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 A United Reformed Church, part of 'Churches Together in Hampstead', and in partnership with the London Eritrean Lutheran Church |
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Services Sunday: 11am Thursday: 10am |
St Andrew's United
Reformed Church
Frognal Lane
Hampstead
London
NW3 7DY
Tel: 020 7435 7920
AndrewsFrog.net
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Annual Reports 2008 |
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CONTENTSIntroduction to Annual ReportsReport of the Church Secretary (March 2008) Church Flowers The New St Andrew's Website The Frognal Review The Children's Church Christian Aid The Social Committee Music at St Andrew's Annual Fabric Report Church Finances in 2007 The Bible Society Commitment for Life Introduction to Annual ReportsThe Call and the Ministry These are your description of ministry at Frognal, when I was called in the mid-nineties to this church, to work four days a week from St Andrew's (the other two are now in the Synod as an ecumenical and inter faith officer). The St Andrew's Minister will aim, you said, at a good balance between outreach, spiritual life and biblical teaching. Responsibilities undertaken in collaboration with elders are • Public worship, serious preaching and looking for new possibilities of witness • Opening up study opportunities for oneself and others • Guide elders in pastoral tasks and good children's work • Inspire a strong administration • Seek and prepare new members • Make links of friendship and common purpose with other churches • Encourage good relations and dialogue with the Jewish community • Help members in forming good community support Taken together with our Millennial Mission Prayer, it is up to you to judge whether the annual reports before you show that, under God, the train is still on the tracks! Jon Dean, April 2008 
Report of the Church Secretary (March 2008)"Frankly, I stand amazed at the unfathomable complexity of God's wisdom and God's knowledge. How could man ever understand His reasons for action or explain His methods of working?" — Paul's Letter to Rome Ch.11 vv33-34 The past twelve months have been difficult for our church. Illness and injury have laid low a number of the congregation, and this, allied to the fact that members of our congregation now travel widely, has meant that we have been greatly reduced on many occasions. Our regular attenders have had a greater burden placed upon them. However, these problems have led to some major developments and our minister, always aware that the torch must be passed, has made great efforts to involve newer and younger members in the life of our church. The green shoots can be seen in the setting up of our new website: www.andrewsfrog.net We are trying to involve more people in the door duty rota. The duty now includes the responsibility for serving tea and coffee at the close of each service. This is an area, which is essential in ensuring that our church remains a welcoming one. The upkeep of our large building remains a constant problem but this year has seen some excellent developments in heating lighting and decoration. Much of this is made possible by the large number of lettings of the church buildings. Despite a low turnout at morning service in recent months, the congregation has been continually generous in its donations to charities with our retiring collections. The recent services, over the Easter weekend, saw a number of new faces in the congregation and some of these expressed their thanks for the intensity of the worship. There was particular praise for the efforts of the choir and the minister's sermons on the 'Logic of the Cross' and 'the Logic of the Resurrection' provoked a great deal of enthusiastic response. I heard an entertaining story recently:- A teacher asked a pupil, "Who knocked down the walls of Jericho?" "I didn't! I was away last week." So the teacher went to the headteacher. "Who knocked down the walls of Jericho?" he asked "I'm not sure", said the head. "I'll have to get back to you on that one." So the head wrote to the Secretary of State for Education. "Who knocked down the walls of Jericho?" A few months later he received a reply, "You just get the wall rebuilt and we'll see that someone pays the bill." The story shows that these days we cannot expect everyone to know the stories from the Bible that to us are so familiar. Recently a local newspaper reported the success of a team of school pupils in a nation-wide general knowledge quiz:- "The pupils answered confidently questions on sport, television soap operas, pop-music and even such esoterica as the Bible and Shakespeare." This is very difficult for people who have been bought up in the church to understand. The success of faith schools shows us that many parents would like their children to have a grounding in a religious faith. Over Easter, I have been re-reading "The Chief Rabbi's Haggadah" by Jonathan Sacks. In it he writes:- "The word 'zakhor' occurs no less than 169 times in the Hebrew Bible." As Yosef Hayim Yerulshami notes, "Only in Israel and nowhere else is the injunction to remember felt as a religious imperative to an entire people." In Deuteronomy Ch 4 v9 this was Moses' injunction to future generations: - "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." The American theologian, Robert L. Short, has written: - "What's the best way you can help your country, your society, your culture and your world? Know the Bible well and help others know it." Remember! Remember! Dai Noble
Church FlowersThe flowers which Jo McClurg lovingly arranges for us week by week are another great embellishment of St Andrew's. We are also grateful to members who give the flowers but Jo would be glad to hear of people who would like to arrange them from time to time. They also provide fitting remembrance for relatives and friends.
