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PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL of ST. THOMASMILNTHORPEAnnual Report for 2017The parish has been in a vacancy for the whole of 2017.Membership.Members of the PCC are either ex-officio, elected by the APCM or co-opted in accordance with the Church Representation Rules.Wardens: Dr. V. Robson Mr. J. Ricketts (Chairman of PCC)Representatives on Deanery Synod: Mrs. K Dawson Mrs. M. BarrowElected Members: Mrs. B. Gregory* Mrs. G. Mumby* Mrs. K. Singleton* Mrs. S. LowtherCo-opted Member: Mr. R. BinghamSecretary: Mrs. J. RiggTreasurer: Mr. J. RobsonElectoral Roll Officer: Mrs. K. DawsonSafeguarding Officer: Mrs. L. Cooper* These members have served for three years and will retire from the PCC.Clergy and Readers Team:Retired Priests with P.T.O: The Revd. Charles Ellis The Revd. Colin Honour The Revd. Ron Rutter The Revd. Bob WilkinsonReaders: Mr. Roger Bingham Mrs. Linda Cooper Prof. Anne GardenReader Emeritus: Mrs. Dorothy Maudsley.Our sincere thanks go to the retired clergy and readers for their help and support during the mittees:The full PCC met six times during the year with good attendance. The Standing Committee met as required and the Finance Committee met once to consider the Annual Investment Review.Safeguarding:Mrs. L. Cooper took over from Professor G. Gregory as Safeguarding Officer.Church Attendance:There are 56 parishioners on the Electoral Roll, which is displayed on the Notice Board in the Church Centre.The size of the congregation varies slightly with the style of service and is maintaining its size (numbers) satisfactorily. The congregation for the 8.00 am BCP Holy Communion held on alternate Sundays is also steady. There are also mid-week BCP Holy Communion services once per month. Occasional services at Christmas, Harvest and Mothering Sunday have enhanced numbers with up to 200 at the Christmas services. Also, three outdoor services are held each year – Good Friday, a summer Songs of Praise and a Carol Service on the Friday before Christmas, these are ecumenical and are well attended.The congregations of Heversham, Levens and Milnthorpe join together on the 5th Sundays.A joint team from Heversham and Milnthorpe take ‘Open the Book’ into the primary school. The Milnthorpe primary school hold their Carol Service in the Church. Also, the Dallam Lower School hold their Prize Giving in the Church.Other Activities:Each year, in August the church hosts the Milnthorpe Art Exhibition and in September, the Milnthorpe Horticultural Society Show. The church is also used for choral and musical concerts. In addition to the weekly Friday coffee morning, the Church Centre is in regular use by the following groups: Ballet School, Bell Ringers, Brownies, Craft Club, Men’s Breakfast, Parish News and Tuneless Choir all of which open the church to the wider village community.Progress on Achieving the goals of our 2016-2018 Mission Action PlanOur Vision and Mission as a church remain unchangedMission:To make known the love of God in our community and beyond.VisionTo be a church made up of ordinary people trying their best to follow Jesus. We seek to encourage each other as He unites us and is transforming our lives, in order that we can share God’s abundant life with all who live and work in our community.To foster growth in our relationship with God, resulting in a more confident use of spiritual gifts.The Diocese has launched its God for All strategy which sees the establishment of ecumenical mission communities across Cumbria enabling churches and Christians to encourage and support the growth of disciples. Intentional in mission and collaborative, these will provide mutually supportive networks across the county. The Kent Estuary (KE) Mission Community Group is continuing to work together to develop a document that will show how they envisage the KE Mission Community working in this area.We continue to include the God for All prayer during our intercessions.The church was able to engage with many families and individuals, providing pastoral care for those within and outside the church. During the year, we had one adult baptism, one thanksgiving for the gift of a child and eight child baptisms. Following up from baptisms, the families are sent invitations when we have special services planned such as harvest and Christingle. We are grateful for the hard work carried out by the Ministry Team and especially Linda Cooper, Lay Reader, into making Christening services special for the families and for preparation required and outreach gained.It has been necessary to call upon our Ministry team and lay readers Roger Bingham and Linda Cooper for funerals carried out throughout the year in our parish. For their work, we are extremely grateful. It is good to remind ourselves of how broad the footprint of the church is in the community when our offices are called upon for baptisms and funerals. During Advent, a very successful and enjoyable ecumenical group met to pray and study together led by The Reverend Charles munion has been provided to our local nursing homes throughout the year along with a small carol service held at Croftside. We are once again grateful for the hard work put into this special service provided by Linda munity OutreachWe are fortunate to have the space to allow various groups to hire our rooms for different activities from ballet dancing, craft club, Brownies, various choirs and the annual Milnthorpe Art Exhibition and Milnthorpe Horticultural Society Show. It is pleasing to know that people feel relaxed enough to walk in through our church door and knowing this may make it easier for them to attend our services and join in our worship. We were delighted to serve soup lunches again