Minutes of the AGM on Friday 14th September 2012 in the London Rd., Methodist Church.
Welcome: Andy Moyle welcomed everyone to the AGM and particularly mentioned Graham a new curate in the Woottons churches, and Andrew, the new Superintendent Methodist Minister. The meeting was opened with a prayer in Jesus’ name.
Moderator’s report: Andy gave a report of the last 3 years as moderator: “I have come to the end of my three year tenure as Moderator. This was never planned – I was the deputy moderator and had joked with the late Neil Harper when I couldn’t get to the AGM that I didn’t want to end up with the job because I wasn’t at the meeting. He passed away within a few months so I got the job anyway.
It has mostly been fun.
We have had great speakers at open meetings. A12 to Heaven – over a hundred people came to hear Phil Stoddard’s story of how God helped him cope with the tragic death of his two daughters. Election Question Time – where the BNP and their bouncers made utter fools of themselves and Corin ended up on Look East. Dan Morgan giving an excellent talk on the history of God’s church in King’s Lynn. Richard Murphy gave a brilliant talk on tax justice. We also had some disappointing turnouts for some amazing speakers. Sam Leinster, the dean of the medical school at UEA, gave a fascinating talk on medical ethics. Peter Stanford, the journalist and broadcaster, gave a great talk on journalistic ethics.
As well as holding meetings there was a measure of working together too. The Foodbank, organised by Kevan Crane, has been a runaway success – over 1000 people have now been fed. The Good Friday Walk of Witness, organised by Corin, have had some great drama. Some of the church leaders have been meeting together for a prayer every month and out of that has come the weekly “Healing on the Streets” where Christians offer to pray for passers-by with illness. That has already resulted in an arthritic lady being now pain free and another lady becoming a Christian.
I would like to thank the other members of the executive committee for their work and support during my three years as moderator – Mike Brown (Treasurer) Revd. Corin Child (Deputy Moderator), Peter Coates (Secretary), Revd. Heather Berry, Tony Kendall, Chris Lindley, Paul Lucas, Dorothy Kings and Pastor Kevan Crane. As I hand over the moderating, the future looks bright for God’s Church in King’s Lynn.
Financial Report (Mike Brown): Mike handed round a statement of accounts for the year ending 30.6.12. This statement had been audited, agreed and countersigned by J.E.Stevens (report attached). The annual subscriptions from the 22 member churches amounted to £440; £250 had been spent on the “Life Exhibition” at St. John’s Church; this brought the balance on the general account on 30.6.12 to +£971.31 In the Christian Aid account the house to house collection organised by Jackie raised £6571 and this was thought to be an excellent and generous response by local people in these financially difficult times.
Christian Aid Report : “I have enjoyed my first year as the Christian Aid Co-ordinator for Churches Together in King’s Lynn. I was very grateful to David Tate for all the work he had previously done as co-ordinator and for the excellent help and support he gave me to get me started in my new role, and also my thanks to Mike Brown for his work as Treasurer, as he guided me through the procedures too.
My first year seems to have gone well, with a total of £7,867 being raised in Christian Aid Week back in May including money claimed back through the “Gift Aid Scheme”. It was truly amazing to reach a total like this in a week!
I also feel that it is equally as important to give thanks for two further areas of the Christian Aid work too:
Firstly we worked well as a team and we couldn’t have been so effective without each other. People were very generous in the time they gave in the house to house collections, in organising special
Christian Aid services and in having great collections to raise money for the charity. We were grateful to those who contributed towards the successful Saturday event in May, offering food for the shared buffet and to Mark Jenner for offering to share his musical talents with an organ recital. Good too that we could meet together as part of a wider team of people working for Christian Aid.
Secondly our work for Christian Aid enabled us to tell the stories of those who would be on the receiving end of the money we raised. It was good to hear Sarah Croft talking about her first-hand experience in Sierra Leone, good to access the excellent resources put together by Christian Aid and good to use these in worship around the town.