The New St Andrew's Websitewww.andrewsfrog.netTechnology is creeping up — in fact, more like running up and trampling some of us underfoot. Bluetooth, blackberry, WAP and Skype are all words that more and more people are beginning to hear about, understand and use. The internet is becoming a large part of everyday life. Students are expected to know how to use the 'net' as well as word processors, and do their project-work by 'Googling'. If you go to the church website, you will be able to see all the different headings for information that is available. There are news sections that are regularly updated as and when new information is received. This has included news items relevant specifically to our church, whether on a local, national or international level. The 'Younger Members' page has proven popular with the adults as well! Several people have commented about the 'Free Rice' link and how much rice they have been able to have donated. There are also jokes as well as a small section devoted to football enthusiasts. Of course the main section is devoted to faith with information and links that are of specific interest to the younger members. There are pages with very many links to diverse websites, with themes ranging from a Christian internet radio station to translations of the bible into many different languages (you can also hear the bible in Greek and Latin) and also various inter-faith sites. The links cover many local connections and beyond to an international level. The site is also well suited to casual viewers who might want to see something about our church, or look at pictures of all of the beautiful stained-glass windows. It shows much of our involvement in the community. And for anyone who might want to contact any of the key members of the church, there is a page where messages can be directed to these specific people. One of the main objectives of producing the website has been to facilitate communication. This could be a regular attendee wanting to know the date and time of a particular meeting, or one of our members in another part of the world just wanting to keep in contact with what's happening at St Andrew's. The site is new and still developing, and so we welcome comments and suggestions. Of particular use is information and feedback from functions and events that might be of interest to those finding out about, or keeping in touch with, our great church on the World Wide Web. Iain Begg
The Frognal ReviewThe Frognal Review will continue to appear four times a year with some of the material being included on the website as well as some material from the website being incorporated in the Review. We will try to keep it as wide-ranging as possible as it is important for people who do not have access to the internet. We are grateful for contributions from members — more would be most welcome specially as the Review is sent abroad to interested members as well as to local Churches. Thanks go to Daphne Dendy for her postal distribution. Isabel Hariades
The Children's ChurchDuring the year our numbers have varied substantially, in part this has been due to the usual movement of families to and from the congregation, but also to the increasing range of activities which take place on a Sunday. We have said goodbye to a number of our smallest friends, and also had the pleasure of welcoming an increasing number of grand children, and great nephews and nieces when visiting members of the congregation. For me personally this has been a little challenging as I still like to consider myself one of the 'younger' members, but am now often faced with the children of those I remember growing up in the congregation! We have continued to use the Roots for Worship booklet, and accompanying web based material, which has a good range of ideas and activities for use with our varied age group. The particular benefit of this is that it follows the yearly lectionary and so there are good links between the main service of worship and our child centred activities and discussion. I am as ever most grateful to Susan Noble and Gillian Steggles for their continued support, flexibility and hard work, and have been delighted to add Sam and John Robson to the list of regular volunteers. I hope that you have enjoyed the various contributions to worship that the children have made over the year, as much as they have enjoyed preparing for and participating. I hope that we can do even more of this in the year ahead. The children are very excited at the prospect of a computer for their use and it will be good to have this resource as it will enable us to let the older children enjoy separate activities to the younger ones. Additionally we will have the possibility of linking to a vast array of information which we are simply unable to do without the use of new technology. At times our numbers are small, but even when there are only two or three we still take very seriously our task of helping them begin their personal journey of discovery and discipleship. Christy Sawyer
