Annual Report 2014
Background
St George’s PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the priest-in-charge in promoting, in the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic and ecumenical.
Membership:
Members of the PCC are either ex-officio or elected by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) in accordance with the Church Representation Rules.
During the year 2014 the following people served as members of the PCC:
Priest in charge
Lay Reader – ex officio
Rev Martine Crabtree
Martin Bailes
Churchwardens
Freda Jackson
Pauline Shaw
Michael Tattersall
Alan Shaw
Representatives on the Deanery Synod:
Jane Read (from AGM 2014)
Michael Read (from AGM 2014)
Elected Members:
Elected AGM 2014 to serve for 3 years
Carolyn Broadbent
Rose Mallinson
Susan Ward
Elected AGM 2014 to serve for 1 year
Cynthia Abercrobie
Elected AGM 2013 to serve for 3 years
David Bowes
Sue Shuff
Jean Smethurst
Elected AGM 2012 to serve for 3 years:
Juliet Taylor
Mel Broadbent
Committees
The PCC operates through a number of committees which meet between the full PCC meetings.
Standing committee
This is the only committee required by law. It has the power to transact the business of the PCC between meetings subject to any directions given by the council. It comprises the Priest in Charge, the churchwardens, the PCC secretary and the PCC treasurer. The Standing Committee met twice in 2014.
Finance Committee
This is incorporated with the Standing Committee and attends to any matters regarding the income and expenditure, budgeting and stewardship of money as directed by the PCC
The Legacy Committee
Set up in 2005 to attend to any monies in the legacy account and includes members of the PCC and other interested parties. It can make recommendations to the PCC but has no powers. The legacy committee did not meet in 2014.
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The current roll was compiled in March 2013. In January 2014 there were 77 persons on the roll. During the year 2 names were added and 1 name was removed. In December 2014 there were 78 people on the roll.
Cynthia Abercrombie
Church attendance:
The usual Sunday attendance, counted during October was 62 of which 10 were under 16. The attendance at festivals and for baptisms when attendance usually reached about 80.
Report of the Priest in Charge 2014
“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it.” (I Cor 12:27)
This is a time to celebrate the wonderful family of God that make up the many parts of the worshipping group at St George’s. We have lots of busy and gifted people who contribute to the life of this church. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for what you offer to our work and mission. We are able to do so many great things because of all the generous people who give their time, gifts and money.
The PCC have done a great job this year. They have shown a lot of commitment and generosity.
I particularly thank the PCC Secretary, Treasurer, Churchwardens; they have a demanding role in the life of the church and give so much time to their tasks.
We are blessed to have so many people who contribute to the ministry team: We have 4
Readers at this church and 1 at St James, 5 Pastoral Ministers, the Revd Joan Viles who works mostly at St James, but also helps out here and the Revd Rachel Bailes who alongside being full time Chaplain at the hospital is a full part of the church family here and often helps and supports the ministry team. We also have Phil who is now training for Ordination and Belinda who is training to be a Reader. I am very grateful for all that we do together as a team. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Phil and Belinda for all that they have given over the many years they have been here. I pray that God will bless them in their new ministry when they move to start Phil’s curacy at Normanton.
There are many others who I would like to thank for all that they do: The Prayer Ministry team, The House group Leaders, The Junior Church and Youth Leaders, The new Messy Church helpers, Guide and Brownie leaders, The food bank team and the new Soup kitchen workers, The worship group and their leader, Undiminished and the Sunday night team, The Mara team, The
All age service team, those who serve refreshments, clean the church, iron the linen, join the maintenance working team, flower arrangers, the new Chatty craft group, the Christians
Against Poverty team, Parish giving officer, Schools work, Deanery Synod representatives,
Wakefield Prison fellowship team, Fair trade representative, those who look after the newsletter, notice boards, the church website, and social media, Alpha leaders, helpers, and books, St George’s Saturday evening group leaders, Bembridge House team, Parish weekend organisers, Social event organisers and helpers, St George’s Lupset Ltd Trustees from Church,
Electoral Roll Officer and lastly, the most important team of all - The Mission Team and that is everybody! What a big and amazing list of people! Thank you all!
