Vicar’s Report APCM 4 May 2025

In my sermon last Sunday, I quoted Pope Francis – and as I was reflecting about my vicar’s report this week, it occurred to me that this quote would actually be a very appropriate way to start my reflections on the life of our parish in 2024 and the road ahead. So, quite unashamedly, let me read you those verses again:

‘Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself, flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is …. life is good when you are happy, but much better when others are happy because of you.’

Isn’t that what it is all about? Spreading the love of God and by doing so making others deeply happy and joyful? Or as Sam Wells puts it ‘Creating communities whose habits and practices anticipate and portray the life of God’s kingdom’ – to those inside the existing fellowship as well as those who are not yet part of that fellowship (again, bearing in mind archbishop William Temple’s famous expression that ‘the Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members’)?

So, how have we done that in 2024 and what are the plans for this year? Let me just highlight a few of the things we have done or have started planning.

First and foremost, there has been the Church Development Plan consultation process in the first half or 2024 about the nature and focus of our way forward as a church community (culminating in a still somewhat rough around the edges draft Church Development Plan). This process took as its focus the three diocesan goals of:

GROWING COMMUNITY: By getting to know our wider community we want to become an estuary – a place of exchange and transformation in which people are unconditionally welcome, and community partnerships around shared interests are fostered.
GROWING DISCIPLESHIP: We want to be a community in which all encounter God through worship, prayer and learning, are invited into fellowship, nurture and support and find opportunities to share their faith in and with the wider community.
GROWING DIVERSITY: We want to affirm the full participation of all people of all ages - particularly individuals and groups with varying backgrounds who have traditionally been underrepresented or subject to discrimination.

This process, including the various meetings and an initial survey to ask for ideas from the congregation resulted in a draft development plan which the PCC has spoken about regularly but will need to firm up and further develop in the coming months.

And although there remains a lot of work that still needs doing with regards to the development plan, there has been a plethora of activities taking place as a result of last year’s meetings, conversations and suggestions.

In particular, there are 12 activities I would like to mention specifically:

Messy Church: The introduction of our growing monthly Messy Church service has been a great joy – we have a very dedicated team of volunteers, led by Ellen and Bronwen, who help run it and have an average congregation of between 25 and 45 people.
Christmas Tree Festival: A very successful event, for a second year in a row, that saw around 1500 people coming through the door and an overall profit of just over £8000 (of which 50% came to St Anne’s).
Fundraising and Stewardship: We have had a much better than expected financial balance at the end of the year resulting in us almost breaking even, instead of the substantial deficit which we had feared we might have.
Church Centre renovations: Thanks to the wonderful help of volunteers, we have been able to paint the entire Church Centre (except office and storeroom) this year. Most of the cost for this has been borne either by Miriam Grace Club or by volunteers. In addition to this, volunteers organised by Jo Lyddiatt have done a major cleaning and clearing of the kitchen and we have acquired some initial costings for replacing the Church Centre vinyl floor.
Church pew faculty: Following the granting of a faculty for the removal of the two front pews, modesty screens and radiators in the church nave we have been able to use the space much more flexibly both with regards to occasional offices as well as All Age Worship and Messy Church services. But the biggest impact this small change has brought has been with regards to the ability to host concerts in which choirs and/or bands are using the newly created space. Several of these concerts (often in the context of raising funds for St Anne’s) have already taken place last year and we have a few in the calendar for 2025 – so watch this space.
Community Litter Picks: During the course of last and this year we have had several community litter picks which have attracted a wonderful number of members of the wider community many of whom are not as such part of our worshipping community but have felt keen to support our Eco efforts. Most litter picks had between 40 to 50 attendees. Of course, the bacon butties have done their bit to attract such good numbers.
Men’s Group: Plans for the creation of a men's group, which we also briefly touched upon at last year’s APCM are well underway. The group will be called ‘Faithful Fellas’ and is envisaged to take place once a month on a Saturday morning, starting from 7th June. We will begin advertising for this from next Sunday.
Broadening the reach of our communications: During this past year we have updated our website several times (including our photo gallery) as well as consciously engaged in regular weekly Social Media postings on Facebook to engage the wider community. We also publish the PCC minutes on the board in the Church Centre every month now.
Increasing number of volunteers: The Easter Vigil breakfast and Christmas Tree Festival were fabulous examples of new people taking on new challenges - and I want to specifically thank all those who made those events work so well and so much fun!
Bereavement Journey: Conversations about starting a course by the name ‘The Bereavement Journey’ are well underway and we are hoping to start this in the autumn and for it to become a regular thing we offer to the wider community.
Projection facility in church: Initial consultations and costings about the installation of projection facilities in the church have taken place and the PCC will seek further quotes from companies before engaging in a wide consultation process with the congregation about discerning the best way forward with this.
The election of a second churchwarden and new PCC members: I am very pleased to say that we have several new people standing for PCC membership and also two candidates standing for the election as church warden today. In addition to this, we will be considering the creation of subcommittees and/or the appointment of deputy wardens who could take on special responsibilities as well as generally supporting the work of the elected wardens. I am quite certain that through this increased resourcing we will not only be able to create further capacity to deal with the growing workload and continue to drive the finalisation and implementation of our Church Development Plan, but also be able to provide a regular and continuous presence at our various services – especially as I know that some members of some of our congregations have felt that there had not been enough visibility at Sunday morning services. It is in that context that I want to particularly thank Yvonne Fealey who volunteered to become a deputy warden with special responsibility to address that concern and provide a continuous presence and point of contact. I know this was a great help to Carolyn and has enabled her to also support some of our other worshipping communities, such as the growing 8am and Messy Church congregations.

