Annual Report 2024

Administrative Information

St. Paul's church is situated at the corner of Broadway Street and Ashton Road, Hathershaw, Oldham. The correspondence address is St. Paul’s Vicarage, 55 Belgrave Road, Oldham OL8 1LU.

The parish is part of:

• the United Benefice of Oldham and Werneth.
• a Mission Partnership with the parish of St. Thomas, Werneth.
• a Mission Community with the parishes below.
• the Deanery of Oldham and Ashton.
• the Diocese of Manchester.

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) is a charity excepted from registration with the Charity Commission.

The Parish Bank Account is with HSBC. The Insurers of the Parish are EIG.

St. Thomas, Werneth

Christ Church & St. Saviour, Chadderton

Holy Trinity, Coldhurst

St. John, Failsworth

Oldham Parish Church

St. Mary, Balderstone

St Stephen & All Martyrs, Oldham

PCC Object

The Parochial Church Council has the responsibility, according to law:

To cooperate with the minister in promoting in the parish the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social, and ecumenical.

PCC (Powers) Measure 1956

The Parish

The parish contains a variety of property which includes owner occupier, rented, council houses, apartments and sheltered housing. There are terraced houses, a legacy of the cotton industry, and a mix of semi and detached houses.

Deprivation

The population of the parish is 11590.
It ranks 452 out of 12382 parishes for overall deprivation, where 1 is the most deprived parish.
It is among the 3.65% most deprived parishes in England.

The parish is straddles 7 "Lower Super Output Areas".

A "Lower Super Output Area" is the smallest geographical unit for which demographic data is produced:

We make the following observations:

• These LSOAs are in the 0.6%, 1.25%, 1.7%, 13.9%, 14.2%, and 20.25%, and 34.25% most deprived LSOAs in the country.
• While there are some areas of relative affluence, many who live in the parish are extremely deprived, when a national comparison is made.
• The immediate area around St. Paul's, and the top end of Hathershaw, respectively are the extremely deprived.
• All the LSOAs in the parish have become more deprived, many of them quite significantly, relative to the national average, over the last five years (2015-2019).

Diversity

There is a mix of religious and ethnic communities in the parish: British, Asian, African and European. The parish also plays host to Romanian Roma Churches, a Spiritualist Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Mormon Temple, two Hindu Temples and several Mosques.

There are a number of schools in the Parish: Coppice and Broadfield (Primary); Hulme Grammar; and the Hathershaw College.

Index of Multiple Deprivation

PCC Structure & Governance

The method of appointment of PCC members is broadly as set out in the Church Representation Rules, with one exception: Church Wardens may be elected for an unlimited number of consecutive periods of office. The Hon. Assistant Priest is also an ex-officio member of the PCC.

Thus the PCC currently consists of 9 elected members, depending on numbers on the Electoral Roll: 3 each year. In addition, there are ex officio members: 3 Deanery Synod Representatives; 2 Church Wardens, the Vicar, the Assistant Curate, and the Hon. Assistant Priest.

All who attend Church are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC.

Church Representation Rules

Electoral Roll Officer's Report

This year, 2025 is a year for forming a completely new Electoral Roll.

In 2024 there were 68 names on the Roll. In 2025, there are 45.

Andrea Marshall

PCC Membership

• With under 50 members on the Electoral Roll, we elect 2 PCC members for a term of office of 3 years at each APCM.
• PCC members (except for Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Secretary) cannot stand for a year after their 3 year term of office is completed unless there are no other candidates.

October Church Sunday Attendance

Due to difficulties in collecting data during the COVID-19 pandemic, no attendance data was collected for October 2020 across the Diocese.

(Addendum: please note that these figures are the figures from our October Attendance Census, but rounded to the nearest whole number.)

Vicar's Report

This last year has been one of transition, steady rebuilding and looking forward.

It's been encouraging to see the congregation continue to steadily and consistently grow in numbers, since Covid-19. It's encouraging to see lots of new faces on a Sunday morning, along with many of the less new ones! The number of adults attending at least 12 times a year, has risen steadily from 20 to 23 to 25 to 33 over the last few years. I suspect, by the time of writing, that attendance has exceeded the levels before Covid-19 hit. The atmosphere also feels very welcoming. Thank you to all those who work to welcome others. We know that many things in church do not happen "by magic" - they are not "done by the fairies" - but are the result of hard work, discussion and planning. So thank you, again, for all who are working to create that culture of welcome and inclusivity.