This year the Mission team have planned many great events to encourage church growth and build up the church family. All people are encouraged to take part in these events. We have enjoyed such events as the afternoon tea, Alternative Halloween, Noah’s ark fun day working with the Centre, the bonfire night service and party, the Golden Halo Awards, Beer & Hymns and The Harvest lunch. We are developing work with young families through the Messy church days. We are also meeting new people in the community through the growth in Chatty craft, the
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food bank and soup kitchen. We also have other events such as the Christmas services and the
Memorial service that also bring new people into the life of the church. This work has been very good and we are observing new people and a growing church – Praise God!
This is certainly a busy church. We celebrate the many parts that make us one body. We pray that God will fill this church with love. May we love and appreciate each individual member of our church family and spread out that love into this community and beyond.
Rev Martine Crabtree
Alan and I have enjoyed working with Martine throughout 2014.
This year again, was one of basic maintenance of the church fabric and continuing the necessary work identified by the Quinquennial survey, carried out in May 2011. This has mostly been done by the men’s working group which meets on the last Saturday in the month. The majority of the work which they are able to undertake has been completed but they will continue to meet to do any items of general maintenance.
The major items of expenditure being the organ repairs, the CCTV control replacement, and the
5 year wiring check.
During the year we have met with Health and Safety committee of St George’s Lupset Ltd enabling us to share concerns and address them in the spirit of co-operation.
Alan Shaw, Mike Tattersall (Churchwardens.)
The full PCC met nine times in the year and all meetings were quorate. Four vacancies were filled at the APCM in March 2014 to make up the full complement of nine elected members.
Under Rev’d Martine’s chair the PCC have again had a very full year, they have fulfilled their statutory duties and given formal consideration to all aspects of church life.
The PCC is responsible with the churchwardens for ensuring that all issues of health and safety and safeguarding are well managed and that we are up to date with legislation and the requirements of the bishop and Church of England.
The Safeguarding policies for both Children and Vulnerable Adults are up to date and the new advice on checks from the DBS is being followed.
During the year the PCC have taken the following action on behalf of the whole church.
 Continued to support and promote the Alpha Course
 Attended and responded to consultations about the new diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.
 Received, discussed and responded to information from the Diocese about becoming a joint benefice with St James’ Thornes.
 Developed and encouraged a range of outreach events designed for people who are new to church and on the fringe of activities
 Held a Vision day to consider the way forward and priorities for church growth and development
 Started to look for a new Audio/ Visual system
 Planned a calendar of activities designed to appeal to all groups within the church
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 Reviewed seasonal services and considered changes for the future
 Agreed substantial support for the visit to Mara and that in future a monthly gift would be sent to Mkirira/Kiamajoje.
 Joined in with the services that marked the end of the Wakefield Diocese and the inauguration of the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.
 Ensured that issues of Health and Safety and copyright legislation are regularly discussed and appropriate action taken.
This year the PCC have particularly focussed on aspects of outreach and ministry across the church and have given their backing and encouragement to all the work of St George’s. Much has been done and the PCC has reviewed all the work done within church and tries to provide appropriate support for all those working to share the gospel in so many ways in our community.
Freda Jackson
The church finished the year with a surplus of £2461 with no expenditure being made from the legacy account.
The main income changes for the year were an increase in the amount recovered from tax on covenants with the submission of a 12 month period following the short period last year.
Overall expenditure remained in line with the previous year but there were a number of increases and decreases with the exception of repairs which have increased over the previous year by £3410 relating to the organ repairs CCTV control equipment and the 5 year wiring check.
Looking into the coming year the current prediction is for a surplus of £1500.
St George`s continues to be a generous church.
As a PCC we give generously to charities including Christians Against Poverty from our annual budget. The food bank is generously stocked and staffed by members of the congregation.
