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CHURCHWARDENS REPORT FOR 2020-2021

Craig Pickering& Annie Fletcher

St Nicholas Church, Codsall & St Peter’s Codsall Wood

As you may realise this year's report is a very different report due to the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic. Unfortunately all groups were suspended in March 2020 and have yet to resume. The Craft Group did meet with socially distancing rules in place during August but had to close again in September when we entered the tier groups.

St Nicholas’ Church

St Nicholas’ had a complete redecoration during the spring and summer, this was initially halted during the first lockdown due to our churches having to close but was able to be completed when given the go ahead.

Gas boiler serviced.

PAT tested completed, fire extinguishers renewed where necessary.

A portion of the AV system has been installed, to which we have certainly benefitted when services can be held in church.

Health & Safety

We record our thanks to Gerry Pedder who has stepped down as H&S officer and thank Jonathan Marsh for taking on this role

Safeguarding Policy.

DBS checks are updated and reviewed as and when necessary. Helen Walker is our safeguarding officer.

Churchyard

Please see the churchyard report for details of work carried out.

Our thanks to the team who keep the churchyard tidy safe and care for the monuments.

Parish Rooms

The step at the front entrance was improved and three short handrails were put in place.

St Peter’s Church

Aims and purposes

Codsall Parochial Church Council (PCC) has the responsibility of promoting the mission of our church throughout the parish under the leadership of Rev’d Marg Mattocks. The PCC is also responsible for the maintenance of the Parish Rooms and St Peter’s Hall.

The PCC has met once in person and due to the pandemic the remainder of our meetings have been virtual. Our thanks to Dan Street for setting up our GoToMeeting site.

The main purpose of our meetings has been how we continue to deliver worship and keep everyone safe during the pandemic, this has impaired on our ability to hold services in church with only a few number of worshippers.

Services at St. Nicholas’ & St Peter’s

Collective worship in church ceased on March 15th. Revd. Marg conducted worship via Facebook on March 22nd. March – July saw services streamed from the vicarage. Revd. Marg and Dan worked within government guidelines of social distancing. August saw the resumption of services within St Nicholas’ church building, with limited numbers. Social distance and Track and Trace measures were introduced in compliance with C of E and H&S executive guidelines. Thursday morning services were held in St Peter’s church hall. All communion services were in one kind only.

Rev’d Marg held on line Get Crafty sessions which included a bible story with a craft session. Viewers were encouraged to post their crafts on our Facebook page.

Services were streamed live and our You Tube channel (thank you Dan)

Rev’d Marg conducted a pre-recorded Remembrance service that had 1500 views on our You Tube channel.

November and Advent saw the introduction twice a week of Compline via the GoToMeeting app.

All our services can be viewed live on our You Tube channel or on Facebook

Ministry within the Community

Private Prayer

St Nicholas’ has been open each Wednesday 2pm-4pm for private prayer, this had to be stopped after Christmas due to escalating Covid situation. We shall endeavour to reopen when the statistics allow us, hopefully with the vaccine roll out this will be sooner rather than later.

Harvest

Rev’d Marg suggested a Meals on Wheels initiative this year. We were asked to put a wheelbarrow out and invite neighbours to fill with food, toiletries etc. a fantastic effort saw ½ tonne of food being given to the Foodbank in Wolverhampton and food parcels given to those in need locally. We record our thanks to St. Nicholas’ First School for their contributions.

Advent

Rev’d Marg put her thinking cap on and came up with the idea of a Reverse Advent Calendar. This involved downloading a calendar and adding an item each day making up a hamper.

We thought we had exceeded expectations at Harvest, but Advent saw us donating ¾ tonne of food to the Foodbank and more than a dozen hampers to local shielding parishioners. The Foodbank were very grateful this was there largest single donation received. Well done to all those who took part.

Thank you to Jan Walls and Alison Harrison for co-ordinating the collection, sorting and distribution.

Christmas services

This year we had a walk through to view the crib by candlelight on Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th December. Thank you to the Ministry team for the organisation and to those who acted as stewards.

Sunday 20th saw our Readers lead us through our 9 lessons and carols service from the chancel.

On Christmas Eve our Nativity service from Sheep Farm Close, Codsall Wood was streamed. Thank you to John Parry for the use of his barn and sheep.