I hope you will agree that all these activities show our joint commitment to and our growing success in implementing the three diocesan goals of growing community, diversity and discipleship.

Of course, my report would not be complete without the most heartfelt thank-yous to all those who have helped make all of this happen at St Anne’s this last year.

In particular I want to thank:

Carolyn Nahajski for guiding us through the church development process last year and for working so very hard as single Church Warden - I know this has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination and that you have spent many hours in addition to your statutory duties encouraging us to develop, grow and think about ways in which we can connect better and more effectively with each other and our surrounding community. And I am deeply grateful to you for all you have given to this community this past year.
Ellen Turtle, who fills both her roles as Associate Vicar and Area Dean with her customary good humoured, reliable and very competent presence which we all love and for which we are very grateful indeed.
Yvonne Fealey who stepped up to become deputy church warden following last year’s APCM and especially for being an extra link into the Sunday morning 10am congregation, Steering Group and PCC.
Phillippa Pluess – our Parish Office Manager – without whose extremely competent, diligent, friendly and tireless work the office and possibly St Anne’s as a whole would not be able to function! I know I certainly would not function half as well as I do, were it not for Phillippa!
The members of our PCC who month after month come together to discuss, discern and decide on the day-to-day issues of our community. And to our Deanery Synod members Diane Wild, Lynne Cowley and Nicki Hunt who work towards greater cohesion and cooperation among the various Anglican churches across Surrey Heath.
Diane Wild, and after her moving away, Dina Roberts, our PCC secretaries.
A particular thank you goes to Brenda Shepherd, Paul Ray and Annie Bonella who are standing down from PCC this year – I have really appreciated all that you have brought over the years to our meetings and am deeply grateful to you all!
David Lovell who, due to Electoral Roll deadlines is unable to stand at the PCC today, but has expressed a willingness to be co-opted again in the future, should that become a possibility.
The Ministry Team – Ellen Turtle, Helen Perry, Annie Bonella and Jennifer Sistig for their wisdom, encouragement and patience.
The Steering Group who have worked very hard again in keeping it all ticking over.
David Perry our Treasurer who manages our finances with his customary steady, wise and altogether competent work.
Bronwen Hall for leading messy Church, together with Ellen.
The sound team who look after our live streamed services - Neil Bartlett, Derrick Fenn, Freddie Lawson, Nicki Hunt, Jennifer Sistig and Andy Hall.
Stefan and Carolyn Nahajski – for their wonderful work with our bees and Eco Church!
Kate Dyerson for her continued work on our eco church project – and the whole Eco Church team.
All those who have helped with services, events and day to day things while I was on sabbatical
The wonderful team that organised and ran the Christmas Tree festival for a second year in a row - with so many other volunteers from across the village and wider area!
Our office volunteers, especially Annie Bonella and June Pugh who have helped both me as well as Phillippa a great deal.
Our Baptism Coordinator Brenda Shepherd who brings so much joy and love to her role that it is a pleasure to work with you.
Annie Bonella, Dina Roberts and Sue Hunt our sacristans.
All those who have helped with various diy jobs around the church and centre over the year.
Gordon Hunt, our Health and safety officer.
For those who have organised various events throughout the year – Nikki Hunt for all things quiz and concert related, Derrick and Glynis who organised the Big Brekkie, Derrick for the Bible study group.
For Ellen and her team of Pixies helpers who, without fail, are there every Friday!
Nick Dorrington, as always, for taking good care of the Parish Hall and its hirers.
Our Electoral Roll Officer Lynne Cowley.
Our parish visiting team lead by Helen Perry who also serves as our Parish Safeguarding Officer and validator.
Neil Lyddiatt who helps with safeguarding admin and is also a Besom volunteer, together with Pat Stone, Nigel Kean, Richard Roots and Carolyn Bartlett.
Our marriage preparation team lead by Helen Perry.
Our amazing flower team Yvonne Fealey, Sue Hunt, Joce Buxton, June Hurst and a few occasional extra volunteers who year in and year out and especially for our festivals makes St Anne’s so stunningly beautiful.
Our bell ringers, especially Nigel Nelson the Tower Captain and John Bauld, the Steeple Keeper.
Alex Moore for filling our services with beautiful music and for leading our choirs, both casual and robed.
Our stand-in organists and our choir members, both robed and casual.
Eve Nightingale Sharpe for making sure our energy levels stay high by providing, for many years now, long-life milk, tea, instant coffee and biscuits.
Lisa Homer for providing such lovely biscuits regularly on Sundays.
Our guest preachers, readers, servers, sacristans, cleaners, flower arrangers, welcomers, sidespeople, gardening team, grass cutters, coffee providers and obviously all other volunteers which I inadvertently might have missed out.
To my family – who supports, encourages and loves me even on the days when that is difficult.

Thank you to all of you - for caring deeply about the ministry, fellowship and community life at St Anne's and for, at times, arguing about those things passionately.

In closing, I want to ask for five things –

Your pardon for what we got wrong this year,
Your appreciation for what we got right,
Your patience for the things that are still in progress,
Your passion for the things that you deeply care about,
and your help with all of it.

Thank you.

Yours in Christ,

Andreas.