Members of the congregation here at St George`s continue to give of their time and energy to help in the smooth running of our church.
However while we do give generously financially to St Georges, we continue to "sail close to the wind" when it comes to balancing our budget at the end of the year.
I would prayerfully ask that everyone look carefully as to how they might increase their giving to St Georges in 2015. Mick Read
The Music Group is a team of people (of varied ages) in our church with the gift of music, who have a heart for worshipping God through it. We meet prior to the Sunday morning service both to rehearse and to prepare ourselves and the congregation for worship. Our aim is to enable the congregation to engage with God through musical worship.
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The music for services is chosen with careful consideration of the theme and readings for each particular occasion. We aim to provide a balance of different styles. New songs are introduced occasionally and feedback on these is always welcome. The music in 2014 has been planned by
Rev Martine Crabtree and me in the main part, and ably assisted by Tracey Yates on occasion.
This last year has again not been the easiest for the group as we have not been at full strength due to ill health for a couple of us. Our pianist, Ken Winter-Briggs, has left us to worship at a church in the Harrogate region. Ben Percival is now at Royal Northern College of Music in
Manchester and so we miss his week by week commitment to the group, however, we are pleased that he has been able to join us on occasions when he’s been home. However, through the commitment and dedication of the team we have still been able to lead the congregation in musical worship for all the regular Sunday morning services during 2014 as well as for special services such as Lent, Easter and Christmas. The group planned and led a Northumbrian
Compline service during Lent and a Taizé style evening in Holy Week. The group also planned and led the Carol Service.
We found that as the year went on fewer and fewer of us were making the Tuesday night rehearsals. Following a meeting we decided to trial meeting on Saturday mornings, less often, but for a longer time, in the hope that we most of the group could attend each time. This is still in its infancy and we will have a better idea next year at this time whether it is working or not.
On several occasions we have shared worship with our friends and neighbours at St James’ and we have welcomed this opportunity to get to know each other better and to appreciate the different styles of worship of both churches.
We are also pleased that Rev Rachel Bailes joins us occasionally either playing her flute or singing.
We are grateful to Janice Holt who has helped us out on the piano for our Memorial Service,
Christingle Service and our Carol Service as well as on some normal Sunday mornings when we have been short of musicians.
Julia Percival on behalf of the Music Group
We have attended 2 Synod meetings.
In November Synod met at St John’s. We discussed how the Deanery would be resourced with specific regard to training. The essence was that training needs of churches would be decided via consultation rather than the Deanery deciding what training was needed.
In February this year we met at St Catherine’s. We discussed Away days and Parish
Weekends. We were also given a presentation on How to share the gospel with Muslims.
St George’s Lupset Limited
The Community Centre continues to develop its range of activities and hundreds of people use the facilities every week. The church is represented on the board of trustees and Rev’d
Martine works closely with the managers to develop new ideas and ways in which we can support each other. St George’s Lupset employs almost sixty people. Many of these are the staff of the four high quality Childcare Centres the company runs. We are an Adult Education
Centre for the area and a wide range of courses are provided and are well attended. The range
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of activities for our children and young people has extended with the Youth Café and we are very pleased that the police say that this has had a significant impact on the behaviour of the
Young People on Lupset.
The Community Café provides excellent snacks all day at very reasonable prices and is becoming a meeting place within the community. In recent months a new partnership has developed with
Age UK and this is likely to grow significantly over the coming year.
The working between church and centre is extending and we have partnership activities such as
Crafty Chat and the Foodbank. We also shared the Funday in July which was attended by well over 300 local people. This was a very successful day and everyone enjoyed it. As the cuts in local service provision from the Council and the NHS get deeper the Community Centre is asked to take on more and it is likely that there will be many more developments in 2015.
Freda Jackson
Christians against Poverty
In 2015 debt continues to be significant factor in the life of many people living in the UK including those living within our parish. This is evident from the amount of people using our food bank. It is on the heart of many people at St Georges to do something to help.
