Browsed by
Category: Barrowden

St Peter’s, Barrowden Annual Accounts for the year 2017

St Peter’s, Barrowden Annual Accounts for the year 2017

The summary of the Annual Accounts for St Peter’s Barrowden is shown below

Accounts for St Peter’s, Barrowden
for the year 31st December 2016 to 31st December 2017.

TREASURERS REPORT

The Current Account is the general trading account through which most income and expenditure pass. Total income for 2017 amounted to £32614-78 and is an increase compared with previous years.

Planned giving along with Gift Aid Tax reclaimed shows a marked increase compared with previous years. Income from Church Collections and Donations have also seen an increase. Our thanks must go to those who have so generously given and contributed to the running and upkeep of St Peters.

2017 saw the rent received by the PCC for the 11 acres of arable land owned for many years by the PCC significantly increase. The land was being sublet and after the original tenant gave up the tenancy, the land was put up for tender and a more realistic rent achieved.

Fees paid to the PCC were slightly less than previous years as this income is determined by the number of ceremonies (weddings, funerals etc) held in the Church.

Income from Fund raising has also risen with the Open Gardens event, generally thought of as a great success. Along with sponsored cycle rides, harvest supper, sale of teas etc. £3667 was raised so crucial to funds. Our thanks must go to those who worked so hard to ensure their success.

The 200 Club run by Dr and Mrs Wilkinson contributed an increased donation to funds compared with previous years. Our thanks to Les and Grace for their hard work in the organisation of the 200 Club.

Unfortunately, expenditure has also increased compared with previous years.

Insurance for the Church and its Contents along with heating and lighting have remained fairly consistent with previous years. Heating costs and use of the heating is dependent, to a degree, on the weather and when the fuel tank needs refilling.

A cost was incurred in examining the Chancel roof and the examination by expert builders and architects. Fees for this examination amounted to over £5000. Unfortunately, this examination uncovered some long-term problems which will require considerable future expenditure,

General Parish Expenditure which include our contribution to the Five Parish Accounts, Alarm fees, printing etc. has increased compared with previous years.

Churchyard Maintenance including Wakerley Churchyard at £2194 is a reasonable figure.

A payment to the Diocesan Architect of £4000 fees has been paid for his work on the Reordering Programme.

Parish Share to the Diocese is the largest single expense and has increased £14064 in 2015 to £15046 in 2016 to £16080 in 2017. Increases of this magnitude are not sustainable.

The total Expenditure for 2017 amounted to £35168-54, a loss of £1729-76 on the year 2017.

If the one-off expenses, Roof examination and architect’s fees are discounted then general income and expenditure would be in the black.

Angus S Kennedy

Treasurer

Easter Day Sermon – April 2018

Easter Day Sermon – April 2018

Sermon by Christopher Armstrong given at the Easter Communion

on 1st April 2018 at St Peter’s Church Barrowden.

Imagine your favourite Easter Egg today, empty of chocolates. How will you react? You might be puzzled; you might look round for the family member who has hidden the contents or, if you shoot from the hip, you might even fire off an email to the manufacturer to complain. And all because we expect these days to find our Easter Eggs full. Just like our tombs. We expect to find them full – and none more so than the tomb of Jesus. When the women walk to the tomb in order to embalm the body after the hasty burial on the Friday, the day before the Sabbath, they found the tomb empty. Of that there can be no doubt. All 4 gospel writers agree. Had the tomb been full then there would be no Christian Gospel. Such a story would indeed be an idle tale for the proof against the resurrection would be staring the disciples in the face.

We have to realise on this Easter Day in the third millennium that the empty tomb does not create belief. Rather, it creates puzzlement, fear, surprise, wonder, curiosity. In fact, Mark’s gospel ends with the words, “they were afraid”, which is not the best start to good news.

Jesus had preached that he would be raised from the dead but that was a common hope in the first century mind. It was associated with the general resurrection on the last day. They had not heard Jesus accurately. The raising of a single person was contrary to their expectations. So they were surprised, fearful, terrified at the discovery of an empty tomb.

In our gospel today, St. Mark uses women as the first witnesses of the empty tomb and also the first messengers to share the news with the disciples and Peter. Now women were seen as unreliable witnesses in the 1st century but the gospels take a different view. St Luke in particular is the champion of the marginalized and makes the point that even women, even the socially inferior, can be messengers of good news. However, the apostles don’t believe them. To them it was an idle tale, though the Greek is stronger still: they were delirious.

So the tomb is empty. This is a severe embarrassment to St. Matthew for in his gospel account the Romans mount a guard outside the tomb precisely to ensure the disciples don’t come and snatch the body away. The guards thus have a lot of explaining to do.

