St Luke's Church
71 Liverpool Road
Great Crosby
Liverpool L23 5SE
England
tel: 0151 931 3119

use the links below
to navigate round
our site

Can't find what
you're looking for?
Try our sitemap
page.

our web address is
stlukecrosby.org.uk

Diocese of Liverpool

St Luke, Great Crosby, Liverpool
Annual Report of the Parochial Church Council
For the year ended 31 December 2006

Administrative Information

St Luke's Church, 71 Liverpool Road, Crosby, Liverpool L23 5SE
Telephone Number: 0151 931 3119
Office correspondence to Parish Administrator (Mrs Shirley Wallin), Parish Centre, at the above address.

PCC members are:

Bankers: Barclays Bank, 18-22 Liverpool Road, Crosby, Liverpool L23 5SF

Independent Examiner: Mr Alan Bruford, 6 Marldon Avenue, Crosby L23 OSL

Quinquennial Architect: Mr Bill Schafer, 56 Belvidere Road, Ashton In Makerfield WN14 8RU

Day to day management control of the Church is exercised by the Priest in Charge and Church Wardens: Rev Canon Pete Spiers, Mr Gordon Lawrence and Mrs Ann Somers : contactable via the Church Office 0151 931 3119.

Structure, Management and Governance

St Luke's Church PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Powers Measure 1956. The PCC is excepted by order from registering with the Charity Commission. The PCC met on eight occasions during 2006, one of which was an away day.

The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. All church members are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC.

The PCC operates two subcommittees: The Standing Committee and World Mission Group.

Membership of the Standing Committee comprises: Priest in Charge, Churchwardens, PCC Secretary, PCC Treasurer and one person elected by the PCC (Peter Naylor).

The World Mission Group encourages the work of the seven supported Church charities which are: South American Missionary Society (SAMS), Church Mission Society (CMS), Toybox, YMCA (Liverpool), projects in Bunyoro Kitara Diocese (Uganda), Queen Elizabeth Children’s Hospital (Malawi), Children's Society.

We had a Shared Ministry Team which met six times in the first few months of the year but it became clear that it was no longer achieving its purpose and the PCC subsequently decided to reconstitute the team.

Objectives and Activities

The PCC (Powers) Measure 1956 states the PCC "is to co-operate with the minister in promoting in the parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical".

At St Luke's we seek to conduct our activities on our five values:

• All Involved
• Becoming Disciples
• Creating Community
• Doing Evangelism
• Encountering God

We list our objectives for 2006 and what we did to achieve them:

1. To make effective use of our church building for mission in the 21^st century
We organised a questionnaire and held a consultation event with the congregation about their views of the church building.
We arranged a special weekend for the congregation aiming to produce a new vision for the Kingdom of God and how the building could be used for that.
We appointed a new Quinquennial Architect

2. To be active in our outreach to the community starting with the children and parents in our church schools
We took the initiative in organising In Another Place events on Crosby beach by:
a) setting up crosses and holding outdoor services on Good Friday and Easter Day
b) organising drama and dance events on the themes of Jesus and animals and organising a pets’service and in the summer
c) creating ‘Narnia’ in a shop in Crosby village d) performing the Christmas story in December.

3. To work collaboratively to develop youth work not only in our own church but throughout the area.
We provided 7 members of the congregation to be Governors at St Luke’s Halsall (primary) and 3 Governors at St Michael’s (secondary) and offered financial support to Halsall School for extra curricular activities. We held a Light Night Party at Halsall School on 31 October as an alternative to Hallowe'en. Clergy and Readers regularly lead School Assemblies.

We co-sponsored a Youth for Christ Mission team for a week in St. Michael’s.
We encouraged our own Youth Band to lead our worship once a month at our family service.

4. To sustain with passion (and also learn from) our relationships with Christians
We gave £24,000 to our world mission charities.
We commissioned Rev John Patterson, together with Churches Together in Great Crosby, for his work in Hoima, Uganda.
We agreed to become a Fair Trade Church and promoted the sale of Fair Traded goods after church once a month.