St George`s Church are supporting Christian`s against Poverty in a variety of ways. For the third year we are supporting our local CAP centre (along with other churches in the area) run from St Helen`s Sandal financially in the sum of £1000 per year. This will contribute towards their running costs. Members of St George`s are again helping at the CAP centre and are working as “befrienders” to the CAP clients. Members of St George`s have run CAP Money courses in 2014.
Mick Read
Catherine, Christine and I have enjoyed another year leading the children’s worship and youth group with the help of Rose, Becky and Matthew.
With the growing numbers of younger children we have adapted to cater for children from 18 months. We prepare activities for pre-school, juniors and 11+ children each Sunday morning and hopefully we can cater for whoever turns up on the day. We have been able to recycle some of the material we used when our own children were pre-school!
Youth group has continued to run about every 2/3 weeks. I wish I could commit to it being more often but not only are the leaders all busy but our young people seem to be so busy with school work as well as other activities that this frequency seems to be a good balance. The breadth of topics and discussions we have are quite amazing and challenging! I will not forget the evening I had prepared for studying Jesus going into the wilderness and preparing for lent and ended up discussing the pros and cons of marriage and sex before marriage!
The youth church put on another successful Christmas play; our philosophy is to include as many youngsters as possible even those who could not be there on the day!
In January, Becky and Matthew helped teach and lead the youngsters to do a puppet show during an all age service which was great fun to do and also very well received. Our young people’s talents are ever growing!
Thank you to everyone who helps and prayers for our young people and leaders. If there is anyone interested in offering time and assistance please come and talk to us.
God bless, Juliet Taylor
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Monday Evening Prison Fellowship
Alan, Julia & Phil go into HMP Wakefield once a month on a Monday evening to share a time of fellowship with the eight or so prisoners who attend. We encourage the men to participate in reading and discussing the topic for the evening which can be based on a passage from the bible or latterly a reflection. We also sing hymns and pray with them.
The format we use seems to work very well and we hope that each of them take away something from the evening. We certainly feel spiritually fed after these sessions.
The prisoners always express their gratitude that we have taken the time to visit them. In addition one of the team is also a personal prison visitor.
Our position at the end of 2013 was not certain as we were unsure how things would pan out with Phil’s curacy; however, we are delighted that his training incumbent is very happy for him to continue with his role in our team.
In March the prison chaplaincy team met with all the groups, like ours, who go into the prison to discuss how the Monday evenings will proceed in the future. There have been no changes made following this meeting with regards to when and how often we go in, however, feedback from the prisoners has allowed us to tailor the content of our sessions to suit their needs more.
We ask for your prayers for this ministry and if any feels called to join our group please have a word with Phil about it.
Julia Percival on behalf of the Monday Evening Prison Fellowship team.
Fair Trade Report 2014
Thank you once again to you all for your Fair Trade support & to Colin & Sandra Ride, my area suppliers. It’s been a quieter year than usual for Fair Trade with regard to ongoing Traid Craft orders. We did however have a Traid Craft Sale in Church to mark Fair Trade fortnight in
March. I am hoping that this will become a regular event. At this point can I remind you that the Traid Craft Catalogue is always available for you to peruse should you wish to find a special gift for someone or buy any foodstuffs which are unavailable at the supermarket. Just ask me!
Supplies of Divine Chocolate as supplied by David Greenwood-Haigh have finally expired. Should you wish to buy any more, it is now available from Traid Craft – but at the proper prices. It’s all in the catalogue.
The Christmas Tear Fund ‘Created’ goods Fair Trade stall made available to us each November by Carol & Andy Brook was the final one this year sadly. Carol & Andy are moving on to focus on other work they are involved with through ‘Hands of Hope’ after being ‘Created’ reps for many years. Thank you to them for bringing their selection of beautifully handcrafted goods for us to buy each year. Although they are a very hard act to follow, I do hope to be able to fill the gap they have left later this year.
