Parish of St Barnabas and St James the Greater, Walthamstow Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council for year ended December 2013 (with financial statement) St Barnabas Church (the church of the Parish of St Barnabas and St James the Greater) is situated St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London, E17 8JZ. The correspondence address is St Barnabas Vicarage, St Barnabas Rd, Walthamstow, London, E17 8JZ. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) is an excepted charity under the Charities Act (2006). st PCC members who have served from 1 January 2013 until the date this report was approved are: Incumbent: The Reverend Canon Steven Saxby Associate Priest The Reverend Father Salvador Telen (until June 2013) Associate Priest The Reverend Father Lionel Crompton-Thomas (from December 2013) Churchwardens: Mr Kenneth Carter Mrs Jane Bugnosen Deanery Synod Reps: Mr Kenneth Carter (term ends 2014) Chris Smaling (term ends 2014) Elected members: Andrew MacDonald (term ends 2014) Mr Paul Worham (term ends 2014) Ms Solidad Shah (term ends 2014) Ms Doreen Ryan (term ends 2015) Ms Sherrill Fletcher (term ends 2015) Mrs Elaine Bailey (term ends 2015) Mrs Harriet Mukasa (term ends 2016) Mrs Farhad Magnin (term ends 2016) Ms Florence Cayboen (terms ends 2016) Secretary: Mrs Elizabeth Worham Treasurer: Mr Kristian Bugnosen Structure, governance and management The PCC is a corporate body established by the Church of England. The PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Powers Measure (1956). The PCC is excepted by order from registration with the Charity Commission. The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. All Church attendees are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll (after attending for six months) and to stand for election to the PCC. There are nine elected members each serving for three years and at every Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) three members are up for election. Three members sit on the PCC by virtue of election to the Deanery Synod and also serve for three years. The Standing Committee comprises the Chair (the incumbent), Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Wardens. Objectives and Activities The PCC mission statement (agreed for the 2009 Parish Profile) is as follows: ‘The Parish of St Barnabas and St James the Greater will provide and address the spiritual needs of its growing multi-ethnic congregation while openly reaching out to the wider community. The parish will achieve this goal by its Worship of God through prayer and the Holy Sacraments and in its service to its parishioners.’ The PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent, Canon Steven Saxby, in fulfilling the mission statement. Its activities include the administration of the church building, the Foster Hall and the Stafford Hall. The PCC publishes a monthly Parish Magazine. It also engages in fundraising to support the work of various charities, including Advent Church in the Philippines. Achievements and Performances At the end of 2013, there were 96 people on the Electoral Roll and average attendance at the main weekly service (11am on Sundays) was 65 adults and 15 children. An average of 6 people attended additional services throughout the week. In 2013 there were 12 baptisms, 3 weddings, 1 funeral in church and 4 funerals taken at crematoria on behalf of the Parish. There were 104 communicants and 116 Christmas communicants. Review of the year The PCC met several times throughout the year under the Chairmanship of Father Steven Saxby. Discussions included our parish’s response to the challenge of the diocesan Transforming Presence agenda. Once again, Elizabeth Worham did a fabulous job throughout the year editing and producing the Parish Magazine and newsletters for distribution throughout the Parish. Several people worked hard during the year cleaning and decorating the church. Thanks are due to several priests who visited during the year, not least Father Andres Palantes, who has permission to officiate at St Barnabas and visits about once a month. In June Father Steven resigned as Parish Priest our St Saviour’s (having taken up a new half-time post as Executive Officer to the London Church Leaders) and Father Salvador was appointed parish priest of St Saviour’s. We were sad to see Fr Salvador finish his role as our associate priest but were glad to welcome him back to cover and support services during the rest of the year. In December we were delighted to welcome Father Lionel CromptonThomas, ordained in Sierra Leone, as Associate Priest at St Barnabas following his permission to officiate here. The year saw other changes for Father Steven as he was elected to the General Synod and asked to become an honorary canon of the Independent Filipino Church. (He was then made a canon in January 2014). The choir grew in strength during the year, assisted by Richard Baker being with us as organist most Sundays for several months. We now have a strong band of regular organists, including Richard, Ed Kemp-Luck and Beth Tremble (who began a placement with us from