In addition, we started a knitting group for Samaritan's Purse which included local people who did not attend church. We invited 40 people to attend a welcome evening for those new to the church. We trained members of the prayer ministry team. We licensed 43 lay people to administer Holy Communion in church of which 17 were also commissioned to take Holy Communion to the elderly and housebound. We built closer relations with the traders of Crosby village by contributing towards their Christmas lights and by allowing stall holders of the 3 continental markets held in the year to use our car park for their vehicles.

As we look back on the year it has been busy and we are pleased with what we have achieved so far but recognise that there is still a lot more to do.

Review of our Achievements and performance in the year

The numbers on the Electoral Roll continued to increase in 2006. We welcomed a further 17 people, making a total of 354.

Worship: Attendance figures for our 11am service are 96 adults and 45 children on average in 2006. Attendance for adults and children has gone down but that is because there have been very few baptisms in the year. Attendance figures for the 9am service are slightly down on previous years with an average of 55 for 2006 but figures for the 6.30pm service have slightly increased with an average of 35 for 2006. The average attendance for the Wednesday morning Communion service has remained steady at 12.

Attendance figures for Easter Day 2006 were 247 adults and 70 children – higher than 2004 and 2005.

Once again our Christmas services were very popular: our 3 Christingle services, midnight Communion and Christmas Day services attracted 791 adults and 283 children. The numbers of adults has continued to rise since 2002 but the numbers of children has continued to fall since 2002!

We hold a Carols By Candlelight service every year and figures have risen steadily from 115 in 2002 to 282 in 2006 (in 2005 it was 200). We held two Carol services for Halsall School which were attended by approximately 800 people.

During 2006 we took 4 Weddings for which wedding preparation sessions were held. We also took 88 Funerals and a small team of people undertook bereavement visiting afterwards. In November we had 151 people attending the Memorial service for those who had died in 2006 compared to 91 in 2005.

We carried out 6 Baptisms in 2006 (as opposed to the usual 25-30). Baptism preparation visits were made and contact is maintained with the families by the sending out of Baptism Cards to the families on the relevant anniversary. This is done for a period of five years.

We were delighted to welcome 7 young people to confirmation classes and subsequent confirmation in the Cathedral.

Pastoral Care and service to our community

We sought to apply in the week what we do in Church on Sunday by following sermon themes in our Cell Groups. They are an important part of our Church structure. In 2006 we had 12 Cell Groups involving a total of 110 people with three Cell Group Pastors.

We took Home Communion every month to 21 members of the Church who are unable to attend services.

We organised a Senior Citizens Group for those who are still able to get out and about, a Women's Fellowship and Mothers' Union; all of which offered support and fellowship to each other.

Once a month, at every service, prayer ministry was offered during the service and every week at the end of each service. Many people at each service took advantage of the opportunity to have laying on of hands at the special Holy Communion and Healing services. This was particularly appreciated by the 9am and 6.30pm congregations.

We believe passionately in the power of prayer and held morning prayer meetings three times a week, which were open to all. In February 2006 we set up a Prayer Room in the Vestry which was open from Friday night to Sunday morning. This was used continuously during this time.

Youth and children's work

We organised groups on a Sunday for all children aged 0-18.

We have a long tradition of working with uniformed organisations. Every second Sunday in the month we welcomed Rainbow Guides, Brownie Guides, a Beaver Scout colony and a Cub Scout Pack to our morning Church Parade service.

A Pram Club was held for mothers and young children on Tuesday afternoons which alternated with Stepping Stones which is similar but with a more spiritual input. On average 15 Adults and 20 children attended on a regular basis.

Our close work with our Schools has already been mentioned above.

In Church we have established a Teenage Youth Group (TAG) which has flourished during the year. A Youth Band has been formed and this played once a month in Church. The members held a weekend away during the year which strengthened relationships within the Band. Volunteers from the Church ran The Way Youth Club which was attended by approximately 20 – 28 young people each week.