We also celebrate the fact that the congregation seems to be growing in diversity as well as number.

A challenge we face as a congregation - and I suspect that for many, this will not be the first time you've heard it said - is that our volunteer base has not (yet) grown to match the growth in the congregation. Of course we recognise that it takes time for people to feel sufficiently confident to take that next step to become a volunteer. However, the running of the church is at the moment left in the hands of a few volunteers. While they are wonderfully joyful, willing and competent, we do need to encourage new people to step into new roles, even very small ones. "Slowly, slowly catches the monkey."

On the clergy team, we welcomed Revd. Richard McEwen in his capacity as Self-Supporting Minister (Deacon) in June; and Revd. Zahra as Priest in June. In their different ways, Richard, Darren, and Zahra each add a lot to parish life. We also continue to be grateful to Revd. Judith Ware for conducting occasional services. And we look forward to Richard's ordination as Priest at the end of June 2025.

We continue to enjoy the ministry of our different Authorised Lay Ministers, who all bring their different gifts to enrich our life as a parish: Megan (organising our ministry to Nursing Homes, and the housebound), Norah (supporting at funerals and afterwards), Colin and Auriel (leading public worship), and Gina (Ecology and Creation, and Children). Training is offered each year by the Diocese. We still very much enjoy the benefits of our ALM big bang (for want of a better word) in 2013, when five were authorised across the benefice. However, since then only one has been authorised. We need to find ways of enabling our team of Authorised Lay Ministers to grow!

Our Sunday worship style has continued to evolve, and we are now more often singing hymns without the digital choir. Our solution for playing music on a Sunday morning has become more robust, while remaining low cost, and a range of people are learning how to operate it. It would lovely to have more people helping. Interestingly, every couple of months a bug emerges which, so far, have easily been squashed. We seek to encourage children and young people to engage and respond to the Sunday morning service by giving out sketch books and colouring pens!

I believe the relationships within our Mission Community are growing stronger:

• our offering to children and young people has improved through the work of Laura Tebay. We have dates for training in this area in September and October.
• after a mission community meeting on sustainability, which included encouragement to adopt contactless giving, we began offering this in July, and we are grateful for the positive response that this has started to have on parish giving, and parish finances.
• the parishes continue to support each other by covering services during illness and holidays.

These are ways in which the Mission Community helps us to become a better parish - offering more in mission and ministry to those around us.

The Church building continues to be a challenge. In early 2025 we've been able to tackle some issues in the church building. But we still have not found a way forward with the larger-scale building alterations that are required. We may just have to try and move forward more slowly than we had hoped.

Finally, I would like to express my increasing thanks and appreciation to you all for all that you bring to the life of the church, and for all that you are going to bring to it (and probably don't know it yet!) and, once again, to express the continued joy and privilege of being Vicar here at St. Paul's, after nearly 15 years!

Revd. Nick Andrewes

PCC Secretary's Report

During 2024 we held 7 PCC meetings, all of which were on Zoom. The meetings were well attended. There are 9 members of the PCC, who are joined by Nick, Zahra, Darren and Richard.

The main topics for discussion this year has been the Parish Share, the Quinquennial Inspection, which should have taken place in 2024 but due to pressures on the architect will be in 2025. The state of the fabric of the building, there are many concerns about the deteriorating areas of our church building.

The APCM was held on the 5th May 2024, 23 people attended the meeting.

Lynne Street

Child Protection Report

There have been no reported incidents this year.

All ALMs have renewed their DBS certificates and 1 new DBS is in progress.

In line with diocesan requirements, all ALMs have completed their Basic and Foundation Safeguarding training.

I am currently undergoing the diocesan Leadership Safeguarding training and a programme will shortly be rolled out so all PCC members and Sunday School leaders will undertake Basic and Foundation training.

Andrea Marshall

Safeguarding Policy

Health & Safety Report

The health and safety policy has been reviewed and remains in place – copy on display on the porch noticeboard.

Informal safety inspections have been completed throughout the year. Liability insurance has been maintained and fire equipment has been serviced.

One health & safety incident was reported during the year, relating to a first aid incident at the Stitch and Share group. Please make sure that any accidents are reported so that corrective actions can be taken.

If anyone has any suggestions for improvement relating to health & safety arrangements, please don’t hesitate to come forward.

Neil Marshall

Treasurer's Report

I can start my report with the good news that we paid our Parish Share in full for the year 2024, £15,000.

