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| Vicar's Annual Report to the APCM |
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Vicar’s Report 2008I would like to begin by thanking the following people: Alex PaulAngela Besser
Audrey KinradeBarbara BartonBarbara JonesCheryl ClarkeDavid BroomfieldDavid GreenDee PowellDora MartinDoreen Dickinson SmithGemma CookGloria PotterGraham JonesIrene PapadopoulosIris MannJackie PalmerJaz BanceJean PagramJulie ClarkeLaura PriestmanLee ClarkeLee MackieLiz CurranKatie Cargill ThompsonMark GentryMarion RobbinsMaxine Hollis
Maxine PaulPam BroomfieldPaul MackenzieRoger Clarke
Rosemary PottenSue GentryTerry PalmerTony RobbinsTrevor JonesTrish McCarthy
I’ll come back to why I am thanking you in a moment. But first of all we need to review our 2007 Vision Statement. Each year the PCC is required to produce an annual Vision Statement of what we hope to achieve over the next twelve months. Our vision for Holy Trinity Barkingside for 2007/8 was: - To grow our numbers through a small group strategy
- To install new sound and projection systems to improve our worship
- To progress appropriately our initiative to reorder church seating
- To increase our giving as a congregation
- Where possible, to increase our missionary giving, including that to the diocese
- To examine the possible links with local schools
- To foster the vocations of all, particularly those looking at callings to Readership or Priesthood.
- To develop an environmental strategy as part of our contribution to sustaining God’s creation
So how have we done?
“Grow our numbers through a small group strategy.”
The long list of people I thanked at the beginning of this report – what do they all have in common? They all are (or during 2007 have been) members of a homegroup. The list is so long that there is bound to be somebody left out. So if you should be on that list and aren’t, please bring your Annual Report and a biro up to me at the end of the meeting so I can personally add your name to the list – because I want to thank you all for what you are doing. It’s true that I had hoped that by now we would have around 45 people in homegroups, and the total for 2007 averaged at any one time “only” around 35 people. As a result of a number of factors I have allowed myself to be distracted from recruiting new people to join groups, and the blame is all mine.But hang on a second – that is 35 people meeting weekly in small groups. Thirty Five people! Over the last few months while I have been off, I have met with a number of people ranging from Bishops to Spiritual Directors to other specialist clergy advisors to talk about what is going on at Holy Trinity – the things that are difficult and the things that are good. And when I get to the subject of homegroups, the response of all these people has been the same. “Wow! You’ve got that many home groups, that’s excellent!”; “What? You’ve got that many people weekly in small groups? That’s incredible!” Well, I have to say that I like being congratulated – especially when it is somebody else (ie You) doing all the hard work. Bishops and outsiders are all saying “well done”, so all I can do is repeat the same words to you. Well done all of you. An average of thirty five people meeting weekly! And look at the mix of people. They range from Alex Paul in his twenties to Dora Martin in her eighties with every decade in between represented. There are people from our 9.30 service, people from our 11.15 service, people from the 8am, and people from our Tuesday night service. Look at the number of those in church leadership represented – 12 out of the sixteen PCC members for 2007 are represented, as are all the ex-churchwardens in the parish. There are noisy people. There are quiet people. There are people who have taken one position on recent church controversies – and people who have held very strongly to the opposite position. The whole gamut of our church family is represented here. So, where now?I want you to imagine turning up to Holy Trinity in a years’ time – you go to the 9.30 Sung Eucharist and find sixty people there. Thrilled by the fact that there are ten more people than there used to be a year ago, you decide to stay on for the family mass – and find that there too (once you count all the children) there are sixty people, again ten more than were there a year previously. You ask around – Is this some special Sunday – but no, this is just the new normal attendance. Is this possible? Absolutely. We will have those extra people in church, unless we fail on the much lesser target of getting 45 people in homegroups. Only one thing will make us lose out on those significantly larger Sunday congregations: failing to increase our homegroups from an average of 35 people a week to an average of 45. It’s not much of a leap. I can’t promise we will get there – but with your help there is no reason why we shouldn’t. You are a very committed congregation, so there is no reason why we should miss that target. Just a few other thank you’s on the subject of church growth. I would like to thank all of you who have been involved in door to door prayer evangelism. It has brought new people into church in both our Sung Eucharist and our Family Mass. I would also like to thank all of you who have invited people along to different events. There are those of you who have invited friends along to Back to Church Sunday. There’s those of you who invited people along to the Mothers’ Union carol Service. There are those of you who have invited people along to Church social events like the Lent Lunches or the Barn Dance. There are those of you who have invited family members to come along with you when they’ve been staying for the weekend. There are those of you who invited people along to our Harvest service, to Remembrance Sunday, or to various Christmas events. You may have forgotten you’ve done it, but many of you have invited people to things at Holy Trinity. This is a sign of your commitment. Thank you for choosing to do this. I can’t thank you all by name – there’s too many of you. So I when I single out two people I’m actually thanking all of you. The two I want to single out are Tony and Marion Robbins. They managed to invite along so many of their family and friends to the Nine lessons and carols that they filled two entire pews!! What an inspiration to the rest of us! But thank you not just to Tony and Marion, but to every one of you who has invited somebody to something. Thank you. And thank you in advance for the people you will invite this coming year.
