We are really excited to share our Advent and Christmas programme with you.
Whatever you are doing as part of this special season, please know that you are so welcome to join us, worship with us, share in the celebration with us, but above all, our prayer is that through this season you may know more fully the love of Jesus Christ.
Please note that our Remembrance Sunday service will be taking place with Sunday at 10.45am. We expect this service to be very busy so please arrive early if possible.
We will be visiting the Cenotaph on Ecclesall Road South at 11.45am.
Please note that there will be NO 9.15am service this Sunday. The 8am and 6pm services will take place as normal.
This month begins with Commitment Sunday on 3rd November and this is a good time to consider our journey of faith and the part we play in the life of All Saints.
We have been greatly encouraged by the response to Vision Sunday and the ‘Stewardship & Commitment 2020’ campaign. As Dan reminds us in his sermon, ‘We are called to radical generosity’. Seeing people committing to support the community of All Saints: mission, family, community, outreach, education, and partnerships. Generosity of financial commitment, generosity of time, generosity of resources, generosity of talents and skills, generosity of expertise, generosity of spirit.
Commitment is part of our worship. It is to be celebrated. We make promises, and as a consequence we celebrate anniversaries. We mark the years, we invite family and friends and we consider ourselves blessed. Commitment is not a chore but a recognition of who we are as children of the Living God.
Commitment is a challenge. We give because He gave first. We are not called to a life of ‘comfort’ but a life of ‘challenge’.
Commitment is not an optional extra in the calling that Jesus asked us to follow. We are called to account for all the talents that we have been given. Commitment is more than just handing over money, it is a challenge to our role in mission and community. It is also about being wise with the resources we are given.
The wardens, PCC and staff team are monitoring and, alongside hoped-for increased giving, discerning where costs can be reduced to ‘close the gap’ between income and expenditure.
Throughout November, please would you continue to prayerfully consider your commitment. We would love for everyone to have had a chance to think about their commitment to the ministry and mission of our Church Family.
It is nearly a year since Alistair was licensed as Priest-in-charge of St Gabriel’s and we released and sent a s m a l l t e a m t o accompany him and his family. We are really excited to take this opportunity to share and give thanks for some of what God has been doing since then.
Highlights include:
Summer Holiday Club that saw over 55 children attend. it was a fantastic four days including sports, crafts, an inventor’s workshop, and main sessions of singing songs, playing silly games and an interactive story from Matthew’s Gospel about the life and love of Jesus.
The start of a new fortnightly service called ‘Gather’ - an interactive and informal all-age service exploring life, faith and relationship with Jesus. Breakfast is also included!
A new 9:30am start time every Sunday for the main services.
Development of publicity including a new website, weekly notice sheet and re-designed notice board on Greystones Road.
A new Friday morning toddler group.
New structures of governance included the start of seven new PCC sub-groups to allow the PCC to focus on governance and financial management.
Leading up to Christmas, key events will include Carols in the Greystones on Monday 16th December and a Nativity Service on Christmas Eve. The hope is these will be key opportunities to invite people to a new Alpha course in the new year.
Looking forward the focus will be drawing in families on the fringes, developing discipleship across the church family and starting to re-consider small groups.
Thank you for your on-going support and particularly your prayer. it is greatly felt and appreciated.
Thank You!
A copy of the sermon given by Rev Beth Keith on Vision Sunday:
You never really know what you’re stepping into when you start a new job or in my case when you start at a new church. You may have heard about the reputation of a place, perhaps driven past, perhaps you have assumptions based on other bits of information you’ve picked up, or reports from people you trust. But you never really know until you start. And when you start in a new place, you see things that other people don’t necessarily see. Things which seem entirely normal to those who’ve been there for years, seem odd, or… interesting…or surprisingly wonderful.
In the last seven months, I can report, having all those feelings. What might seem entirely normal to you…Literally it was only on Wednesday that I found out that this is not actually pulpit. Who knows what it’s called? Yes, it’s an ambo. Apparently, everyone knows, well apart from me. I don’t think I had ever heard that word before, let alone known what it meant. But apart from strange words for pulpits, what else have I seen?
