It’s not often that you have to decide how long the Easter Eggs can stay in the churchyard before they melt, but it was the hot topic this year…
Shirt sleeves and summer dresses were dug out (and in some cases, ironed) for the occasion and there was a hearty turnout of regulars and plenty of others who came to hear the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection and find an egg or four.
If you’d like to listen to the sermon again, you will find it on our website here. Do you have questions about the whole idea of Jesus dying on the cross so that we might be forgiven and saved? Join us for our Alpha course, starting 1st May. No question is too basic!
KJTS Life Group Karen Perez, Jeff Higgins and Tina and Simon Edwards
We continue to meet on Thursday evenings in group members’ homes in Stoke Poges. We see our LIFE group as an opportunity to Learn, to Intercede, to share Fellowship and to Evangelise.
We
began 2018 with 6 regular members including the 4 leaders. We have welcomed 2
new members to the group since then and this has been a real encouragement for
us. 2 members have decided to leave the
group so there is room for others to join us in the future.
Our
evenings usually include a time of sharing news and praying for each other as
well as looking at a particular topic. In the past 15 months we have looked at
the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, the Names of God and currently the
Paraclesis series. We have also used the Lectio Divina method to study passages
from the Sunday sermon. Whilst some of the subject matter has been challenging
for us, we have all benefitted from preparing and leading the sessions.
We
try to meet up quarterly for a meal and particularly enjoyed the Christmas meal
last year which had a Caribbean flavour to it! We have recently set up a
WhatsApp Group so we can share news and prayer requests between us.
Ladies’ Life Group Heather McDowell
The
Ladies’ Life Group continues to be a source of joy and strength through all
sorts of challenges. Our Whatsapp logo reads “Encourage each other and build
each other up” (1Thes 5:11) and we have pretty much taken this as our motto.
We take turns
to lead and host between those with the spare bandwidth to do so, and find
encouragement through scripture and great speakers via studies and activities.
Some of the group went to Hillsong Colour Conference for women in May at
Wembley Arena, which always provides inspiration. If you have never been, do
ask us about it and maybe come along with us next year.
Studies
have included Twelve Women of the Bible, Not a Tame Lion (based on the writings
of CS Lewis) and War Room. We have also spent a few sessions just sharing and praying,
journaling and, of course, eating!
We
will be supporting Natasha and Nigel to run an Alpha course, starting May 1st
and pray that this opens the church to a wider community.
Deborah and Matthew’s
Life Group Deborah & Matthew
Wetherall
It
has been a fantastic year for the Life Group. There is a sense of anticipation
as we meet with each other in the presence of God every Thursday night. Our
hope is to deepen our faith and walk alongside each other in fellowship. The
‘frontline’ courses we studied in 2017 continue to shape our dialogue as a
group as we continue to encourage each other to live out our faith on our
frontlines, i.e. by sharing God’s love with those we come into contact with in
our everyday lives. Many of the group have grown in confidence in sharing their
faith and God has brought us many meaningful encounters with friends, family
and total strangers.
We have
studied the Jonah, Psalms and Luke 18 in a refreshing approach offered by the
Scottish Bible Society. The Basics course by Francis Chan challenged and
refreshed us all.
The
highlights for the group have been the many answers to prayer we have seen, not
only in our own lives, but in the lives of family and friends, some of whom do
not yet have a relationship with God and have been touched by our faith in
interceding on their behalf.
In
terms of the group, we have welcomed a couple of new members but also sadly
said goodbye to Hannah as she moved to Portugal to take up a new teaching role.
This was exciting and poignant for us as a group as we had stood by Hannah in
prayer as she attended many interviews for international jobs and sought God’s
will for her life direction. She remains in prayerful contact with us.
