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Church Business General

Minister's Report 2010/11

Revd Terry Hinks

2010 marked the midpoint in our church’s sharing in Vision4Life – the URC programme which is aims to help us all to refresh our use of the Bible, our relationship to God in prayer and our sharing of our faith with others. The Bible focus continued with a series on the key Bible themes, hosted by Brenda and Alan Green. The 2010 Prayer Year included a number of events and in particular the May Prayer Challenge which encouraged all of us to look at different ways to pray together and alone. November saw a new venture with our first Church weekend at Ivy House in Warminster. Entitled A faith worth sharing, it prepared the way for the launch of the final Vision4Life Year (the Year of Evangelism) on Advent Sunday 2010. The banner we brought back from the weekend has become a feature of our worship area and has been joined by a series of panels telling the story of Jesus (produced by Hilary Castle). The second Sunday evening discussion is now an established part of our worship and has enabled us to look at the booklets produced for the three years; in February 2011 we began to look at Evangelism and our call to share faith in word and action. The aim is to build our confidence to speak and our sensitivity to listen. This in turn will be leading onto next year’s anniversary celebrations (350 years since the founding of our church) and the United Reformed Church’s national advertising campaign.

Fabric group

We do have good reason to be proud of our church sanctuary that our forefathers built. There are times however, when we wish they had been influenced by Old Testament times when tents were erected enabling them to be expanded or reduced according to the numbers of people to be housed.

Finance group

The Finance Group meets at quarterly intervals but there is regular contact between members of the group, as required, from time to time.

The All Welcome project is complete and all pledges and donations are complete. The balance on the All Welcome fund was transferred back to Suspense at the end of 2009.

Treasurer's Report 2009 -2010

Total income for the year was £91,033 a decrease of 28.3% compared to 2008, which is mainly due to the higher level of legacies received in the prior year. The church benefited from bequests of £10,595 compared to £48,358 in 2008. Outgoings reduced to £73,672 a decrease of 14.8% which was the result of additional premises costs associated with 1 Abbey Water incurred in the previous year. The overall net income for 2009 was therefore £17,361 compared to net income of £40,469 in 2008. Net fund balances at the end of 2009 amount to £165,936.

Secretary’s Report 2009-2010

To endorse Terry’s comment “Teamwork is at the heart of our life as a church ...”. The elders, both serving and non-serving, keep this church running smoothly along with many other church members and friends to help. If you are asked, please seriously consider being part of this team. It would be your chance to have input into the way your church is run. The organisation is broken up into groups of Youth, Worship, Pastoral, Outreach, Finance and Fabric so if you feel one of these areas is your forte do come forward and find out more from any elder or the Minister.

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Ministers Report 2009-2010