Alex continues his Fair Trade work at Ossett Academy – far too complex for me to outline even! But DO ask him – I’m sure he’ll be happy to tell you! Cheers Alex!
Traid Craft catalogues are available all year round, & I am happy to make individual orders each week if anyone needs anything. There are always some beautiful gifts available if you’re looking for something special. Look out for some new additions to the chocolates selection, beautiful toiletries range & new household cleaning range. After speaking with Colin & Sandra recently, I learned that sales of Traid Craft goods are down for the first time ever. This sadly reflects the present economic climate. But we continue to fly the flag for trade justice here at
St. George’s by providing fairly traded tea, coffee & sugar at our Church events.
Love & Thanks, Janice.
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St. George’s has for many years had well established links with the parishes of Mkirira and
Kyamajoje, in Mara Diocese, Tanzania. We have a long standing friendship, which has included supporting many aspects of the development of the churches in both parishes. Last
September, the opportunity was taken to renew and re-invigorate this friendship. A team of five people from St. George’s went out to Tanzania, joining Janet Allen (already working out there) to visit Mara Diocese, and spend time in our link parishes.
We took out not just the good wishes and prayers of St. George’s, but some carefully chosen gifts – bibles and lecterns for both churches, and a beautiful banner (“Peace be with you”) produced by our Chatty Craft Group. All were extremely well received, and the banner now has pride of place behind the altar in Mkirira Church. In return, unexpectedly, we were given the shield now in St. George’s, inscribed Mkirira & Lupset, Urafiki (which means “friendship”) – and some wonderfully colourful clothes!
We also took out substantial funds, donated by our Church members. A key part of the visit was to work with the elders of both churches to establish their building priorities, and discuss how they might be funded. But the Wakefield – Mara Diocese link has a motto: Bega kwa
bega, which means “working shoulder to shoulder”. The highlight of our visit was to do just that: we bought paints and materials, and worked together with the village people to paint the
Mkirira vicarage! We also established good links with the Mkirira School – where St. George’s funds are helping to complete a classroom to modern day standards.
From this visit, the link is developing in new and very positive directions. Our support was not a one-off event, but the basis for a continuing relationship. Funds donated from our parish are lodged with the Mara Diocese, and will be supplied when needed by our main contact, Arthur
Mauya, the Diocese’s link officer. He will keep us informed regularly about progress and decisions.
After the visit, the team shared our experiences with both St. George’s and St. James’ parishes. For the future, we plan to keep in close touch with our Mara friends, and continue to support their work with our prayers and, when we can, finance. Current plans can be supported to their fruition with the funds we left in Tanzania, but some larger aspirations are not yet fundable – and we will hope to discuss what might be possible to help over the future months and years. The PCC has also agreed that ongoing support will be provided by a regular small monthly donation, to be spent as the parishes wish. Mkirira School is also linked with Christ
Church School, Sowerby Bridge – and the team is sharing our experiences with them, to help strengthen their own link.
Many thanks must now go to Martin Bailes, who has been the Mara link officer for many years, and has now stood down. I have now taken over this role, and will try to keep everyone informed of progress, and share information about future needs in Tanzania.
Prayer Team
I would like to begin this report by thanking members of the Prayer Team for their continued commitment to the ministry of prayer and healing within St George’s and the wider community.
In preparation for the service each Sunday morning we have met for a time of prayer. Members of the team pray for those who are about to lead and for those in the congregation.
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Toward the end of each morning service two Prayer Stations are available to anyone who would like to be prayed with. The Prayer Chain has also been well used and continues to provide a channel of speedy (text messages are brilliant for this) prayer support for those who need it.
2014 has also seen the Prayer Team continue to meet each Monday evening at 7.00pm.
Attendance has been limited. The Notice Sheet and announcements at the start of services have been use to raise awareness of the meeting, however, this has had little impact on attendance. Consideration has been given to the day and time of meeting but options for change are limited in that on all other evenings of the week there are House Group meetings etc. I have come to the conclusion that it is important that we meet and pray in church but the numbers are not so important, I know others will pray at home.
