Annual parochial church meeting (APCM)

Sunday April 21st is our APCM and we want you to be there! We will gather in worship at 10.30am, have a short meeting afterwards, and then celebrate over a bring and share lunch. We will give thanks for all the Lord has done over the past year, and also seek His will for whatever the next twelve months may bring.
A big THANK YOU to all who have served so faithfully over the past year, and to those who are continuing to serve, or stepping up for the first time.

Annual Church Meeting this Saturday

If you are a member of St Michael and St Barnabas, then please come along to our APCM at St Michael’s on Saturday 14th May at 10am.

This is an important meeting where we look back at the past year, elect those to serve in the next twelve months, and consider how to develop our mission as a church.

We very much look forward to seeing you there.

Our annual church meeting…

Looking back over a year like no other

…takes place on Wednesday 26th May at 7pm. If you have given the church your e-mail address on your electoral roll form, then you will have been given a Zoom code.

Even if you are not able to be there, please pray for the APCM and for the PCC meeting that follows. Thank you!

You can read Revd Tim’s letter to the congregation here:

vicars-letter-10-may-21Download

Official notices

Notice of Annual Meetings

PCC – health and safety policy

Amongst other business, at our meeting on 16th October, the PCC adopted a new Health & Safety policy – see here for details.

APCM – Church Annual Meeting

The APCM is our main church meeting of the year, where we appoint PCC members and Church Wardens, receive the accounts for the previous calendar year and reports on all our church activities.

If you joined the electoral roll before this year’s deadline of March 10th, you are eligible to attend and vote in any necessary elections (if nominations exceed vacancies).

10am, Saturday April 6th at St Michael’s

If you are unable to join us, please pray for the life of our church at this time.

What is the church Electoral Roll?

What is the Church Electoral Roll?

The Parish Electoral Roll can sometimes be a source of confusion. It has nothing to do with voting in local or national elections. Rather, it is the term used by the Church of England to describe the list of members of a particular church.

It is possible to join the electoral roll at any time, but it is not a life sentence! Once every six years the Church Nationally asks everyone to re-apply to be on an Electoral Roll. This is not a bureaucratic exercise, rather it is asking individuals to consider if they do indeed still want to be members of that church and re-commit themselves to it.

We have been revising the Electoral Roll for the past few weeks. Those who sign up for the new Electoral Roll will be able to stand for membership of the PCC and vote at our annual meeting when important decisions are taken concerning the life of the church.

The legal requirements to be able to join the roll are undemanding: either live in the parish, or attend regularly and have been baptised. However, I want to encourage you to think a little more deeply about what it means to be a member of St Michael’s and St Barnabas Church.

There is absolutely no requirement to be on the Electoral Roll in order to attend any of our services or other activities. St Michael’s & St Barnabas will continue to welcome and serve all those who come to us.

However, at St Barnacles we don’t see the church simply as a place you visit, but as the family of God where we serve, support and encourage one another, so that by our life together others will see Jesus in us and through us. Therefore, we hope that in joining the Electoral Roll you also commit to …

• attending worship regularly
• pray regularly, for the church family, its leaders and its activities.
• seek to grow in faith and service, reading your Bible regularly and seeking to apply its teaching to your whole life.
• offering the talents and abilities which God has given you for others, within and beyond the church.
• offering regular and proportional financial support to the church.
• seeking gracious, loving relationships with all, speaking well of others and taking the initiative to sort out any difficulties which arise.
• not keeping your faith to yourself alone, but sensitively encouraging and inviting others to meet Jesus Christ.

Please think and pray about this picture of what it means to be a member of the church. We are called together as followers of Jesus. We serve and support one another, learning what it means to love God and other people. That is our purpose and privilege. Join the journey! The closing date for Electoral Roll applications this year is Sunday, March 10th.

A new chapter begins

On Saturday we had the first ever annual meeting of the brand new parish of St Michael’s and St Barnabas, and it was good to see so many there.

Revd Tim started by showing a video from the Bishop of Exeter outlining the three priorities of the diocese:

Revd Tim linked these three priorities with our mission statement first drawn up in 2012:

Do you notice the similarities? Rev Tim shared how far we had progressed towards our goals and suggested the next stages in developing our plan. One key challenge for the church is to develop the children’s work and the meeting agreed we needed to look urgently at the question of appointing a children’s worker.

We then moved on to the elections. We appointed a churchwarden, two deanery synod representatives and eight PCC members. We also approved some standing orders, which although technical, will hopefully avoid any confusion about how the PCC operates in the future.

