ST MARY THE VIRGIN ELHAM
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PCC FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31DEC 2014
Administrative Information
St. Mary’s Church is situated in The Square, Elham. It is part of the Diocese of
Canterbury within the Church of England. The correspondence address is (during this
Interregnum) Park Gate, Elham, Canterbury, Kent CT4 6NE. The PCC is a charity
excepted from registration with the Charity Commission. PCC members who have
served from
1 Jan 2014 until the date this report was approved are :Incumbent:
Vacant
Lay Reader:
Dr. Denis Osborne
Churchwardens:
Mrs. Mary Morgan (Chairman)
Mr. Bryan Shepherdson
Sacristans :
Mrs. Carmen Clark, Mrs. Margaret Keeble,
Mrs. Judy Laker, and Mrs. Judy Ufton
Representatives on the
Deanery Synod
Mr. Colin Johnson ( Lay Chair )
Mrs. Mary Morgan
Mr. John Mitchell
Elected Members:
Mrs. Jean Anderson
Miss Audrey Brooks
Mrs. Margaret Keeble
Mrs. Judy Ufton
Mr. Geoff Webb (Vice Chair)
Mrs. Dee Davies
Dr. Patrick Wheeler(Treasurer)
Mr. Scott Jagger
Mrs. Alice Mills
Mrs. Jill Johnson
Mrs. Christine Osborne
Standing Committee:
Mrs. Mary Morgan
Mr. Bryan Shepherdson
Mrs. Gillian Ratcliff
Dr. Patrick Wheeler
Mr. John Mitchell
Mr. Geoff Webb
retires APCM 2015
retires APCM 2015
retires APCM 2015
retires APCM 2015
retires APCM 2016
retires APCM 2016
retires APCM 2017
retires APCM 2017
retires APCM 2017
retires APCM 2017
retires APCM 2017
( Churchwarden )
(Churchwarden)
( PCC Secretary )
( PCC Treasurer )
( Chair Church Hall Committee)
( Chair Worship Committee)
Structure Governance and Management
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 and stand
for election to the PCC.
The Friends of St. Mary’s is a fund raising organisation which now has charitable
status, which is separate from the PCC. It is committed to raise funds for the
maintenance of the church.
Objectives and Activities:
St. Mary’s PCC has the responsibility of promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the
whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. It also has
maintenance responsibilities for the Church Centre Complex of St. Mary’s, The
Square, Elham.
Achievements and Performance:
Church Attendance:
There are parishioners on the Church Electoral Roll. 4 names were removed during
the year, and 7 names were added. Of these people live within the parish of Elham,
and outside the parish. The average weekly attendance, counted over the whole year,
was 59. 100 people attended services over Easter, and 415 people attended the
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.
There was 1 baptism, 4 weddings, and 5 funerals during the year.
Charitable Activities:
Various Fund Raising Activities have taken place including
Money from the Lent Lunches was sent to Christian Aid.
Harvest Collections and Offerings were sent to the Rainbow Centre in Folkestone.
Special Collections were held in Advent and at Christmas for helping disadvantaged
teenagers in Folkestone.
Several parishioners joined in the Walk of the Kings in aid of the Rainbow Centre in
Folkestone, and The Friends of Kent Churches Cycle Ride .
Review of the Year
The Wardens would especially like to thank the Ministry Team of Canon David
Ratcliff, Revd. Richard Wood, Revd. Ted Clark, and Dr. Denis Osborne for their help
and guidance during this year without an Incumbent. They have given selflessly of
their time, experience and expertise which has made the organisation of the last year
particularly smooth for the Wardens. It is with great sadness that we had to say
farewell to Dr. Osborne after his illness and death in the autumn.
The full PCC met 4 times during the year with an average attendance of 74.35 %.
Committees and informal groups met between meetings and Minutes of their
deliberations were received by the full PCC and discussed where necessary. Sadly we
have lost several PCC members during the year : Mrs. Anderson and Miss Brooks
have retired due to ill health. Mr. Jagger has recently moved from the village. We
thank them most sincerely for all their work and time.
The Worship Committee met 4 times. It tries to arrange a variety of Services to
encourage people of all points of view to come to church. Taize services were held on
2 Sunday evenings in the Spring and Autumn. We have also had several non
Eucharistic services, and one Songs of Praise. We welcomed Bishop Trevor at
Pentecost, and Archdeacon Philip in September.
The Service at the beginning of August commemorating the beginning of World War
1, held jointly with the Elham Valley Branch of the Royal British Legion, was a
moving and well attended service, as was the Remembrance Day service in
November. This Sunday was also memorable by the visit of a bell ringing team from
the Ancient College of Youths from the City of London, the oldest group of its kind in
the country, who asked to ring a full peal on our bells during the afternoon.
Palm Sunday and the Christmas Eve Crib service were made memorable by the
presence of two well behaved donkeys belonging to one of our congregation, which
attracted a large number of children, especially at Christmas.
Benefice services are held on every 5th Sunday in the month, one each at Denton,
Wootton and Elham. This year, once again, there were four “5th” Sundays, so on the
last – 30th November - we jointly visited the Cathedral for communion.
We also joined together for the Rogation Walk, when a group, including dogs, walk
across the parishes from church to church having a short service in each. We thank
Mr. Geoff Webb for his excellent work chairing this committee.
The Wardens, Treasurer and PCC Secretary have had many meetings with
Archdeacon Philip about the future shape of the parish and Benefice. It has been
decided that our new appointment will be a 0.5% priest, which will reduce our quota
and make it more sustainable, and that the nearby small rural parish of Acrise should
be joined to our Benefice of Elham, Denton and Wootton. We are awaiting the
lengthy legal procedures to be finalised so that we can start to advertise for a new
vicar, hopefully in March 2015.
