The Churchwardens elected at the last AGM were Elizabeth Cherhal-Cleverly and Joseph Agu.

The churchwardens are representatives of the church body to the chaplain and other church authorities such as the Bishop.

They should be concerned with the general welfare of the church, and pray about it.

The churchwardens are also officially responsible for church property.

The main job of the churchwardens is to meet regularly with the Chaplain and generally discuss and pray about what is going on in the church.

As we were new to the job, and also both have full time and (especially as far as Joseph is concerned) time consuming jobs, we had the first council meeting nominate 2 deputy wardens. These were the wardens for last year: Marie Colbert and David Bailey.

We (the wardens and deputy wardens) have held several meetings with Stephen. We have also held meetings including Alan and Richard. Generally these meetings precede our monthly council meetings, and allow us to prepare the agenda and discussions.

Among matters we have discussed and attended to are:

(these points will obviously overlap somewhat with other reports given at this meeting )

• The away weekend : prepared quite a bit in advance , this was in the autumn 2008 at Champfleury, and lead by John and Penny Gooch. We consider that the objectives of the weekend were met: fellowship, fraternity, prayer, and getting to know each other better.
• The council “brainstorming” afternoon: this was in the summer, lead by Dante. It enabled us to discuss what our good and not-so-good points were, and make some decisions as to what should be done. This resulted in some decision being taken, particularly pastoral care.
• Pastoral care: this is a point which came up in priority at the council brainstorming afternoon: we realised that we sometimes did not provide the love and care that our members needed, and we set up two teams: one concerned with identifying needs, and one concerned with providing care.
• Also at the council brainstorming afternoon, we decided to hold an alpha course in the autumn, and subsequently we discussed when to do it, whether to have it in English and French, how often to organise it ,… At time of writing we have not yet done a “bilan”, but we have learned a lot from our involvement in this.
• Our support for Carine and Mark Lewis in Burkina Faso, including a discussion of how to prepare their return.
• Support for Stephanie Vincent-Sweet in her mission in Rwanda.
• Our missionaries, Howard and Dona: when they went back to the US to raise funds, they were uncertain of the result. We wrote a letter for them to use for fundraising saying what a blessing they had been to us as a church and as individuals. We have held them up in constant prayer, and we praise God that so far their needs have been met, and that they have been able to stay with us.
• The teaching (sermons) in church: we thank God for our dedicated and inspired preachers: Stephen, Alan, Dante and Howard. We have often discussed the programs they have set up, and the surveys that have been done.
• Our financial situation: given the bad deficit we were facing last year, this has been a constant preoccupation and we praise God that our needs have been met.
• The Sunday School: we thank April Kern and Dona Diehl for all the work that has gone into this. There are less children of Sunday school age in the church this year, but we have been able to start a class for the 3-5 year olds, and thank Connie, Dona (for providing the material) and the other teachers and helpers for this.
• The jobs rota (roster). Marie has continued to take responsibility for this and has done considerable work to involve as many people as possible. She often handled this by email from the US. Elizabeth has occasionally replaced her when necessary.
• Support for the circle of silence: this is an initiative of many humanitarian and religious associations: the aim is to alert people to the conditions of asylum seekers, and generally foreigners. The church council voted its support for this initiative.

The inventory

• A sound-mixing board has been purchased in replacement of the old one which had broken down..

We once again wish to thank Stephen and Marian, Alan and Val, Howard and Dona, and Dante for their leadership, Richard our treasurer, Dante our secretary this year , the members of the church council, and all of your who contribute in so many ways to the life of our church.

Lastly, thanks to the deputy church wardens, David Bailey and Marie Colbert for their valuable support to us.

May the Lord richly bless St Marc's and all its members in the coming year.

Elizabeth Cherhal-Cleverly and Joseph Agu, 11/03/2009