The Youth were instrumental in putting together the Banners which were used to very effectively decorate the Church on Easter Sunday.

Other Churches

We are full members of Churches Together in Great Crosby and members of the Sefton Deanery (Church of England).

Representatives from the Church had been discussing a closer partnership with representatives from All Saints Crosby and St Michael's Blundellsands Churches and met regularly.

In addition we worked in partnership with Churches in Crosby, Waterloo and Blundellsands in Another Place events.

Church Buildings were inspected towards the end of the year by the Quinquennial Architect.

The Church Hall is used by the following community groups as well as church organisations that have already been mentioned:
Daily – Playgroup, Crosby & Thornton Credit Union (2),
Weekly – Workers Education Association, St Luke's Players, Waterloo and Crosby Theatre Co,
Monthly – National Trust, RSPB, Thornton & Crosby Gardeners, Auction and Jumble Sales,
Occasionally – Quilters Guild, PTFA St Luke's Halsall, High Notes Music School, Friends of Meals on Wheels, Sefton Parish Church

In Addition the National Blood Service used the Hall six times in the year and it was also used for a variety of fundraising events for charities.

We installed new blinds in the Church Hall during 2006. We employed a caretaker to look after the Hall.

We employed a Parish Administrator to work in the Parish Centre alongside a number of volunteers. Other rooms in the building were used for various meetings, for prayer and prayer ministry, a library, and by outside organisations such as Compass and NHS counselling.

Church Grounds

We employed a Site Supervisor to maintain the Church Grounds (which include a graveyard) and work was also carried out by a team of volunteers from the Church. We bought a new lawnmower to help keep the graveyard tidy. We dealt with a couple of hundred enquiries regarding the graveyard.

We are indebted to our Maintenance Team who did a lot of work on both the buildings and grounds.

Factors relevant to the achievement of our stated objectives

We were very fortunate to have a large number of people in the congregation who were willing to volunteer their services where and when required.

Financial Review

2006 was an encouraging year financially with income for the General Fund of the PCC at £154,000 compared with expenditure of £136,000, including our Share to the Diocese of nearly £59,000. Our main source of income was again direct giving by our members which amounted to £101,000. This was increased by tax reclaimed of £23,000. Another significant source of income was three legacies of £6,000. In December 2006, the Church Boiler had to be replaced at a cost of £8037.

After our successful Giving in grace initiative at the end of 2005, 111 people increased their giving by £430 per week so that we were able to save £2000 every month to meet our Giving in Grace objectives and this fund stood at £25859 at the end of 2006.

The accounts show that members of St Luke's have a clear understanding of "who is my neighbour?" as a total in excess of £39,000 was given away, equivalent to £108 every day of the year. This money comes from the direct giving of the congregation to our restricted funds for world mission, fundraising events by church organisations, and decision of the PCC to make donations from its General Fund.

The PCC set a budget for 2007 and planned their Annual Review of Giving early 2007. Every member of the church would receive a letter and be encouraged to review their own giving and make their response.

The Church has almost 250 members of a planned giving scheme. It is pleasing to note that although we have lost 25 donors in the last two years we have gained 31 new givers.

Performance of Investments continue to be good with our endowments in the Central Board of Finance achieving 9% and increasing in value by £3500 to £41220.

Reserves Policy

The PCC has a reserves policy whereby three months costs will be held as a general reserve. Currently the general reserve stands at £10,000 which is £20,000 lower than the desired level. We aim to build up our reserve fund to £20,000 by the end of 2010.

Plans for 2007

We intend to:

• Re-form the Shared Ministry Team which will take us forward in key areas of our work.
• Undertake the essential repairs listed in the Quinquennial Report
• Have a clear vision for the re-ordering of the Church building
• Make our Church grounds more welcoming and attractive
• Explore strategic partnership and mission with the Anglican Deanery

this page was last modified on 24 April 2007