A year in the life of St. Mary Magdalen, Sheet

ANNUAL REPORT 2004

Background
The year can be divided into two distinct parts, namely the completion of the interregnum and the ministry of the Rev Rob Dewing.

The PCC
During the year the following served as members of the PCC:

Incumbent:	The Revd Rob Dewing
Wardens:	Mr Charles Meader
	Mrs Jeannine Davies
Representatives on Deanery Synod:
	Mrs Gill Clarke	- ex officio
	Mrs Heather Bird	- ex officio
	Mr Nigel Wells	- ex officio
Elected Members:
	Mrs Sue Stanley	- Until APCM 2005
	Mrs Jackie Knee	- Until APCM 2005
	Mr Bob Greenhill	- Until APCM 2005
	Ms Susan Judd	- Until APCM 2006
	Mrs Lesley Leon	- Until APCM 2006
	Mr Nigel Williams	- Until APCM 2006
	Mrs Jenny Parkes	- Until APCM 2007
	Mr Tim Horne	- Until APCM 2007
	Mrs Ruth Firth	- Until APCM 2007
	Mrs Joan Wearn	- Until APCM 2007
Treasurer:	Mr Nigel Wells	- ex officio
Secretary:	Mrs Daphne Clark	- ex officio
Admin:	Mrs Helen Morris	- ex officio

Committees:
The PCC has been supported by the following committees:-
Standing Committee:
Fabric Committee:
Worship Committee:
Mission Committee: (renamed Outreach Group)
Pastoral Committee:

Early in the life of this PCC we spent most of one meeting discussing the financial reserves. The PCC is almost equally divided on the issue. Some members are uncomfortable with the level of reserves being as high as £60,000. They would like to see some of the reserve being made available for donations to good causes. Others on the PCC, including the Treasurer, believe that a prudent policy would be to set reserves at the level of one year's worth of expenditure. They were keen to remind us that the reserves have been built up over many years to provide a cushion for a rainy day. There is of course no guarantee that congregation numbers will remain at the present level. Advice from Gordon Uphill, the Parish Resources Adviser in the Portsmouth Diocesan Office has agreed that this is a sensible level to aspire to maintain. It is also clearly true that we are in a fortunate position to be facing this dilemma; many churches are spending their reserves to meet routine expenditure. Most of the reserves are held in designated accounts, namely £40,000 in the Building Fund and £12,000 in the Organ Fund and by definition these do not form part of the reserves. The reserves in the General Fund stood at £8,551 at the end of 2003.

The PCC, at their meeting on 19 July 2004, agreed the following policies with regard to the accounts:
Financial Policy: The financial policy of the PCC is to raise sufficient funds each year through routine giving, gift aid, collections, fees, donations, and tax recovery to cover routine expenditure for the year.
Annual Accounts: The Financial and Reserves policies should be included as notes in the annual accounts.
Budgets: The treasurer is to submit budgetary proposals to the PCC in November each year and is to set balanced budgets.

The PCC delayed agreement on the following proposal:
Reserves Policy: The policy of the PCC with regard to Reserve Funds is that there should be sufficient money in the Designated Accounts and the General Account equivalent to one years' routine expenditure

2004 has been a good year financially and Unrestricted Giving increased by £2,979 (4.84%) to £64,555.
Tax recovered from the Inland Revenue increased by £1,767 but some of this came from donations to the following charitable organisations:

Ghana	362.72
Leprosy Mission (2003)	5.64
Christian Aid Uganda	25.10
New Bibles	50.77
Sudan Church Association	305.74
IMC (Triathlon)	12.69
Bikes for Africa (Triathlon)	12.69

This total of £775.35 highlights the advantage of all charitable donations being made through the Gift Aid scheme.
Charitable giving from both unrestricted and special collections amounted to £12,660. This represents 13.2% of the total income received but does not include the £2,000 deducted from the Mission Committee budget as part of our contribution to the poorer parishes within the Diocese. This contribution is paid through the Fairer Shares scheme of the Quota.

The Reserves, as defined in the unresolved Reserves Policy Proposal statement above, stand at £75,424. The amount nominally placed in the Building Fund is £45,000 and in the Organ Fund £13,000:

The finances of St Mary Magdalen are in a healthy state and a substantial amount of money is available to enable work to commence on the provision of toilet facilities.

Rev R Dewing

February 2005