“Install new sound and projection systems to improve our worship.”
Finally we have our new Audio-Visual System. This has taken far longer than it should have done to complete. At the time of writing there are still a few minor issues to iron out, but it is here. Finally we have it. Thank you for everyone who has worked hard to make this happen, and also to those who have given generously towards the costs. From a personal point of view, with the nodules on my vocal chords, I am very grateful to Holy Trinity for installing a sound system that will keep me healthy. It means a lot to me.
“To progress appropriately our initiative to reorder church seating.”
Currently as a church we are going through the 15 month experiment with the removal of the back rows of pews. You will be aware that I have been off for much of January and February and am still easing myself back into work. As such I have not yet been back to a PCC meeting and am not up to speed on this issue, so would you please excuse me not being able to say anything further at this time. Thank you.
“Increase our giving as a congregation.”
Cardinal Suhard, the Archbishop of Paris during the Nazi occupation, said that the point of being a Christian was to live our lives in such a way that they “would make no sense if God did not exist.” That’s hard. For Gee Walker whose teenage son was stabbed to death not to seek revenge but to publically forgive the killers makes no sense ... unless God exists! For Shirley on a pension of just £100 a week to put ten pounds of that into the envelope she puts in the church offering makes no sense .... unless God exists! For Martin Luther King to espouse non violence while he and his supporters were being jailed, beaten up and even killed by southern racists makes no sense .... unless God exists! For Rob who only earns £30,000 a year to set up a standing order of £250 a month to his church makes no sense .... unless God exists! You as a parish have chosen vicars - myself, Brian Branche and quite probably previous ones – who (along with the majority of Christians worldwide) preach a doctrine of radical sacrificial giving - to recognise that everything we have is God’s, and to give sacrificially back to God – perhaps 5%, 10% or even 20% of what he has given us. That, just as as Christians we are called to love our enemies and to forgive, so we are called to see our possessions as God’s and to give. To live as if our life makes no sense ... unless God exists. There are a few doubters who say that if you preach such extreme levels of giving it will backfire – that it will put people off and the actual level of giving will fall. But you as a church continue to prove those doubters wrong. Each year your giving through standing orders and envelopes has increased. This year it has gone up by over 6% to reach an impressive £31,150. Giving to Holy Trinity makes no sense ... unless God exists. There are so many things one could choose to do with one’s money – but you have chosen to give it to God through Holy Trinity. You have chosen to trust God and to give back to God. Indeed as a congregation you have chosen to trust God by increasing the amount you give back to him. I’m sure in your own lives you recognise that God has not let you down for doing that. Similarly he has not let us down as a church. In terms of our total assets as a church, God has certainly provided for us. Despite large expenditures on the church hall, ever increasing general costs and half the new AV system being paid for, we still have more money in the bank at the end of the year than we did at the beginning - £123,138 against £118,607 last year. In fact I think it is a clear sign that we are doing what God wants that despite major works being done on the church, in six out of the last seven years we have had more money in the bank at the end of the year than at the beginning. Our God is a God who provides. Compare what we have now with what we had at the turn of the millennium, and it has more than doubled - £123,138 today versus just £56,082 seven years ago. Our God is a God who provides. But there is a reason God keeps providing for us at Holy Trinity – it’s because you have chosen to try to use the money to do the things God wants. If we stop seeking God’s will, or we try to hoard it or just to play safe, the money will dry up just as fast. But as long as we keep trying to do what God wants, he will keep providing for us. Thank you for your generosity, and thank you for the trust you have placed in God – it certainly makes my job easier! I also need to thank Laura Priestman, our treasurer. She has done a fantastic job for us. Don’t forget that this is in a year when she and Michael have had quite a difficult time with their son’s illness, and yet she has continued to keep our finances in really good order. On top of it all, the government decided this year to change the way churches have to present their accounts and to make it much more complicated. Laura has risen to the challenge. There are three factors that explain why we are in such a good situation financially: there is God’s faithfulness; there is your generosity as a congregation; and there is our treasurer’s skill in keeping our finances in good order. Thank you Laura.
