- Joint Annual Report
For 2009
Children of all ages play an important part in our Church life. In our children’s activities we aim to develop with the children our understanding and experience of God, and to enable the children to grow as part of the church community of St Mary’s.
The five children’s groups have continued to meet most Sundays. Numbers vary, and sustaining the older groups has been a particular challenge this year. By contrast the number of pre- and infant school age children have grown steadily over the year, and we have regularly had over fifty children in Church.
The highlight of the year has been the preparation of the large mobiles for the Church aisles, illustrating the liturgical colours and the spiritual journey from advent to Epiphany. Huge thanks must go to Una Lodge and Tricia Moore for the creative designs, and for working so hard with the children to turn these ideas into practical reality. Gillian Light and Jenny Isaacs also did a fantastic job working with the younger children on these mobiles. The effect of the finished mobiles was stunning.
Singing has also been a feature of our children’s groups this year. In the summer term Marcella Erskine taught the children a simple song that could be sung as they left Church to go to their groups. Then in December, all the children came together as one group, led by Marcella and Fran Rowley, to learn seven Christmas carols and songs, which formed the backbone of our Christmas nativity service, on 21 December with 79 children taking part.
The Christmas party in January, which was a joint event between St Mary’s and St Anne’s, expertly organised by Gillian Light, was once again a huge success with over fifty children attending. The craft activities provided by Becky Greenhill proved an excellent warm-up activity before the entertainment from the clown, who held the children’s attention for over an hour. The annual bowling outing provided an opportunity for a somewhat smaller group of older children to have fun as a group.
The two family worship zones in the Church continue to be popular with families, and are an excellent way of enabling children and their parents to take part in our services, while having their particular needs catered for.
The groups are sustained by a small number of dedicated leaders and helpers Last year’s report identified the need to recruit more adults to be involved with the children’s groups, and the problem of insufficient numbers of leaders and helpers has become even more acute this year. Fortunately a few new helpers have been identified, but more are needed to reduce the strain on the small number on whom we currently rely.
The forthcoming refurbishment of the Church meeting rooms is welcome, since some of the current facilities look tired and uninspiring. Provision of bright, welcoming facilities will be so important to encourage the next generation into our Church,
Christine (Chris) AbbottThe Sub-Committee has met regularly every two months throughout 2009. One member resigned in September, due to other commitments, and we would welcome any new members who are interested in the issues that affect all ages of children in church.
The main item of business during 2009 was once again the family worship zones in St Mary’s Church. The purpose of these zones is to encourage families with young children to worship together in a safe and welcoming space. The Sub-Committee carefully considered all the comments received about the use of these zones, before making a recommendation to P.C.C. (in November 2009) that permission should be sought from the Diocese to make them a permanent feature of the church.
The Sub-Committee is grateful to Janet Thorne for her expert guidance throughout the year on child protection issues and to Jennifer Holloway for excellent child protection training in October.
Chris Abbott, the children’s groups’ co-ordinator, also reported on issues affecting these groups. The children’s groups were re-structured at Easter, to take account of fluctuating attendance figures, and the new structure proved successful. A singing initiative was started in the summer term, with Marcella Erskine teaching new songs to all of the children’s groups. Bringing all of the children together to sing, before they separated into their groups, was well received. The children’s groups were very active in providing stunning displays at Easter (the stacking box crosses) and through the kaleidoscope project towards the end of the year.
Mick Perrier, Director of Music, has reported throughout the year on matters affecting the children in the Robed Choir and the music group he has started for young children at St Mary’s Church on Tuesday afternoons.
On behalf of the Sub-Committee, I would like to recognise and applaud the outstanding contribution made by all those who devote so much of their time and energy to enhancing our children’s experience of church and Christian life.
Debbie Barwell ChairpersonHow many candles do we light at Sunday Club? As many as the number of children attending. This is a small, but very happy group of children, and parents/carers are welcome to join us. We come out of the church service at the end of the first hymn, later rejoining the rest of the congregation for a blessing at Holy Communion.
On the whole we use material from Roots which follows the lectionary. Art work is frequently a response to the lesson and the children’s paper manger scene was a delight. One week we sent out collection to needy children in Uganda. On Sundays when there is as all-age service, the children often take an active part. They were much involved in the crib service.
We have welcomed Penny Peet as a leader and Mandy and Kerry Rees are about to start helping. Sometimes I have wondered who is teaching who. I pointed to a cross atop my poorly sketched church and asked, ‘What is that?’ A tentative voice ventured, ‘Is it a kiss?’ Quite!
