arrangements: The tickets were now prepared and going on sale everything else is in hand | |
| 55/24 | Christmas Fair Update: The organisers reported back to the PCC that the sale would run from 10 till 4 both days. There would be a Christmas related Bric a Brac stall this needed to be advertised in Pew News. The Choir platform area would be reserved for other organisations tables. At a cost of £15 for the day. There would be a raffle for a Christmas hamper, again we would need to advertise for donation to this. Dr Hodgson was going to see if she could get a handbell ringing group to attend. It was proposed to sell Teas and mince pies, soup and sandwiches and possibly bacon butties. | PJB AH |
| 56/24 | Policy adoption: The new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy , which had been circulated to PCC at the CPCC meeting was adopted as Wheldrake Church policy nem con. | |
| 57/24 | Warden’s Report: This was circulated before the meeting Church Cottage – The snagging is complete. We are in negotiation about the other jobs which have come to light. Ted Smith has successfully organised another tidy up session around the cottage and the church. Still to address are the paving slabs to lay behind the cottage. Ensuring the brambles do not get a foothold again, bricks and tiles to sell, to enable the area adjacent to the boundary wall with WRH to be mown. The noticeboard requires a coat of preservative Church/Cottage phone line – I have contacted Fusion fibre several time each time I’m promised that the engineer will contact me. This is still to happen. My last contact was thre weeks ago. I have asked Ferrey and Mennim numerous times for the Quinquennial report. Four weeks ago I was promised It would be delivered in a fortnight, but we are still waiting. The new storage unit has arrived and will soon be in use. It will contain the tables and chairs that we currently store upstairs. The Electrician is coming on 23rd to price the outside lights on the cottage and one or two other electrical jobs We had to call out the AV engineer to sort out a problem on the system Sally Look resigned from doing the cottage bookings and I have added them to the church bookings diary Events Local and Deanery September 29th 2.00pm Deanery Ministry afternoon in the Cottage 30th New Church Administrator starts October 5th Churchwardens training day at Clifton Moor Church 6th Baby Loss Awareness week begins 8th Magazine meeting 10th Consecration of New Bishop of Selby 15th Licencing of new House for Duty Priest 17th Deanery St Lukes Day service at Wheldrake 20th 10.30am Harvest Festival service followed by lunch 27th Five Parish Holy Communion at Wheldrake 28th Deanery Zoom Evening Prayers November 9th Operation Christmas Child packing 10th Remembrance services 11th CPCC meeting in the Cottage 23rd and 24th Christmas Fair in Church and Cottage December 1st Christingle service 10th Decorate Church for Christmas 19th School Service in Church 22nd Carol Service 24th Crib Service 29th Eight Parish Holy Communion at Wheldrake | |
| 58/24 | Safeguarding/H&S: Nothing to report | |
| 59/24 | Insurance Notifications: Nothing noted | |
| 60/24 | Information Sharing: Evlvington were starting a new service called Together the first one would be at 4.00pm on 20th October | |
| 61/24 | AOB: Revd. J Doyle-Brett asked the meeting to approve her seeking the Bishop’s permission for Mr G Denby to take the chalice at Holy Communion following his retirement as a Lay Reader. This was agreed Nem con. Mr E Smith noted that the sink adjacent to the door of the kitchen in the Cottage should be clearly marked “Hand wash ONLY”. This was endorsed by the meeting with the suggestion that a “Checklist” should be provided not just for hirers but others too that defines how the Kitchen should be left after use, e.g., milk out of the fridge, used tea towels washed and returned clean, recycling arrangements, etc. Mrs Carter asked all PCC Members to email items they believed important to her and she would compile a list that Sally Lock can give to hirers. | JD-B ALL |
Date of next CPCC/WPCC 7.30pm 11.11.24 – At Church Cottage
Secretary for WPCC: Mr P Botting
WPCC meeting Chair: Mrs B Carter