Reflections
from the group on our Life Group:
“Thursday
nights to me are where we ‘do’ church”
“Life
Group provides an opportunity to ask questions about faith which we couldn’t do
on a Sunday morning”
“Our Life Group is an environment where we can
safely share our thoughts and feelings, ask for advice or help, and recharge
our spiritual batteries”
From the Vicar Revd Natasha Brady
Stoke
Poges Church continues to be a place where we strive to know God, follow Jesus,
love others and invite all. In this new
season with your still fairly new Vicar, we are beginning to take those words
and really grapple with them as a Church family to see where God is calling us
to be ‘Good News’, both in our immediate community and beyond. Since I arrived
in September, we have been working together to see how we can live out our
faith each day; reflecting Jesus’s love, compassion and care to all whom we
meet.
In
that vein, I have taken the opportunity to accept any and all invitations in
the village to participate and develop our relationships with all groups,
societies, the village school and the local Parish Council. This has meant a busy season for me, but it
seems to be bearing fruit. We have been
invited into the Stoke Poges School a few times now to sit in on activities,
share our faith at assemblies and I have accepted and embraced the role of
Governor, which has afforded us the opportunity to build stronger links with
the school, its teachers and the parents.
We are continuing to foster good links with the Teikyo School and have
been invited to lead services at Caldicott School while the “Farnhams” have an
interregnum.
The
Harvest Festival became a springboard for us, as a Church, to strengthen our
connection with the local charity, SHOC.
Alongside our usual service and supper we launched the ‘red bucket’ at
St Andrew’s. A place where many of you
have been leaving wonderful donations of food, and other goods for the
homeless. A big thank you to Caroline
Shuttleworth, who has valiantly taken all these things to Slough every week. If
you would like to support her in this wonderful duty then please do speak to
her.
Our
Remembrance Sunday services both on the Green and in St Andrew’s was heavily
attended and enabled us to work collaboratively with the uniformed groups, the
Stoke Poges Society and the Parish Council.
You were all a wonderful witness of Christ at such a significant moment
in our nation’s history as we reflected together on the 100 year memorial of
the end of WW1. It was great to see so many people venture into our church,
feeling able to just come along to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’.
Christmas
was its usual whirlwind of concerts, services and candles and after a bumpy
start, Tot’s Praise, our fringe ministry to young families and carers, held
their first Christmas party and enjoyed receiving the gift of the ‘Nativity
Story’ in the form of a book. As 2019
progresses, we will be developing our special services so that they are more
‘seeker’ friendly and enable us to invite and welcome all into the life of the
church.
When
I arrived, it was with great sadness we had to say ‘goodbye’ to Tracey Jones,
our Ministry trainee. She has visited us
several times since moving on and has been missed by many. We know that God has
called her and her ministry into a new season and we pray she will flourish in
her upcoming curacy at St Michael & All Angels, Hughenden. And, after a
much earned sabbatical, Andrew Parry shared with us the joyous news that he had
been appointed Priest-in-Charge of St Mary’s Wexham. Although we miss his wonderful ministry we
also appreciate and know he will be loved and a blessing to our neighbouring
parish, and so with much love and fondness we continue to pray for his next
steps.
As
2019 progresses, my intention is that we shall reflect on what we have learnt
by doing the Paraclesis Course. We
engaged with it wholeheartedly and this has been very encouraging to
witness. Feedback, so far, has revealed
that there are emerging themes and opportunities to explore, avenues to open up
and more for us to learn. These are
exciting times, and will give us amazing opportunities to be a blessing to our
neighbours, and hold onto the fact that Jesus commanded us … to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
May
I, at this point, take the opportunity to say thank you to everyone in the
parish? You have been so welcoming to both me and my family, helping us settle
in quickly to Stoke Poges, displaying a wonderful witness of welcome which we
have appreciated and felt warmed by.
Thank
you for striving to live out the love that God has shown to us in Christ Jesus.
During the two weeks leading up to the APCM, we are presenting an overview of the activities of the church throughout 2018 over four chapters. Printouts will be available to view in both churches and please ask in the church office if you need your own copy to take away.
