Minutes of St. Peters PCC 06 Dec 04

6 d. (Bishop’s visitors) The video and toolkit have been received- they are well produced, and will be shown to the Church Wardens on the 1^st Nov (note: done by time of writing)

7 a ii. (Prayer Café) We shall consider this again next year.

7 f. (Community in the Church). The group will consist of Stanley, Chris Green, Lorne, Chris Kembury, Alan Newman and possibly someone else. A meeting will be arranged by Stanley in the New Year.

7 h. (Christian Aid organiser). This will be Tricia Heckbert.

5. Any other business

NB. there was no formal agenda, so an informal one was put together at this point.

6. Items for Decision

6 a. Service schedules

Joint services (Draycott/Rodney Stoke). These will take place in Draycott in winter, and Rodney Stoke in Summer, due to heating/lack of same. Two services in each church in the year.

6 b. Kneelers

As an experiment we could save a lot of effort by cleaners and chair movers if we put the kneelers on the chairs, rather than under them. This was agreed by the meeting.

7. Items for Discussion

7 a. Worship

i. Presented recommendations of the worship group. The main one was the following:

Replace the Holy Communion service on the first Sunday of the month with a non-Eucharistic service. The content should be decided by an appropriate group, but would have at least some of the following elements:

· Increased lay involvement- possibly led by lay people.

· Some would be child or youth-orientated

· They would not be too long

· A 9:30 service is preferred.

It was suggested that we should have about 3, every other month for 6 months, to allow people to get a feel for the possibilities. They would start after Easter.

The proposal that we should accept this recommendation was put by Richard, and seconded by Wendy. There were no dissentions, although regret was expressed that the service would be non-communion.

There was a further recommendation

The churches are encouraged to have occasional additional services, to be decided on an ad hoc basis by PCCs.

No decision was required on this yet, however.

ii. Article presented to the meeting by Stanley: “Knowing your congregation”, which aimed to profile a congregation on the basis of responses to a questionnaire. We thought the questions somewhat naïve, and it would be too soon to embark on any more questionnaires. We did not think it necessary to pursue the idea for the moment.

7 b. Fabric

i. Sound system. This has been done to a very high standard; the loop itself is very unobtrusive, but covers the whole church and is very effective. A slight hum is audible through the speakers- this appears to be from a fan in the amplifier. We may however be getting a different amplifier which should resolve the issue. The radio microphone sometimes becomes inaudible, but this is probably a training issue for the users. Graham Cook needs to give us a training session.

ACTION: RD to arrange a training session.

NB. We need to advertise the fact that we have this new facility at every opportunity. Stanley has downloaded a ‘logo’ that we could all use (e.g. it needs to appear on posters advertising events, the Website, etc.).

We need to get some feedback on whether the system is working for people. This can probably be done informally, especially by talking with those known to be hard of hearing.

ii. Security of electrics. Mr. Moulton recommended a metal box, but he can’t find a suitable one. He suggested that a colleague might make us one. Stanley will get a quote. If we are to continue to use his services Mr. Moulton is currently arranging to register with NEIC, after which we can ask him to look into the other electrical questions (e.g. light switches).

iii. Carpet. This is lifting in places. Can probably be fixed with tape (see especially stairs behind lectern).

iv. Chedburn’s final reports and bill. These have not yet been received.

7 c. Finance

The current account presently stands at £2,265.65. An outstanding bill of £1,788.65 for the sound system will not be settled until we have accepted the system.

Other accounts: Roof fund: £746.60

DBF: £9,879.16

DBF (roof): £15.50

Parish share of £2,750 (29%) has so far been paid. (NB. next year the parish share is £9,454). It was proposed that we pay a further £250. All agreed.

Can we get a grant from the diocesan office for the sound system? RD will check.

In welcoming Wendy back the PCC all thanked Colette for an excellent job in her absence.