Vicar's Report from the APCM on 17th May 2026
These notes formed the basis of the Vicar's Report at the APCM on Sunday 17th May 2026.
Introduction
How was 2025? What are the plans for 2026 and beyond? We did a lot last year, much of which we can see, and that will help us as we look to the future. Overall, we have seen significant changes and growth – we’ve seen new people through our doors, some have stayed, others have not. I’m going to try to report on the church in three areas, last year, they began with the letter S, this year it’s the letter F – if I’m here long enough, I’ll eventually run out of letters!
Fixtures and Fittingss
What is going on with our buildings?
Starting with St Thomas.
In St Thomas, we have continued to monitor the movement. This has increased over 2025, and an additional monitored point of movement has also started to increase. Once we have finally finished the work in St Andrew, we can move the building focus there.
Shifting to St Andrew, we are all sitting in the updated space!
To summarise, we have new chairs, new heating, new sofas, new carpet, new ramps, new porch and a new organ. The space feels amazing and light and useable. We have already started carefully allowing this part of the building to be used for hire.
There are also things that we can’t see, but benefit from. We have new high-speed internet, allowing our services to stream reliably, and for people to use it as they hire the building. We are installing better Wi-Fi, which will be available for us and other users to use.
One of our big focusses over this year will be to work out the specifics of how we start to use this building more.
We are planning to start ‘Work from church Friday’, initially once a month. Lots of people work from home, and we can provide a space with coffee (and pastries from Simmonds!) for people to meet others.
I also want to look at other ways that we can use this space as part of our witness to our community.
Please would you continue to pray for us as we think about our buildings: for us to make wise decisions, to plan for the future, and to have the resources we need.
Please also pray for God’s provision of a second churchwarden.
Finance
We do need to talk a little about finance. If you are already one of those who give to the church, let me begin by thanking you: without your giving, we would be unable to carry out what we currently do.
Roughly speaking, the church costs around £100,000 each year for its day-to-day running (that’s roughly £1,000/year or £83/month for each person on our Electoral Roll and Contact Database), and in 2025 we received in income roughly £80,000. For many years, this has resulted in a deficit each year, and the gradual reduction of our reserves. That deficit has appears to have reduced slightly in 2025, and we hope that this continues to decrease.
In terms of our income, Undercroft income still hasn’t recovered to pre-covid levels, but we have increased rates slightly, and we are starting to increase the use of the Undercroft.
We have spent a considerable amount of our restricted funds this year on reordering St Andrew. We have been given a lot of grants for the major building work, but we have still spent some of our saved funds. We are also hugely grateful that additional donations covered the new organ and the vast majority of the new chairs.
While we’re in the finance section, you have hopefully picked up a leaflet about the Parish Giving Scheme. This is a way that you can help us with our administration. Using the scheme for monthly giving costs us nothing, and costs you nothing. The benefits are the our finance team have less work to do in reclaiming the Gift Aid. If you don’t pay tax or you want to make one-off gifts, the PGS is not the right thing to use. It’s easy to set up, you can do it by phone, post, or online. The only thing you need to do is to cancel any existing Standing Order.
One option you can take is to automatically increase your giving by inflation each year, that means that your gift to the church maintains its value to us. If you already give regularly to the church, or would like to start, please could I ask you to use the Parish Giving Scheme.
Finally, would you pray for our finances, the Finance Committee, and the provision of a treasurer.
Future Plans
Our church family is one of the joys of being here.
We are a group of people who have been chosen and adopted by God, and then brought together. Like any family, we have our ups and downs but, in general, we live and work together, not for our individual good, but for the good of the whole church.
Our children’s church continues to grow and develop, with many children each Sunday. Our aim is for our young people to be a full part of our church family.
The 9am service continues nearly every Sunday and has grown in number over the last 12 months.
Our Monday Morning Service has continued to be a great success. Each week, the Northaw School community are invited to join us in St Thomas. It’s not just for children, although there are 100 of them there. I’d love for it to be another way for us to help build links between the school and the church.
Please pray for our church family. My regular prayers are that we would grow first in our knowledge and love of God, and that each week I would see someone new at our Sunday or Wednesday services, and that they would continue to meet with us. Will you pray that with me?
As we look to the future, there are some concrete things that I am planning and hoping that we can bring to fruition:
- Work from church Fridays
- The restarting of our home group
- Opportunities for new groups to explore the Christian faith
All of these things need time, planning and support – and I’m not able to do it on my own. At ordination, the bishop says:
“You cannot bear the weight of this calling in your own strength, but only by the grace and power of God. Pray therefore that you may be conformed more and more to the image of God’s Son, so that through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit your life and ministry may be made holy and acceptable to God. Pray earnestly for the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The whole church is powered by the Holy Spirit, this is God’s church, formed by Jesus and directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
He works in us, together and individually to make the church Jesus’ bride and us more like Jesus.
We work together as God’s people to bear witness to Jesus, and to grow as his people in faith and in number.
Finally
It’s great that this also begins with F!
I am really encouraged to look back on 2025 and early 2026 and see all that has happened, and to look forward to 2026, 2027, and beyond.
Can I conclude by saying that it remains is my joy, my pleasure, and my privilege to be your vicar.