The glue that holds it all together
PCC Activities Simon McDowell Churchwarden and
Acting PCC Secretary
During
2018, the PCC consisted of seven elected members, two elected representatives
of the Deanery Synod, two churchwardens and two licenced ministers. The
Secretary and Treasurer are appointed by the PCC. Since the last APCM,
the PCC has met seven times in a formal setting and twice where we focus on
wider spiritual matters and developing our church community.
Our
PCC has two active working committees:
the
Standing and Finance committee, comprising the vicar, churchwardens and
Treasurer with other PCC members attending as needed. It meets as
required in between formal PCC meetings to address more urgent needs where a
resolution is required; and
the
Property Committee, which is responsible to the PCC for the upkeep of the
fabric of both church buildings. It consists of a majority of PCC
members plus two church members who are experts in property matters and whose
help is much appreciated.
During
2018, the PCC were focused on the recruitment of our new vicar, and preparing
the church and community for her arrival in August and induction service in
September. During the vacancy, one of the churchwardens chaired the
meetings, but Natasha Brady took the chair as Vicar from her first meeting in
September. We have subsequently focused our agenda in growing the church
in line with our vision and Mission Action Plan. This will progress
during 2019.
Attached
are reports of the activities that take place in our church community, both at
St Andrew’s and St Giles’. The PCC is very grateful to all the leaders
and their helpers who give up their time to make these activities happen.
Also
attached are the annual accounts, which reflect the financial state of the
Stoke Poges Church. Readers will see that we have little ‘unrestricted’
income, in which we can spend the money where we wish, but the ‘restricted’
funds are healthy, thanks to some major one-off donations. These
‘restricted’ funds can only be spent on the item that the donor gave the money
for – e.g. the restoration of St Giles’ was paid for using a donation that was
restricted to just that use.
I
would like to thank Alicen Nickson, who acted as Secretary for part of the
year, for her help and other members of the PCC for helping me in preparing and
reviewing documents after Alicen retired from the PCC.
Finances 2018 Gaynor Houghton-Jones Treasurer
The way we manage our finances is
underpinned by our Christian ethos. We ensure that money does not languish in
bank accounts when it could be put to better use, that expenditure does not
exceed income, that we pay our bills promptly, that all sums are allocated to
the correct fund whether restricted, designated or unrestricted, that we hold
reserves for emergencies and we set aside money and gifts for charity.
Our restricted funds, e.g. buildings
and churchyard, are in a healthy state but there are times during the year when
general cash flow can be a problem. We are grateful to members who give on a
regular basis so we know what income to expect each month.
The above charts show income and
expenditure on the general fund before transfers from the designated funds. By
way of explanation on the income side, “Fees” include charges for weddings and
funerals, “Sales” covers the coffee shop and “Tax” is what we recover from gift
aid.
On the expenditure side, “Management
costs” includes administration, office expenses, IT support, music licences,
training and inspection fees, while “Buildings” includes minor maintenance,
insurance, caretaking and utilities. “Church services” includes clergy
expenses, junior church materials, organists, verger expenses, costs of candles
and Holy Communion wine and wafers.
We are reliant on our income from rent
and lettings and I am pleased that we have retained tenants in the flats for
most of the year and that lettings income held up after it was decided, upon
the departure of the lettings manager, to concentrate on regular hirers only
for the remainder of 2018. Much greater detail can be found in the formal
financial statements.
By transferring money from designated
funds back to the general fund we have ended up with a surplus of £372 and
there is £61,000 in reserves.
The PCC has concerns, however, about
the level of income and expenditure and will undertake a cost review early in
2019. At the same time, we also have concerns about meeting the parish share in
2019. It is the largest item of expenditure and in 2018 amounted to £69,783
after a small discount for paying by direct debit. This contribution to the
diocese largely covers clergy stipends and pensions and the training of
ordinands. It amounted to 50% of total unrestricted income. As we do not anticipate any increase in
general income in 2019 and with ever increasing costs, we have taken the
difficult decision to reduce our share offer to £60,000 instead of the inflationary
increased sum of £72,000. This will be
kept under review and, if we can pay more at the end of the year, we will.
