Author: Worth Parish

Discipleship & Fellowship Meeting Report

Meetings

News from the Discipleship and Fellowship Committee November 2013

Next Quiet Day:-
Planned for September 13th 2014

Up and coming Course:-

Advent York Course – Expecting Jesus will begin on November 13th for 4 Weeks in the Pastoral Centre and to be led by Canon Anthony Ball
Course books available from Joan Tick at St Nicholas. Sign-up sheets available at St Nicholas & St Barnabas churches. Open to everyone.

Wintershall DVD.
A DVD Day showing ‘The Life of Christ’ to be held on Saturday November 30th from 11.00 -16.30 at St Barnabas, and a ploughman’s lunch.
Entrance free, cash donations towards lunch. Sign-up sheets are in both churches, for catering purposes.

Parish Away Day:-
This is planned for Saturday March 8th 2014 and our Speaker will be Rev’d Andrew Mayes.
Venue Rowfant House 10.30 – 3.30pm, coffee on arrival at 10.00am, sandwich lunch and concluding at 3.30 with a Eucharist and departing at 4.00pm.
Please keep this day free and come and join us, more details to follow..

Plans for 2014
January – Bible Study
March 8th – Parish Away Day at Rowfant House
March – Lent Course
May 17th – Men’s Breakfast
June 14th – Ladies’ Breakfast
September 13th – Quiet Day

Bible Study / House Groups
It has been decided to set up House Bible Study Groups in the new year of 8 – 10 people per group; using a Bible reading /study course, further details will be issued soon.

We also need to establish how often the Group will meet, when, during the day or evening and who would lead them. A questionnaire is to be issued with the pew sheet to get a fair selection of answers to theses questions.

Teaching Courses for 2014
PILGRIM
This is a Course which starts from basics for those who have recently started to attend
church or for those who wish to understand more.
The Pilgrim Course could be lay led, it is 6 weeks per session and there are 8
Sessions, therefore it could be run for 2 or 3 years

JESUS THE FORGIVING VICTIM
This Course is more a teaching course – exploring how we read the Scriptures and a
more in-depth approach to us as a Church.

October Standing Committee Report

Meetings, PCC

October Standing Committee decisions and discussion.

The Standing Committee met on Thursday, 17 October 2013.  The Committee has the responsibility of transacting the business of the Parochial Church Council (PCC) between its meetings.

Present: Canon Anthony Ball (AJB), Alexander Brooks (AMJB), Rosemary Cordan (RC), Revd Angela Martin (AM), Phyl Pennell (PP), Richard Turpie (RT)

Apologies:  David Anderson, Matthew Knight

Amongst the matters discussed and decided by the Standing Committee were:

  1. Taking note of the decision to close the Pastoral Centre on Tuesday mornings whilst the Prince’s Trust project we were supporting needed the space (between 28th October and 27th January).  There had been a meeting of Pastoral Centre volunteers at St Barnabas on Sunday 13th October to discuss arrangements whilst the Prince’s Trust group had use of  the complex.
  2. An explanation that the painting of the drainpipes etc. at St Nicholas was only half complete as there had been some confusion about the amount of funds designated for the project.  The remaining work would be done next year.  The servicing of the boiler and removal of the oil tank at St Nicholas are still outstanding.
  3. Agreement to a new arrangement for the parish’s charitable giving, following a proposal from the Charity & Community Committee.  The current system of deciding on a month-by-month basis has led to unequal and unpredictable distribution of funds among charities.  In future the amounts given and the charities supported will be decided early in the following  year – with the Treasurer giving the amount available after  taking into account the total designated for charitable giving and the amount disbursed or collected for specific charities during the year.  So, 2014 charitable giving would be decided in January 2015 and so on.  The congregations would be asked in November to nominate charities for that year and for the Christmas charities.  For this year just the Christmas charities will be nominated in November.  The Committee decided that there should be three charities supported this Christmas – with 25% of the cash collection at designated Christmas services going to each of the charities and 25% to the PCC.
  4. Thanks to AMJB for his work in building the new website – on which there had been much positive feedback.
  5. The 2014 Budget.  In 2014 any expenditure coming from a Committee’s budget will go to the Chair for approval so that they can keep a running total of expenditure against their budget(s).
  6. The allocation of up to £1,750 from the Fabric Reserve for the repair of the bottom section of the path at St Nicholas.  The proposal was for a compacted gravel rather than tarmac finish, which might require a Faculty from the Diocese.  It was noted that over 70% of the Fabric Reserve had been spent this year and it would need to be replenished in future years.
  7. Consideration of the best way to implement the PCC’s request that t Parish Fees be increased to improve revenue from the Pastoral Offices.  A proposal will go to the November PCC meeting.
  8. Further discussion of the PCC’s decision to approve a budget for 2014 which reduced expenditure on administration by £5,000, thus necessitating a reduction in the amount spent on staff costs.  This reduction would come from the budget for the Parish Clerk – leaving only a small amount of time.  AJB would decide whether this time should be spent answering the Office phone (front-office)  or preparing baptism & marriage registers ,cards etc. (back office).  The clergy – or volunteers – would need to pick up essential elements that we could no longer pay for.
  9. Discussion of a first draft of a Parish Plan 2014-2016 prepared by AM which captured the discussion from the recent PCC Away-Day.   The document will form the basis for further work, with a proposed Plan submitted to the November PCC meeting.  
  10. There was also discussion about the schedule of works outstanding from the 2012 Quinquennial inspection,  Parish Eucharists, a new Pastoral Assistant and the advertising of our Christmas services.

