APCM Meeting Monday 29th April 2019 United Benefice of St Luke Birmingham
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APCM Meeting Monday 29th April 2019
United Benefice of St Luke Birmingham
AGENDA
1. Welcome
2. Prayer
3. Apologies
4. Minutes Of Last Year’s Meeting
5. Reports and Questions
6. Election of Churchwardens
7. Election of PCC Representatives
8. Election of Deanery Synod Representatives
9. Treasurer’s Report (no written report)
10. Appointment of Examiner
11. Electoral Roll Report
12. Date of Next Meeting
13. Any Other BusinessSt Luke’s Church (including St Luke’s Great Colmore Street and St Luke’s Gas Street)
Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting
16th April 2018
In attendance : Rev’d Tim Hughes, Rev’d Amanda Howett, James Brumwell, Ian Cole, Pauline
Cole, Julian Dee, Paul Featherstone, Sithembile, Hlomani, Richard Mealia, Sebrina Miller, Heather
Pascoe, Jonny Pearson, Becky Pearson, Henry Rattle, Jill Rattle, Janet Readings, Gavin Regnart,
Geoffrey Sentamu, Jan Smart, Shirley Titmarsh, Andy Titmarsh, Sarah Turner, Julia Wagstaff,
Gary Wicker, Carol Applegate, Jerome Belgrave, Ronald Hubball, Frank Harper, Libby Hubbard,
Ash Barker, Nick Drake, Chris Mitton, Mary Grinham
Apologies : Trevor Lewis, Gregory Dengate, Mark and Jo Waterhouse, Tom Green, Ramin
Akhyani, Ange Bhatia, Nod Bhatia, Ian Scott, Maureen Proctor, Jessie Boot, Richard Heeley, Ron
Butler, Patricia Meads, Betty Jones, Maureen Smith, Thomas Francis
Welcome
1.1. Rev’d Tim Hughes (TH) welcomed everyone to APCM
2. Prayer and Bible Reading
2.1. Deuteronomy 7 “the Lord your God will drive out your enemies little by little”
The promise of God that he would lead his people into the promised land but lead them little
by little – that reminder what can happen if we pray a little bit more, give a little bit more risk
a little bit more. We haven’t got going yet – we are just starting!
3. Apologies
3.1. As above
4. Minutes of 2017 APCM
4.1. Agreed by meeting – no amendments
5. Reports and Questions
5.1. Overview of last 12 months at Gas Street (report part of APCM booklet)
5.2. Hugely encouraging year for GS, one where we can look back and see all God has done;
70 people given lives to Christ, services continuing to flourish, Gas Street Groups key for
discipleship within the church, over 400 people signed up engaging in relationships within
our church community, Christmas / Easter witnessed amazing events with lots of people
filling the building as people invited their non-Christian friends to our Christmas events and
at Easter “12 hours” event with installations, dance, film, meditation and over 1700 people
came through the building including a camera crew for local news.
5.3. Other encouragements; two church plants – St Mark’s Coventry led by Phil and Rachel
Atkinson and that is flourishing and thriving and connecting with the area, more recently
Ash and Anji Barker began services in Winson Green and GS is working closely with them
supporting with finances and team members. It is a place of great challenge but also great
opportunity.
5.4. currently working partnering with other organisations with the dream to train 30 worship
leaders a year Part of GS’s vision is around worship through Worship Central. The past
year has seen training events taking place across the country and then in October 2017
over 2000 worship leaders meeting at the ICC in Birmingham. Worship Central are who
will then go on to lead worship in church plants across the country.
5.5. Overview of last 12 months at Great Colmore Street
5.6. AH spoke of the Old Testament precedent for getting together and re telling what has been
done. With that in mind, she shared some of what had been happening at GCS; worship is
continuing to evolve and exciting to hear of people experiencing some of the joy and
worship with comments such as “Loved the service this morning – thanks” “Lovely worship
2this morning and Happy Easter”, extended Christmas celebrations for all of December and
saw attendance rise for November and December from 349 in 2016 to 473 in 2017.
5.7. The attendance figures are showing increase of children on Sunday mornings and this is
having an impact on not just those children but their families too. A real feeling that as a
parish church GCS is representing the community. Reports back such as “I have been
regularly attending this church and will be continuing St Luke’s for sure …I want my son to
be brought up in this church environment” are hugely encouraging.
5.8. The Vision statement for GCS is to be light in the community – to reach out. Feeling that
very keenly as look at the level of deprivation and number of challenges, most notably
social isolation within the community.
5.9. Projects/links etc. that have been started this year include; toddler group – little by little an
increase in the number of children at the toddler group and in church, links with schools –
joined with St Thomas’ – they come in for key services and then GCS clergy go in there for
workshops and leavers’ service and Nick Drake has started to link with this church and the
Oasis church, looking for ways to reach out to older members of the community and The
Real Junk Food Project – taking food that would go to landfill which is laid out for people
coming into the centre – continues to draw people in.