Tree of Remembrance

This year our tree of Remembrance was situated outside the church. Visitors were invited to tie a ribbon on the tree either in memory of a loved one or as thanks.

Newsletter

Over 200 newsletters have been sent to church supporters , this is to enable those not on social media to still feel part of everyday church life. They have included service sheets for compline, general information, the reverse advent calendar and ribbon to tie on the tree. The March newsletter is in the planning and a Palm Cross will be included.

Parish magazine

The magazine ceased being delivered in April but was put on the church website, distribution restarted in September.

Thank you to

Rev’d. Marg for producing and leading us in creative and inspirational worship, through this pandemic.

Rev’d Mike Fox for his years of service to the parish

Caroline Seaton, CYFAM and Youth worker, Unfortunately due to the Covid virus her position became redundant.

The Ministry team- thank you Jill for your online weekly reflections

Rev’d Paul Cody, Associate Minister ( December 2020)

Our bellringers, for socially distanced ringing when permitted

Our verger, Evelyn Wallin

Our Finance Team – Roger Marsh, Margaret Jeff, Matt Jevons. Graham Street, John Dodd and our Giving Co-ordinator Jill Dodd

Angela Jevons, for her administration work and editor of the Parish Magazine.

Brigid O’Connor, for updating Facebook and AV assistance

Sean Spinks, for updating the church website

Maria de Loyde, and her gazebo for safe distribution of Parish Magazine

Bill Neal (Rtd), for overseeing the Maintenance team over the last few years.

Ann Birkett/ Jackie Hill - St Nicholas’ Church cleaners, keeping us clean and sanitised

Ann Evans- Parish Room booking clerk (took redundancy)

Cleaners – St. Peter’s Church & Hall (furloughed/redundant)

Dan Street, no words can express how grateful we are to Dan for enabling us at St Nicholas’ to reach out to the community through worship each week. It is through his dedication , technical expertise and infectious enthusiasm that he has directed and delivered a phenomenal range of services in collaboration with Rev’d. Marg.

Dan also lit up St Nicholas’ inside and out through Advent and Christmas with hundreds (thousands!) of fairy lights.

All our church group leaders who have been unable to gather, let us hope that we may all meet together once more in the not too distant future. Our prayers go out to you all. God Bless.

St. Peter's Codsall Wood

David Carver

The 9am Sunday Communion service was held every 2nd & 4th Sunday until the Coronavirus lockdown. When the lockdown eased in the summer, Thursday morning services were held in St Peter’s Hall as it was easier to make the building Covid compliant for the number of attendees than was possible with St Peter’s Church.

The regular special services at St Peter's are held at Christmas, Easter, Harvest Festival, and the summer Patronal barbeque were all victims of Covid-19.

The regular maintenance of the Church and the hall has taken place. Towards the end of 2020 there was a leak from the central heating system due to a corroded pipe which damaged the floor, the affected pipe has been professional repaired and the damaged flooring has been replaced by congregation members.

CHURCHYARD CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

2020 - 2021

Churchyard Extension

The contract to enclose the extended burial area with post & rail fencing was completed in April 2020.

The contract to install a tarmac path has been re-scheduled and will now be started in Spring 2021.

All top soil excavated in the construction of the paths will remain on site and used to level off the depressions across the site. All of these areas will be reseeded.

Grass Cutting Contract

Churchyard Committee have a three-year contract with Stephen Brown which will be due for renewal in January 2022. The grass cutting price for the 2021 season will remain unchanged.

Memorial Application Forms

Mrs Evelyn Wallin & Don Walls scrutinize the Memorial Forms. The majority of the applications conform to the Parish Churchyard Regulations and can be signed off. A small number of the forms need to be returned for amendments to inscriptions, designs, memorial measurements and applications on the wrong form.

It has been necessary to amend the Parish Application Form because the dimension of the design is shown as 6" high allowing designs to be wider than 6". The Memorial Application Form, on the Church website, has been amended to read "design to be no more than 6" overall".

Don Walls

January 2021

NB. As no Churchyard Committee meetings were held during the last year, the chairman took the necessary action to ensure the Churchyard was safe and tidy and to progress the development of the New Extension. The afore statement should not therefore be construed as a Churchyard Committee Report.

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