News Archive - April 2008

St Mary's Parochial Church Council Meeting

The PCC met in February at All Saints' Church, Dagnall, following a celebration of the Eucharist.

The contract to clean the Church has been let and cleaning is now taking place on a fortnightly basis. After investigating several venues for their meetings, the Mothers' Union has decided to meet in St Mary's Church, starting in September.

A lengthy discussion was held about the new flag and on which days it should be flown. It was decided that when the current flag, St George's, needs replacing it will be with one incorporating the Diocesan crest, as had been originally agreed. A Flag Day timetable was distributed and it was decided to seek a volunteer who would raise and lower the flag for the appropriate days during the year. The concensus of the Council was that the new chairs for St Mary's should be upholstered in green.

The windows in the Vicarage are being replaced with double-glazed units.

An anonymous benefactor has provided sufficient funds to enable all the repairs to the Church roof to be carried out as one project, thus making the overall cost less than originally thought as ancillary costs for scaffolding, cleaning etc will be incurred only once.

The possibility of reviving the Churches Together Open Air Service was discussed and it was agreed that it would be a welcome return, with the service taking place on Edlesborough Green in September. A meeting to investigate changes to the Worship for Everyone service, normally held on the second Sunday of the month, had been held a few days earlier. A report on that meeting was given, and the first changes will be introduced for the Mothering Day service on 2nd March.

Elections for members for the next PCC will take place at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, to be held on Thursday, 24th April.

Following a short service of Holy Communion, St Mary's Church PCC met at the All Saints' Dagnall church hall on 13th March 2008.

The PCC was advised that agreement had been reached with the donors of the flag pole, that the flag of St George would henceforth be flown on specific dates, rather than continuously.

A report on the requirement for a Parish Administrator, commissioned by the PCC and written by Brian Wyke, was then discussed at length. There was clearly a heavy administrative burden, which fell disproportionately on the vicar and a small number of the congregation and, although there was a feeling that more members of the congregation would be prepared to carry out small, clearly defined administrative tasks, a considerable proportion of this workload could be transferred to a parttime administrator. Unfortunately, the PCC was unable to identify any facility where administration, such as photo copying, typing, telephoning and filing, could be carried out - regardless of whether this was by volunteers or by an administrator employed by the parish. It was agreed therefore that the Standing Committee would conduct further investigations in consultation with Brian Wyke.

Discussion then turned to the next tranche of repairs to the church roof, which involved renovation of those to the Chancel and North Aisle. As a result of a huge increase in the cost of lead, the builders had increased their estimate for this work by 30%. Furthermore, the insurance company will no longer insure the lead on a church roof when scaffolding is erected round the building. It would therefore be necessary to provide a security presence during the repairs, whenever workmen were not physically on site. The total cost of the repairs had therefore increased from £87,000 to £157,000, and this was beyond our means. The PCC was therefore forced to agree that work on the Chancel roof would continue as planned, but that to the North Aisle would be deferred until additional funds had been raised. Work was scheduled to start after Easter, and be completed by 31 May 2008.

Fund raising projects included the open gardens event on 8th June, when the proceeds will be split between the church roof and Macmillan Cancer Support (St Mary's charity for 2008), an old time music hall on 28th March, a review on 10th May, the carnival on 5th July and the flower festival from 19th to 21st September.

The meeting was delighted to hear that eight young people from the North Chilterns Group were attending classes prior to confirmation on 22nd June, that All Saints' Dagnall had presented a cheque for over £2,500 to the Iain Rennie Hospice and that plans were underway to hold a parish picnic on Edlesborough Green on 10th August.

Lastly, as this was the final meeting before the Annual Parochial Church Meeting on 24th April, when a new PCC would be elected, retiring members were thanked for their contributions.

-- The Church Mouse

Source: Focus, Apil 2008

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