Christian AidSt Andrew's has always been a generous and active supporter of Christian Aid and in 2007 we were fortunate in having an enthusiastic team for the Saturday street collection and the stations at West Hampstead and Finchley Road. Over £900 was raised by the Church Collections. Separately a further sum from the sponsored walk arranged by the London area of Christian Aid, to provide interest and fun as well as raising cash for the cause, was handed over. Our young and stalwart members enjoyed participating in this event. We owe much to the Hampstead West organiser for Christian Aid, Hilda Buckley, who sets everything in motion and keeps us in touch with events. Victoria Ferguson has now taken over the organisation of the St Andrew's Christian Aid work with help from Iain Begg. This promises to be a dynamic leadership with the enthusiastic support of the minister, Jon Dean. Isabel Hariades
The Social CommitteeThe annual garden party took place on one of the many wet days of last summer. However, we enjoyed a barbecue and salad lunch, followed by strawberries and cream. We were very grateful to John Meadows and Brian Noble who managed to barbecue under very difficult conditions. The harvest lunch followed the harvest festival service and we tucked into many international dishes brought by members of the congregation. The Christmas lunch was well attended and the committee is very grateful to those who helped on this occasion and throughout the year. Doreen Morgans
Music at St Andrew'sMusic at St Andrew's has always held a special place in the life of the Church and we owe Christine Waple and her Choir a great debt of gratitude. This year a special concert for Epiphany, TheFarewell to Christmas, took place in January, with Choir, solo singers, string quartet and trumpet. The early Easter was celebrated with Handel's Passion Music on Palm Sunday and a beautiful meditation on Good Friday with readings, choral music (mostly composed by Christine herself) and congregational hymns. Easter Sunday was a joyful day with a full church and many lovely hymns. The choir often give impromptu performances on social occasions in the hall.
Annual Fabric ReportExpenditure on the fabric of the Church was £10,600 during 2007. This was £2,000 more than the budget that was set at the beginning of the year. The main items were the decoration of the Church Hall, and insulation above the Vestry, Parlour, Choir Room and the adjacent corridors. It is important that the Halls and rooms of the Church are kept in a good state of decoration and repair, because St Andrew's is dependent on the income it receives from those who pay for the use of its premises for various activities . It is expected that the insulation that has been put in will in the long term result in a saving on expenditure for heating. An important component of the work ordered by the Committee is the Autumn inspection of the roof and gutters around the Church. The work done is to clear the gutters and drain pipes of any obstructions, such as an accumulation of leaves, and to replace any loose or damaged slates on the roof. Other routine work includes the servicing of the heating boilers, and various minor repairs and maintenance work that arise from time to time. The Committee was disappointed that the gardeners who were maintaining the gardens at the front and back of the Church failed to carry out work after July resulting in the gardens becoming overgrown. The Committee decided to advertise in the Ham and High for a gardener, to start work in the Spring. During 2007 an investigation was made into the best way to change the lighting in the Sanctuary. There were two problems to solve: to change the main lighting to make the lamps more accessible if and when bulbs need to be replaced, and to provide a whiter light than the existing sodium lighting, and secondly to provide better illumination to the pulpit area. This work has taken place during 2008 so that the cost of it will appear in the accounts for 2008. It is expected that the main work of the Committee will focus on the security of the Church. We recently experienced a break-in, which has demonstrated that it is necessary to ensure that all the doors and windows are as secure as possible. Donald Macarthur