Property Committee Mark Wells
In early 2018
we focussed on addressing the issues raised in the December 2017 Quinquennial
report for St Andrew’s. The high priority items have been addressed.
As
reported previously, we want to maximise the usage and income from the site and,
with this aim in mind, we applied for outline planning permission for flats
above the centre of building between the bell tower and the Youth Block. This
application was successful and we are now working on a more detailed planning
application for four flats within the planning outline already granted.
I
would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow members of the committee
and, in particular, Richard Beckingsale for attending to all the odd jobs that
come up across our two Churches.
Burnham and Slough Deanery Synod John Wheatley Deanery Synod
Representative
Four
meetings were held in the past year: in May, September, November and February.
Key
items discussed during the year were;
Training
– various training courses were and are being arranged including Mission and
Safeguarding, Faith in pictures and Worship. It has been agreed that Training
courses will be key to growing faith in years to come.
Communications
– churches growing through better and easier to use websites were discussed,
with Stoke Poges being given as a good example of a website.
Mission
Action Plan – each part of the Deanery will be formatting a M A P to enable a
clearer vision of sharing resources.
Finance
– much of our time has been spent on agreeing Parish Share from each of our
Churches. Unfortunately, the Deanery will have a substantial shortfall this
year which has been identified as being caused by a changing demographic mix in
Slough.
Churchwardens Simon McDowell &
Paul Elderfield
2018 was a year of change for our church. We said ‘welcome’ to Natasha and her family, as she came to lead us here at Stoke Poges Church. We also said ‘farewell’ to TJ and Andrew, although it was great to see Andrew installed in our neighbouring parish of Wexham in April 2019.
Thanks Ann!
As
churchwardens, we are responsible for the running of the church, and we are
grateful for all the help and support from the PCC, the church office and other
church members to enable us to do this smoothly. During the year since
the last APCM, we prepared ourselves and the church for Natasha’s arrival, worked
with Natasha as she got to know our church and we were a sounding board for her
ideas – which we are excited by and hope that you will be too as she introduces
them to the church during 2019. We were pleased to make the appointment
of Ann Sibley as our St Andrew’s church caretaker, and delighted with how
helpful she has been since starting, including taking on the church lettings
manager role.
You may remember that we had an opportunity to briefly welcome Natasha at our 2018 APCM. She did not officially start until the end of August, with her induction in early September led by Bishop Alan. She had to move for a third time in December as the renovations to our vicarage, flooded in March 2018, were completed. We are grateful to the Diocese who enabled this to run smoothly and to Graham Saunders, formerly rector of the Farnhams and Hedgerley, who moved out early, thereby allowing the Bradys temporary use of the Farnham vicarage.
Sadly,
at this year’s APCM, Paul will retire as churchwarden after seven years,
staying on an extra year to help with the smooth transition and induction of
Natasha. Simon remains as churchwarden and looks forward to working with
Paul’s successor, to be elected at the APCM.
During the two weeks leading up to the APCM, we are presenting an overview of the activities of the church throughout 2018 over four chapters. Printouts will be available to view in both churches and please ask in the church office if you need your own copy to take away.
All together now…
The Coffee Shop Tina Edwards
2018 has brought lots of changes in The Coffee Shop. We have continued to grow the numbers of customers, especially those that come to the organised groups: the Friday coffee group run by Jane Wall and our Tuesday Knit and Natter group run by Alison Wheatley. Through personal invitation these groups have grown and we hope that this continues whilst advertising our activities in the village.