5.10. Five members of the church attended a group for growth during this year and from that
GCS now have a 2020 vision – AH asked that people pray for this vision.
5.11. TH noted Jerome’s work and contribution to the Centre since joining as centre manager.
6. Election of Churchwardens
6.1. Jonny Pearson – Nominated by Dave Plumb and seconded by Mary Grinham
6.2. Henry Rattle – Nominated by Janet Reading seconded by Ruth Owalabi.
6.3. Unanimous vote in favour of these nominations.
7. TREASURER’S REPORT (Not Included in Report)
7.1. Frank Harper (FH) paid tribute to Matthew Smith, Mary Grinham and Vinod Bhatia for their
assistance with the accounts. He noted the delay in publishing the accounts because of
bringing GCS and GS finances together and noted that happy to answer any questions
should they arise.
7.2. A few things to note; the accounts for the previous year included the whole of GCS but only
half the year for GS – that was because the Diocese ran GS accounts until half way
through the year. Therefore comparative accounts are not as helpful as they could be
given this change
7.3. Exceptional item which has appeared –interest free loan from the Gloucester Diocese that
the PCC has agreed to pay off through the Birmingham Diocese so this now appears on
the accounts.
7.4. General change income and expenditure – 44% giving increase at GS in addition to a large
increase from the GCS church centre year on year. Expenditure – the cost of the
completion of phase 2 at GS has cost around £90k and £25 has been given to the
Coventry plant. Other expenditure for increases in staffing costs.
7.5. Opportunity to ask questions given but no questions asked.
7.6. FH noted that the PCC have accepted the accounts to proposed that they be accepted by
the meeting. Thmebi Sithole seconded this and the accounts were unanimously accepted
by the meeting.
8. Appointment of Examiner
8.1. FH noted that Knight Goodhead provided good value for money with and so proposed that
appoint them as examiners and this was seconded by Shirley Titmarsh and unanimously
agreed by the meeting.
39. Electoral Roll Report
9.1. End of 2017, 284 on electoral role. The number now the number is 309. Looking to
update and improve the systems to ensure that it is accountable and efficient.
10. Questions
10.1. Ian Coles – when get to 80% capacity at GS are we looking to development of the site?
10.2. TH at start of January 2018, really felt need to prayer about next thing – pray for
clarification of the vision and how to move forward. Development is certainly something
that want to see as the vision for GS cannot be contained in the building as it stands at the
moment. Feeling that need to be constantly asking for the way forward.
10.3. AH noted need for prayer for ministry roles at GCS – some community missioners to join
her in the mission would be great.
11. Date Of Next Meeting Monday
11.1. 29th April 2019
12. Any Other Business
12.1. Nothing further raised.
13. Meeting closed in Prayer.
APCM Priest in Charge Report
Once again as we reflect on another year, there is so much to thank God for.
Rach and I would love to thank everyone for their incredible support, generosity and energy in
serving St. Luke’s both at Gas Street and Great Colmore Street.
I’d love to start this report by particularly giving thanks to Manda. She has served as Parish Priest
for over three and a half years and has been such a wonderful colleague to work with. Her energy,
enthusiasm and thoughtfulness for people has been so valued. Over her time here she has given
herself selflessly to the Parish and the people of St. Luke’s. Manda will be sorely missed and we
are forever grateful for her significant contribution to St. Luke’s, particularly at such a key
transitional time with the launch of Gas Street. We pray that God will bless her and Paul richly in
their new adventure.
Manda will report back more specifically regarding Great Colmore Street but in terms of Gas
Street we’ve seen well over 100 people come to Christ this year and say yes to following him.
Sunday’s continue to grow as do our midweek Gas Street Groups. Particular highlights have been:
• 12 Hours and Easter were very special last year. The 12 Hour event was wonderfully
attended and was also picked up on both the BBC and ITV news. It’s an amazing way of
encouraging people to engage with the Gospel story in a creative way.
• I n May last, nearly 300 of us went away to a brand new festival called Wildfires in West
Sussex. It was a wonderful time of community, worship and input. We’re looking forward to
taking a group again this May.
• he student ministry is flourishing. Over 80 regularly attend Tuesday nights. The sense of
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vision and passion is hugely powerful. We are also so encouraged with all the life in the kids
and youth work at Gas Street. It was exciting to see our first ever Youth weekend away.
4• Over Christmas we saw nearly 3,000 people gather for Christmas services. The ‘Carols on
Gas Street’ and the ‘Carols for everyone’ we’re particularly special. It was also fantastic to
partner with Let’s Feed Brum in feeding nearly 300 of the homeless community in Birmingham
a slap up Christmas dinner.
