St Andrew's

Psalter Lane

Church

Annual Church Meeting 2022

ST ANDREW’S PSALTER LANE CHURCH

 

Minutes of the Annual Church Meeting held on Sunday 3rd April 2022

 

1.  Prayers: the meeting followed the morning service led by Rev Gareth Jones.

 

2.  Apologies for absence were received from Anna & Martin Harvey, Chris Sissons, Pat & Chris Rogers, Jane Chapman, Rachel & Alastair Morris, Liz & Joe Dey, Janet & Bob Ash, Ann Blair, Alison Gregg, Bill Atherton, Judith Roberts.

 

3.  Approval of Minutes: the Minutes of the previous Annual Meeting held on 27th April  2019 were agreed to be an accurate record of the meeting and were signed by the Chair after the following correction:

Item 5 j  line 4: “ …  update on the All We Can campaign – Janet Loveman was keeping in touch;” to read “ … update on the All We Can campaign – Janet Clark and Judith Loveman were keeping in touch;”

 

4.  Matters arising from the Minutes: none.

 

5.  Reports: reports had been sent in advance by email to members and friends of SAPLC and printed copies offered to those who requested them. Reports were tabled except those that needed comment or clarification.  

  1. General Report on the Life of the Church: Gareth Jones said that at the previous ACM he had thanked those people who had kept SAPLC services going during the pandemic – and he thanked them all again this year!

God in Love Unites Us opinion poll on same-sex weddings in church:

There had been 79 responses so far, with 72 in favour, 5 against and 2 unsure. This would be reported to the Methodist Circuit and a letter would be sent to the Bishop and Diocese. As an LEP SAPLC can only take this step when both denominations have decided to go ahead.

David Body thanked all who participated.

  1. Church Membership report including Electoral Roll: report tabled. Judith Roberts reported the revised figures:

Electoral Roll                     74  (Joint members 53, Anglican only members 21)

Methodist only members  47

Friends   37 (13 new)

  1. Worship Planning Committee: report tabled. There had been a lot of changes – we continued to live-stream services after live services in church resumed, with Risk Assessments carried out and kept up-to-date.
  2. Property and Finance Committee: reports tabled.

Property: report tabled.  

Finance: Treasurer’s report tabled.

It was proposed and seconded that the accounts be received by the meeting, and that Hawsons be retained as examiners. Carried Nem Con.

  1. Pastoral Work (including Church Links): report tabled. Judith Roberts had sent a further message "No report on the Pastoral work of the church would be complete without expressing our immense gratitude to Gareth for the wonderful care and support he has offered throughout his ministry with us and especially during the last two years.
    We have been richly blessed to have him as our minister."
  2. Music: report tabled.  
  3. Interfaith Centre: report tabled. Caroline Cripps said that relationships with our Interfaith friends had deepened during lockdown.
  4. Family & Children: report tabled. Chris Venables said that there were no reports from the uniformed organisations, but that the Brownies and Guides were thriving, and St Andrew’s Hall had had a lot of work done to improve the building, including new boiler and work on the kitchen.
  5. Safeguarding: report and revised Safeguarding Policy tabled.  
  6. Peace and Justice: report tabled. Anne Hollows spoke on the Walking with Micah project; she was proposing to hold lunches in May, to invite Highfield Trinity, and to involve families and children in the issues. Anne was also working on a project to house refugees in unused manses and vicarages.
  7. Eco-Congregation: report tabled. Jenny Carpenter informed the meeting of the current project to install solar panels on Shirley House.
  8. Ecclesall Deanery Synod: no report received. Imogen Clout said that there was very little to report on.
  9. Circuit Meeting: no report received. Gareth Jones said that there had been a review of the Circuit superintendency by an external team, and there would now be one Superintendent with no pastoral responsibilities for the whole Circuit. A letter informing churches of the offer of this post to Rev Romeo Pedro had been read out 2 weeks earlier; he had since accepted the invitation.
  10. Clifford School: report tabled.  

 

Simon Dumpleton expressed thanks to the people live streaming, operating the sound system, and preparing screens.

 

6.  Elections.

  1. Church Stewards and Wardens: there were no nominees for the two vacant Steward posts. David Body invited anyone who felt they could fill one of these roles to step forward, and said that we needed wider involvement in Stewarding and Wardening and leadership roles generally. 

Clare Loughridge and Caroline Cripps were declared re-elected.

(Each Steward and Warden serves for 4 years from the date of first election)

[Julie Jordan Brown later volunteered to serve as Steward]

 

  1. Ecumenical Church Council

Clergy, Churchwardens, Stewards, a Circuit representative (Katrin Hackett),  the Circuit Superintendent are ex-officio members; Methodist members can serve 6 years (but do not have to); all members are elected annually.

 

Nominations had been received for: Bill Atherton, David Body (Chair), John Booler,

Jenny Carpenter, Imogen Clout, John Cripps, Joseph Dey, Alison Gregg, John Harding, Sarah Hindmarsh, Anne Hollows, Janet Loughridge, Peter Mitchell, Rachel Morris, Judith Roberts.

    All nominees were declared elected.

 

7.  Joint Church Council: The Joint Church Council is responsible for the Sharing Agreement on the church property.

The council consists of:

Methodist: the Minister (or a Circuit Superintendent if the minister is Anglican), 2 Stewards and 3 members - currently Mary Kenward, Judith Roberts, Janet Evans; Anglican: the Incumbent (or Area Dean if the minister is Methodist), 2 Churchwardens and 3 members - currently David Body, Imogen Clout and Rodney Godber.

Mary Kenward resigned as a Methodist member; Anne Hollows offered to stand for the post, and was elected Nem con.

 

8.   Renewal of licence for Quakers’ use of Shirley House for Worship. The

Chairman explained that it had been agreed at the Annual Church Meeting in 2013 that the Quaker licence should be renewed every year, and this was proposed and seconded. Carried Nem Con. 

Gareth Jones said we normally have annual joint services with the Quakers; some of them had joined a SAPLC service, but we could not all go to a Quaker Meeting in Shirley House because of the lack of space for social distancing. Sarah Hindmarsh suggested we could ask them if they would like to hold a Meeting for Worship in our church building to allow a properly socially distanced joint Meeting. Gareth to pass this idea on.

 

9.   Any Other Business: none

 

 

10.  Concluding prayers: the meeting closed with the Grace.

 

 

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