So I am very grateful to everyone for demonstrating excellent teamwork, for taking the opportunity to raise awareness of the work of Christian Aid and in addition, of course, in raising £7,867 in one week for the charity.
I am happy to continue in my role for another year unless of course anyone is jumping up and down to take over!! I will once again be contacting churches in the New Year to see how we can work together in 2013. I am conscious that often churches have their own particular charities that they support, but if anyone feels like adding Christian Aid to that list I would be very happy to talk with you and see how your place of worship may get involved.
Announcements of forthcoming Churches Together events:
Churches Together Retreat at Bridge House, Gayton on Wednesday 24th October 2012 10am-4pm. There are 18 places all together and still some free places if people would like to go.
The next open meeting will be an evening entitled “Healing Ministry in King’s Lynn” which will start at 7.30pm on Wednesday 21st November 2012 at the London Rd., Methodist Church.
The “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” will be from Friday 18th –Friday 25th January 2013. The “Good Friday Walk of Witness” will be on Friday 29th March 2013.
“Open the Book” (Revd. Heather Berry): On Tuesday of next week (18th September 2012) an ecumenical team supported by CTKL will be going into a school with “Open the Book” for the first time. “Open the Book” is a way of taking the stories of the Bible into primary schools and presenting them in short attention-arresting assemblies narrated from the Lion Storyteller Bible. The CTKL team will be presenting assemblies to 300 children at Reffley Community School every fortnight. (Daphne Sampson and a team from St Faith’s Church have been going into Fairstead School for two years and the Baptists go into other schools.) At present the new CTKL team is made up of six volunteers from the Church of the Nazarene, the Roman Catholic Church, St John’s and St Faith’s churches. They would welcome more team members, either to join the team going into school or to make costumes or props. They would appreciate prayer support from member churches of CTKL.
The Constitution of Churches Together, (Revd. Corin Child): The old constitution of Churches Together had not been looked at for years. This document helps members to know where they stand. The document has been reviewed, updated and simplified by Chris Lindley and the Executive Committee and one addition has been made. This addition is under the paragraph entitled “Forum” and asks that each member church nominate 2 lay representatives to vote on Churches Together issues. We can also co-opt members if required. We would like the governing bodies of all the member churches to agree this document and give us the names of their lay representatives by November 2012.
Election of Officers and Members of the Executive Committee: Revd. Corin Child was proposed as moderator by Daphne Sampson, seconded by Revd. Chris Ivory and the vote was carried; Mike Brown was proposed as treasurer by Don Mentch, seconded by Tony Kendall and the vote was carried; Peter Coates was proposed as secretary by Mike Brown, seconded by Revd. Corin Child and the vote was carried. The previous members of the committee were proposed by Deacon Christopher, seconded by Revd. Chris Ivory and the vote was carried.
Jenny Seal from Network Norwich attended the meeting to disseminate information about our work to the wider Christian Community in Norwich and the surrounding area.
“The Network Norwich & Norfolk website (www.networknorfolk.co.uk) is an online newspaper for the county’s Christian community. The website seeks to increase communication, and build greater unity and partnership between different elements of the Christian community across the county.
As the South West Norfolk Content Editor, I am eager to increase the readership and number of stories on the West Norfolk section of the site. We have featured some great King’s Lynn based stories, but I am always very happy to write about more.
If you have a news story (a new project, a training event, a celebration etc) relating to you, your church or Christian ministry which you think might be of interest to others then please let me know. Or invite me to an event and I will do a write up for you! And if you don’t receive our twice weekly e-newsletter, please send me your name and email address and I will gladly add you to the list. My email address is jenny.seal@networknorwich.co.uk.
This website exists to serve Christians and churches in Norfolk, and it is your involvement that will enable it to thrive and grow. I really look forward to hearing from you.”
Prayer: The AGM was closed by the new moderator, Revd. Corin Child, with a prayer. This was followed by tea when people could mix and chat and then at 7.45pm by a talk by the local MP Rt. Hon. Henry Bellingham who talked about his work over the past 2 years as Minister for Africa. His talk was entitled “Building Stability in Fragile Africa States”.