The purchase of a digital card reader, for taking cashless donations, has improved the weekly donations. We obtained the reader at the beginning of July and by December it had paid for itself.

The energy costs are still a concern but pleased to see that our room hire income has been on the increase, nearly £10,000 this year.

The vicar’s costs we share with St Thomas’s, this was reviewed and agreed to be kept on the basis of Parish Share.

We made charitable donations to the Children’s Society £200, Unicef £500, DEC Middle East £200 and Kimbilio £150

Thank you to the people who manage to continue their planned giving donations and to those that have managed to increase their giving.

Anyone interested in making regular monthly donations via the bank, please have a word with me.

2025 is looking a better year, we have much to be thankful for and pray for God’s guidance in making the right decisions for our church.

Lynne Street

Financial Statements

PCC Reserves Policy and PCC Parish Share Policy

• The Parish acknowledges the principles of Jesus’ teachings, and also of good governance: that money should only be kept in reserve for specific purposes, or spent, to further the objects of the PCC—not hoarded for a rainy day. These objects are listed above.
• The Parish identifies particular risks in its situation. The Parish is grateful for the work of those who make the Community Room available to the Community. This brings significant income into the parish. However the parish is also realistic about the potential risks associated with its dependence on this form of income.
• The Parish recognises that there is also a considerable backlog of building work that needs to be undertaken. Immediate priorities were indicated in the Quinquennial Inspection Report (2018). The most significant of these is the need to make provision for re-roofing the church (£300,000). In addition to this a number of smaller and larger improvements and repairs are needed to improve the fabric of church and community room.
• Therefore the Parish aims for its level of reserves to approximately match 4 months' payments from the General Fund for the previous year. For 2024 this figure is approximately £13,150.
• The Parish will prioritise the following payments:
  1. normal parish running costs;
  2. essential maintenance;
  3. expenditure that will save money or volunteer time in the long term;
  4. as much Parish Share as possible to leave 4 months of annual Current Account payments in reserve.
• In 2024, the essential maintenance we completed included the installation of a Heatmiser boiler control system to enable more accurate (and remote) control of the heating system. This will lead to reductions in cost, carbon footprint, time spent managing the heating, and a more comfortable temperature in the different parts of the church. At the time of writing we have completed repair work on our drains, fixed the kitchen door and wobbly front pews. The front door is about to be re-sealed, and we are looking to permanently fix TV screens in church. We have a proposed way forward to tidy up the paved area behind the church.

Planned Giving & Gift Aid

Planned Giving: Direct into the bank account

At the Start of 2024 there were 26 people donating by monthly bank transfer into our bank account. By the end of 2024 we had 27 people donating by bank transfer.

Of these 27 donors, 24 Gift Aid their donations.

Gift Aid recovered from the HMRC for the calendar year of 2024 was £4,195. This was on donations given by people who pay income tax and allow us to reclaim the tax they have paid from the HMRC.

Summary

We are thankful to those people who are able to continue to support us via the planned giving scheme and to those people who have been in the position to make one-off donations.

Lynne Street

Pastoral Care

Care home visits take place with Nick, Zahra, Darren and Richard presiding at services of Holy Communion across both the parishes of St Paul and the St Thomas. We also provide cover at Nursing Homes in the parishes of St Mark Glodwick and others where congregation members live.

The care homes include

• The Coppice,
• Tree Tops,
• Chamber Mount,
• Park House, and
• Dry Clough Manor.

Likewise holy communion at home is available to those unable to attend a service in church due to infirmity.

Thanks to Norah for supporting the clergy with funerals and after care and to all who maintain regular contact with those who can no longer come to church.

Megan Locklin

Social Committee

The first activity was everyone’s favourite which is the Bowls Competition booked for August Bank Holiday weekend. Unfortunately it was rained off which resulted in the few people who gathered in hope, spent the afternoon chatting in the pavilion. We decided that this year we will book earlier so that there will be enough time to reorganise if the weather is wet once more.