“Where possible, to increase our missionary giving, including that to the diocese”
For the last two years, you have chosen to give extra money to support poorer parishes in the diocese - £2,400 in 2007. Certainly we were one of the very first parishes to do this, but I understand that a growing number of parishes in other parts of the diocese are now doing so too. There are a few people who would say that what you have chosen to give is a drop in the ocean and so not worth doing - I would like to remind them of the parable of the little girl and the star fish. A man was walking along a beach at low tide. It was covered in thousands and thousands of star fish which had been washed up. As he walked along he saw a little girl picking up star fish and throwing them back into the sea. Looking at the thousands and thousands of starfish lying there the man says to her “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these star fish. You can’t begin to make a difference” The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “I made a difference to that one.” What we have been doing for the last two years may not be big, but to the poor and deprived parishes it helps, it makes a real difference. Thank you again for your generosity. Thank you also for all you gave to the various extra collections that we took during 2007. We tend to do these collections when there is a specific disaster – a war, a famine or an earthquake. You may have noticed that these collections raised a little less in 2007 than in 2006. Yes, the total was less, but it wasn’t because you were any less generous, it’s because we actually had fewer collections. I don’t know – perhaps there were fewer disasters in 2007? Finally I would like to give particular thanks for our Lent lunches. It’s the 2007 ones I am talking about – the 2008 ones will be in next year’s Annual Report. In 2007 we raised £2,138.50 through Lent lunches which was 20% up on the year before, which in turn was 10% up on the year before that – thank you. I would like to thank you for all the people you have invited to the lunches. I would like to thank all the teams who have helped cook for the different lunches. I would particularly like to thank Maxine Paul and Daphne Curran who have been involved in so many of those teams (as well as doing all the other pieces of catering they do during the year).
“To examine the possible links with local schools”
You’ll be relieved to know that the PCC are human! Like all human beings at the beginning of the year we have good intentions about all the things we intend to complete that year. Actually the PCC you have chosen are remarkably hard working and have achieved the overwhelming majority of their goals. But there are always one or two things that slip through the net, and this year this was it.
“Foster the vocations of all, particularly those looking at callings to Readership or Priesthood.”
In May last year, our then Lay Assistant Ngozi Njoku went to a Ministry Division selection conference and was selected to train for ordination. She began at Trinity College Bristol in September and will be ordained in two years’ time. In October Rosemary Potten and Tony Robbins were licensed as Readers. You can see photos of that wonderful event on our church website. Roger Clarke also went to a Ministry Division selection conference in May, but unfortunately was not selected for ordination yet. Don’t think that means Roger won’t end up as a priest. It’s a bit like passing your driving test – all the best people pass second or third time! (I would say that – both Fr Malcolm and myself got through on our second selection conferences, and as for my driving test....) “
To develop an environmental strategy as part of our contribution to sustaining God’s creation”
The Old Testament tells us that we are stewards of God’s creation. The earth does not belong to us, but it has been lent to us, and we have been asked to look after it. This is a theme that also occurs in the New Testament, particularly in the letters of St Paul. I would like to thank you for being so committed on this topic. At Holy Trinity we are well ahead of the game. Long before I arrived here, you installed low energy light bulbs in the church and a system of fans to cycle the hot air and so making the heating more efficient. Nowadays everyone is installing low energy light bulbs and everyone is looking at better systems of heating – but you got there first. This year we installed recycling bins (or more precisely bags) in the church. I would like to thank Tony Robbins for taking on the task of emptying these bags on a regular basis. We have also begun an environmental audit to see what other things we can do to serve God in this way. It’s a delicate balance between different Gospel imperatives. We could all wear twelve layers of clothes and switch the church heating off. If it was only about us, then as committed Christians perhaps we should do that. But the Gospel also tells us to be welcoming to newcomers and to those who haven’t yet made the same commitment that each of us has made. It wouldn’t be very welcoming to them to expect them to come into a freezing building, and they would not be very likely to come back. So what we are looking at as a PCC is projects like the low energy lights – they may have cost a little money, but they make a major impact on our carbon footprint. Or projects like the recycling we began this year that don’t take much effort, but just need someone to get it started. I would like to thank Tony Robbins and Chris Stoneham for spear heading this and for putting so much time into the early drafts of the report. Of course the church doesn’t just have one building to think about; it has over a hundred buildings, because we all are the church. I would therefore like to thank everyone who has reduced their carbon footprint this year. Thank you to the huge number of you who have installed low energy light bulbs in parts or all of your house. Thank you to everyone who has improved their double glazing or their loft insulation. Thank you to the growing number of you who are walking to church or giving lifts to other people. All this makes a difference. It is not part of some secular fad. Rather it is about obedience to the Old Testament God who places Adam on earth “to cultivate and to care for it” (Gen 2:15). Thank you for your faithfulness on this matter.
