Parish Business
A REPORT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL 2009 Many people seem to see Swansea St Barnabas as a place where things go along fairly smoothly with only occasional hiccups. Those involved with the day to day running of our church know that this is true only because so many people put in a lot of effort to make sure the things that are needed get done. There are a multitude of small jobs like the weekly cleaning of the church, changing the candles and arranging rotas for the readers at services. Bigger jobs include dealing with electricians to bring the electrics up to date, arranging the purchase of chairs or other items and maintaining the Electoral Roll and the required detailed lists of what we own (the Inventory and Terrier). There are too many jobs to list them all here but everyone at St Barnabas benefits from the dedication and week in week out commitment of those who do this essential work. The role of the Parochial Church Council is to act as a sort of management team for everything as well as having overall responsibility with the incumbent for property and fabric, finances and mission. In 2009 the Parochial Church Council had seventeen members including the Churchwardens, the Treasurer and our Priest in Charge. Conducting the business of the Parochial Church Council was helped this year by the establishment of a Standing committee of the Officers, and three sub committees to deal with property and fabric matters, finance and resources and worship and services. Every member of the Parochial Church Council is on at least one of the sub committees. There is also a social committee that is very active in organising and supervising our social events. The full Parochial Church Council met six times in 2009 including one special meeting with the architect who carried out the quinquennial building inspection. This took place in February. There is always a certain degree of apprehension in advance of this inspection as it can identify building problems that might involve substantial investment to put right. Fortunately this was not the case in 2009 as the recommendations for work to be done were relatively minor and provided useful advice rather than identifying problems to be dealt with immediately. Several worship and service matters were on PCC agendas this year. It was reported that some members of the congregation found the new prayer book used at communion services awkward to use despite helpful directions from the clergy. This was because of the need to move to different places in the book during a service. There were also discussions about the frequency of Sunday evensong services. Our hymnbooks are relatively new though it was suggested that we should consider the purchase of a new set that would include additional and/or different hymns. In November the Parochial Church Council agreed to set up an Outreach sub committee in future with mission as one of its main responsibilities. It was also agreed that there would be a Parish Retreat arranged at Llangasty House in the spring of 2010. The need for additional Lay Eucharistic assistants was identified during the year and in November we learned that the Bishop had approved the admission of four new assistants for the parish to add to the four we already had. The Bishop also informed us that in future Lay Eucharistic Assistants would be known as Lay Eucharistic Ministers. With a building approaching one hundred years old it is not surprising that items to do with our property and fabric frequently appear on the PCC agenda. In 2009 we needed to deal with a variety of electrical problems in particular and with some of the roof gutters. We also purchased a moveable font that has proved a useful asset. In addition the Property and Fabric sub committee has a range of work recommended in the 2009 Quinquennial Building Survey Report to programme for action in 2010. An ongoing item on their agenda was the need to design and install appropriate notice boards and events banners. The sub committee has been asked to bring recommendations for action on this to the Parochial Church Council early in 2010. For longer term maintenance costs such as replacing the central heating system or replacing the church roof we are fortunate in having reserves invested that we hope will be sufficient for the purpose. Until two years ago these investments also yielded some additional income to help meet our current expenses. However, in 2009 the Treasurer reported that the return on our investments was now negligible and certainly below the inflation rate. The effect of this is to reduce the purchasing value of our invested funds. The recommendation was that we should at moving our reserves to higher yielding investments and it is hoped that this will be done early in 2010. St Barnabas is fortunate in that the income from collections and from the events organised is normally just about sufficient to meet our current expenses. Paying the quarterly Parish Share (quota) sometimes requires a juggling act in that the income varies over the year and it is not always clear that there will be sufficient in the current account at the end of a quarter to meet the cost. An important item on agendas this year has been the setting up of the St Barnabas website on the internet. This is now available for all to access at stbarnabasswansea.org.uk. It provides a valuable source of information about us and the parish and especially about the events and activities we organise. St Barnabas is very fortunate in having Chris Moyse as a member of the PCC who has contributed his expertise and time in getting our website established and who now continually updates it. Graham Humphrys Parochial Church Council Secretary
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