Agenda for the meeting of the board of trustees
Friday April 6th 2018 7:30pm
- Opening Prayer.
- Minutes of the last meeting.
- Reports:
- Pastor’s report (written)
- Treasurer’s reports (written)
- Lay delegate report (verbal)
- Associate pastor’s report (verbal)
- Pickle fund report (verbal)
- AOB to be scheduled in for this meeting?
- Safeguarding.
- Health and Safety.
- Working party to look at document wording.
- Data protection Act
- AOB.
Our Vision
We call for a world where LGBTQ people live free from discrimination.
Our Mission
We are called primarily to empower and serve the LGBTQ community.
Our Core Values
We are a Christian church called to do justice and walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:8).
We seek at all times to be honest, transparent, and true to our mission in the world.
Minutes for the meeting of the board of trustees
Friday March 9th 2018 7:30pm at Keith’s home.
Present: Rev Michael Hydes ( Chair), Rev Peta Evens (Associate Pastor), Keith Fish ( Treasurer), Simon Markham (Secretary), Sarah Barber (Safeguarding Officer), Wendy Burgess ( Board Member)
Apologies: Dameon Loukas ( Lay delegate)
Rev Michael opened in prayer at 7:30pm.
Minutes of the last meeting: Proposed: Rev Peta Seconded: Keith All in Favour.
Both Wendy and Sarah were missed out of the apologies the previous week. Apologies added.
Pastors Report: Proposed: Simon Seconded: Wendy All in Favour.
Treasurer Report: Proposed: Rev Michael Seconded: Wendy All in Favour.
Agreed by email to give Brighton in Need £500. Keith said funds will be low due to higher out goings, over Lent and from The Soul Safari. He said we need to be careful with our spending.
Lay delegate’s Report: Unfortunately Dameon was not well and unable to attend the meeting.
Associate Pastors Report: Rev Peta said the visit by Peter Toscano in September, with help from Dorset Gardens can be done for free. He said he is willing to sleep on a sofa. Local media to be informed. Rev Peta said a email address is needed on the village site so emails don’t have to be forwarded through Rev Michael.
Pickle Fund: Sarah had helped a homeless man in Lewes. Rev Michael said he hadn’t made any payments this month, so had James.
Safeguarding: A ongoing issue was discussed.
Health and Safety:No new issuses.
Working Document: Rev Michael said he hadn’t gotten any further with this. Sarah said she would be happy to be part of a team if one can be formed.
Soul Safari: Rev Michael said the film had been enjoyable, but not cost effective due to a poor turnout. Greg’s workshop had gone well. On the Soul Safari day some people didn’t attend, but those that did enjoyed the day very much. Also all the workshops had gone well.
Working To Connect Funding of £262 is available for organisations tohelp raise their profile in the community.
Data Protection: Most people have now replied to the email.
Easter Offering: We have been asked if we are going to give a Easter offering this year, it was decided to do so. Proposed: Rev Michael Seconded: Keith All in Favour.
Any Other Business: Keith said he had set up a Paypal Outlook account sometime ago, did we still want it? It was decided it was a good idea to keep it. Rev Michael said everyone seemed to be enjoying the Lent meetings and said that Charlie had given a great talk on the Bible.
Wendy closed in prayer at 9pm.
Pastor’s report for February 2018
Of course the focus for the last month has mainly been Easter. We held our Seder on Maundy Thursday and 19 attended. We all anjoyed a lamb dinner and Isla made a lovely nut roast for those who are vegetarian.
Good Friday’s Walk of Witness finished at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church – even though it had been advertised to go on to the old steine. Quite a few waited in the rain for the usual worship service which had been cancelled. Alas, nobody knew about the cancellation until the event was over which meant that more than a few folk had wasted journeys.
On Easter Sunday we baptised Bill, Isla, and Dameon during the worship service. It was deepy moving. Both Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday were well attended.