Thank You’s
And now for some more thank you’s. I would like to thank all of you who have kept the show on the road while I have been out of action. Actually “keeping the show on the road” is probably the wrong phrase. A lot of new initiatives have happened while I have been off. The homegroup leaders got together and organised Lent Studies to which many additional church members have come. Jim Thomas assembled a team and organised the NIFOC lunch held in the back of church on 5 March. Wynne Gilham and her team organised an excellent church open day. Chris Potten and all the others who have dealt with the installation of the new sound desk, ironing out the hiccups, and actually putting it into use – no thoughts of mothballing that until the vicar returned. Lent lunches have proceeded apace. Eve Ruckert has started a second Mum’s Alpha course meeting on Fridays. Eve together with Julie Clarke, Katie Cargill Thompson and Lynda Ruckert have launched our new Rainbow group. If it’s a matter of keeping the “Show on the Road” then it’s more a case of a Music Hall than the Mouse Trap. Agatha Christie’s The Mouse Trap was the longest running show in England, but every night was the same. At Holy Trinity’s Music Hall Variety show, every night is different, with new acts, new talents, new members to the audience and a cast of thousands who make all this happen. So that is the show to which I say “Thank you for keeping the show on the road”. Thank you for my stage managers and directors – the two church wardens Irene Papadopoulos and Michael Gilham; to our lay assistant Eve Ruckert and our curate Fr Malcolm Porter; and to our readers Tony Robbins and Rosemary Potten. Thank you to our PCC and especially to those who are standing down this year. Then there are those who have aided us in our worship. On the musical front we have had a fantastic year. At the Sung Eucharist, Michael Priestman and David Green have taken the lead in revitalising the choir. I think you’ll agree that the choir’s output this year has been spectacular – two noticeable highlights have been Harvest Festival and the All Souls’ Requiem Service – though there were many others along the way. Thank you to all the other members of that team - Bob Allder, Mary Fabb, Barry Houston, David Broomfield, Doreen Dickinson Smith, Liz Curran and Valerie Evans. At the Family Mass, we have had a similarly good year. The team continues to grow with Ian Sparkes from All Saints coming to play keyboard for us once a month; Jaz Bance has taken up the bass guitar while remaining available to play drums or ordinary guitar when needed. In fact we now have three drummers, with Sophie Hollis having joined the team. This has been particularly useful in freeing up Andre Clarke to get involved occasionally in other ministries such as leading the service or preaching. Sterling Gapasin our lead guitarist remains exceptionally faithful and continues to improve his prestigious talent. Our lead singer Gemma Cook has been off on maternity leave recently, leading to Julie Clarke joining the group. When Gemma comes back this means we will have two singers which will greatly improve what we can get up to. Thank you to all our musicians at both services. Thank you also for our dedicated servers – this is one of the few areas where our worship could be improved, not because of the quality of our existing servers (who are excellent) but because of having too few of them. We are a church that (among other things) draws on the Anglo-Catholic tradition. As such servers have long been part of our house style. Since 1840 servers have been increasing the beauty, drama and pageantry of our worship. Across our three services we need about ten servers in total, and we already have around five, so we are half way there. So please, don’t let anyone else beat you to it, but be the next to come forward for this important ministry. Thank you also to those who have helped lead various activities within the parish – I’ve already mentioned the homegroups; then there’s the family group; the monthly Tuesday Bible study; the Mothers Union daytime and evening groups; the toddler group with Maxine Paul and her team there; the lay visitors team that Mark runs for us; the uniformed organisations; Paul Mackenzie and his team who produce the parish magazine; Liz Curran, Alex Paul and their team who run the Christingle. And a big thank you to all the backroom people who make things work. The Halls committee; the risk assessment group; those who man the parish office; Leigh Ann for the secretarial work she did for me; Rosemary for the tireless work she has done with the screen backgrounds; those who polish the brass; do the cleaning; ferry people to church etc. I would especially like to thank Jess Whipp and Barbara Barton. For a second year running, both of them have had quite difficult years health wise, and yet both of whom continue to put so much effort into running the office. Thank you also to Doreen Dickinson-Smith for her many years of doing the flowers. As I said last year: “You are all working very hard. But it is worth it, because lives are being changed as people encounter Jesus for the first time, people are growing in both faith and confidence. And God’s name is being glorified through our worship. A few people in the church, like myself, have a very upfront role. Most of you are more hidden – but without your work, God’s work here would not be possible.” Many thanks, and God Bless Father Edmund Cargill Thompson |
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