Well, I have seen kindness, and I have seen generosity and a warm open heartedness. Last week at the 8am and 9.15 I shared a bit about how I have been so encouraged in seeing how this type of ministry, this ministry of kindness, happens week after week, as members of the church just get on with supporting and visiting those who are lonely, or bereaved, or in hospital.
What else have I seen? Well, I have heard about lives turned around. Only this week, a church member shared with me how the commitment of the prayer ministry team to pray, and keep on praying, for her and her family over years, and years, had changed her life. She believed it had kept her going and brought her into a good place.
I have heard over and over again, in words, and through actions, the determination you have to live lives of value, with care, and integrity.
Lives based on Jesus’ teaching. I have heard of your commitment to live for justice and truth, to care for the creation, and ensure those most vulnerable are not left behind.
I have heard your commitment to follow Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Your commitment to wait and hear, and to seek for where God is leading, to look for where God is at work and join in.
Earlier on in the week, I was looking over the readings for today and I read these words from Eph 1.15
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
And as I began to read, I had to stop, and I’ll be honest, I teared up a bit, because I wasn’t just reading verses from Paul about the church in Ephesians, I was reading words I could have written about you.
I had heard of your faith before I came here, but now I have seen it, your faith in Jesus and your love for all the saints, and I thank God for it. I thank God that your faith is not just kind and good and well meaning, but grounded in Christ, in who he was, and what he said, passed down to us in the words of scripture. Words that are well summarised in our other reading from Luke 4, when Jesus, before he began his ministry on earth, stood up in the synagogue and said.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me
Because he has anointed me
To bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To let the oppressed go free
To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
We are a church that believes we are all SAINTS. Called by God, saved by God, people of God. We may be different parts of a body, taking on different roles, bringing different gifts. But there are no levels in the people of God. No degrees in which you are more or less saints than the person you’re sat next to. No roles or positions which mark anyone out as more saintly than the next person. Who we are is based on what God has done in Christ, and we are all invited into that. And we are also all SAINTS whether we are in this building or outside, as much on Mondays, as on Sundays.
We are united and committed to be TOGETHER in our differences. This church has different styles of worshipping, perhaps there is one particular service you prefer. We worship in different ways, we see things and understand some things differently. But alongside that, I hear from you, a kindness and a generosity, that is more important than differences or disagreements that may arise.
In any church, in any situation, it is easy, and a normal human tendency, to see what is in front of you. To focus on the immediate context.
As the church we are called to something beyond our local community. We are called to look further than Ecclesall and connect with the church present in the communities across South Yorkshire, churches in our Diocese, churches across our country and churches around the world.
There is an ALL to being part of the church, being connected to ALL the SAINTS, beyond me and my friends, beyond me and my community, beyond me and my church.
This ministry, this connection, happens through the work of our Mission Support Group, but also through the different churches and charities you support – the foodbank, Archer Project, the on-going prayer support for our mission partners. And it happens in the ways we share our resources, in the Diocese and beyond. In the ways we share our time, our skills and our finances.
Who we are together, and what God has called us to here in Ecclesall, has shaped the vision and set the agenda of how we plan and manage our resources. Not that this is necessarily an easy or uncomplicated task, and not that we always get this right, but it is our aim and it is our objective.
This vision Sunday, we are not putting forward a new project or plan. Our vision has not changed. Instead we want to remember and remind ourselves what God has called us to and talk through how we stay on track. How we continue with the vision and call we have received and commit to the task we have been given. Today, I am going to focus particularly on a financial update. Talking through where we are, how we are spending our money and what we are planning going forward. At the end of the talk we will be giving out our Stewardship booklet. This contains more details and sets out the information I will be sharing with you today.
Per year it costs roughly half a million pounds to run All Saints as we do.
We spend that money in three areas.
We spend about 60% of that on our people. Which includes staff salaries and expenses.
We spend about 18% of our money on buildings and running services. This includes costs connected to our estates, building repairs and upkeep. It also includes the associated costs to run our services and activities, our administration and operational costs.
And we spend a significant proportion on of money on mission to the wider church, making up about 22%. This includes supporting other churches through the Diocese (through the common fund), supporting the mission partnership with St Gabriel’s and supporting our mission partners across the world through the work of the mission support group.