The Prayer Team were part of a group that met for a day of “learning” about prayer and the ministry of prayer led by Sue Rose. This proved to be a worthwhile and encouraging day.
Building on this has to now be a priority. In recent weeks it has become increasingly difficult to ensure that two Prayer Stations are available on a Sunday and this is situation that will only worsen in the coming months. Almost every member of the team has other commitments each
Sunday. The rota is of little or no use and as such I recommend removing it from the sheet.
Moving forward through 2015 we will continue to pray for and encourage people to become members to the team, keeping prayer at the heart of what we do at St George’s which is so important to our community – CAP, Food Bank, Lunch Club and Alpha to name a few.
Carolyn Broadbent
Following on from the ‘Every Contact Counts’ training in February of last year, we challenged ourselves to improve our interactions with those coming into church. I know many of you are still employing the ‘Circle of 10’ principle to ensure you connect with visitors.
We have continued to run Alpha with two courses during this last year. The course is excellent, providing a relaxed setting to explore the most important questions about life. We shared Alpha with the church family through abridged talks over a series of Sundays and the Holy Spirit sessions as our focus for our Parish Weekend in Scarborough.
Throughout the year we have continued to create opportunities to reach out and open our doors to others. During the summer we had an afternoon tea for the ladies – with wonderful cakes, ladies in hats and a clutch of dashing waiters. The children’s Fun Day was a great family event, featuring the fabulous Noah’s Ark! In the autumn the ‘not Halloween’ event was well attended, well fed and well rocked by the sounds of Undiminished. A new venture for this year was Beer and Hymns – yes, beer and hymns; well what could be better!
Christingle and our other Christmas services were special times to share the reason for our faith and love of those around us.
All our thanks to everyone who has welcomed, chatted, taught, baked, waited glued, painted, sung and eaten their hearts out to share the love of Jesus with all the amazing people with have hosted here.
This year has started well with new folk to welcome and get to know............
‘So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ’
Romans 10:17 NIV
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St. George’s Saturday Evening Club meet between 7.00pm and 8.30pm each week.
The group continues to be led by a very dedicated and enthusiastic group of volunteers. We aim to provide regular fellowship and social opportunities for vulnerable adults from across the parish and wider community.
Six regular members attend the each week enjoying a range of activities and games including bingo, music drawing, dominoes and the occasional film night. In the better weather visits to the pub and park are also popular activities. Central to the group is fellowship - a friendly face, a chat, a warm drink and a listening ear.
Thank you to all who support this work through action and prayer. Everyone associated with the group would like to give a special thank you to Belinda who will be stepping down from the group.
She has supported the group for many years and will be sadly missed by all.
God Bless
Through the generosity of the congregation and the community the Foodbank has provided 460 food parcels in 2014. Each parcel contains basic food for three days and have been provided for over 600 adults and 300 children. We are very grateful to the community Centre who support the work through a contract with Fareshare (a charity which redistributes surplus stock from food warehouses) and this means we are often able to provide fresh food for the users which is always greatly appreciated. We have also received very generous support from St James’ church, Wakefield Cathedral, Silcoates School, the Mount school and Snapethorpe school. At
Christmas one of the departments of Pinderfields hospital chose us as their charity and provided a lot of toiletries which were very welcome.
The food bank is run by four of our congregation – Nora, Brenda, Eileen and Sue. They do a brilliant job and the users often comment about how well they are cared for when coming to St
George’s. As well as receiving the parcels the users are encouraged to use other services at the centre and some have taken up literacy or computer courses as well as using the ‘Jobs Point’ support at the Centre.
Freda Jackson.
The Crafty Chat group continues to meet informally every Thursday morning from 10.30 to
12.30. Throughout the year we have grown slowly and due to this we have decided to meet in the church. Recently we have been fortunate enough to be given funding from Community First which enabled us to hold very successful open morning, inviting people to come and meet us for a chat and a cup of coffee and cakes. Each person was invited to "have a go" at various crafts, being provided with a bag containing needles and materials, all free of charge. Through this event the group has doubled in size with many "crafters" enjoying their time with us and coming back for more.
