PCC Minutes Jan 2007

Here are the PCC minutes for January 2007 - a bit late! Sorry!

St Catherine’s PCC Meeting - Monday 15 January 2007

1. The meeting opened with a reading from 1 Corinthians 12.7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good”

2. Apologies: Val, Esther, Ian

3. Minutes from previous meeting: With 3 minor spelling amendments (4h) Yeomans to Yeoman, (5) Gill Turner to Jill Turner and (6) then to than. Proposed by Stuart and seconded by John, all in favour.

4. Matters Arising; Marcus gave an update on the following:-

Alpha report/Prayer Meetings. Youth Alpha has started and has 7 teenagers attending, they recently had an away day studying the Holy Spirit and lead worship on Sunday evening. Marcus will express thanks to Kirsty for her commitment in leading the Youth Work and to Andy and Esther for helping. Prayer meeting attendance on a Saturday continues.

Welcoming people into church. David reported that the new rota had worked well up to the end of December, however there were some gaps in the rota for the new term. Naomi said the children are happy to welcome people into church at family services with an adult present and will make the adjustment to the rota.

Children’s Work – update.
After school club – up and running with 7 children attending aged 7 years and over, 5 children are from outside the church family. They are currently studying Daniel and are acting out dramas and making craft.
Holiday Club during Holy Week will be based around Joseph in Egypt.
Mini Kids – continues to be successful with 8 – 9 children.
Assemblies in local schools – going well with Naomi booked with at least one every week until March.
Children’s Church – on average 12 children attending and the Youth Alpha group are helping to lead which means that Naomi scan split them into more appropriate age groups.
Alan commented that the work Naomi had done in bringing children to church was amazing, Marcus added his thanks to Naomi for all her efforts.

DVD recordings of Services: A small library of recordings of services is now available for the housebound only. These will be transferred to video. Naomi asked if a recording of the Christingle Service could be available to the Children’s Church.

Noticeboard – This has arrived and looks splendid. Many thanks to all who helped erect it, and to the Satherley family for their donation to help pay for it.

Missionary Giving. We are currently giving regularly to 6 charities, and we have also added Soteria Trust as a 7th to help fund Sunday Olusegun Akinyemi who is a support worker.

24 hour worship II. Marcus reported that this was very successful, with a particular highlight being the confirmation service at the end of the 24 hours.

Harvest. We raised over £1000 at our Harvest collection. Marcus said that he was stunned by people's generosity, and thanked everybody for the faith that this shows.

Cleaning the Church. Monthly meetings are working well and this will continue. The February cleaning party will be at the beginning of Lent.

Garden of Remembrance. Alan reported that planting is completed and a donation of a cross to the garden will be made. Marcus thanked Alan and the Working Party for all their hard work in making this garden a peaceful, beautiful place for people to remember loved ones.

PCC Web notices – The minutes from September’s meeting will be placed on the website and a printed copy on the noticeboard. This will be updated once minutes of previous meetings are agreed.

Birthday Party – Marcus thanked everybody for birthday wishes and for attending his party in December.


5. Evangelism: February and Easter. Marcus reminded us that evangelism was sharing faith and finding ways to help family and friends to consider faith. Andy Economides returns on the weekend of 10 & 11 Feb. On the Saturday he will share practical tips to help share faith. On Sunday there will be a special Valentines service and copies of Andy’s book on Relationships will be given to wedding couples.
Our Sunday evening service will start a short 6 week course written by J John on how to share faith. Guy expressed concerns that this will exclude people who either cannot attend one of the weeks or cannot attend the evening service. Marcus said that it is beneficial to attend even one of the evenings, and there is also a book to accompany the course. If successful the course may be run during other times. Andy is back with us again for Easter, this again will provide wonderful opportunities to invite people to services. Maggie suggested that we advertise this in a prominent place, Marcus agreed and said he was thinking of ideas to facilitate this.

6. Church Hall: future thoughts continued. The PCC’s thoughts were canvassed following a presentation at the last PCC meeting by Davies Sutton Architects.
John felt that no positive information was given and that he didn’t get a clear picture of what was offered. Could we seek a second opinion from another firm? Stuart agreed with this. Maggie said that she had received a copy of the plans but was unable to consider them without costs being attached. Alan felt that we needed more information as we are currently not using the Hall to its full capacity. Richard wondered what brief the architects had been given and asked if we needed to be more specific. Guy felt that a working party should meet to discuss detail and return to the PCC and Ken thought it would be useful to see examples of similar work done to other churches.
Gill thought the steps on the corner of the church were an excellent idea, although Alan pointed out that the wall where the steps were proposed was a supporting wall and that they might be too steep, Stewart also pointed out that there was a Health and Safety risk with steps going straight onto a main road with no crossing.
Marcus suggested that we ask a second opinion from another firm and suggested one who is engaged on projects of a similar size and nature and who has also worked with St Catherine’s in the past. It was therefore suggested that we draw a line under the feasibility study done by Davies Sutton, thank them and pay them for the work received by us so far. We have received a bill, being reviewed by the RB. This was proposed by John and seconded by Guy. All in favour.
A working group was set up to meet with a second architect, consisting of: Marcus, David, Derek, Stewart, John, Stuart, Elspeth and Guy. This was proposed by John, seconded by Alan and agreed by all.

7. PCC Secretary/Treasurer – Val has asked to step down as PCC secretary, and Marcus has asked for volunteers to come forward to replace Val. She was thanked for her hard work. Stewart is also preparing to stand down as Treasurer, and in the meantime will take on an Assistant Treasurer to help and eventually take over the role. It was suggested that Rhian take this on. Proposed by Gill and seconded by Elspeth. All in favour.

8. AOB
Alan suggested that we write to Pontypridd Town Council to thank them for providing our Christmas tree this year. Marcus will arrange this.
Guy asked for an annual calendar to be displayed in church and on the web site with future events. Marcus will arrange this.
Maggie asked for a visitors/prayer request book to be available. Although there is one available in church, the wardens will ensure that it is more prominent.
Naomi asked for the loop system to be tested to ensure that it is working in all the pews. Wardens will arrange this.
Marcus has received a reminder that a PCC member be elected to the Diocesan conference and five PCC members be elected to the Area Deanery Conference. This will be effected at the Annual Congregation Meeting.
Jill has been made Verger.
Prayer requests for various church members were given.
BBC Radio Recording – We have been asked to record 2 radio broadcasts for BBC Radio Wales to be aired on Easter Sunday and the middle of June. Recording will take place provisionally on 14.03.07.

9. Date of Next Meeting
PCC Meeting – Monday 26 March 2007, ACM – Monday 23 April 2007