We weren’t in a position to approve the financial statements, so we are going to have another meeting (date tbc) to explain the financial arrangements of the new parish, present these statements and look afresh at our giving.

Then to finish, we watched an inspirational clip from the Archbishop of Canterbury. You can watch it here:

After all the business of the meeting, this was a reminder that, whatever else we seek to do our church, our focus must remain on building God’s kingdom and bringing more people to know and love Him. That’s why we are joining in the national initiative Thy Kingdom Come, ten days of prayer and outreach between Ascension Day May 25th and Pentecost June 5th. Find out more this coming Sunday!

Electoral Roll

Our Annual Meeting (details below) is fast approaching … and to take part in the elections, you need to be on our electoral roll. Applications for the electoral roll need to be completed this coming week … please ask Sue W for a form and return any completed forms to her by Friday February 24th in time for the electoral roll to be updated before the APCM.

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Our Annual Meeting is on Saturday, March 11th, 10am at St Michael’s. There are nomination forms for deanery synod reps (2 needed), for churchwardens (2) and for PCC members (9). Please return completed forms to a church warden.

There will be a bring and share lunch afterwards, so do bring some food to share and be prepared to share the washing up, too!

We want this annual meeting to be a celebration as we formally launch the new parish, and whether you are a new member of the church or an old-timer, please do come!

Annual Church Meeting (APCM)

As from January 1st this year, St Michael’s & St Barnabas have become one parish (we were until then, a ‘joint benefice’), and as a result we need to elect an entirely new PCC.

So this year, our Annual Meeting will be held earlier than usual, on Saturday 11th March at 10am at St Michael’s. Over the next few weeks there will be nomination forms for deanery synod reps (2 needed), for churchwardens (2) and for PCC members (9). Please return completed forms to a church warden.

If you are not yet on the electoral roll, you need to complete an electoral roll form at least 15 days before the APCM to be eligible to vote at the meeting. Ask Sue W for a form.

There will be a bring and share lunch afterwards, so do bring some food to share and be prepared to share the washing up, too!

We want this annual meeting to be a celebration as we formally launch the new parish, and whether you are a new member of the church or an old-timer, please do come!

We are family!

From 1st January the two parishes of St Michael’s and St Barnabas have officially merged to become “The Parish of Devonport St Michael and St Barnabas”. Over the next few months we need to tie up some loose ends, but we are now one mission community, and hopefully in a better position to reach out and build God’s kingdom in Stoke and Devonport.

The first Annual Meeting of the new parish will be some time in March. We really want every church member to be there, as we all have a role to play in God’s church, so we will publish the date just as soon as it is known. We will also be working on revising our Mission Statement which is now five years old (!) and will launch this at the meeting. There will also be a few changes to the website, so watch this space …

In the meanwhile please pray that nothing will distract us from bringing the good news of Jesus to people of every age and that we will see the Lord move in power through His Holy Spirit!

If you any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to speak with Revd Tim.

APCM – PCC and Church warden election results

St Michael’s PCC 2016-17

Following the APCM, this is the composition of the St Michael’s PCC for the year 2016-17:

Ex officio
Minister: Revd Tim Buckley
Churchwardens: John Wright, Val Goodyear
Readers: Lynda Buckley, John Wright
Deanery Synod representatives: David Goodyear, Lynda Buckley, John Wright (ex officio as on Diocesan Synod)

Elected (3 year term)
2014
Mike Sibley
Helen Sibley
Mary Marman
2016
Teresa Skingle
Ray Smith
Sue Wright

St Barnabas PCC 2016-17

Following the APCM, this is the composition of the St Barnabas PCC for the year 2016-17:

Ex officio
Minister: Revd Tim Buckley
Churchwardens: Joy Burrett, Rose Devereux
Readers: Lynda Buckley
Deanery Synod representative: Steve Guy

Elected (3 year term)
2014
Bob Saxton

Our Annual Meetings

It seems amazing that another twelve months have flown by, but on Saturday 16th April St Michael’s and St Barnabas will be holding their annual meetings at St Michael’s. St Michael’s annual meeting will be at 9.30am and St Barnabas annual meeting will be at 11.00am.

All church members are warmly invited to attend. Please pray for all those who are standing and for those who are continuing to serve.

 

APCMs

St Barnabas and St Michael’s APCMs will both take place on Saturday, April 16th at St Michael’s, time tbc. This is a reminder that those writing reports to include in the annual report need to get your copy to Rev Tim by Easter Sunday 🙂