The PCC is the decision-making body of the church. It consists of the vicar, churchwardens, nine PCC members and two people who represent us on Deanery Synod. We are a registered charity: as such the PCC are the trustees. Within PCC we have the Parish Safeguarding Officer, Treasurer and PCC Secretary.
PCC meets 7-8 times per year. There are standing items such as safeguarding, health and safety, finance and a Vicar's report, plus other agenda items depending on the matters in hand.
Summary of the meeting of the Parish Church Council (on 17th September)
- We reported on a number of repairs and enhancements to our buildings: completion of the work to install improved audio/visual equipment in church; repairs to the fabric of the church hall; replacement of the church hall windows; plans to place a bench on church grounds; plans to replace the curtains in the church hall, plans to replace and update the large blue noticeboard outside church.
- Progress on improvements to our safeguarding record-keeping
- Our PCC finances are transferred to a new accounting system, we shall transfer the church hall finances onto the same system this autumn. There will be a generous giving campaign in October.
- We discussed our capacity to undertake all the necessary compliance work (policies, processes, risk assessments, etc.) required of churches. The number of volunteers has fallen as the workload increases, placing strain on the Vicar and churchwarden in particular. We agreed to work towards employing a Parish Administrator.
- We planned a further meeting to discuss the next steps for St Barnabas to become the spiritual home for members of the Hong Kong community in our area.
- We discussed the challenges we are experiencing getting our plan for solar panels underway, including a substantial increase in the expected cost for the feasibility study.
- We gave thanks for the ongoing ministry at St Barnabas, which is supported and enabled by the matters we spent most of the evening discussing.
Summary of the meeting of the Parish Church Council (on 20th May)
- We welcomed two new members: Awaiz Masih and Louise Morgan
- This being the first meeting since the APCM, PCC elected certain officers for the year: Parish Safeguarding Officer (Joy Abel), Treasurer (Richard Cunningham) and PCC secretary (Christine Bartlett)
- We are in the process of adopting a new accounting package MyFundAccounting to help mange the parish finances: this is being set up by our Treasurer, Richard Cunningham with help from congregation member Anna Hall.
- Administering of Holy Communion: The PCC discussed our current procedures concerning the administering of bread and wine.
- Solar Panels: A feasibility study will soon be taking place by a firm of architects who have experience in this field. The costs are being covered by a grant from the Diocese and national Church of England.
- Prayer Initiative: Louise Morgan briefly introduced the idea of having the church open for prayer whilst other activities are going on in the Parish Centre.
Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM): Saturday 12th April 2025
We held our Annual Meeting on 12th April:
- Our two churchwardens David and Sandra stood down and we elected our new churchwarden, Louise Morgan.
- Joy and Gail stood down from PCC; Awaiz and Sandra were elected.
- Roger Moore has stepped down as our PCC secretary and Christine Bartlett will be taking over that role
- We also agreed to reinstate the rule that churchwardens should serve for a maximum of six consecutive years
- There was a good Q&A session, at which a number of points were asked of PCC.
Grateful thanks are due to all those who serve as our church officers, especially our outgoing wardens David and Sandra, and Roger our outgoing PCC secretary.
Summary of the meeting of the Parish Church Council (on 4th March)
- We approved our Safeguarding policy for 2025.
- We approved a new Safer Recruitment policy.
- There was a finance update and a discussion about whether refreshments donations were eligible for Gift Aid. The accounts for 2024 are not quite signed off yet.
- We agreed to ringfence certain legacy funds for improvements to the audio-visual equipment in church, and for capital expenditure on the project to place solar panels on the roof.
- There were updates on the following:
- Progress on enhancements to the audio-visual equipment in church.
- Safe Space initiative, which we hope will open in the Parish Centre later this year (probably September?).
- Solar Panels project - we have a £3k grant to fund a feasibility study.
- We had a discussion about seeking grant funding from the National Lottery Community fund and decided that if an application was successful we would be willing to accept the grant.
- There was a discussion about an enquiry from local members of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, about the use of our church for worship, once a month. We agreed to apply to the Archdeacon to seek approval for this.
- The Annual Parochial Church Meeting is on 12th April. PCC reviewed the written annual report for 2024.