Our church trustees, the PCC, met on Saturday 20th May for our annual away day. This is an opportunity for newly elected and existing members to get to know one another a little better and to spend some time in prayer and worship, exploring in depth some of the topics that we will be covering this coming year. Here Deb Green, newly elected member, gives a report of what we got up to...

"We met in the lovely St Denys church in Evington.  We were even able to enjoy the sunshine in the afternoon as we took our conversations outside. A great deal of coffee was drunk and nice people washed up. 

Alongside prayers and getting to know each other, some of the topics we covered included:

Peregrine nesting box – we have been approached about have a peregrine nesting box on the roof of the church and at a previous meeting agreed this would be a fantastic addition to our church building. Recently they have been seen around the church so we hope if we can build them a home they might want to come and nest here. The idea is to have a camera and live feed so that people can observe them. At this meeting we formally agreed to ask for the appropriate permission from the Archdeacon for approval for this to go ahead.

Conservation and development – like all PCC's who are responsible for an ancient Church the ongoing care and development of our building is always on the agenda! Currently we are facing an immediate need for reparing the south roof, this is the side of the church over the Burton chapel and choir vestry. The lead roof needs replacing as the water pours in (you may have noticed the buckets!) once the lead is lifted we may find the wood timbers they sit on may also need replacing. This would be phase one of the South Roof Restoration Project, phase two will be to explore having solar panels fitted. At this meeting we agreed to start the fundraising and appointed an architect to oversee this project.

Finance and stewardship – The majority of our income is from the generous giving of the congregation which can be gift aided if you are a tax payer. For many years Trevor Shaw has been doing the work of claiming back our gift aid and now he is handing over the reins to Roger Webber who we are grateful has offered to take this piece of work on.  If you can donate regularly through your bank then please speak to Graeme Smith our giving champion to find out how easy it is to do this.  We also appreciated the gifts of time and skills that many give to the church.  If you want to be more involved or find out more about joining in, please speak to any member of the ministry or warden team.

Safeguarding – we take the safeguarding of all very seriously. At this meeting Kath Lewis updated us on how we are doing with the training of PCC members and the choir. She was pleased to report everyone has completed their basic training and a fair number their level 2 and some have also completed the awareness of domestic violence training. It was noted and agreed that to support the safeguarding team we need to recruit someone to take on the role of Safeguarding Administrator, to support with the DBS process that is needed for all those in church working with children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you think you could help support our Safeguarding Coordinator, Claire Gregson, and join Claire, Kath and Revd Wendy in this team please get in touch.

Minster Communities - We spent some time reflecting on our particular strengths and weaknesses as a church both as part of our morning worship and in a discussion in the afternoon led by our vice chair James Badger. It is always good to take stock of where we are, to celebrate and notice what God is doing amongst us and to think about the ways we feel we could develop. We know that within the next 12 - 18 months we will be asked to join with other local churches to have this conversation as we are invited to consider being part of a Minster Community, which is the new way ministry is going to be resourced in Leicester Diocese over the coming years. It was good to get our thinking going now so we can play a constructive part in this process.

This was my first PCC meeting for many years and I was impressed by the enthusiasm, positivity and friendliness of everyone.  And the biscuits.   But there are many things that everyone in the congregation can get involved in. If you have an interest in finding out about how the governance of the church works or if you have a skill you want to offer, please talk to us.  There may be nice biscuits but there will definitely be a lovely group of people welcoming you."