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| Minutes for the Church Council Meeting
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| On: Wednesday 10th January at 20h00
| At: St Marc's Church Centre
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| Present:
| David Bailey (Churchwarden, chairman of the meeting), Mark Lewis (Churchwarden), Richard Sheppard (Treasurer), Alison Coulavin , Alan Golton, Val Golton, Jon Bateman, Elizabeth Cherhal (Secretary), Marie Colbert, Gloria Ugonwali, Penny Vincent-Sweet , Howard Diehl
| | Excused:
| Stephen Coffin (Chaplain)
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Minutes:
| | 81.
| Prayers and Apologies (please inform David or Elizabeth)
| | 82.
| Approval of last meeting's minutes
Some minor changes were made to the minutes.
| | 83.
| Any matter arising from these (& not otherwise on the agenda)
- The work on the building has started.
- David said that references to “family service” were still to be found in the rota and on the website. These should be changed to “morning worship”.
| | 84.
| Treasurer’s Report
Richard reported on the church's income, and the state of our different accounts. Alan asked if the contribution for the building could come out of a fund. Richard said that everything was paid for, and if more was needed for the building, it could come out of the deposit account. Richard reported that letters thanking us for donations had been received from Tearfund, Compassion and Barnabas, but neither from ICS nor the Diaconat protestant. It was reported that the goal of 3KE for Tilly’s bibles was attained.
In December, our charity giving was not far from 10% of income.
The next presentation in church should be done before the AGM. Jon and Richard will do it in a user friendly way.
| | 85.
| Feedback on the "positive appraisal" exercise
Howard gave a short report, the final one will be given later, as he needs to do the questionnaires with David, Marie and Richard, who weren’t there on the day.
- Core Values for our church were
- care, loving, fellowship and diversity
- Gifts most mentioned were
- music, serving others, involvement
- Among the “3 wishes for the church” were
- reaching the unreached, deeper relationship to Christ, more people.
| | 86.
| Supporting the Lewis family as they plan for Burkina Faso
The support group has met twice. 1000 flyers have been printed. Val proposed to hand out some flyers at the Archeaconry synod coming up soon. Letters (one from Stephen and one from Mark) will be sent to English speaking churches in France, and Mark and Carine should visit as many of those churches as possible. Time will be set by for a presentation in church, on the 21st January. It was thought that organising an African meal might be a way of fund raising. Val will talk about this to the catering committee.
| | 87.
| News from Tilly
Alison is awaiting news from Tilly. Due to the difficult situation in Congo, there is a real problem to get money out to there. There is a possibility with an Indian bank if she can open an account in it. Penny suggested sending money to Rwanda, and asked if Tilly could go there. She can, but is very afraid of carrying money around with her. We need to pray about this. It was reported that the Sunday school children were absolutely amazed at Tilly’s account of the work she is doing.
| | 88.
| Plans for teaching programme for first quarter 2007
An exciting teaching programme has been set up for the coming weeks:
- The program on spiritual gifts is to go on until Feb 11th.
- During lent (up to Palm Sunday) there is to be a series on Luke.
This will be done by local preachers, except on March 4th (ICS Sunday) when Jim Perryman, the former chaplain of Lyon, will be coming. In parallel during lent, studies will be done in home groups on the theme “encountering Jesus again”, insisting on the passages where Jesus meets people. People will be encouraged to join existing or new groups, and maybe a second group could be set up on Sunday mornings as well as the adult Sunday school.
| | 89.
| Feedback of the Christmas services & events and Future Events
Feedback on Christmas services
- Good attendance in the carol service and also the Christmas eve service (40 people)
- Not so many people on Christmas morning, but 3rd service in a row.
Future events :
- Family lunch on Palm Sunday
- AGM on the last Sunday inMarch (ie March 25th).
- Karaoke night on February 3rd.
- Men’s supper on March 9th, if Jon will accept to be the speaker.
- Easter: Alan asked if we should have a service on Good Friday. Last year we didn’t have one, preferring the meal and devotional on Thursday. This year Easter is in the school holidays, so probably some people will be away. Penny said that people liked the service on Thursday and suggested that if people wanted to go to a service on Friday, there were plenty of French ones to go to. Alan suggested we ask around in order to know people's preferences for Easter services.
| | 90
| Any other matters (please inform David or Elizabeth of these in advance)
- Child protection policy: Marie reported that Claire had asked her for copies of our child protection policy. The new church has slimmed it down somewhat, at the same time trying to be in concordance with the French “protection of minors” laws. Marie is willing to look over the policy and the statement of faith again and adequate them to reality, thinking that it is better to have less policy and keep it rather that a lot and not keep it. Job description also needs to be finalised.
- Children in church: Complaints have been made about children making a noise during services. This lead to a discussion on crèche. Should over 3yr olds be allowed ? It was thought not, but something needs to be provided for those of them who only speak French. David reported that the Sunday school material was being changed, and material being brought in from the States. The number of non English speaking children is a real problem, and a solution should be found. Either have a French class or teach in English and have a helper translate to French. A meeting should be organised with teachers and parents. We need to know exactly how many children there are, and what ages are covered.
- Richard said that Howard should be officially co opted onto the council, if he is to attend meetings regularly. The was proposed to the vote by Val, seconded by Jon, and voted unanimously.
- Jon apologises in advance for the next meeting, when he will be away.
| | 91.
| Closing Prayer
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