Alas Will has not yet been able to join us as worship leader and is recovering slowly. In the meantime we are using canned music and every song in our songbook, as well as a few strange ones on songsheets, are available on our ipod music player.
During April we continued our mid-week lent series Queerying Christianity. It was attended on average by 8 people, all church attendees. Thank you to everyone who contributed, it was a really rich and diverse conversation and we all picked up new ways of seeing our faith.
Thank you to Rev. Peta who played sermon tag with me during our lenten series. I really enjoyed working with them on the series and was impressed by their hermeneutic skill. It seemed I had to up my game every week!
During the past month I have been guest on two Queersay TV programs, made one hospital visit, three pastoral visits, one pickle payment, and our monthly Tuesday group is attended on average between six and eight people.
My next focus is Pride month. Watch this space!
Love
Rev. Michael
Associate Pastor’s report
I’ve mostly been involved with Lent / Easter related stuff, of course – though sadly we had to cancel the retreat day at the last minute because of the fire. Hopefully we can reschedule for another day, as a lot of work was put in.
I’ve contributed to a resource for churches welcoming trans people, published by Steve Chalke and the Oasis Foundation – I hope it will make a difference.
We missed Trans Day of Visibility – oops! (it was Easter Saturday) – but instead I spent the day on the new church garden with Mary. We have ‘broken the ground’ – a group of volunteers, including sterling efforts by Robert in the pouring rain, put up the ‘site headquarters’, a polytunnel in which we have provided chairs, mugs, etc for people to shelter and have a cuppa. The rubbish is picked up, shape and paths are marked out, digging has begun, and anyone who wishes is welcome and encouraged to pop along and do a little digging, raking or path-levelling. We will arrange another working-day when Mary and I are both back from our holidays. I will also make up a pack with map, access information and a list of what needs doing next. I’ve taken general responsibility for making it as accessible as possible – first by leveling and widening the paths and access points.
Any donations of seeds, seedlings, path making materials or tools will be gratefully accepted. Mary’s company Aspirations Active has also made an offer – for every person that turns up on a ‘working-party’ day, they will donate a sleeping bag to the sleep safe project. It’s really exciting! There is so much we can do with this space. We have already planned a fire circle, for instance, and there’s a place for a barbeque, too.
Prayer ministry continues to go well. I’ve arranged a guest preacher for mental health awareness month. And work continues on Peterson Toscano’s visit in September. Brighton Quakers and Dorset Gardens Methodist church are involved too, and DG are providing the venue. I really enjoyed doing the Lent sermon series with Michael – great fun doing sermon-tag.
God Bless,
Rev. Peta
Mar ’18 Board Accounts for The Village Metropolitan Community Church
Opening Bal at 28 February 2018 £5065.74
Income
Collections Attendance
04 Mar 25.00 19
11 Mar 40.00 20
18 Mar 37.00 23
25 Mar 45.00 26
Standing Order 886.50
Community works grant 262.50
£1296.00
Expenditure
Rev Michael 450.00
Rev Peta 50.00
Ufmcc tithe 77.28
Costs /expenses 170.07
Rent Sundays 144.00
Rent Wednesday 144.00
Rent Maunday Thursday 36.00
S Barber exp Pickle 38.29
S Barber Pickle Fund 10.00
Filmbank 159.60
Shannon Pickle 50.00
£1329.24
(conference transfer £50.00)
Balance in Account as at 31 Mar 2018 £4987.50
Money in Hand 45.00
£ 5032.50
Forecast
Rev Michael 450.00
Rev Peta 50.00
Ufmcc tithe 93.35
Costs /expenses 142.11
Rent Sundays 180.00
£915.46
£500 allocated to Brighton in need.
£100 Film hire deposit refund due
forecast Balance available £3717.04
Keyboard fund £ 39.16
PickleFund £853.13
Sleep Safe £345.53
Community Works £262.50
Conference Fund £ 850.00
General funds Avail £1366.72