Elisabeth LeicesterM*A*S*S was initially started as an alternative opportunity for children who could not get to church on Sundays. It meets on Thursday afternoons during term time at Moseley C of E School, occasionally migrating to St Anne’s Church. Most of the children come from the school, but any children and their parents/carers are welcome. Numbers fluctuate from about 4-12, but whatever the number it’s amazing how many sandwiches and biscuits get consumed before we settle down to begin a short time of worship.
Broadly speaking we have a theme for each term. Members of both churches will recall the huge crosses made from decorated boxes which featured in our Easter services last year. These, with their theme of opposites (e.g. life and death) were made by M.A.S.S. members. Amongst other activities during our study of the environment, we sent paper Noah’s arks to Gordon Brown to encourage him to attend the climate change talks at Copenhagen. We recently learnt more about Africa and Miralee Askew and Jayne Spindley gave us a hands-on experience of food stuffs from Africa, and we sent cards to children in Magnomero.
We are currently looking at the component parts of M.A.S.S., and music and bread making are on the agenda. Several of the children took part in the crib services at one or other of our churches.. Let us hope that they may join similarly in our Easter celebrations.
Elisabeth Leicester.This last year for YG has been as full as ever. The weekly fellowship sessions fluctuate in numbers across the year as other commitments pressurise time but there is a constant core group with some young folks coming through and even bringing their friends. We could learn a lot about friendship evangelism from YG! The programme too as been varied, seeing the youngsters exploring their creative side as well as enjoying sessions outside in Moseley Park and the Lickey Hills. The ice skating trip was a highlight despite Alex breaking his arm and Rosemary and Neil feeling exhausted for the rest of the week! Thanks as ever to all the faithful volunteers who give up a Wednesday evening to support YG.
The group has particularly grown in their depth of faith. We have been exploring issues of spirituality was well as engaging in many thought provoking topics such as Remembrance, disability and homelessness.
Residentials are always the best thing about YG and this year as penance for Greenbelt (as Rosemary and Craig were in Malawi instead) the group enjoyed spending Holy week on retreat at Beaudesert. This was a really fruitful time for focusing on the Easter story and symbols as well as enjoying one another’s company and Craig’s fantastic cooking. The autumn sleepover was a fun packed 25hours (due to clocks going back) with not a lot of sleep but a Batik workshop, treasure hunt, bonfire and video. Somehow we also managed to plan to lead the entire Bible Sunday service the next day which was really well received. I continue to desire YG to be more involved in planning and leading worship and look forward to 2010 with anticipation.
Revd Rosemary DonovanThe generous response to the Trio campaign has enabled us to pay the Common Fund from giving for the first time in several years with a substantial contribution to running costs as well. With the help of some cost savings, we have been able to adopt a break-even budget for 2010.
However, after £6K of expenses looking to the future have been taken from the Centre 13 interest, we had a loss of £7K in 2009 and not enough money to replenish the Ascot Road Fund, effectively a shortfall of £23K. To secure the finances of the Parish for the future, it is vital that everybody raises the level of their giving to 5% of gross pre-tax income as quickly as possible. Since the budget was adopted, we have learned that we face exceptional building expenditure in 2010.
We have duly registered with the Charity Commission. We shall be required to submit Accounts for 2010.
Michael HellI am happy to report that 2009 was a rather more successful year than I predicted in my report at the end of 2008. Ordinary giving was up by 9% on 2008, fees for weddings/funerals up by 69% and hall rents up by 14%, while running costs were broadly in line with expectations. As a result the PCC was able to transfer £7000 into the Piggott Bequest Fund (as a reserve against future expenditure arising from the next quinquennial survey of our buildings) and still achieve an operating surplus of £1455.
Terry AdamsIn the last 12 months, we have made solid first steps towards a new higher and predictable level of income given by St. Mary’s members to run the church. Our future plans are to (a) make annual pledging a habit and (b) become more effective at bringing new members into the habit of pledging and regular giving. We press on with the conviction that St. Mary’s needs to go beyond paying for its current expenses, which themselves will increase with increased church membership.
We are conscious that we continue to focus very much on financial giving. The giving of time and talents has been within the remit of the Discipleship Vision Team. We look forward to helping them move forward with their proposals in this area.
Stewardship Committee: Adam Maclean (Chair), Robert Brown (Recorder), Rosemary Berridge, Ann Andrew, Chris Andrew, Dorothy Pridham, Sarah Swainston