We have not seen the same increase at other sessions, although our sandwich board has made an improvement to our one off visitors, we have not seen any significant change to numbers of regular customers. We are uncertain as to the long term effect that Costa Coffee will bring this year, but we believe that we reach a different customer base as evidenced by December takings which were up by a third on the previous December. Running specific sessions, such as wreath making, boosted sales of gift items as well as food and drink sales.
What we do know for certain is that our customers are spending more with us. A detailed finance breakdown is available via the PCC. We believe that it is important to support various charity initiatives and recognise that this differentiates us from mainstream High Street coffee shop chains. We can report that our charity support this year has been very successful, including our contribution back to the church.
Winnie’s Schooling We have made our final gift to DCA (Deserving Children Africa) as part of our 3 year commitment. The Coffee Shop has been using the tithes of its profits to support Winnie through higher education. This is now complete so we will be looking out for a new charity to support at the end of 2019.
Chocolate and Wool Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice is our largest beneficiary. Through all the handmade items sold, we have been able to donate just under £500 in 2018. This didn’t include our Christmas sales of just over £500 which will be recorded in our accounts for 2019.
Purple Poppies In the autumn we made purple poppies and raised £111 for the Horse Society who support service animals, including those retired by the police and army.
Lemon Drizzle and Home made Biscuits Where would we be without homemade lemon drizzle? This added to the money raised for DCA by just over £200. In addition, we have a range of seasonal hand-made biscuits with profits supporting Care International. Many of our regular customers now look for a snack that benefits charity.
Wreath Making Workshops We ran several very popular workshops leading up to Christmas and this money went to Care International’s programme helping trafficked women. We sent £328.
Jam & Marmalade If you buy our jam or marmalade then you have helped raise £158 for the Swan Sanctuary.
Our charity support is very important as is supporting local young entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs We are still enjoying Bellaroo Bakes. Started by a local entrepreneur Beth, Bellaroo Bakes make special occasion cakes. Beth has created a small range of cakes & bakes especially for us. These are a delicious and popular addition to our range.
Our newest entrepreneur is BBBows – started and run by one of the “Ballet Mums” she creates handcrafted bows, including those in the colours of Stoke Poges School.
Environment Having sourced fair trade, healthy snacks, as some clients had requested we then failed to sell many – customers can be a little fickle we have found! We have, however, replaced our paper non-recyclable cups for compostable cups and lids – one small step at a time. We’d like to source carton juices that don’t have plastic straws so if anyone can help we’d be delighted to investigate.
Volunteers We have been able to continue offering the coffee shop to those in 7UP working through their community service section for their DofE award and also to another young person from the village. Giving young people this opportunity to develop responsibility is something we consider important.
We are delighted that we can now open every morning at 9.00, coinciding with a new hirer on Thursdays, Tumble Tots. Some of the mums have been seen in The Coffee Shop, something we hope will grow as they socialise together after or before the sessions.
This year we have said farewell to two volunteers, Ginny Prashad and Margaret Wicks, both were part of the original team recruited by Liz Harvey in 2006 when the Coffee Shop opened. Another volunteer, Simone Evard will be leaving us in July. We are very grateful for all the time they have given The Coffee Shop and we will miss them.
Recruiting new volunteer baristas is proving very hard. Many of the current team have taken on more shifts and those who help out from time to time have also put in more hours this year. We recognise that this part of the UK is an expensive place to live and therefore nearly all those under retirement age work, while those who have retired are often called upon for child care or caring for others. Taking that into account, could we ask you to reconsider coming to join the team in 2019? Each session is 3 hours and we are not open in school time. Perhaps you could team up with a friend and each offer a session on alternate weeks. Please talk to us if you are able to spend some time helping to keep this valuable resource open.
Lastly, can I thank everyone who has worked in The Coffee Shop in 2018. Those who give up their Saturday morning or work late in the dark mid-week. You have clocked up nearly 1300 hours of volunteering. This is brilliant and we couldn’t keep the lights on or the coffee pot brewing without you!
