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Minutes Little
Malvern Priory Church of Saint Giles Parochial Church Committee Meeting Held on Monday 15th February 2010, at
Malvern Wells Village Hall. 1
Present
Canon Eric
Knowles Chairman, Derek Webb Secretary, Peter Williams Acting Treasurer, Robert
Steel Churchwarden, John Chatten Churchwarden, Alistair Booth, Mike Pollard, Sir
Nigel Nicholls, Ramon Wyre and Irene Tretheway. 1.1
Apologies
Alexandra Berington 2
Prayers and Opening Remarks
Canon Eric Knowles opened the meeting with a short reading and a
prayer. The Chairman welcomed Peter Williams and thanked him for his kind offer
to act as Treasurer as a consequence of Bernard and Jenny Pierce moving away
from Malvern. 3
Minutes of the Previous PCC Meeting (14/10/09)
Para 5.4.1
replace “closed” with “closer”. Within para 5.6.1 strike out the second
occurrence of “John Inge”. With these amendments the minutes were taken as a
true record. 4
Review of Actions (24/04/09)
(01/07/09) 5.5.1 Closed. 5.1.2 RS reported that only dead wood should be cut from the yew tree.
Any further pruning would require prior approval from the MHDC Tree Conservation
Officer and English Heritage. Removal of live branches, to stop berries
accumulating on the path leading to the entrance of the church and those which
overhang the boundary wall of Little Malvern Court was considered too drastic as
the tree would become unbalanced and thereby unstable. 5.1.3 RS informed the meeting that the cost of providing water via an
outside tap, fed from the kitchen, was £250 approximately. That this work
should be carried out was proposed by MP, seconded by NN and carried
unanimously. 5.1.4 Closed, see para 6.1.5 below. 5.3.1 Closed, CY 2009 Parish Share now paid in full. 5.3.2 Closed, the gratitude of
the PCC to the Finance Committee for all its deliberations and recommendations expressed in a letter of thanks. 5.10.2 Closed, letter dispatched (26/10/09) and reply received
(23/12/09) which addressed issues raised. 6.1 Closed, letter of thanks sent to Roger. 6.2 Closed, letter sent to George Bryden. 6.3 Closed, design proposals received. 5
Child Protection Policy 5.1 The
revised version of the Child Protection Policy (CPP) produced by Jocelyn Bailey
has been circulated to members of the PCC. A talk by the police will be given at
the AGM as part of the Policy. The CPP is to be made available to all attendees at the AGM such that it
may be formally accepted. Action
secretary to write expressing thanks to Jocelyn in preparing this revised
edition and to provide copies for the AGM. 6 Reports
6.1 Churchwarden
6.1.1 RS reported that it had been necessary to conduct some urgent
maintenance tasks. These comprise, reinstating and cementing in place those
tiles which had been displaced by the autumn winds, removing accumulated debris
from gutters and, testing the effectiveness of the lightening conductors. This
was approved by the PCC. That the Churchwardens may authorise urgent maintenance
work as and when necessary was proposed by JC, seconded by NN and carried
unanimously.
6.1.2 Whilst the proposal to reimburse the LMP share of the costs
incurred for work undertaken to eliminate ingress of water into the kitchen and
the adjoining garage, it was noted that formal approval of the PCC would be
required once the full costs were known. Action
ALL
6.1.3 Notice was also given of other potential future expenditure. These
may arise from the annual maintenance of the church heating system, and the
quinquennial inspection which was scheduled for October 2010.
6.1.4 RS had received some fine photographs depicting the church and its
interior from Roy Harding and Adrian Fletcher. Examples of these were tabled. Adrian had asked permission to take photographs of the church such that
he could put them on his website. He has granted permission for Little
Malvern Priory to use any of these photographs without charge provided we
acknowledge his copyright. Bob mentioned
that these and other photographs were now part of the LMP web site the URL of
which is http://www.littlemalvernpriory.co.uk/Photographs.htm.
Action Secretary to write a letter
of thanks to those who had supplied these photographs.