Although we have fun and friendship, our aim is solely to reach out to those who need a friendly face or a couple of hours to enjoy the company of others.
And, if they are helped spiritually, that is an added bonus. Please continue to pray for us.
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Bembridge.
Every first Friday in the month a group of us from St George’s and St James’ attend
Bembridge House on Lupset Estate to share a relaxed and enjoyable time of worship with some of its residents. The group consists of Cynthia, Eileen, Freda, Liz, Mary and Julia. Some of the residents regularly attend West Wakefield Methodist Church and English Martyrs Church. For the rest of them I believe that we are their church.
We all play a part in what happens on the Friday afternoons, whether it’s reading from the bible, leading prayers, playing music, giving a word or making the refreshments and washing up.
It is not unusual to have cake provided by one of our residents too!
We feel that the church presence is extremely valuable to the people at Bembridge. It's wonderful to be able to take God’s word to people some of whom may find it difficult to get out to church on a Sunday, but, also the time spent chatting after the service had really helped to keep the community spirit going amongst the residents who increasingly find that their sense of community is being eroded due to changes in practice in the services provided to them by the local authority.
Some of those who attend also go to the lunch club at St George’s and the Christmas Lunch which creates a sense of connectedness .
The Brownies have had a busy year. 2014 was our Big Brownie Birthday celebrating one hundred years since Brownies was formed, although it was 20 years later, in 1934, that our
Lupset Church group was started. We went with three coach loads of other Brownies and leaders, to Blackpool where we spent the night sleeping on the ballroom floor, went to the circus, played in the Jungle Gym and went up the tower (right to the top). We spent the next morning playing on the beach and picnicing on the Comedy Carpet.
In October we went to Emley for our Pack Holiday where we spent our time together preparing our own food, looking after the holiday house, going for country walks, meeting local children at the recreation ground and making things to take home.
In addition to our weekly meetings where we learn about ourselves, our community and the world, we have had several promise celebrations at one of which we had a 'pretend' campfire, learned campfire songs and had jacket potatoes and hot chocolate. We finished the year by joining with other Brownies and Guides in our District for a disco which was very much enjoyed by all.
We are still quite a small unit with about 12 girls on our register and would be very happy to welcome some more members (both girls and leaders).
Susan Ward
Undiminished report
Drum roll please......... (That’s going to be very embarrassing if I’m in the room.)
Yes it’s here, the Undiminished AGM report....... THE SEQUEL!
2014: what a year. England lost the Ashes, England lost the 4 Nations, Murray was Scottish once again. Out of the darkness however, always comes light: no, not Lewis Hamilton. The light was, and will remain Undiminished.
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Where to start? Since we last updated you we made the trek down to Coventry to introduce ourselves to the people at the main stage at the YMCA As One Festival, but that was not the end of our World tour. We only went and played at the UK’s longest running music festival! Two sets on the Roots stage gave Greenbelt a first taste of Undiminished; perhaps the first of many.
Another important part of our progression this year was our contribution to United events. We opened the first at Destiny church, top and tailed the most recent at the Cathedral and between there was just the small matter of accompanying the fireworks at St.George’s.
The other huge feature of this last year has been the development of our own material, plus the addition of new members: Jack on the drums, who debuted at Sandal Methodist (meaning the old man can move to the sound desk,) and a second to be announced over the Easter period.
Finally we reflect on our time on home turf. The monthly Sunday slot is still alive and kicking, whilst Golden Halos could be said to have cemented itself as a timeless tradition and perhaps an annual highlight?
We would like to thank each of you individually for your continued support (sadly Freda just knocked on the door asking me to email this, hence insufficient time, you guys are the reasons we keep plodding along with this. Stick with us and remember........
The future is bright and that brightness will remain Undiminished. Joseph Crabtree
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