About Our Church
* GetInvolved*
Sunday Service
Activities
Info
* Church At Large*
:-)
|
| Minutes for the Church Council Meeting
|
| On: Wednesday 10th May at 20h00
| At: St Marc's Church Centre
|
| Present:
| Stephen Coffin (Chaplain), Alan Golton (Assistant Chaplain), David Bailey (Churchwarden), Mark Lewis (Churchwarden), Alison Coulavin (Synod Rep), Val Golton (Synod Rep), Elizabeth Cherhal (Secretary), Richard Sheppard (Treasurer), Marie Colbert, Gloria Ugonwali, Jon Bateman, Penny Vincent-Sweet. Invited: Sally Mc Namee
|
Minutes:
| | 12.
| Prayers and Apologies (please inform Chaplain or Secretary)
| | 13.
| Discussion with Sally Mc Namee
Sally presented a report on what could be taken forward in student ministry after her departure at the end of June. (see her report). Attached to her report was a suggestion for a new more “user friendly” welcome card. In her report Sally indicated many places she used to make contact with International students. Gloria said that she saw a lot of them around the “maison du tourisme” and could probably distribute welcome material of some sort from her workplace. Sally made many suggestions for continuing her work, one of which was opening a “café” on a once a week basis. Sally has been organising a weekly lunch with bible study, and it was suggested that we reinstate the Sunday lunches which were organised in the church before Sally took over. It was thought that we needed to take stock in September/October and see what could reasonably be done. Alan indicated that Stephen and he had received via ICS an email from a young American Christian asking if we would be interested in his candidature.This should be pursued
.
| | 14.
| Approval of last meeting's minutes and of the Draft AGM Minutes and any matter arising from these (& not otherwise on the agenda)
After minor alterations, both sets of minutes were approved. Matters arising:
- Item #10 the new church.
- Stephen proposed that Alan or John Pavey be asked to come to church before the vacation to explain what they are setting out to do. This was accepted unanimously, as it was thought that hearing exactly what was going on was better than rumours.
- Gloria asked how long had the “new church” project been in gestation. Stephen said he thought not very long. He was contacted by the Paveys on March 20th, and they said they had been thinking and praying about it for about a month.
- David indicated that there was to be a meeting of Sunday school teachers next Sunday (May 14th), and that they would discuss how to organise themselves next year.
- Stephen reported that Jen Bateman is willing to take over the oversight of the youth group (11-18). Mark, seconded by Val, proposed the council vote on this, and the vote was unanimously in favour. The council is very grateful to Jen for taking this on.
| | 15.
| Priorities for the next 12 months (item #4)
Stephen shared his ideas about this :
- Youth and children: we have made this our priority in this last year, and naturally this must go on.
- Students: It doesn’t seem a priority for us to find someone immediately, and there are not many candidates via friends international. (see item 13). At this point Richard raised the issue of the apartment we have rented for Sally. It was decided to put an end to the lease as soon as possible. If someone else comes, we can find another apartment.
- Prayer: this was also high in last year’s priority list , and the following have been set up:
- Sunday school prayer contacts.
- After service prayer ministry teams
- Prayer chain
- Discipleship and growth: the adult Sunday school has been a very positive initiative, and with the departure of the Browns and Fogelsongs, new leadership is going to have to be found for this.
- Home groups have also progressed, especially with the 40 days of purpose studies.
- Pastoral Care needs to be the priority this year. Welcome pack, welcome meetings and home groups are all in a way part of this, but we need to better identify our gifts and see in which area we are called to serve (and in which area we are not: remark fro Val). We must take forward the matter of the pastoral care team.
| | 16.
| Church Counsellors keeping in touch with Church members (item #8 from last time).
Some people had requests for changes to the contact list, and it was suggested they send them clearly to Stephen who will then make another list.
| | 17.
| Pastoral care (item #4)
Stephen has had too much on his plate to properly prepare this. -> next time.
| | 18.
| Gift for Claire (item #5)
Claire has indicated she did not want a gift. But we do need to have some way of saying a public “thank you” to people who have specially served the church. Jon spoke of a “recognition program”. The wardens have been charged with making guidelines about this. In a more simple vein, cards (which had been signed by the previous council) were mentioned, and it was suggested that Sunday school teachers get to be served first at family lunches.
| | 19.
| Treasurer's report
The balance for the first 4 months is 34KE income and 37KE expenses. When money comes in from Pecusa, 7K$ gets converted to 5.6kE. This is preoccupying, the barchart was circulated and needs to be shown regularly in church. Richard reported that while in England, he had been to a church who gave out bookmarks, with a few contacts and the website address on them. This was thought to be a good idea. Gloria asked if it would be a good idea to have the auction of promises more often, but the general opinion was no.
| | 20.
| Night of Colour & Away Weekend
- The night of coulour was deemed to have been a success. About 60 people attended, many of which were not regular church members. About 15 children attended the children’s evening.
- 37 adults, 10 youth and 3 children attended the away weekend. The feedback was very positive. Many people came forward in the healing service, and many also got to talk individually either with Daniel or one of his friends. Quite a few people came to the Holy Communion service on the Monday also. It was thought that more people came forward because there had been a whole weekend. In one evening there probably wouldn’t have been so many. A more practical discussion ensued as to whether the weekend was well chosen: people were away on holiday, but on the other hand it was nice for parents not to have to rush their children back and get them ready for school the next day. It was again suggested that the weekend take place in November when less people would be away. The 11th November weekend was proposed, but it was thought that if the date changed to November, that would be in 2007 and not 2006. Dolomieu was suggested as a venue.
| | 21.
| Future events
- Red room decoration: We now have the all clear to do it, and need to find a date. Mark indicated that he and Craig would take care of the preparation of the room (remove the lights, etc…). It was decided to ask for volunteers for decoration the 3rd and 10th June.
- Discussion about Islam: following the “synod” report made by Val in the AGM, we have CD’s of a very good talk about relating to Muslims given in the synod. At the away weekend, some people had been discussing islam, therefore it is proposed to organise one or two evenings of discussion. It was pointed out that we also need slides to understand the presentation, and we should ask the speaker if he would be willing to give us his slides.
| | 22.
| Any other matters (please inform Elizabeth (Secretary) or Stephen (Chairman) beforehand of items you wish to raise, if possible.
- Easter service: Penny said that, although the service was great in many ways, she, along with many other people, had missed singing one or two Easter hymns. Stephen said that he had decided to do it that way this year.
- Presentation in church: Penny will do a short presentation of council activities and discussions so far.
| | 23.
| Closing Prayer
The meeting closed in prayer
|
|