Our Opening Times
Tuesday & Wednesday 9am – 12.00pm and 2.30pm – 5pm Thursdays & Fridays 9am – 12.00pm and 3.00pm – 6pm late night Saturdays 9am – 12.00 Monday and Sunday Closed
Knit and Natter Alison Wheatley
We have had a great increase in numbers of people attending Knit and Natter in the last year.
Knitted and crocheted projects included poppies, (purple and red), Nativity sets, chocolate crange cosies, bobble hats, tea cosies, key rings, Christmas decorations, cardigans and button pictures. We also dabbled in paper craft.
Most of what we made was either raffled or sold to raise over a thousand pounds for Charities including DCA, Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice, World Vision and the Poppy Appeal (including Animals) and of course, the coffee shop part of the church income.
We had lots of fun all year!
Stoke Poges Men’s Group Nigel Lowe
Our Group enjoyed another good year with all our events being well attended. As usual we were delighted to welcome men from a number different churches a well as many guys with little or no church affiliation.
There have been some changes in the committee who help run the group.
Lewis Fry, the minister from Stoke Poges Free Church, was for many years an active and valued member the team. Lewis has moved back to the West Country. He is much missed and we wish him and his family well. Fortunately, Brian Jeans, an elder in the Free Church has now joined us, as has Jamie Brady who is married to Natasha, our vicar. It’s good to have them both on board.
For many years along with some 2,000 other men’s groups, we have been partnered with an organisation CVM (Christian Vision for Men). Their mission statement is ”To connect men to Jesus and the church to men”. They have developed a lot of resources to help churches reach out to men. They also have compiled a long list of suitable speakers with inspiring stories who are available to talk at our events.
One celebrated report to the Parish AGM, many years ago, was as follows:
”The grass grows and we cut it.”
Luckily, we have managed to keep the grass under control but, as with all gardens, there are always certain areas that need more than mowing. We have the tools but, at this present time, we are struggling to provide the manpower.
We meet at St Giles’ every other Saturday through the growing season from 9am for about two hours and then admire our efforts over tea and doughnuts.
We are unable to cover extra garden maintenance, so we arrange one off working parties to cut back brambles, overgrown shrubs and trees, clear fallen branches, tidy compost bins etc etc. We do need to organise a bonfire to get rid of wood that has accumulated throughout the Churchyard.
Frequent visitors to St Giles’ will have noticed that the Standard roses have suffered from the exceptionally dry Summer last year; it is a major disappointment as many of these have been sponsored in memory of loved ones. The subsoil at St Giles’ is very gravelly and compacted and we have tried every gardening dodge in the book to try and get these roses to thrive. We have not given up yet and many generous families have offered to replace their donated rose. As you can imagine, planting numbers of roses is quite an undertaking, but hopefully with help and some typically English summers we can eventually achieve a rose lined path as it was some years ago.
We in Stoke Poges are fortunate to have a famous Churchyard and it is the aim of the Reapers to maintain it for the next generations. The Reapers are in no way grim – we are a really great bunch – you are more than welcome to join us.
Bell Ringers Anne Frank Tower Captain
We currently have ten members in the society. We lost our longest-serving member, Beryl, who passed away in June. We practise on Wednesday evenings, usually with the help of John Davidge, an expert from Chalfont St Giles.
We can just about cover Evensong ringing, but have needed to bring in ringers from outside for weddings. We were pleased to ring for some of the Christmas services and other special Sunday morning services, as well as the commemorations of the end of WW1.
Our main aim is to keep going and improving! Teaching beginners is a time-consuming activity, and can set back the progress of the band. However, Ralph and I organised sessions over the October half term holiday for two promising beginners. We are hoping to welcome them back soon.
We suspended ringing for a few weeks after being plunged into darkness for the second time, but now that the electricity supply to the tower has been sorted out, it is business as usual.
