Stuart opened with a reading from Psalm 46  reminding us that God is our refuge and strength and a very present help in trouble.

Stuart acknowledged the ministry of Dan McKinlay  who leaves before the next meeting, it has been a great gospel partnership.  We look forward to welcoming Jeff Ware who will join us in January. Also, Tobias Buckley who will join us immediately as Digital Ministry Assistant. The wardens emphasised how important digital ministry is to our Parish.

The bathroom project at St Michael’s is due to be completed by 30 October. This has been a challenging project, the wardens have put a lot of work into getting it in on track. Other property projects are underway including Curates Cottage upgrade, Sandstone Paving and re-wiring St Michael’s Hall. Eddie and the wardens are looking at opportunities to improve the driveway and the office steps.

The wardens have produced a set of policies for the Columbarium – which include setting aside a provision for future maintenance (note, this resolves a matter that was raised at the vestry meeting). The Anglican Church Property Trust is interested in using this as model for other Columbaria in the diocese.

The finance report was presented. The Parish is in surplus – we were expecting a deficit at this stage so this is very encouraging.  Income is up due to increase in giving, increase in columbarium sales and the utilities funding from Cranbrook.  Expenses have been managed prudently. This gives us the opportunity to expand ministry opportunities. The quarterly report is here.

Plans are underway for hybrid church. Each part of the service is being tested in the building. On the last two Sundays of October we will start running parts of the Zoom service from inside the church with the plan to have a full hybrid service on 7th November. Louise Kaye has agreed to be the Zoom host for the online group during November.

Initial results of the Back to Church survey were presented. To date most of the people who responded are attending Zoom church. It would be good to get more responses from others. Interestingly less than half of the people surveyed plan to return to church immediately. A lot of useful information has been obtained, we look forward to receiving more submissions.

The meeting closed with the grace at 8:30pm