For technical reasons it has not been possible to convert the reports to a web page. You can view the reports as a Microsoft Publisher 2003 document by following this linkAnnual report

The Vicar’s report to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting should fulfil three tasks:

1. to present a summary and provisional assessment of the year
2. to give thanks on behalf of all to those to whom thanks are due, to be encouraging whilst giving at least gentle hints of areas of concern
3. to reveal a little of his own experience

That’s a serious task; so each year I’ve tried to do it carefully and fully. But this year I must be briefer because of the one major extra item we’ve had on our agenda.

First let me remember with thanks those from, or connected with, our community who have died: Mike Cross’ father Bill, Maud Palmer, Sindhu Patil’s father, Vivienne Morris’s close friend Ashman Douglas, Ken James, Elsie Rider and, straying into 2007, Ruth Foster and Geoff Mendham. Among those who have moved away I must especially remember Professor Jim Boulton and his wife Margaret. We continue to pray for them, not least as Margaret’s health continues to deteriorate.

Among those newly baptised we specially rejoice in Jo Pearce, Sarah Sempebwa’s grandchildren and two young relatives of Stan and Val Hems. Marcia Grey (Cyril Dyer’s stepdaughter) and Keith Brown were married, as were two couples of persecuted Christians from Eritrea. Last May, Molly Ross and Elliott Moody declared publicly their commitment to Christ and his Church, along with Meenakshi, Andy + Bharti’s daughter, in last year’s Confirmation service.

Rejoicing with those who rejoice, I’d like particularly to note Mary Beasley’s achievement in gaining her doctorate for work in the inter-faith area.

1. A ‘Maintenance’ Year

In many areas of out life this has felt like a ‘maintenance year’, which for me has meant seeking to give support, guidance and encouragement to things well-established.

• The parish has continued to be led by the Ministry Team, with Rosie now developing her own area of ministry within the Team’s framework, as has been made evident for example in this year’s Lent programme. Claire Wesley is now an established member, making a valued contribution to children’s work as well as in preaching and leading worship. The PCC has just agreed to support Simon Foster’s decision to offer himself for the ministry of a Reader, thus continuing the process of spreading leadership to a wider and younger team. The Pastoral Team has flourished under Lewis’s thorough leadership. I will always count it a privilege to have worked with both these committed teams of ministers.
• Every Saturday morning there’s a welcome coffee table, impeccable flowers and even some cleaning.
• Pre-School Praise and AZTEC have continued to flourish under partially changed leadership;
• the Lunch Club is thriving with some very capable new leadership and help under Alan Fletcher’s supervision;
• the oversight of Baptisms and Weddings continues in good order;
• FreeSpirit continues to provide young people with a forum for creative worship and reflection on important issues of faith;
• a distinguished stream of church speakers in our ‘Reflections’ service have addressed topics as diverse as community regeneration, the plight of asylum seekers, Yoga and the wonder of the created order;
• the Emmaus Nurture course has prepared adults for Confirmation
• a small but effective Discipleship Group is established under Simon Foster’s leadership.
• The PCC is a thoughtful and congenial governing body – how many vicars can say that?
• its Standing Committee has settled into a more focussed role after we pruned it two or more years ago, under the continuing leadership of its wise, experienced and hospitable chair.
• After a slightly bumpy ride in the finance department 18 months ago it’s very good to have Andrew Milton’s professional competence and leadership in the Treasurer’s driving seat. Last year, I reported that the ‘Building on our Values’ campaign had resulted in the promise of £12,000 extra income after a year with £8,000 deficit, but that did not mean we’d have £4,000 surplus this year. But, oh me of little faith, that is (almost) what has happened. So belated thanks to Pete Dickson, Andrew’s predecessor, who led that campaign and to Andrew who has administered the results, for the first real surplus for a number of years.
• This year’s slightly bumpy ride was in the PCC-Secretary department as Sindhu Patil was compelled by personal circumstances to relinquish the post, but Clare is already proving an excellent new appointment. Andrew and Clare are, together with Tim and the wardens, a team in which you can have confidence as the ministry Team start to plan for the interregnum which is due to start in the second half of next year.
• The PCC Committees are some of the most creative and exciting places in our common life, whether we think of delivering youth work, social justice action, social fundraising events and a real ministry of hospitality, or delivering provision for children. ‘Committee’ is not a word which necessarily promises excitement, which is no doubt why John Hull had his committee’s name changed. But in fact, each one gives us things that enrich discipleship, things that do good work on our behalf.
1. Special Highlights

There have been some special highlights:

• the fulfilment for Kathy Lloyd-Roberts of her long-standing sense of vocation in her ordination to the diaconate in July.
• Rosie’s ordination here on the first Sunday in October, Harvest Festival. This was a very happy occasion; it was a rare privilege to be present at Rosie’s self-offering to God, a self-offering which is at the heart of any ordination, and to have it this time taking place in our own parish church, with Bishop Mark, who in his retirement belongs to our congregation, as the ordaining bishop. This gives me an opportunity to acknowledge with gratitude both the ministry Rosie exercises among the congregation and her loyalty and support for me personally (of which, incidentally, the way today has worked out has been a good and typical example).
• As we have settled into the use of a permanent Nave Altar, it has been good to see the old Lady Chapel altar, somewhat misused over the last 97 years, beautifully restored and now, visibly a Holy Table, adorned with the excellent frontals made by our very own Heather Marshall. These frontals, which complement the less abstract ones donated in 1996, have been funded by a number of generous donors, of who she herself is one.
• And in a very different area, we had the new, most enjoyable and profitable Advent Craft Fair, which was also a great community event.
1. Areas of concern

