Annual Report 2025

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

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

Housing

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 parish is one of significant, and increasing, deprivation - according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

The building stands in Lower Super Output Area Oldham 024B which is ranked as the 39th most deprived out of the 33,755 Lower Super Output Areas in the country - i.e.~in the most deprived 0.1%

LSOAs in the parish rank as the 39th, 169th, 448th, 1,509th, 2,276th, 2,544th, 3,347th, and 4,011th most deprived in the country.

i.e. in the most deprived 0.1%, 0.5%, 1.3%, 4.5%, 6.7%, 7.5%, 9.9%, and 11.9% respectively.

Index of Multiple Deprivation

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.

Schools

There are a number of schools in the Parish: Coppice and Broadfield (Primary); Hulme Grammar; and the Hathershaw College. In addition, Medlock Valley Primary School visit at Christmas and Easter.

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 8 elected members, depending on numbers on the Electoral Roll. In addition, there are ex officio members: 2 Deanery Synod Representatives; 2 Church Wardens, the Vicar, the Assistant Curates.

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

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.

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 consolidation, and steady moves forward.

Congregation numbers have stabilised at a much higher level than before Covid. However this static figure hides the fact that new people have started coming to church, and that the congregation is increasingly more diverse. The atmosphere is welcoming and inclusive. New volunteers have come forward to take on reading in church. Thank you to all those who work to welcome others.

We still hope that new members will stand for the PCC - the Church Council - and take a more active role in leading the church and shaping its ministry and identity. We know that many key roles will need to be filled in the medium term.

On the clergy team, we said goodbye to Revd. Darren this year, as he moved on to parishes in the Diocese of Wales. And we celebrated welcomed Revd. Richard's Ordination as priest in June. In their different ways, Richard, Darren, and Zahra they have added much to parish life. We also continue to be grateful to Revd. Judith Ware for conducting occasional services.

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). Collectively they celebrated a combined 50 years of ministry this year! The Training course for ALMs starts in January.

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 number of people have learnt how to operate it. The children and young people seem to engage and respond to the Sunday morning service through their sketchbooks!

I believe the relationships within our Mission Community are growing stronger. Although some of the opportunities offered are not always taken up. The parishes continue to support each other by covering services during illness and holidays, and joint services.

The Church building continues to be a challenge. The Quinquennial Inspection took place in the Summer, and exposed a number of problems with the building: most notably the floor problems beneath the community room. We were already aware of the problems with the roof above the Chancel Arch. The good news is that, having diasgnosed the problem, we can now treat it; and that the rest of the roof is not deteriorating as quickly as we feared. At the time of writing, a plan has been put together to address these issues, and £100,000 secured towards the costs. It was 50 years since the community room was constructed. This is our opportunity to renew it, and improve the space that is such an important community resource.

On a personal note I would like to record my appreciation to you for all that you bring, in your different ways, to the life of the church. We look to the future with hope!

Revd. Nick Andrewes

PCC Secretary's Report

During 2025 we held 5 PCC meetings, all of which was were Zoom. The meetings were well attended. There are 9 members of the PCC, only one person was unable to attend any of the meetings.

The main topics for discussion this year has been the Quinquennial Inspection, which took place in August. There are many concerns about the deteriorating state of our church building, so this has been our main focus this year.

The APCM was held on the 18th May 2025, 22 people attended the meeting.

Lynne Street

Child Protection Report

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.

No health & safety incidents were reported during the year.

The fabric of the building remains a concern, with results of structural inspections now being addressed in relation to the potential for delamination of plaster from the archway between the naive and the chancel.

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

Neil Marshall

Treasurer's Report

Once again, I can start my report with the good news that we paid our Parish Share in full for the year 2025, £15,750.

The energy costs have reduced with the gas bill being £737 less and the electric £449 less than in 2024.

We made charitable donations to the Children’s Society £150, Unicef £350, Royal British Legion £30.

The main unexpected expenditure in 2025 was an electrical inspection £600, drain repairs £420, new water heater in the kitchen £700 and a roof repair £600.