during Lent, the proceeds being donated to Manna House. We are grateful to all those who supported us, those who made the soup and those who enjoyed eating it.A short Shopper’s Service in church is held monthly on Farmer’s Market day and our thanks go to Linda Cooper for leading this.A website for St. Thomas’ is currently under construction by Whatever & Co. This will give us a wider audience and appeal to the younger generation. It will be mobile friendly and allow for notices and events to be advertised throughout the web. It should be up and running in May 2018.Through a variety of special services such as Harvest, Mothering Sunday, outdoor services for Good Friday, Christmas Eve and Songs of Praise and Christingle and Carol Services we are able to reach members of our community who may not regularly attend worship. Hopefully the website will encourage attendance and it is envisaged we will hold a further two craft afternoons per year in summer and advent along with the harvest one We continue our work with the local food bank having a ‘drop off’ point within the church. We now have three special collection events ‘Fill Our Shopping Trolley….for Lent, Summer and Harvest’ which are proving very successful.PrayerWe continue to pray for the appointment of a new priest-in-charge. We are committed to pray for our community and have a mission that our church will be a welcome place where all will feel the love of God in a relaxed, open, friendly environment.Music in WorshipThe music in the main 11.00 am service continues to be very traditional. The PCC Is very grateful that Arthur Dewhurst has continued to support St. Thomas’ as organist this year, whenever he is available. Thank you so much Arthur, we are extremely grateful for all you do for us! Tracie Penwarden provides us with a magnificent choir for the Christmas Carol service which would rival any cathedral. Along with the Christingle service this is our most popular service, often with standing room only. Tracie is keen to provide additional musical input to the church for which we are very grateful. Improve our Work with ChildrenWe continue to work alongside our friends from St. Peter’s with the good work which is set up with Milnthorpe Primary School using the ‘Open the Book’.We have a flourishing Sunday School thanks to the hard work of Margaret, Liz and Sarah and Diane enhanced by other members of St. Thomas and St. Peter’s for special events. The children hear their first Bible stories here which will hopefully stay with them for the rest of their lives, they sing songs, draw and produce beautiful decorations for our church. A wonderful craft day was held in October prior to Harvest Festival, the attendance from children from the local area as well as visitors was heart-warming. We are grateful for all the work put into encouraging, teaching and leading our children both by our Sunday School leaders, Ministry Team and Lay Readers.When families visit our church, we encourage the children to join in with our Sunday school, the relaxed friendly atmosphere soon has visitors in the ‘thick of it’ with our regulars. The new nativity scene under the altar provided a good talking point for the children and a scene of awe, especially during the Christingle.Report of the Church Wardens, January 2017 - December 2017We have been without a Priest-in-Charge since October 2016. We are dependent on the Ministry Team of retired clergy and lay readers to lead and guide us in our worship and to care for us and our parish pastorally. We are extremely grateful for all they do and to those who read and lead intercessions at our worship. There has been a tremendous amount of work put into the development and re-writing of the parish profile with our counterparts from St. Peter’s, Heversham and St. John’s, Levens, with meetings with the Bishop and Archdeacon and discussions regarding the vacancy. We ask that you continue to pray for the Lord to guide us and pray that he is preparing the right person to be appointed as Priest-in-Charge of our benefice.No major renovations or improvements were undertaken during 2017, although many members of the congregation have welcomed the introduction of handrails at the chancel steps.We continue to have problems with minor acts of vandalism caused by teenagers congregating around the telecom communication cabinets. We are still unable to leave the church door open to allow people to enter our church throughout the day as we fear damage may be done to the church. CCTV cameras were considered by the PCC but this has now been put on hold until new work is carried out to extend the kitchen, church centre and toilets in 2018/19Communication is still ongoing with the telecommunications company who wish to carry out work on the mast situated on the top of the tower. A faculty has been applied for to carry out this work.The access lane to the cemetery still floods although some remedial work has been carried out to raise the entrance from Main Street. However, this now appears to cause flooding across the road on Dallam School side. We are grateful to Mr. Kevin Holmes, who cuts the grass at the cemetery for us on a monthly basis, and to Phil Mashiter for the voluntary work he carries out there. We have had minor difficulties with the electric light fittings and it would seem the company who gave us a 10-year guarantee on the light fittings has now gone into liquidation. There have been three light fittings that have had to be replaced. Mr Barker, the electrician who carried out the original work in the church negotiated with his supplier for them to pay on this occasion but the cost of any repairs or replacements in the future will have to be met by St. Thomas’.We are grateful to Gill Mumby and her teams of