Our 2025 Annual General Meeting was easily quorate, providing a welcome and timely break from recent sparse attendances and, much more importantly, enabling this important meeting to proceed and decisions to be taken. Our three deacons – Elizabeth Crewes, Sally Moody and Phil Andrews – were re-elected to serve for another year. Phil continues as Church Secretary, Elizabeth as Treasurer, and Sally as Pulpit Secretary. Caroline Andrews decided to stand down as Flower Secretary – we thank her for her hard work in the past, and implore others to step forward and help keep our Church looking bright and cheerful. Phil read out his Annual Church Report (see elsewhere in this newsletter), and Elizabeth read and circulated details of our accounts for the outgoing year.
It was confirmed that we would be staging our annual Carols by Candlelight service on December 21st (leaflets will be distributed within the community and the website updated in an effort to boost turnout), and that our Christmas Day service would take place at 11.00 am, as indeed it did last year. The Christmas tree would be erected following Church service on November 30th, and offers of assistance would of course be gratefully received.
As well as appointments and re-appointments, the meeting also considered a number of items which could be summarised as “routine housekeeping”. Hall hires, existing and potential, were discussed, and it was noted that some bulky items which hitherto had been taking up large amounts of space within the Church building had been disposed of. It was also agreed in principle that minutes of meetings which had taken place would be stored on site once we are able to do securely, and should be available to be seen by any member upon request.
One matter which continues to occupy us as we approach 2026 is that of Church membership. Since we switched our meetings to Sunday afternoons, commencing almost immediately after Church service, we have opened them up to enable non-members to attend in a non-voting capacity and, whilst they are most welcome, it sometimes feels odd that we are unable to hold a quorate meeting despite those meetings being well-attended. We would prayerfully ask those who do participate regularly but who have been reluctant to pursue Church membership whether perhaps now might be the time for them to consider taking the step? The process is a relatively simple one – once an application is made it is discussed by members at a subsequent meeting and, if approved, is followed up by a relatively simple service of acceptance on a Sunday morning on an agreed date.
We approach 2026 in a spirit of cautious optimism, looking always to extend our Church family both in terms of membership and of welcoming new people to our congregation.