• ESET was a wonderful prayer initiative at the start of 2019 that mobilised the church in
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prayer.
• as Street Kids Club in February half-term was a huge win. 55 kids from around the area
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came for 3 days of games, activities, teaching and music. It was fantastic to be able to really
serve the community.
• I n March we saw Bjorn and Inge Visser plant ‘Hanzerkerk’ church in The Netherlands. For
their launch they gathered nearly 150 people and are already seeing God do wonderful
things.
• There have been numerous missional activities taking place throughout the year. The Big
Breakfast was hugely popular with 150 families connected to All Saints School in Ladywood
attending monthly breakfasts hosted by volunteers in the church. The ‘Light Project,’ ‘Elayos,’
‘Let’s feed Brum’ continue to do great work in serving the city.
• Worship Central continue to train worship leaders through the Academy and hosted a
wonderful conference back in June for 125 leaders from all over the globe.
In June, Chris Mitton, who has been with us at Gas Street for 18 months will plant ‘Anchor’ church
in the city centre, taking about 30 people from Gas Street with him. Chris has been a wonderful
part of Gas Street and we are excited for this new church plant.
We believe 2019 is a year of adventure for us as a church. Today as I write this report, 125 have
met together for the Gas Street Entrepreneurs Breakfast. Rach and I are hugely expectant about
the exciting initiatives and kingdom work that will come out of these relationships and connections.
I’d love to honour our staff who work so hard to pioneer and run with all God has called us to.
Thank you also to everyone who gives, serves and prays to enable us to be ‘Light for the city.’
Let’s continue to pray for wisdom and boldness as we continue to step out in all that God has for
us.
Much love
Tim & Rach Hughes
APCM Parish Priest Report
Our vision at St Luke’s is to be a
‘Light in the Community’
We have seen God at work in so many ways enabling this to happen over the last year. It
continues to be a huge challenge but we know that Jesus is the Light of the World and we, his
followers, seek to carry the Christ-light wherever we go.
5Light in the community – drawing people into St Luke’s
People are drawn to light and we pray that people continue to be drawn to St Luke’s.
The main way in which we seek to draw people into St Luke’s and to the light and Good News of
Jesus is through our Sunday worship.
At this 11am service we use a combination of sermon series and following the lectionary. Our
sermon series last summer was on ‘gifts and talents’ we explored how we are created unique and
are the body of Christ, we looked at spiritual gifts and how we serve God and one another through
using our gifts. This led us in the autumn to celebrate our different gifts and bless each other with
them – there was lots of good food and some wonderful art work!
We are grateful to Henry Rattle and Carol Applegate our Readers and all those involved in
services, for the creative and sensitive ways we are led in worship.
We also express thanks to musicians from both Great Colmore Street and Gas Street who lead us
in our sung worship.
One prayer and aim has been to draw new families into our fellowship. Over the last 4 years we
have seen 12 new families join us, bless our community and find a place of blessing and
discipleship. One challenge in this area is the transient nature of the population and this is seen in
the fact that 6 of those families have now moved on from St Luke’s.
The other main way that in which we are able to draw people into St Luke’s is through the Church
Centre. It is amazing that the doors are open everyday. People come in from the community for a
cuppa, or a meal and find a place of hospitality, friendship and fellowship.
The Church Centre also welcomes in many people throughout the year who attend courses run by
a range of organisations. Jerome Belgrave is an incredible Centre Manager and people speak not
only of the great facilities and the amazing service but often also comment on a peace or sense of
God’s presence when attending St Luke’s for a course. Denise Gordon the Centre’s General
Assistant offers a very warm welcome to all who come in.
Light in the Community – Prayer
The area of this Parish has numerous challenges. As with the rest of the nation and this city the
area has seen a number of stabbings and shootings in the last year. This rise in gun and knife
crime and specifically a murder in a street close to St Luke’s led to an active response to increase
the prayer for the community here at St Luke’s. This happens with Morning prayer on a Monday
and a prayer gathering and prayer walk on a Friday lunchtime. There was also a joint prayer
meeting between ourselves and The Gate Church which felt very powerful and we plan to gather
together again.
There is darkness that only the light of Jesus can overcome, ‘The light shines in the darkness and
the darkness has not overcome it’ John 1:5. We continue to pray.
Light in the Community – sharing the Good News of Jesus
A key part of our vision is that people hear the Good News of Jesus and have the opportunity to
respond to Him. In the last year we have run the Alpha course twice which has been really
exciting.
6Following the Alpha course last summer we had a wonderful celebration of baptism and
confirmation with 2 adults and one teenager.
