We had a productive and helpful PCC meeting this week. I am grateful to the PCC for their flexibility in attending a meeting rearranged at short notice.
We were pleased to be able to co-opt Richard Walker to the PCC, and to appoint him as Chair of the Finance, Fabric and HR Action Group. All four Action Groups now have Chairs, and are continuing to take a lead in the different areas of church life:
Mission and Discipleship: Sian Walker
Worship and Prayer: Lydia Farnham
Pastoral Care and Hospitality: Rose Kershaw
Finance, Fabric, and HR: Richard Walker
We reviewed the output of our PCC Away Day in June, and reflected with gratitude on the wide variety of ministries and activities that All Saints people are involved in. There are a couple of areas in which we feel we could extend our mission and ministry, and we will be exploring these in the coming months.
We continued our discussions about the ongoing restrictions on our corporate worship since the pandemic began. Our conversation was focused on how we share communion, and share the peace at Communion services. There were a range of views on both of these within PCC, representing a similar range in the congregations. We decided that:
- Those leading communion services are to ensure that “The Peace” is included in the service, not skated over. Ways of sharing the peace without physical contact are to be modelled, and people are to be encouraged to be sensitive to each other in the way they share the peace.
- We will have a trial at the Holy Communion service on 16th October in which people will be offered the choice of receiving from the common cup, or by a dipped wafer. The way in which this will work will be explained in the service. Following this trial, a decision will be made as to how we share communion in future.
We had a positive discussion about Safeguarding, and its importance in the life of the church, in preparation for the development of a revised Safeguarding policy. This will extend the offer of Safeguarding training, and make it a requirement for a number of different roles. This is important, as it will equip more of us to be able to see signs of possible safeguarding issues, and to know what to do if we are concerned, or if someone makes a disclosure to us.
If you have any questions or thoughts about the things that the PCC discusses please do get in touch with me, or any of the members of PCC.
Tim Carter
15/02/2022