Following the delayed Annual Parochial Church Meeting on Sunday 18th October, the new PCC met on 11th November for the first time.
Rosy Stone has been elected Churchwarden in place of John Hood, who has now completed his four year term. Newly elected PCC members are Patricia Byrne, Susan Hodgens, Lynne McNeill, Lynn Winter and Ceri Ward. Additionally, Andy Jackson was Co-Opted to the PCC; Andy attends at the 8am service, and is an Assistant Head at Bishop Laffa School, Chichester.
Tony Rice-Oxley and Candy Williams are elected as Deanery Synop representatives. Sara Pask has taken over as Honorary Treasurer, and it was agreed to appoint an Assistant Honorary Treasurer, who is Malcolm Brewer. Sonja Pask continues as designated Safeguarding Officer, and Lynn Winter has taken over as Deputy Safeguarding Officer.
PCC Committees were formed, as follows.
Fabric and Finance and Quinquennial: Andy Jackson, Sara Pask, Tony Rice-Oxley, Ceri Ward. David Cavey to be invited to continue as a Co-Opted member.
Pastoral: Anne Morgan (Chair), Patricia Byrne, Marian Haughton, Lynne McNeill, Candy Williams, Lynn Winter. Rosemary Monk and Richard Spurgeon to be invited to continue as Co-Opted members.
Hall: Tony Rice-Oxley (Chair), Jane Cook, Ian Gibson, Sue Hodgens, Ceri Ward. To be Co-Opted; Malcolm Brewer, Mary Chapman, Fiona Ross.
Mission and Stewardship: Fr Colin (Chair), Fr Ray (ex-officio), Patricia Byrne, Anne Morgan, Mo Peters, Lynn Winter.
Treasurer
The Treasurer reported that a donation had been made by the Social and Fundraising Committee of £1,000 to church funds. Plans are afoot to run, for the time being, fundraising activities that can be carried out “remotely”. There will be a raffle on the run-up to Christmas, an invitation to the congregation to “Buy St George’s a New-Year’s Gift” in January followed by an “Auction of Promises” in February 2021 The Gift Day raised an amazing total of £3,265 – thank you to all who contributed. During the first lockdown period a weekly Zoom Quiz was held which raised a total of £255. The weekly quiz has been resumed during the second lockdown period. During the two years since we have been inviting our congregation, friends and family to use Easyfundraising to purchase items online, we have raised £270. Easyfundraising is easy to use and raises much needed funds with no cost to the user – if you haven’t signed up for Easyfundraising please consider registering, especially as many more people may be ordering Christmas gifts online this year.
The Diocesan Board of Finance have drawn up a draft budget for 2021 in which it is proposed that our Parish Share for 2021 will reduce from £66846.00 for 2020 to £64949 for 2021. This budget, however, has still to be confirmed by Synod.
Parish and Deanery-wide Consultation in Havant Deanery
Fr Colin shared an update from the Diocesan Synod regarding the Live/Pray/Serve project which we thought about greatly when we did our Mission Action Plan. The Diocese are thinking about the structure of the Diocese and the Church of England is also thinking about structures. The Archbishop of York has been tasked with looking at the structures and proposing streamlines. This is the Diocese level – Live, Pray and Serve. We want to grow in depth, impact and number which is what we looked at when we did our MAP. We are called to be missionaries and make mission a priority in everything we do. There is a history of decline in our finances and church attendance and many churches are struggling and this has been brought into sharper focus because of the Global Pandemic.