The next instalment of our Annual Report will follow in a few days. Watch this space…
During the two weeks leading up to the APCM, we are presenting an overview of the activities of the church throughout 2018 over four chapters. Printouts will be available to view in both churches and please ask in the church office if you need your own copy to take away.
Children & Young People’s Ministry
Tot’s Praise Revd Natasha Brady
Tot’s Praise continues to thrive: we have about 20 adults and 40 children attending each week. We meet every Monday in term time and the atmosphere has a lovely buzz about it. The format of the session sees the children playing with the range of toys that are set out by our lovely volunteers each week.
Parents, carers and grandparents are
welcomed and offered refreshments, as are the children. Near the end, I shout ‘tidy
up time’ and
then, once the toys are away, we settle down for nursery rhymes and play
musical instruments.
Our team of volunteers grew by one
this year, as we welcomed Barbara Botcher in the new year. Sadly two of our team have had to lay this
ministry down for a while due to ill health, the parents have missed them immensely.
But it did give us a chance to witness to God’s healing grace.
The highlight of the year was the
Christmas party. More willing volunteers
came to make this a really special time.
With party food, Christmas music and a copy of the Nativity story for
each of the children to take home and cherish. It really helped cement some
good relationships and introduced God back into the mix, after a short absence
due to parents’ dismay at me mentioning Him in stories and songs.
This brings me to the low point of the
year. After I arrived, I had hoped that
we could introduce some short, simple bible stories and a weekly Tot’s Praise
news sheet … but the parents voted with their feet and left! After a month of trying this new format – I
decided that it was not working. Numbers
had gone down to only 6 or 7 attendees.
So I announced God would not be mentioned for a while, and suddenly the
parents came back. If you could pray for
this aspect of Tot’s Praise, as it is so sad that the bible is not heard in
this place.
Our future hope is that we will grow a
bit more, that the parents and carers will become more open to hearing about
Jesus’s love for them and their little ones and that another leader can be
found to replace TJ.
Junior Church Nicky Parry, Janet Cottrell and Karen Perez Junior Church Leaders
The
more things change, the more they stay the same!
I
think these words sum up our year in Junior Church (or “Kids in Christ” as we
branded ourselves many years ago). While
some of our leaders come and go, and our children grow and move on, we continue
to reach out to the children of our church, to offer them a place to discover
and grow their faith in a fun environment.
At
present we have few, if any, infants and babies who regularly attend church so
we are not setting up a crèche. No doubt this may change in the future. I
wanted to mention and thank two of our long serving leaders – Anne Bunce and
Kate Holliday – who have stepped down this year. Anne has contributed to Junior Church in
Stoke Poges for many years, and more recently both she and Kate have been
instrumental in running the crèche.
We continue to
have a dedicated group of KiC leaders and helpers, without whom we could not
run KiC. We are deeply grateful for the
service they offer every week. We also thank our occasional helpers who fill in
at short notice to ensure we properly safeguard our children.
The
challenges we face in KiC can be summed up in one word – unpredictability! From
week to week we have a different number of children (ranging from none to as
many as twelve); the duration of the service varies (meaning that we have
always planned too much or too little!) and the nature of working with children
means that quite often lessons can take a very different direction from the one
intended. As ever though, it is in God’s
hands, and His plans always work out!
We hope that our children feel welcome and happy in KiC and, as leaders we pray that we can help them grow and develop their faith at their own pace.
7Up Simon Edwards
In
7Up we provide a space for our young people to connect and build relationships
with each other and God. We welcome
visiting young people who choose to join us; friends of 7Up members, visiting
relations of church members etc. We aim for our young people to
increasingly shape the group in direction, content and pace. Enjoying fun
and food together, (particularly Malteser spread!), are key ingredients of our
times together.
Over the past
12 months we have built on the firm, relational foundations established by TJ
and her team. The group is growing. Our young people have led sessions on their
favourite Bible passages. We have
journeyed with each other through some major life challenges, and we have gone
deeper into topics of interest to our young people, e.g. paths to God, is
forgiveness always good? creation, and heaven & hell.
