Annual Report

All Saints’ Church, Nash

Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council for the year ended 31^st December 2018.

Incumbent: Reverend Will Pearson-Gee.

Associate Priest with responsibility for the villages of the Benefice:

The Reverend Gussie Walsh, The Rectory, Chapel Lane, Thornborough (until 31 October 2019)

Bank: Lloyds Bank, High Street, Stony Stratford

PCC membership

Members of the PCC are either ex officio or are elected by the Annual Parochial Church meeting in accordance with the Church Representation Rules.  The following served as members of the PCC during 2018.

Annual Review 2018

Administrative information

All Saints, Nash, is situated in the centre of Nash, a small village in Buckinghamshire between Milton Keynes and Buckingham. The church was designed by G E Street and the foundation stone was laid in November 1857.

The Parochial Church Council is a charity exempted from registration with the charity commission.

The parish of Nash forms part of the Buckingham Benefice, which also includes Buckingham, Beachampton, Radclive-cum-Chackmore, Thornborough and Whaddon. Thornton forms part of the parish with Nash; the parish is called Thornton with Nash as a Thornton benefactor gave the land on which Nash church was built.  During the year, it was agreed that, in view of the increase in the size of Buckingham town, the four villages of Beachampton, Nash, Thornborough and Whaddon together with Thornton (whose church is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust) would form a separate benefice independent of Buckingham town.  Unfortunately, the initial choice of a name for the new benefice was inadmissible as the Oxford Diocese already had a benefice with that name.  Discussion are ongoing as are the formal legal processes to form the new benefice.

Church services and attendance (previous year’s figures are given in brackets)

The church continued to celebrate all the major festivals together with weekday services for Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Excluding funeral related services there were 58 (58) services with a total attendance of 1,164 (1,084) adults and 117 (73) children.   Apart from the major services (Mothering Sunday, Easter, Benefice Services, Harvest, All Souls, Remembrance, and various Christmas services), the average attendance for Holy Communion and Morning/Evening Prayer services was 15 (16) adults and for All Age Worship services was 12 (14) adults and 3 (3) children. There was one funeral service, two burials of ashes, and two burials. There were no baptisms.  There was one wedding.

The Church Electoral Roll had thirty members including seven non-residents at the end of the year.

Review of the year

The major item of the year was the retirement at the end of October of the Reverend Gussie Walsh who had been our priest for six and a half years.  Her last service was the Harvest service at which she was presented with a bouquet.  Her final appearance in Nash was at a Benefice shared lunch on 28 October at which she was presented with a cheque and a card signed by members of the congregation and residents of Nash, as a token of their appreciation for her ministry.

The ongoing process of forming a new benefice for the “Buckingham villages” has been described above.  After an interregnum, it is expected that Rev Walsh will be replaced by a vicar for the four parishes of Beachampton, Thornton with Nash, Thornborough and Whaddon.

There were three “messy” church type activities for young families – an Easter activity on Good Friday, a Holiday Club in August, and a Christmas activity on the morning of 24 December.  All these were popular and continue to build good relationships with village families.  Attendance at communion services continues to be good with an average of 18.  The average for the monthly morning/evening prayer is only 10. All Saints’ hosted one of the Lent Deanery Evensongs as well as a Benefice Choral Evensong at the end of July with the visiting Barnsford Choir; on both occasions there was a large congregation. The church was full for the Carol Service on 23 December. Nash had only a Christmas Day family service and not a midnight service this year, so the Christmas numbers were down. The circulation space at the back of the church is much used after services and for holiday club activities.  The PCC purchased a new sideboard for storage and for serving refreshments.

In addition to holding its regular worship services, the church aims to support the village community both by pastoral support and by organizing social activities at prices intended simply to cover costs.  For the regular congregation there are three groups – a study group, a nurture group, and a prayer group.

The eight members of the Study Group have met approximately fortnightly throughout the year with breaks during the school holidays. The Group has been studying John’s Gospel.

The Nurture Group has met nine times over the year when the five members have been   discussing various topics from Bishop John[1]’s book entitled “Ten”. Following completion of this book there were a couple of meetings to discuss other topical issues ending with a meditation. Finally, the Group read and discussed the book of “Ruth”.

The Prayer Group meets fortnightly, on a Wednesday morning with six regular members. Lady Southby has taken the lead in organising a monthly prayer group to pray for the reorganisation of the Buckingham Benefice and the establishment of a “villages” benefice.  This has been held in all the four village churches.

Two coffee mornings were held for the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) to support the work of an obstetrician in her medical work in Nepal. The church was pleased to be able to send £477 to INF to support the doctor and her work.