The tomb is empty – not a reason for belief but a prelude to belief. The body of Jesus has not been found though we can assume that it was the most sought after corpse in the world. The empty tomb doesn’t convince any of the disciples that Jesus is alive and it plays no part in the earliest evidence for the Resurrection that comes from St. Paul. No. The empty tomb doesn’t convey belief. The most reliable evidence for the Resurrection comes next when scattered groups of disciples experience the presence of Christ as well as Paul and his anti-Christian Jewish friends on extermination missions. Both Jewish and Roman histories record this exceptional event and its implications right outside their area of interest and even contrary to it. Finally, the most conclusive proof of all is us here today, the Easter people, those who have met and experienced the risen Lord in some way or another. The sooner we can learn the language of resurrection experiences – not just that of the empty tomb but how peoples’ lives are changed by Christ – the sooner our friends will see and believe. Amen.

Other sermons from Lent and Easter can be found at http://wellandfosse.org/sermons

Sermon for Maundy Thursday Barrowden 2018 – Foot Washing

Sermon for Maundy Thursday Barrowden 2018 – Foot Washing

Below is the sermon which was given at the Maundy Thursday service in St Peter’s, Barrowden by the Very Rev. Christopher Armstrong

‘A new Commandment I give unto you’ John 13.34.

 

Most of us have some fetish, some peculiarities which we quite like to indulge, much to the amusement or shock of other people.  The Churchwarden here thinks I suffer from OCD after we cleaned out the vestry together.

In reality, I have a fetish about shoes and because of this I am delighted to live within striking distance of Northampton, once the centre of the shoe trade and still sporting remnants of that business. So imagine my glee when I found the exact spot in Kettering to have my best shoes repaired!  Not content to post them back to the factory, I took them personally – but I was disappointed.  Instead of finding an imposing and ancient factory complex, the Sat Nav. told us to pull up outside a very plain building: no banner signs; no flashy advertisements; one small brass plate on a plain wooden door.

The door led into a cubby-hole, out of which peered a secretary who immediately took control.  She wouldn’t allow us any further into the factory but she did summon a friendly foreman who told us a bit about the factory and its changed circumstances.  Once it employed 500 workers; now there were 50.

Yes, it was an unimposing building but within it was a concentration of shoe-making expertise which is the envy off the world, stretching back many generations. I could confidently leave my best shoes to be repaired knowing that they would do all in their means to make them as new once more.

 

Tonight, in this imposing building, we concentrate on what I hope we do best: the expression of love.  It comes in many forms: partnership, trust, sharing, joy in one another’s company and that unique gift which Christianity gives to our culture, forgiveness. Of course we are not yet perfect. This is work in progress. Unlike the shoe factory, these gifts are difficult to hand down but rather inherited and fanned into life by mutual example and encouragement.

We meet to celebrate The Eucharist together on the anniversary of its Institution by Jesus at The Last Supper.  And what did Jesus do?   He shared himself. He gave himself away! ‘This is my body’, he said. ‘This is my blood.  Do this to re-member me, to reconstitute me, to identify with me’.  These words we know so well, we repeat them Sunday by Sunday; we probably know them by heart. They are words: powerful words but nevertheless, words.

St. John, in our gospel tonight, doesn’t repeat those words.  His account of the Last Supper is all action.  In the middle of supper, he gets up, puts on a towel and washes the feet of his disciples.

This was astonishing even for Jesus. In any household, the steward would be the person who makes things happen.  He had some status. But Jesus took the job of the lowly slave – who had no status except to wash feet.

Is this then what we need to do? Well, yes.  How do we serve the world except by humble acts of love?  St. Francis sent out his friars, telling them to preach the gospel. ‘Use words if necessary’ he said.

Some of you will be watching the current programme on the Camino with an assorted group of believers, agnostics and atheists travelling together with the usual discussion.  However, what got them all excited on their journey was an old man giving away sticks free of charge and a little later on, a vineyard giving away free wine, as much as they could drink! Here is the generosity of God which oils the wheels of faith in the world.

There are so many examples of loving service in our villages, mostly submerged under the ordinariness of life events. They surface among neighbours, in the community shop, in political or civic service and much of it flows out from our centres of faith excellence. I frequently think of the Barrowden Community Shop as a wonderful model for our churches: entirely there to serve.  As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his prison cell: “The Church is the Church only when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”

‘A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you’. Amen.

 

CHURCH SERVICES: Palm Sunday – 25th March 2018

CHURCH SERVICES: Palm Sunday – 25th March 2018

All are Welcome at any of our Services across the Benefice this Sunday,

Palm Sunday

• 9.30 am South Luffenham Church:   Holy Communion (CA )
• 11.00 am Barrowden Church:             Holy Communion (CA)
•
Readings: Isa. 50. 4-9a  Mark 14.1-15.end
CA =The Very Reverend Christopher Armstrong AR = Mrs Ann Robinson, Reader