I could go on. But it’s necessary also to note areas of concern. Recently we had a student on placement and in just ten days we were able to present him with a programme – just sitting in on events – which most parishes could not provide. Lots of things are in place, but after a number of years not all of them really have the place in our common life they should:

• FreeSpirit is a wonder of creativity and well-rooted theology, but has hit a fallow patch in the numbers of young people actually there: various reasons for this, but it’s not something that will be rectified by appeals for adults support, important though that is.
• Emmaus Nurture has excellent leadership, and it is the way we offer exploration of the Christian faith to outsiders as well as prepare for Confirmation. But again a very small group.
• There was a quite forceful call a couple of years ago, especially from young adults, for weeknight fellowships (‘home’ or ‘cell groups’), and the one we have is really worth being part of, but take-up has been small.
• This Lent there have been two course for the deepening of discipleship – I hear good reports of both, but add together the numbers of those involved and the result is not a very high proportion of our congregation.

I don’t want to sound as if I am nagging busy people to do more. A better staring point is to invite you to stop and consider the wonder of what we have and of what is done each week in the name of all of us. For example, not everyone can help with the Inclusion Group, but everyone can know what it is and rejoice that the lives of young people with learning difficulties are being made transformed and the pressure under which their parents live relieved every Tuesday night in the Church Hall. Not everyone can visit the sick in hospital but everyone can know just who from the Pastoral Team will be there doing it on their behalf; not everyone can be at daily Morning Prayer, but everyone can know that each day the Ministry Team, between them, begin their day with prayers to God for, among many people and concerns, you. And so on.

And there is another reason why what we are as a congregation is important. There are many voices in Christianity today which are disturbing, some of them in the Anglican Communion and some of them very near home. For example, a couple of years ago, ministers of the local fraternal were looking for a symbol of our working together and one suggestion included a rainbow, as a sign both of God’s promise to Noah to sustain the earth and of the rainbow people of God, drawn from every race and nation and language. But for us at least, that also meant those of different sexual orientations, which more than one church was not prepared to accept. We were not prepared to betray our values and so the thing collapsed. At All Saints, we seek to include a wide range of Christian viewpoints but, when the chips are down, our identity is about an open, inclusive and non-fundamentalist orthodoxy in communion with our bishop and rooted in what has been handed on to us. I believe the church and the world both need parishes like ours which will stick to that. Other ways may be more popular in the times we live in, but that does not make them right.

1. My year

During this last year I have managed to keep bits of ministry alive which are beyond the parish boundary: at the Bishop’s request I’ve supervised a curate who needed a bit of extra input; I’ve interviewed a number of ordination candidates as one of the Bishop’s examining Chaplains, I’ve given presentations for USPG and worked with those with a special love for God’s people in both South India and in Belize. Nearer home, the Colmore Schools continue to open their doors to me and I feel very much at home there as I pursue a gentle witness to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, within the proper constraints of a secular environment. And it is good and healthy through the Development Project to enter the lives, professional and personal, of those out there in the wider world.

I will not labour the pressure of last year as regards the Project – David has said all that is necessary. But for Renate and me, though in the end getting only a week’s notice of the need to move, there has been much good and grace to be found in the upheaval: we are grateful for your support, practical and personal, for a congenial part of the city to move to, and for the release of internal energy once the deadening hand of those holding us back was finally prized away. I’ve expressed my appreciation of those who work closest with me on the Project many times, but do so again gladly. Now there are practical tasks to get on with: fundraising for Phase 2 and for including our Lunch Club into facilities for elderly people in our congregation and neighbourhood. For me there will be a special concern to get on as far as we possibly can with the plans Gary has spoken about tonight. When we began the Project, one or two voices said we should start again with a new church. That was never a serious possibility but sticking with a building that presents a number of problems (which have often been listed) does mean that, almost every time I lead worship, I’m struck by these difficulties. And now a crisis has come with the failure of the organ. I am sure the PCC have been wise in two things here: they have struck a middle course between the huge cost of restoring the present instrument and leaving us without one, and, in doing so, they have not compromised on quality by going for a cheap but unsatisfactory option.

Now for the good news: next year is the last time you will have to listen to me making an Annual Report! The Ministry Team had an awayday recently to prioritise for the next two years, so as to be able to lead and do well what is important, perhaps to drop some things which are not priorities, to leave Rosie and the wardens with a manageable structure and workload, and to prepare the best state of affairs we can for my successor. So my final request to you is to do your best, in a disciplined life of prayer and worship and in an appropriate degree of active service, to co-operate with her and with them for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of his church here.