6.1.5 JC reported what steps he and IT had taken to procure a suitable
replacement carpet for that in front of the altar. The plain Axminster carpet
offered by the Secretary was found to be of insufficient quantity and not of a
suitable colour. Further samples were brought to the church for consideration
but also rejected. Finally, an end of roll, plain blue Wilton carpet was
procured which matched that to be replaced. The total cost cutting binding and
fitting with under felt was £647.
6.1.6 Potentially there is sufficient remaining to replace that covering
the pews. Action JC to establish what
additional cost would be incurred if the existing covering to the pews were to
be replaced.
6.1.7 PW proposed and IR seconded that the PCC approve the total
expenditure and said proposal was carried unanimously. Furthermore the Treasurer
was asked to enquire whether the Friends of Little Malvern Priory would be
willing to pay these costs. Action
Treasurer to submit a bill to the Friends once the total cost is known. 6.2
Treasurer
6.2.1 PW acknowledged with thanks the invitation to act as Treasurer. 6.2.2
The annual accounts for the year ending December 31st 2009 have been
finalised and are ready to be forwarded to Dorothy Devlin for audit.
It was proposed to present these to the PCC at the meeting scheduled for
Wednesday 21st April 2010. PW expressed his apologies in that he
would not be able to attend the AGM. It was proposed that NN would represent him
at the AGM. 6.2.3
The finances are considered to be in good order but a note of concern was
expressed due to the fact that current low rates of interest would reduce
income. 6.2.3
For the current year PW proposed adopting a format for our accounts which would
be readily understood by a wide cross section of the laity. 6.3 Finance
Committee
6.3.1 The FC met on 5th February when consideration was given
to the provision of software for the Treasurer which was suitable for the
effective management of the church accounts in accordance with the requirements
of the Charities Commission, HMRC and the church authorities. A note, prepared
by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, which summarised the underlying issues
and the relative merits of alternative software suites, was discussed. That the
recommended Paxton finance software be purchased, with provision for first year
annual maintenance and support, at a cost not exceeding £500 was proposed by NN,
seconded by AB and carried unanimously. 6.4 Society of Friends
of Little Malvern Priory
Note
para 6.1.7 above. Links were being established with the “Friends” of other
churches in the Diocese with Benedictine origins. 6.5
Deanery
It was
noted that the incumbent in charge of Christchurch, on retirement, is not being
replaced. 6.6
Diocesan
EK and PW undertook to attend the meeting scheduled on 18th
March on “Giving For Life”.
6.7 Churches Together in Malvern
The
need to replace Jenny Pierce as one of our representatives was noted. 6.8 Chaplaincy for Agriculture and Rural Life (CARL)
6.8.1
AB continues to provide telephone support to the Farm Crisis Network.
He had noted an increase in calls throughout January.
6.8.2 Some concern had been expressed in the vaccination programme for
badgers. The situation is particularly bad in the South West and Midlands and in
Wales. Almost 40,000 cattle were slaughtered up to November last year because of
TB, prompting anger among farmers at the spiralling infection rates in herds.
6.8.3 The secretary acknowledged receipt of a letter from Gerry Pearse
Treasurer CARL confirming receipt of our donation of £1150 in support of “Big
Church Little Church” at the Three Counties Showground on 29th
August 2010. 6.9 Chaplaincy for Long Lartin
A replacement for Jenny Pierce was sought. 6.10
Sherrards Green: St Mary the Virgin, Malvern Revd
Clare, in her response to the letter from the secretary, outlined the progress
which had been made in various projects at St Mary’s Sherrards Green. She once
again thanked LMP PCC for our practical, financial, friendship and prayers. A
Gala fund raising day is planned for 5th June 2010. Dorothy
Devlin and Brian Williams have agreed to act as Treasurer and Secretary
respectively for the fund raising fete proposed for July 2010. 7
AOB
7.1 EK reminded all to note March 28th at 6:00pm when Bishop of
Worcester Rt Revd. Dr John Inge would visit LMP to dedicate the
Tosello
memorial window.
8
DONM’s
The next meeting of the PCC is proposed to be held on Wednesday 21st
April 2010. The venue for this meeting is Malvern Wells Village Hall, and the
meeting will commence at 7:00 pm.
Note that the AGM is scheduled for 7:00 pm on 27th April 2010,
within LMP, Church of St Giles. 19/02/10 D B WEBB Secretary LMP PCC |
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