ladies who serve coffee each Friday. The coffee morning gives an opportunity for people to meet and is an important source of revenue for the church.Val RobsonJohn RickettsChurch Wardens Safeguarding Report. Our Parish Safeguarding Officer is Mrs Linda N Cooper Tel: 015395 638362. Safer Recruitment and TrainingOur parish supports the Sunday School team, the Craft and Activity team and the ‘Open the Book’ team working with children and young people, and also the Pastoral Care Team working with adults who are vulnerable.The leaders and volunteers working with our groups have been safely recruited according to the Church’s national guidance and by July 5th 2018, we shall have ensured that they all have received the new C1 level of safeguarding training required by the Church. We have one new volunteer for working with children and young people who has already completed the required C1 safeguarding training and who is currently completing the Safer Recruitment process.3. Church Policy and GuidanceThe PCC has adopted the House of Bishops ‘Promoting a Safer Church; safeguarding policy statement’, and the Church of England safeguarding policy and guidance.A formal statement of this, signed on behalf of the PCC is displayed in our church centre.Report on Children's Work ( January 2017 – December 2107 ) Sunday School meets regularly during our morning service. There are normally about seven children attending and sometimes numbers are higher. We mostly follow the church calendar themes with story and activities and occasionally some wall art. We have four enthusiastic team members and another will join us shortly. There have been a large number of baptisms this year, bringing many children into the church for the occasion, but only a few continue to come to services regularly. Baptism anniversary card are delivered to all children who have been baptised over a 4 year period. There is a children's corner at the back of church with plenty of children's books and bibles, colouring and activity sheets, as well as toys for a wide range of ages. These can be accessed by children who come to our coffee mornings, baptisms and any other events at our church. Some of our congregation engage with our local primary school. Alongside St Peter's, we act out the biblical stories in ‘Open the Book', most weeks during term time, to nearly 200 pupils in the school. In October, prior to our Harvest Festival a very successful craft day was held. Children from our Sunday School and children from the village along with families on holiday in the area enjoyed painting, model making and attractive friezes for the church centre wall reminding us of the beauty of the world and God’s bountiful gifts. We are grateful for the help from our friends from St. Peter’s that make these events such a great success. In December, we provided children's crafts at the Milnthorpe Christmas event at No 17. The Christingle Service in aid of the Children’s Society, held on Christmas Eve, is always popular with families and children. A good number of our church members are willing to support children's activities when needed, journeying together for the growth of God's family here in Milnthorpe. We want to encourage families to keep on coming to our services and events. Please pray regularly for all our children and young families. Margaret BarrowSunday School LeaderChristians Together in Milnthorpe and HevershamDuring the year the Steering Committee has met three times with representatives of the Anglican, Methodist and Catholic churches; also Christians who worship elsewhere.A sub-committee runs the Milnthorpe Food Bank which has proved an essential resource for many families when they are struggling with managing their finances.There have been several joint services; the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January, the Songs of Praise on Milnthorpe Green in the summer and the Remembrance parade and service in November. And we once again had a joint Lent course with leaders from all our churches. In July, a coach trip was organised to the Keswick Convention and a picnic was enjoyed beforehand in Fitz Park. And in December, there was a good turnout for what has become our annual Carol Singing in the three Milnthorpe pubs when we had great participation from the ‘regulars’ and were able to fund a supply of Celebration chocolates to share with people who were expecting instead that we would be asking them for money!We hope in the future to plan another Outreach event when we can introduce others to an evening of entertainment with a Christian theme.Linda Baverstock, Chairman CTiMKendal Deanery Synod?Two members of our PCC are representatives on the Kendal Deanery Synod. The Synod has three business meetings a year. At these, it receives regular reports on issues being considered at Diocesan and General Synods, and each meeting has a single “spotlight issue”.?This year, the spotlight issues have been: -?Mission; Growing disciples; and Health and Health Care.?In the first of these, Mike Talbot (Diocesan Evangelism Enabler) helped the membership explore the aims of ‘God for All’, and to consider how the planned ‘Moving Mountains Mission’ might be used.?The second one was led by Roger Latham, the Director of Cumbria Christian Learning (CCL), and explored the ways in which the resources of CCL might be able to support local congregations to respond to the challenges and opportunities of our time.?The final meeting, at the Westmorland General Hospital, provided an opportunity to learn of changes in the health service and the role which faith communities can have in developing and sustaining good health.Linda CooperDeanery Synod Representative ................
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