the YMCA in October). Throughout the year several groups used the Foster Hall and at the end of the year the following were regular users, meaning the hall is now used every weekday evening: the Linda Christy-Carter School of Dance, a TaiKwondo Class, The House of Rainbow monthly prayer fellowship, a Karate group, Tai-Chi for women and girls, Circular Flow Yoga, Kung Foo, Pilates and the La Touche choir. The Foster Hall was also subject to a major refurbishment, all funded by the Early Education Centre, following a licence agreement with the PCC for the pre-school to use the hall Monday-Fridays from 8am-4pm. This means we now have the hall in excellent condition, with a much more healthy income and put to full use by the community. It is still available for church use and for parties on Saturday evenings and Sundays. The Walthamstow Cine-Video Club continued to lease the Stafford Hall for their activities, as they have done for the last forty years. However, the PCC entered into a shared use agreement with the Cine-Club and we will begin to make limited use of the Stafford Hall for church and community meetings. February marked the third anniversary of “The Barnabarians”, our Sunday School, which continues to go from strength to strength, led by a wonderful team. The year saw us continuing our support for migrants and hosting meetings of the newly formed Walthamstow Migrants Action Group, as well as for our local community, hosting meetings for the Queens Boundary Community (QBC) organisation. In March we participated in an inter-faith open house event, in co-operation with QBC and our friends at Queens Road Mosque. April was the occasion for wonderful Holy Week and Easter Services. In April two of our members were confirmed during the year at a confirmation service at St Saviour’s led by the Bishop of Barking. May saw the end of Father Steven’s year as Chaplain to the Mayor of Waltham Forest Richard Sweden (and Elaine Bailey’s year as one his consorts). St Barnabas hosted the Civic Service, attended by many from across the borough and involving participation of many denominations and other faiths. The preacher was Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons and a Chaplain to the Queen. We were also joined by Bishop Trevor Mwamba. We continued to support London Citizens throughout the year. In May, we hosted a very useful immigration workshop facilitated by the new New Citizens Legal Service. Later in the year, we hosted another workshop on Stop and Search with the Anti-Raids Network and many of us attended the big launch of the Migrants Action Group at Harmony Hall and took part in the Welcome to Walthamstow action. We also started collecting for the Waltham Forest food bank, Eat or Heat. June was the occasion of the St Barnabas Patronal Festival with High Mass, with Father Paul Trathen from St Peter’s-in-the-Forest as our preacher! June saw some of us attend Jide’s ordination and Fr Telen’s licensing at St Saviour’s (on the same day), both very joyous occasions. We also hosted the QBC Street Party, bigger and better than the first one, with around 1000 people attending from the neighbourhood. Beth Sheriden-Green spent July with us on placement from the Contextual Theology Centre and facilitated some good connections between women in the congregation and community. There was no E17 Art Trail in 2013 but plans were in hand for our participation in 2014. In October we used resources from Us. (the United Society) for Harvest, based on the experience of assetbased community development (ABCD) in Besao (from whence come many of our congregation). We enjoyed discussion over our harvest lunch and this led to us having an evening or making food with pumpkins! October saw a coach-load of St Barnabas pilgrims visit Norwich, where a lovely day was had, with wonderful hospitality provided by Norwich Cathedral and a meet-up with our old friend Father Anthony (who made the heroic bus journey from Kings Lynn). We were glad as the PCC to affirm our support for House of Rainbow fellowship and to join with them in cohosting our annual World Aids Day service. We were, of course, devastated by the news of typhoon in the Philippines but heartened how people from across the community joined us at St Barnabas to support the victims and bring goods which were shipped to Manila by Pooten Forwarding. The Bishop of Chelmsford also used a free Sunday to join us in solidarity with those affected by the tragedy. December marked the occasion of joyful Christmas services. Liz Worham and Christine Saxby organised another brilliant Christmas Fayre, much enjoyed by members of the church and wider community. Thanks to Jane Bugnosen and other members for organising various social lunches and events throughout the year. Thanks to Harriet Mukasa and Elaine Bailey for taking on weekly responsibility for the flowers. Thanks indeed to everyone for all their hard work during the year, not least to Jane Bugnosen and Ken Carter, the wardens, and thanks, above all, to God for another blessed year! Financial Statements are attached in a separate document. Fr Steven Saxby, PCC Chair – April 2014.