The quarterly weekday lunches, the Beetle Drive (January), and Harvest Supper and auction of produce (September), all continued to be successful social events, much appreciated by Nash residents.  In Fair-Trade fortnight, Lady Southby hosted a Fair-Trade tea party together with a sale of fair-trade goods.  She also hosted a monthly “Knit and Natta” as a further social get-together with a purpose – namely knitting for various charities.  In May the church organised its regular house-to-house collection for Christian Aid and raised £453 (before reclaimed Gift Aid).

The Church continued to have responsibility for the bi-monthly Nash church/village magazine. The Newsletter contains some paid advertising to cover the printing costs.  Cards detailing Christmas and Easter services are also distributed to all villagers.

The church building and churchyard

The lightning conductor was checked during the review period and a post on the Village Hall boundary reset. The churchyard has been maintained to a high standard by Nash Gardeners and the annual Churchyard clear-up and church clean on the Saturday before Remembrance Sunday was again well supported.

Finance

The Financial Statements were prepared on a receipts and payments basis and independently examined.

The £2,127 of income tax reclaimed from HMRC under gift aid and the gift aid small donations scheme – which amounts to 12% of the general income – has been added to the associated type of giving.

Summary: In 2018 the church was able to make a modest surplus which is useful as the quinquennial inspection is due in 2019. Also, the move to the new “villages” benefice may lead to additional expenditure, either one-off or on a continuing basis.  The uncommitted reserves (just over £30,000) remain healthy.

The financial statements show that general receipts exceeded the corresponding payments by £1,269. In 2017 there was a deficit of £1,491 because of extensive expenditure on the fabric. In 2018 there was minimal expenditure on the fabric but a large increase in the amount spent on grass cutting and tidying the churchyard.  Details are given below and in the notes.

Receipts: Receipts, excluding Thornton and grant income, of £17,573 were down about £400 on 2017.  General (including covenanted) giving was up by nearly £600, partly thanks to the Deanery and Benefice Evensongs; the fee income, which always varies considerably, was down by £665 but was partly balanced by a small increase in funeral donations. The fete/festival/produce show income was down by £124.  On the other hand, the Gift Day donations increased by £133.    Most other items were broadly comparable, Thornton held three services. Total receipts including grants and Thornton receipts exceeded total expenditure by £1,122 (compared with a deficit of £1,449 in 2017).

Payments: Total expenditure (excluding Thornton) was £16,954 (2017: £20,572). The parish share of £8,415 (after the 1% reduction for payment by direct debit) was paid in full.  Collections and regular giving covered 93% of the parish share (compared with 86% in 2016). The rest of the parish share, and all the other expenses were met from the Gift Day and other receipts.

As indicated above, 2018 was notable for the lack of expenditure on the fabric and the increased expenditure on grass cutting.  A new sideboard was purchased for the back of church at a cost of £556.

The payments to the various charities (as detailed in the financial statements) represented 13.5% of general receipts (2017: 12.8%)

Parish share 2019: Nash’s parish share for 2019 is £8,713 after the 1% deduction for payment by monthly direct debit. This is an increase of £298 or 3.54% on 2018.

Thank you: The PCC is grateful, as ever, to our Incumbent, Reverend Will Pearson-Gee, and all the clergy and lay leaders for their hard work in leading services and preaching throughout the year, namely: Reverend Gussie Walsh, Rev Rupert Bursell,  Rev Michael Greig, Rev Chris Murray, Rev Maurice Stanton-Saringer, Pauline Stanton-Saringer LLM, Paul Wallace LLM, and, from within Nash, Reverend John King, Lady Vicky Southby LLM, John Hamilton LLM and Pam King.

Nash Church would not function without the hard work of the people who give of their time to help the church to operate. We are a small parish and depend on the dedication and hard work of all who help to facilitate the work of the church. In particular thanks to:

• To each and every member of the PCC for their valued contributions; particular thanks are due to those whose membership ceased during 2018.
• Our Churchwarden who also provides teas and coffees and does much other work;
• Our organists who lead the music, and the choir at major services;
• The Treasurer for sorting out our finances;
• The three sacristans;
• The flower arrangers;
• The ladies who organise the village lunches;
• All who carry out the valuable work of cleaning the church throughout the year and cutting the grass in the churchyard;
• Members of the village who join us for the churchyard and church clean-up each year in November;
• For those who carry out all of the other work and assistance which is not specifically mentioned above.

Nash PCC, December 2018

[1] Bishop John was the previous Bishop of Oxford