In the most recent running of Alpha it was wonderful to see a good number of the Toddler Group
Mums coming along to the Alpha course run by our Curate Nick Drake and Henry Rattle on Friday
mornings. There was also an Alpha Course on Tuesday evenings. The people from these two
groups came together for an amazing Alpha Away Day at Winson Green. We are seeing people
consider and respond to Jesus plus seeing people grow in confidence in their faith, we thank God
for this.
Another way in which we get to share the Good news of Jesus is through our outreach with
children and families. Our ‘Little Lights’ Toddler group has been running for 18 months now and
goes from strength to strength. There is always a story from the Bible and whilst it engages the
children with actions and responses the teaching is also pitched at the parents.
We have seen a wonderful development in our outreach to children and families with the launch of
a weekly ‘After School Club’ which has been initiated and coordinated by our wonderful Mission
Apprentice Sian Mehlmann. We are seeing around 12 children with their parents attend weekly.
They have termly topics such as the miracles of Jesus and Bible Super Heroes. Alongside this we
continue to run ‘one-off’ days and they are having increasing numbers of children and parents
attending. I write this a day after our Easter Fun Day to which 35 children and 25 adults attended.
Under Sian’s leadership I see that this area of ministry will continue to flourish.
Our links with Thomas school continue to be very strong. We continue to be involved in their
morning Devotions (assemblies) and the school comes to church for significant services
(Christmas, Easter and Harvest). We have a session with Year 6 looking at leaving and transition.
This year our involvement has increased as we were invited to do Prayer Spaces in school. In the
penultimate week of term prior to Easter holidays we had contact with 210 children who had the
opportunity to engage in forgiving others, saying sorry, asking big questions and praying their big
prayers. It was a very special time. We are thankful to the volunteers who helped with this.
Light in the community – each of us
Jesus not only declared that He is the light of the world, he said to His disciples, and in turn to us,
‘You are the Light of the World’. We seek to grow as disciples of Jesus through our worship and
our service but also through our own personal Bible Study and our midweek groups. We
acknowledge the wonderful small group leaders, Janet Readings, Pip Lewis and Davina Allen.
The Fellowship Groups would be an area for focus and development in the coming year – it would
be great to see more people gathering together to study God’s word and pray together.
Light in the Community – Social Action
Another way in which we aim to be light in the community is by blessing the community around us.
As well as being open daily there are various weekly activities such as community lunches and a
breakfast gathering. We continue to have regular contact with people who are blessed by the ‘Real
Junk Food Project’.
Many organisations in the are do great community work. The question for St Luke’s is what are we
specifically called to respond to? We need to seek God’s guidance on this. Plus there is a need to
see how any social action links with integrity to the life and fellowship of the church.
7As you know I will soon be moving on from St Luke’s. I take some great memories and stories(!!)
with me as I go. There are numerous things and people who I’ll really miss. I am very grateful to
have worked alongside Tim Hughes and I’m so excited to see all that God is doing in and through
Gas Street Church. I am thankful to those people that have walked with me and supported me
over these last 3 and a half years. The staff team at St Luke’s have been an absolutely wonderful
group of people to work alongside – thank you Jerome, Cordelle, Denise, Matt, Nick and Sian.
St Luke’s Great Colmore Street has been placed in a strategic location for the city of Birmingham
and I know God will continue to be at work through you bringing ‘Light in the Community’.
Rev Amanda Featherstone
Parish Priest
APCM Safeguarding Report
The Safeguarding Officer for this year at St Luke’s Gas Street has been Tom Green. The
Safeguarding Officer St Luke’s Great Colmore Street for this year has been Davina Allen. Both
are stepping down from their roles.
Many thanks to Tom Green for all his work for Gas Street and we are grateful for Davina Allen for
her taking on this role at Great Colmore Street. Moving forward we are delighted that Kate Squires
will be overseeing safeguarding for Gas Street. The Safeguarding Officer for Great Colmore
Street is to be agreed by the PCC.
The PCC has complied with its duty under section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline
Measure 2016 to have due regard to House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding children and
vulnerable adults.
Rev T Hughes and Rev A Featherstone
APCM Churchwarden Fabric Report – Great Colmore Street and Gas Street
The fabric at Great Colmore Street remains in good condition, largely due to the vigilance of the
Centre Manager who keeps a close eye on building and contents. During the past year some
running repairs to the boiler and roof were undertaken.
A Quinquennial Inspection of the fabric of St.Luke’s Great Colmore Street is scheduled for April
29th, to be carried out by Mr. Michael Ravenhill of Michael Edwards Associates. Details of any
work highlighted in his report will be brought to the PCC and to next year’s APCM. The cost of
quinquennial inspections is met by the Diocese.
At St Luke’s Gas Street the church remains in good condition. Moving forward we continue to
explore finishing the work on the Berkley Street side of the building.
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