Church Finances in 2007The finances of St Andrew's church remained in sound condition in 2007, thanks to the continuing generosity of the membership and congregation, valuable legacy income and good management of customers who rent the hall and other rooms. Income and expenditure. Our income was £92,000, exceeding expenditure by £22,000. This was because of some large donations and a legacy. However, major lighting renewal work and belated fuel meter readings in January 2008 have already reduced this by £9,000. Where did our money come from? £The main source of income in 2007 was the collections and freewill offerings. These contributed about £40,000. That includes over £6,000 given back by the Inland Revenue because people have gift-aided their donations. Hall lettings were another vital source of income, raising £32,000. Then we received a generous legacy of £10,000 from the estate of Ruth McDonald. And where does it go? The largest item is the URC Ministry and Mission Fund which pays for ministers' salaries and pensions as well as training and various mission activities. We had to contribute £24,000 to that fund in 2007. The next biggest item, was fabric spend at over £10,000; this included decoration and repairs to the hall, and loft insulation above the parlour and choir-room, which should help reduce fuel bills in the future. We spent over £5,000 on utilities for the church (mainly heating and lighting), £7,000 on cleaning, and £6,000 for church music. Insurance of the church costs us nearly £6,000 a year. What are the prospects for 2008? For 2008, we are proposing spending about £14,000 more than we receive in income. This is because of the carry-over of the lighting renewal, unforeseen work on the drains in February, and work required to improve security of the doorways. In the longer run the aim is to break even, which we have broadly managed to do over the last 5 years. What did we collect in special collections? Altogether, charities benefited by about £3,400 from the various special collections held at St Andrew's through the year. All our donations were gratefully acknowledged. The full report and accounts will be available for the AGM in April and are obtainable from the Hon Treasurer on request. Trevitt Steggles (Hon. Treasurer)
The Bible SocietyIn a world where there is so much conflict and suffering the Bible Society always has some encouraging news. This year some of it comes from Albania which endured an oppressive communist regime under Enver Hoxa following World War II. Most Christian priests and ministers were either persecuted or put to death. Now moving towards democracy, Albania is still poor without enough work for its 3.6 million people. Yet over seven years is has been possible to produce some 8000 copies of the New Testament in present-day Albanian, at a cost of £3 a copy. The translation was achieved with the help of Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant communities making this a truly ecumenical project. Moldova lying between Romania and the Ukraine, is the poorest country in Europe but the Bible Society there, led by Pastor Anton Piacinta, has focused on the needs of the deaf where Bible stories are conveyed through sign language now being increasingly taught, both to pupils and teachers. Another major Society project, to cost £3,600, is the free distribution of Scriptures to children, the elderly, prisoners and the disabled. In this country the Poverty and Justice Bible is about to be launched, with a special appeal for young adults. Rosemary Watts Note: Rosemary has also written about ETHIOPIA and PALESTINE where the Bible Society is doing valuable work; St Andrew's retiring collection last December raised £225 for which they were most grateful and Rosemary asks that we remember the Society's work in our prayers.
Commitment for Life"This has proved to be a powerful factor in enabling local churches to engage with world churches." — (Revd E. Caswell) In April 2007 David Barol of the Christian Commission for Development came here for the first time. The CCDB is our Christian Aid partner in Bangladesh and David as their programme officer works particularly for the 159 Adivasi Communities who have no recognition and no government support. Much of the Adivasi's land has been taken over by others but since 1999 the CCDB has helped 700 people to redeem it. They also help to feed malnourished children and persuade mothers to have their children immunised. They run pre-schools to prepare children for the government schools. In addition CCDB has a Disaster Preparedness Programme to help communities become less vulnerable to the increasingly variable climate conditions. Harsh farming conditions are worsened by changing weather patterns and rivers going dry. Parents Circle is a sign of hope which is supported by Commitment for Life in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. It brings together parents from both sides in an effort to work for reconciliation through dialogue. The wall remains a positive curse but surely one day it will come down. In 2007 our total contribution to Commitment for Life was more than £900 from many members and friends. Special thanks are due to Anne and Brian Noble and Jean Marsham for their help at our Commitment for Life coffee morning where home-baking and books were sold. Rosemary Watts
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