St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

The right time and place to meet

Sunday 16th March

10am shortened service of Holy Communion, followed by coffee.

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

11am in the church narthex:
- Receive PCC reports of last year;
- Elect Churchwardens and PCC;
- Raise any matter of general interest.

Annual Meetings don’t usually get a lot of discussion, but the one in 2002 was an exception. In 2001 we had 44 people in the narthex on a Monday evening: 40 from the 9.30am congregation and 4 from the 11.15am. Not a representative spread of the whole church! So in 2002 we held the meeting in church between the two Sunday services, starting at 10.30am. People’s opinions were very divided on whether this was a good thing?

On the positive side, 85 people came and both congregations were fairly represented. The papers had been circulated in advance which meant that the meeting proceeded much more briskly. It saved an evening for busy people.

On the negative side, some people felt the meeting was “rushed” rather than “brisk”, and members were being asked to rubber-stamp the reports without a full discussion. The print of the papers was a bit small, and some hadn’t received them in advance. Some felt the worship area of the church building was not the proper place for a business meeting. Some were shy of speaking up, the roving microphone didn’t work, and there were problems hearing.

This year the PCC wants to keep the good features of what we did last year, but change the bad ones. We will still meet on Sunday morning, but in the narthex not in the worship area. We’ll have papers in advance in bigger print, but we won’t be constrained on time. The service before will be short, simple and not in either 9.30 or 11.15 style.

All church members are important to us. We want you to come, vote, speak up, and have your say!

John Hartley