Thank you to the people who manage to continue their Planned Giving donations and to those who allow us to collect Gift Aid.

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

2026 is looking like another year of challenges, we shall keep our spirits high as we have much to be thankful for. Please pray for God’s guidance in helping us all make 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 (2025). The most significant of these is the need to undertake work on the church roof and the floor beneath the community room. The approximate and anticipated costs of work required before 2030 is between £38,000 and £173,988. At the time of writing, approximately £100,000 has been raised towards this and other work.

Planned Giving & Gift Aid

Planned Giving: Direct into the bank account

At the Start of 2025 there were 27 people donating by monthly bank transfer into our bank account. By the end of 2025 we had 27 people donating by bank transfer.

Of these 27 donors, 22 Gift Aid their donations.

Gift Aid recovered from the HMRC for the calendar year of 2025 was £4784.This was on donations from regular donors (22 people) and one-of f donors who have Gift Aided their donations.

If you would like to join the Planned Giving scheme, through regular donations through your bank account, please see Lynne, or one of the church of f icers.

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 (up until June) 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 parish of St Mark Glodwick and others where congregation members live.

The care homes include

• The Coppice,
• Tree Tops,
• 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 - still needed

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 meets twice a year, with 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. We are looking for new representatives this year. Please volunteer if you would be interested in attending.

The most significant matter on the table this year continues to be the emerging Diocesan Strategy.

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

Nick Andrewes

Sunday School - still needed

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

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. In January 2026, Mahdlo started using the space on a Wednesday evening, and the monthly board game group also started.

The Community Room is also used for Voting. At time of writing, the Community Room is also used occasionally by a couple of groups providing local training for carers.

We have stopped offering the room for one-off parties, due to the extra work required.

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

Nick Andrewes

Choir

The church choir remains small in number but the clergy and congregation seem to enjoy having them there and feel the leading by the choir enhances the service. We would be very pleased to welcome any member of the congregation who would like to join us. Please speak to any member of the choir. Carol Vaudrey.

Carol Vaudrey

Pop In

This year, Pop In will have been meeting for twenty seven years, every Tuesday, at 2p.m. in the Community room.

Although our numbers are less than at the beginning, our members enjoy tea, cake and each other’s company as well as playing games and solving quizzes.

We would be pleased to see anyone who popped in for a visit - may be we will find new members!

Please see Colin, Jill or Eileen if you wish to know more about us.

Eileen Cooper

Find Out more

Church Flowers - still needed

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 - still needed

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:

• Worship and teaching: GOLD
• Buildings: BRONZE
• Land: BRONZE
• Community: BRONZE
• Lifestyle: BRONZE

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 - still needed

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

We had been lucky to receive some defra funding for a weekend at Guys Farm Lancaster so In January we started planning our kit list, menus and activities. We completed a quiz of 2024, updated our unit guidelines and made smores, always a treat. The weekend at Guys farm was really good we did a variety of activities, challenges, games and made lots of friendship bracelets.

Through February we worked on a number of skills builders and UMAs and also attended the division thinking day event were we travelled around the 5 World centres making local crafts and foods.

Then we made pancakes and completed a number of activities/challenges for Chinese New Year. For mothers day we decorated tote bags and made cards.

The leaders joined in a walk across the Pennine Way to celebrate its 60th anniversary members of Girlguiding covered the whole route on 28th June. We had an amazing day and the weather was kind ish to us if a little breezy.

At the end of August we had a weekend camp with St Pauls Royton and St Annes Guides at Whiteley Woods Sheffield. The guides took part in a number of games, craft and activities such as Crate Stake Challenge, Tree Climb, Archery and soft axe throwing. The weekends theme was how to train your dragon with many challenges around this including looking after and hatching your own dragon egg!

We are still struggling to get more girls to join guides so we continue to advertise, deliver leaflets, contact schools etc.

With this years apples the guides made apple crumble in a mug which turned out much better than expected!

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

Hayley Cowling

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