This
is what our young people and their parents say about 7Up:
“Highlights
are the general friendliness and opportunity to speak your mind”
“Hopes
are just that 7Up carries on. It’s a good size of group, makes you think and
makes coming to church worthwhile but doesn’t expect homework or lots of extra
time commitment.”
“As
parents we are very grateful our children get a ministry that they appreciate
and want to engage with. Whatever they are exposed to elsewhere, it is
reassuring that there is a group of peers and supportive adults who will
balance this towards God.”
On
the team front, the blow of losing TJ and Hannah Halford from the team last
summer has been made up for by Jamie Brady joining us in 2019. Jamie brings
many years of experience of youth ministry.
Tara Purcell, Susanne MacDonald and Simon Edwards make up the rest of
the team. We feel privileged to
facilitate and witness the growth of these wonderful young people. We are looking forward to acquiring and
applying wisdom and practical hints and tips from a LICC workshop in May –
‘Reimagining Youth & Children’s Ministry’.
Look out for 7Up updates in the church blog posts.
Lighthouse John Wheatley
Once
again this year, volunteers from our church and some of our children will be
attending a Lighthouse club.
Lighthouse is a holiday club for
children, run by Christians from local churches working together, bringing
churches and communities together around the children. A local Lighthouse is
not just a church summer holiday club, it’s an investment in the whole
community with long term results!
Lighthouse is passionate about seeing
children from all walks of life and abilities encountering God in a fun-filled
week with teaching, prayers, sport, craft, performing arts and music. Each year our
teaching is centred around a specific passage in the Bible. This year’s verse
is Matthew 28:18-20.
Lighthouse is staffed and run
entirely by volunteers of all ages, 0 to 100+. At Burnham
Lighthouse, 200 teenage and 150 adult volunteers care for 750 children aged
between 4 and 12. They are all are registered on site at 10.00am each morning
and stay on site until 3.30pm. During the day they will move from tent to tent
in age groups to ensure their day is full of various activities.
All
of our volunteers will attend a child safeguarding course and, once they reach
the required age, will have an appropriate DBS check. We do not charge Children
for attending a Lighthouse but rely on local fund raising and Parents
Donations. It costs approximately £45.00 per Child per week to fund this event.
Many people describe Lighthouse
as ‘the best week of the summer holidays!’
Safeguarding Revd Natasha Brady
Stoke
Poges Church continues to take safeguarding very seriously. Our safeguarding
policy was reviewed and updated and approved by the PCC at the April PCC
meeting. It is on display in the St Andrew’s Centre and on St Giles’
noticeboard.
A few
new people now have a DBS and several more have renewed theirs. As a church, we are working towards having
all our volunteers that require it, trained and certified, as advised by the
Oxford Diocese Safeguarding Team, and have therefore introduced the new C0
& C1 safeguarding training. We have
one new C3 and Safer Recruitment certified volunteer.
Before
moving to her new post, TJ completed a Safeguarding Audit and all those who
need further training have been contacted.
Natasha will continue to monitor their progress as the Interim
Safeguarding Officer. Anyone requiring a new DBS should continue to contact
Margriet Wells, as she deals with this area of Safeguarding.
Our
hope is that everyone will feel enabled and safe within our Church and when
necessary confident to share any concerns that they have, knowing that we all
have ears to hear and the heart of Jesus to act appropriately to all.
Key message from the Oxford Diocese:
The welfare of the child, young person and vulnerable
adult is always paramount and takes precedence over all other considerations.
The Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser must be consulted
whenever a safeguarding concern of any kind arises in your parish.
Safeguarding is part of our core faith and an integral
feature of Christian life in our parish churches.
The next instalment of our Annual Report will be posted in a couple of days – so much to fit in before the APCM on 28th April!
Stoke Poges Church Blog 