The Wardens would like to thank the Sacristan, Jean Anderson, for her dedicated
work and the training of her new team of Carmen Clark, Judy Ufton, Margaret Keeble
and Judy Laker to work in the Vestry, and send our best wishes on her retirement due
to ill health. We would also like to thank Maggie Newington for her regular
laundering of the linen.
The Social and Fundraising Committee has arranged many events during the year. A
large amount of refreshments were produced for various events. The annual Pancake
Brunch took place jointly with the Methodists. Two major fund raisers were held, a
Jumble Sale in the church which raised a large sum of money but took a huge amount
of preparation, and an Auction of promises and items which was similarly labour
intensive, but also raised a large sum. Our thanks to the Committee for all their time
and labour.
We also opened the church for the village Christmas Food Market which was very
successful, when we ran a café in the Chancel for more fund raising.
The Church Hall Management Committee, under the leadership of John Mitchell, has
worked to maintain the flat and the Hall, and Bridget Johnson continues to do an
excellent job supervising the Hall and its bookings.
The double page in the village Newsletter goes to all households in the village.
Thanks are due to several parishioners who have kindly given their computer skills to
produce this. The information is also published on the church Web site. A Bulletin is
produced every week, with similar information, and is available in church.
The Church Website is still well used and regularly updated.
The Focus Group of Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists and Roman Catholics has not
met this year but is still in existence.
We have had several joint services with the Methodists, including Harvest Festival,
and a shared Lent Course, as well as a joint Sunday School. Sadly the Roman Catholic
service, held once a month in St. Mary’s church, remains in abeyance owing to lack of
support and the ill health of Father Hartley, although they are still most welcome.
Owing to the lack of an Incumbent we have taken a less active role at the school,
leading assemblies etc. However the School continues to use the church for beginning
and end of term services. Rev. Richard Wood is always pleased to help, and the
children visit to tour the church. Many parishioners regularly help at the school There
are 6 church representatives on the School Governing Body.
The Sunday School is well run but meets irregularly. It is still suffering from small
numbers but we hope this is cyclical and numbers will recover soon. All children
dressed up and joined in performing the Nativity at the Crib Service on Christmas Eve
with the added attraction of the live donkeys, one of whom carried Mary on her back
around the church and gave verisimilitude to the stable in the chancel.
There is a small, active and well run group of teenage servers led by David
Whitethread, who has also encouraged more adults to join his team. The majority of
the young are leaving to go to University. We thank them for their support and wish
them well in the future. Our newest recruit is aged 7.
The Youth Group called the Arc Angels has continued to meet regularly and enjoy a
variety of activities. We thank all the helpers for their time and inspiration. Dr. Denis
Osborne was actively involved with this group. We hope it will continue.
Sunday Funday, begun in July 2013 and held in the Methodist Hall, was based on
Messy Church and was designed to attract new worshippers and involve new families.
Sadly it attracted very small numbers and is in abeyance for the moment.
We have a new Tower Captain, Nicki Crowhurst, and Steeple Keeper, Richard Down,
who lead the ringing of our peal of eight bells regularly, and are training some new
bell ringers to join the team. These new recruits are now ringing regularly and have
made excellent progress. Nicki and Richard have now cleared out all the rooms in the
Tower of accumulated rubbish, for which we thank them most sincerely. Several
meetings and bell ringing events have taken place at the church. Richard Down has
kindly taken over the task of changing the flag on the flag pole at the top of the Tower
Pastoral work includes the Care Circle, Communion taken to the sick, and other
pastoral work by members of the congregation..
We also held a “ Newcomers Coffee Morning “, now a regular event, so that new
people to the village can meet each other and hear about all organisations and events.
We also thank Rose and Will Willcox at the King’s Arms for holding Coffee
Mornings to raise money for the church funds.
The “FAQ’s” Group continues, but has been quiet this year. It has plans for a meeting
in 2015.
The choir is led by our excellent organist, Dr, Lloyd Davies who has composed pieces
for them, including two new settings of the Sung Eucharist which are being used
regularly in rotation. We thank Gill Sparks for accompanying the Sung service on
occasions when Dr. Davies is unavailable, and Canon Ratcliff for his help.
There are a very large number of people who help to keep the church and its services
running smoothly. Among these are the team which cleans the church regularly, and
the team who decorate the church with flowers, led by Mrs. Jill Skelton.. Also
everyone who helps prepare services, the welcomers and sidespeople led by Mrs.
Alice Mills, Mrs. Helen Lipton who compiles lists and rotas, Rev. Richard Wood who
opens the church daily, and Mrs. Frances Horton who locks it at dusk. A special
mention must be made of Vicki Parsons who nobly organises the second hand book
corner, which raises a good sum of money for the church and at the same time acts as
a library for the village, bringing many people into the church who do not attend
services.We would like to thank them all, especially during this Interregnum when all
members of the church congregation are working hard and pulling together to
maintain the vital life of this church.
Fabric Report
The Friends of Saint Mary’s have continued to finance maintenance work
within the church. Internal walls have continued to be repaired and repainted. Also
work has been done outside repairing the flint work, especially the outer wall of the
Jesus Chapel, and much repointing of the north wall especially around the windows.
All gutters and downpipes have been thoroughly cleaned including the drainage
channel all round the church and all vegetation growing on the walls has been treated.
In the early winter John Williams and Co. repaired the lead work on the nave roof
which had been allowing leaking rainwater into the nave and Jesus Chapel.
The Friends are also financing the annual servicing of the clock on the church tower.
We thank the Friends most sincerely for all this work.
We are having some problems with the sound system in the church and we thank Mr.
Geoff Hirst for his expertise in dealing with this.