So this year it is booked for June 22nd

This was followed by a walk and pub lunch organised by Andrea and Neil. Everyone enjoyed this event even though again it was raining. However the more elderly among us found the walk a little too exhausting and request a shorter one. This year it is booked for July 20th

The ladies went for a celebratory Christmas meal at the Halfway House as usual in December. This will be repeated as usual on either December 12th or 19th

Other activities for this year are as follows:

May 9th. Woodhouses G&S society presentation of ‘The Sorcerer’ plus evening meal beforehand

June 14th International Buffet, Church meeting room 1pm

June 22nd. Werneth Cricket Club Bowls Tournament 2pm

July 20th Walk and Pub Lunch To be organised once more by Andrea and Neil

Strawberry Tea. Organised by Megan and Norah with talk by Megan. Date to be arranged

Other possibilities:

• Alexander Park with packed lunch and walk for children ( plus adults who wish to enjoy it);
• Darts and ‘takeaway meal’
• Keep Fit session one Saturday afternoon run by Maureen

Barbara Allison

Deanery Synod

The Deanery Synod is a meeting of representatives from individual parishes in Oldham and Ashton Deanery. It is, among other things, a means by which local churches can raise concerns that may need consideration by the Diocese. It is also a means by which they may discuss, and vote on, issues of concern to the diocese and national Church.

Both clergy and lay people from each parish attend. Meetings are now taking place in person. However, we currently have no reps from the parish. Please volunteer if you would be interested in attending.

Perhaps the most significant matter on the table this year has been the emerging Diocesan Strategy.

• Growing Younger
• Church Planting and Revitalisation
• Developing Missional Leaders
• Parish Renewal.

Nick Andrewes

Sunday School

During 2024 there have been over 30 children and young people who have attended the Sunday school. On average we have 11 attending each week.

Attendance at a Sunday School session can range from 2 to 24. There is an element of unpredictability. We continue to be a much younger group with age range between 3 to 10 years (average age of 5 years) with some younger siblings joining too with their parents.

We continue to get to know each other through games, challenges, arts and crafts, listening and acting out stories from the bible.

The Sunday school always like to share what they have been learning at the end of the service to the congregation.

Now that the children are a little older, we are giving out sketchbooks in which the children can respond to the service with pictures, writing or poetry.

We are looking for more volunteers to support in Sunday school and give out sketchbooks at the beginning of the service when children and young people are in church. Please come and talk to us if you are interested.

We hope to offer training on:

• 10:00 am on Saturday 20 September 2025
• 10:00 am on Saturday 18 October 2025 also with chidlren's activities, at St. Paul's. Put the dates in your diary!

Many thanks for the support from all families that attend. Do keep an eye out for future training opportunities.

Gina Andrewes, Amy Holt & Natalie Wiseman

MDGF Deanery Enabler Contribution

It has been great to build relationship where I can with the two churches, to be involved in the amazing Experience Christmas was a highlight. To see committed members of the Mission Community volunteering to share the story of Christmas was remarkable, long may ‘Experiences’ within this Mission Community continue.

I continue to seek to build connection with the children and young people of the churches with Youth Sacred Spaces and consultations, shaping what is to come for these young people in their churches with further conversations and ideas generation. I hope to work with you as churches to help particular youth discern their leadership in church and what that might look like.

For your records:

• Consultation 1 – 10th May 2024 - Oldham Parish Church – 8-9 young people from across MC attended.
• Consultation 2 – 9th June 2024 – St John’s Failsworth – during “All Age Service”.
• Consultation 3 – 17th June 2024 – St Paul’s Church – 4-5 young people from St Paul’s and St Thomas’s came along.

Youth Sacred Spaces took place:

• 18th July – St Paul’s 6 young people attended.
• 20th September – St Thomas’s – 1 young person attended.
• 13th November – St Paul’s – 8 young people attended.
• December Youth Gathering – Oldham Parish Church – no attendees.

Laura Tebay

Community Room

Use of the community room has steadily increased this year. It's good to have Pop In, Stitch & Share, Guides, Bethel Church regularly using the space. Of course, the Community Room is also used for Voting. At time of writing, the Community Room is also used by a group providing training for Boston House staff.

We have discussed use of the room for one-off parties, which currently end too late on a Saturday night before Sunday Services.

Thanks to those who have supported making this space available for the community.

Nick Andrewes

Choir

The choir has continued to sing at Eucharist services, also including the Christingle and special Holy days.

We would welcome new members who enjoy singing and can attend fairly regularly.

The choir is responsible for cleaning the choir pews and altar area. We also run a Christmas Coffee morning, raising funds for the church.

Carol Vaudrey-->

Pop In

It has been an uneventful year, as the small number of members has meant that trips out have not been financially possible. Unfortunately we lost one of our members during the year and two others have long term health problems.

We have, however, spent our Tuesday afternoons in a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere, enjoying our usual pattern of activities, along with copious amounts of tea and cakes.