The next scheduled meeting of the Standing Committee is on 12 December 2013.  The full PCC is due to meet on 28 November 2013.

Pastoral Care & Safeguarding Meeting Report

Meetings

Pastoral Care & Safeguarding Meeting

The Pastoral Care and Safeguarding Group met on 10th October 2013.

Present:  Revd Canon Anthony Ball (Chair), Janet Hewerdine, Pam Marson, Pam Newley.  No apologies

1.  Pam Newley (Safeguarding Officer) updated the Group on matters related to safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.  Changes to the system meant that Disclosures from the DBS (formerly CRB) were now transferable.  Further work was needed to ascertain whether the parish could take advantage of this development and extend its list of those with disclosures to include those who had them through other employments.   The Rector will review the list of those holding disclosures (including date and training history) each year to ensure we complied with best practice guidelines.

2. A recommendation was made to the PCC that Joan Tick be trained as Pastoral Assistant.  This would ensure that she was commissioned for her valuable ministry at Lanehurst Gardens within the recently-established umbrella of the Pastoral Team.

3.  The success of the Afternoon Teas with Pastoral Assistants was noted – there having been two such events with 22 attending each. There have been favourable comments, those attending seeming to appreciate the fellowship of the occasions.  The teas are by invitation and any parishioner wanting to attend or nominate someone should contact a Pastoral Assistant or a member of the clergy team.  Consideration was given to changing the date to the 2nd Wednesday of the month from January.

4. Discussion on the practicalities of establishing a Bereavement Support Group continued.  We are in touch with St Catherine’s Hospice and Crawley URC.

5.   The Group agreed that its key objectives for 2014 would be to:

  1. To consolidate bereavement support
  2. Develop the Afternoon Teas (enhancing the ‘listening’ role of  Pastoral Assts)
  3. Improve mechanisms for identifying pastoral needs congregation members
  4. Extend understanding of the role of ‘Welcomers’ in the churches

It noted that it had a budget of £420 for its work.

6.         The Group also discussed developing an ‘resource pack’ for Pastoral Assistants with useful organisations and numbers, communication within the congregations, and Healing Services.

It will next meet on Thursday, 13th February 2014 .

A message from Rev’d Angela

Clergy

Dear One and All, Revd Angela Martin

I thought I’d write a few words about ‘Saying THANK YOU’
This month marks the beginning of the autumn and already the signs of the colder weather are sneaking in; the fresher mornings, the nip in the air, I haven’t quite noticed the sight of my breath as we walk along the path at St Nicholas to Morning Prayer yet! This is the time of year when farmers and gardeners alike have all but gathered in their harvest from the fields, and from their gardens and allotments. As we all pause before the next cycle of growing begins, before the digging and ploughing starts in readiness for the sowing to be followed this time next year the harvesting, we pause to say THANK-YOU. It’s such a simple thing to say and yet it can be often overlooked, especially when we live in such relatively comfortable surroundings.

We often go down to Cornwall for our family holiday, a county of many narrow lanes where it is customary to thank passing cars with a wave or a thumbs up as each of you pass by as close as you dare to the hedge, or in some cases the very edge, along the road. A couple of years ago I noticed a difference. There were fewer ‘THANK YOUs’. It was as if even this small thing of pulling over to allow each to pass by is expected and therefore there is no need for this polite exchange. When I was a child I often heard the phrase, ‘it doesn’t cost anything to be polite’ – in other words there is no excuse not to be!

At this time of year many of us will gather in church to say THANK YOU to God for providing all we need. We give thanks not just for the food we have on the table and in the cupboard but for everything; for our health, our families, our loved ones and all those things in life that bring us joy and happiness. We also remember particularly those who are not as fortunate, it’s a time to move over and make room for others so that they too can enjoy life. God provides for each and every one of us the only reason why some have more than others is not because it is not there but that it is not shared. The harvest gifts collected by the all of us will once again be going to Open House and the Easter Team (Thank you Malcolm for collecting and delivering these gifts from us all year round). These are projects within our area which provide food, shelter and hope to so many people who find themselves in need. Having now visited Open House and seen the extent of their work not just for those lucky enough to be living there but to the countless number of people who benefit from their work, I can tell you that it is truly humbling to be thanked by them. People who know what it is to go without, people who live daily with the worry of not knowing where their next meal will come from or where they will be sleeping at night.

THANK YOU is not an insignificant thing to say, it’s uplifting, encouraging, warming. So the next time someone does anything for you no matter how small remember to keep those two little words alive, THANK YOU!
As George Herbert once said “Lord, you have given me so much; I ask for one more thing – a grateful heart”.

With every Blessing,
Revd Angela