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April 2006, Page 4.
Index of articles:
by subject,
by date.
In this issue:
(April 2006)
Did Jesus die?
A lonely cross,
Annual Meeting,
Baptists,
Question.
Annual Meeting
We invite all our church members to join us for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, which will be held on Sunday 23rd April (the Sunday after Easter) at 11am (after a shortened service of Holy Communion at 10am). We expect it might last 45 minutes.
The meeting is your chance to express your opinions about any aspect of the way our church runs. In the last part of the meeting any member of the Electoral Roll can ask any question or raise any topic of concern; whether it’s about the local church or the whole Church of England. You can quiz the vicar and the Parochial Church Council (PCC) about what they’ve been doing and why, and you can move any resolution or recommendation.
The meeting also elects the PCC. This year there will be four vacancies, as the 12 PCC members are elected in rotation to serve 3 years each.
As in previous years the reports will be circulated in advance: the booklet will be out at the same time as this magazine comes out. Copies will be at the back of the church for you to take one. (Only please bring it back for the meeting: we won’t do enough for two each!) And it will be on the web. We ask you to read it beforehand, because when the vicar says “I move that the reports be received” it’s a bit late to start reading them then!
Q. Aren’t meetings really boring?
A. Actually, PCC meetings are quite interesting most of the time, although they have had their bad moments. The PCC is smaller now (because the rules changed in 2005) and it works better because of that. We’ve made a real effort to streamline the Annual Meeting over the past 5 years, and I think we’ve improved it very much.
Q. Don’t vicars stitch up all the decisions in advance?
A. I guess there are some who do, but they aren’t supposed to, and the PCC can stop them doing. I always try to consult people so we can make decisions together, and I hope the people will have the courage to tell me if we’re about to make a big mistake.
Q. If God tells the vicar what to do, why should I bother to turn up to put my oar in?
A. Because God speaks to all his people, not just the vicar, and everyone has his/her own special insight. We need to hear yours.
Q. What about Sunday dinner?
A. This is only an annual meeting, and we’re only asking you to change once. Why not have your dinner in the evening just once? Or why not put it in at a lower heat and cook it slower?
John Hartley