News Archive - March 2009

Annual Parochial Church Meeting - APCM

This year's APCM will be held on Tuesday, April 21st at 7.30pm in Eaton Bray Village Hall. Although we call it APCM for short there are in fact two separate meetings.

The first meeting, called the Annual Meeting of Parishioners, is concerned primarily with the election of two Churchwardens. Churchwardens have to be elected annually and no Churchwarden may hold office for more than six consecutive years.

The second meeting - the APCM itself - has two main functions. The first is to give a report for each area of Church life and to give everyone the opportunity to question the various office holders and committee chairmen and so to find out more about what has gone on in the previous year and to influence what will happen in the year ahead.

The second function is to elect 9 parishioners to serve as members of the Parochial Church Council (PCC) for the coming year. Together with the wardens the PCC is the body legally responsible for managing St. Mary's affairs. All the principal office holders are drawn from the 9 PCC members.

The wardens and PCC members work closely with the Vicar and jointly make all the decisions that affect the life of our church. They have to deal with everything that comes along. You may be familiar with some of the day to day problems but you may be unaware of many others. Challenges range from developing the forms of service we use, the pastoral care of our members and of the wider community, financial management of the church, the maintenance of the fabric of the building and negotiating with other bodies like the Parish Council over shared resources.

Malcolm Grant has now retired, so the wardens and PCC will have many additional issues to deal with until a new Vicar is appointed.

As with any organisation with a diverse membership there are many different opinions as to the best way to manage each and every aspect of church life. It is the job of the PCC to represent these views and to make good decisions for the benefit of all.

This is no easy job and it is vital that anyone who can contribute has the opportunity to make that contribution. Standing for election is one way you can signal your willingness to serve the Church and, if elected, then you really do have the chance to make a difference.

This all makes the APCM an important meeting - the people who are elected will manage St. Mary's for the next year.

If you are on the electoral roll and either care about St. Mary's or have an opinion you want to express about an issue that is important to you then come along on April 21st. It's your chance to be heard and to debate the issues that matter. Who knows? You might get elected!

-- Graham Mockett

Source: March 2009 Newsletter

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