Vestry Report

CHARITY REFERENCE NUMBER - SCO 23268

St Pauls Episcopal Church: Strathnairn

VESTRY REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED

30 June 2019

Introduction

The members of the Vestry present their annual report together with the financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2019.

We are a small, friendly rural congregation whose objective is to advance the mission of the Christian Church by proclaiming the Kingdom of God through worship, service and fellowship. We aim to do this through supporting each other in our weekly worship and on special occasions. We are involved in local community activities and welcome visitors to our services throughout the year. The church at Croachy is usually open for visitors daily between Easter and October.

This annual report and accounts presents a summary of our financial activities during the year and gives an overview of the general activities which have taken place in the life of our church in the past year.

2019 is a year of special celebration for St Paul’s as the church building was consecrated 150 years ago in September 1869. A number of events, including visiting preachers and community lunches have taken place. It has been a busy summer of celebration here in Strathnairn.

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Activities

• Unfortunately the Christmas Community Fair did not take place in 2018 due to refurbishment work taking place at Farr Community Hall. We hope to be back in 2019 in the new space.

• The Crafty Ladies continue to meet weekly for a blether and craft activities. This year completing a knitted last supper for our Easter celebrations.

• We joined with Church of Scotland Parish of Daviot and Dunlichity on Remembrance Sunday. We also celebrated the long history of the historic church at Dunlichity which closed at Easter 2019.

• Christmas was celebrated with the usual strong support for the Christmas Eve Carol Service, where Humphrey the camel made a regular appearance to the delight of the children.

• We enlivened our Easter worship again with Greek themed Parish Lunch on Palm Sunday. This began our 150 year celebrations and is one of several Parish lunches held during the year.

• We celebrated two weddings, both couples being members of our congregation.

• We continue to visit members, in their homes who are unable to attend church.

• The Resident Priest attended the Diocesan Synod in March.

• The Resident Priest attended General Synod in June as a Diocesan Clergy Representative. She is also serving as a Diocesan Advisor for a candidate in training for the Diaconate.

• Vestry met four times during the year and began work on updating the Church Inventory.

• Celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the consecration of St Paul’s church began on Palm Sunday 2019 and will continue through the Summer with an Anniversary Service with Bishop Mark in September 2019. There is a display of work by the children of Farr School in the Church over the summer months for visitors to enjoy.

Buildings

Ongoing maintenance of the church building and churchyard has improved over the year as new volunteers have come forward to help. The churchyard has been kept neat and tidy for visitors. Future work is planned to upgrade the electrics in the church/hall and the sound system. While the Vestry continues longer term plans to create a car park on Parsonage land adjoining the church and plan an initial inspection of all the large trees on both sites for the coming year.

Support for Charities

The congregation continues to show great generosity in supporting various charities both local and international. The Vestry adopted two charities to support for the next two years, Chernobyl Children’s Project (UK) and Crocus Bereavement. We continue to collect for the food bank at Blythswood on a regular basis and once again provided shoeboxes with Christmas gifts for Romania. We also supported the charities of visiting preachers during our Anniversary Celebration.

Income and Financial Review

St Paul’s relies heavily on the generosity of the regular congregation and our seasonal visitors for its day to day funding. Additionally, smaller but significant amounts are generated by fundraising activities, from bank interest, recovery of Gift Aid tax, investment income and solar panel feed-in tariff. We continued during this year to use a significant amount of our locally held reserves to balance the books. This situation is being monitored by the Vestry to ensure that we can cover our day to day expenses in the future without further depleting our reserves.

Statement of Vestry Member’s Responsibilities

The members of the Vestry must prepare financial statements which give sufficient detail to enable an appreciation of the transactions of the Church during the financial year. The members of the Vestry are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which on request, must reflect the current financial position of the Church at that time. this must be done to ensure that the Financial Statement comply with the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charity Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. they are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Church and must take reasonable steps for the prevention and/or detection of fraud and the irregularities.

On behalf of the Vestry

Revd Canon Kathy Collins Chairman 20 January 2020

Accounts