Eileen Cooper

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Church Flowers

May I say a big thankyou to those who give so generously during the year towards the floral displays in church, often in memory of loved ones or for special occasions such as Easter, Harvest and Christmas.

During Lent and Advent we continue to observe the tradition of no flowers in church.

If you would like to have flowers in church in someone’s memory or for a special family celebration, please put your name on the flower rota, on the notice board, next to the Sunday of your choice.

Many thanks also to the flower girls, Andrea, Eileen and Margaret who create such lovely displays throughout the year.

Jill Platt

Eco Church Report

After St. Paul's was awarded the Bronze Eco-Church Certificate the year before last, we continue to consolidate.

The PCC has committed to reducing the Parish's carbon footprint year on year by 10% - using the 2022 figure (15.5 net tonnes) as a baseline.

Despite install Heatmiser controls for the Heating System in February 2024, and despite moving our electricty to a carbon-neutral provider, our carbon footprint is still the same as 2022 (15.5 net tonnes). This is probably due to increased usage of the church and community room.

This year we agreed to use "Climate Hero" to encourage people to measure their personal carbon footprint.

We contine to see improvements to the church grounds. Thanks to everyone, but particularly to Hayley and Jane. Thanks also to those who collect and recycle the rubbish left in the grounds.

We are hoping to make improvements to the church grounds:

• digging out the bed at the bottom of the paved area, and maybe putting in a indigenous hedge.
• replacing some of the flags with flower beds.

It's great to see the reduction in car use by: people giving each other lifts to church; and PCC meetings taking place on Zoom. All these things reduce our carbon footprint!

We have completed the Energy Footprint Tool:

We are continuing to use the Eco Church Audit which is an online survey which asks us how we care for God’s earth. We are currently at the following levels:

The PCC continues to consider the next steps in each of these areas over the coming year.

For the sake of our Common Home, we need to continue to strive to reduce our negative impact on the planet.

Gina Andrewes

Stitch & Share

Stitch & Share continues to meet on Wednesdays 10am to 1pm. In 2024 we had a consistent core group of 15 members with an average attendance of 17 people per session. Across the year 35 people have accessed the group.

This year we have celebrated 10 years of sewing at Stitch and Share. Past and present sewists attended a fun celebration alongside past tutors and local councilors that have supported the group as well.

Our main activities continue to be making garments from patterns, garment alterations and mending. Donated fabrics are made into cushions, aprons, soft toys, curtains and bags. In addition embroidery, crochet and knitting also take place. The skills base of this group is high with specific talents shared amongst the group.

Most importantly the group recognises that not only do we sew and share but we also support, meet and accompany each other through life’s ups and downs.

Accounts

Gina Andrewes & Auriel Hopkinson

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Unit Report: 10th Oldham St Paul’s Guides

In January we started the GO Global Challenge during which we looked at what to pack for different holidays/trips. Looked at travel times, made paper planes and friendship bracelets and completed a quiz. For Burns night we made shortbread and tartan then looked at some traditional poetry.

Next we started the police challenge. We looked at safety both personal and online finding out about our digital footprints.

In February we made pancakes and completed a number of activities/challenges for Chinese New Year and Worl Thinking Day. For mothers day we made cards and no bake sweets, peppermint cremes and coconut ice. We then started some UMAs and skills builders, sign of the times, create a cast, being deaf friendly, macrame master, Stor- elay.

In April we had a table top sale to try to clear out stuff from the cellar and raise some funds for guides. We also gave out leaflets to try and get some more girls to join guides as our numbers are very low. We attended the county day at flamingo land which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

In May we started the confectioner badge and made sugar mice, snowballs & scones. We also had the plant sale to raise money for our annual camp. We attended the division Guide bowling night at Ashton.

During June & July we started our usual camp practise/training and the have adventures skills builder. We practised bedding rolls, gadgets and how to pitch a tent. We went to Scarisbrick outdoor activity centre and spent a week sleeping in tents, cooking on an open fire, playing games and learning lots of new skills.

The leaders were part of the service crew for the big brownie birthday and a county camp at Ashworth Valley.

We started back in September looking at Know myself SB and UMAs against the law, from bad to worse, start of the show, hello my fabulous friend, Me in team and international explorer

Then we started Christmas crafts such as cards and glass painting wind chimes. For our last night before the xmas holiday we went to clip and climb at summit up.

Hayley Cowling

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