Sometimes when you give money, you hear where it goes, but if you don’t see first-hand what the money is used for, you don’t really know how much of a difference it makes. About ten years ago I used to be part of St John’s Park. It’s a small church on the other side of town, near Park Hill up behind the station. It’s a very different church to here and part of a very different parish. It’s one of the more deprived areas of Sheffield and a church which can’t afford to pay staff. Money that comes from richer churches, like All Saints, is used by the Diocese to support churches in poorer areas like St Johns. We were able to have a part time vicar because of the support provided by other churches. When your part of a congregation which is smaller and where there are less resources, in terms of finances and skills, having a vicar which is focused on the church and the parish makes a big difference to the church. So firstly, can I say thank you for the money you have given which supports churches like St Johns. And can I also say, it makes a big difference, it really does.
Almost all our incomes comes in through giving. Only 3% comes through grants and other income, the rest, the bulk comes through giving. Firstly, through our committed givers, who give regularly by standing order, or in planned giving with the envelopes into the offering plate. We also receive generous one-off gifts and some legacies. These larger gifts have built up our reserves which can be drawn on when need arises.
Over the last year new people have become regular givers and some regular givers have increased the amount they give. But this increase in giving by some has also been matched by others regular givers leaving, either through death or moving church. So, in the last two years our funding received through regular giving has actually fallen even though we had hoped it would increase.
This time last year, the PCC put forward a budget, expecting an increase in giving to cover the increasing costs. We hoped to increase our giving to £440K this year, but we expect it to be more like £415K. The stewardship appeal last year highlighted that even with the expected increased giving, we would still have needed to draw on £20K of our reserves to cover costs. However, given the fall in regular giving, and with some costs being greater than originally anticipated, we now expect to end the year with a significantly higher deficit at over £50k.
We are in the fortunate position, that we do have reserves to cover this. But this is only a temporary solution. We cannot keep on relying on our reserves to bail us out. Our unrestricted reserves currently stand at £345k. Following the guidance of the Charity Commission we need to retain £130K of reserves in case of emergency. If we continue as we are without making changes now, we would expect the deficit to grow in the next two years.
If that were the case, it would only take us 3 years before all our reserves are spent. Clearly, we cannot carry on in this way. So, we have some difficult decisions ahead.
Using some of our reserves to cover the short fall this year gives us time to plan and ensure this does not continue into the future. The PCC hopes to work with you, the church family, to return the church finances to a settled and year on year balanced financial position over the next two years. And we are looking at ways to increase our income and reduce our expenditure.
Now some of you may have questions as to why we have got into this position. The stewardship booklet sets out clearly the reasons why we are now in this position. It also outlines in more detail how money is being spent, the level of our reserves, further information on our current giving, and the draft budget the PCC has agreed for 2020. Please do come back to us with your questions and queries about this.
This morning the PCC are here, and happy to talk about this with you after the service, and helpfully they are wearing badges, so you should be able to spot them easily.
We believe in a God who provides. Time and time again this church has been blessed by God’s abundant provision. This has enabled us to be a blessing within the church and beyond. We are called to be God’s church here in Ecclesall, and as part of the wider church. God is faithful. He encourages us and challenges us to be faithful in response. We are a church which is generous with our time, gifts and resources, and we believe this is what we are called to be.
As we look at ways we can increase our income and reduce our expenditure, we are asking all members of the church family to consider their giving for 2020 as an important step as we plan for the future.
If all our members who currently give through our pledged regular giving scheme were able to give an £10 a month, we would be able to agree our budget for 2020 and begin to plan into the future.
If all current givers were able to give an £20 extra a month, we could dramatically reduce the amount of reserves which will be used to cover the deficit.
Please consider carefully if you are able to increase your giving.
And if you are a member of the church who does not currently give in a planned and regular way, please do consider signing up to this.
Any gift is much appreciated but pledged regular giving help us to plan more effectively.
You can give cash or cheques in the envelopes on the offering plate.
Or you can set up a direct payment from your bank. At the back of the stewardship booklet is a commitment form. Please do fill this in and bring it back to church next week, or the week after. We will be collecting commitment forms for the next four weeks.
If you know what you would like to give, please do start giving today.
In a month’s time, on Nov 3rd we are celebrating commitment Sunday. During the services we will be celebrating all the ways we give, the gifts of our skills, our time, our energy, and our financial resources. But you do not need to wait until then to return the form or set up a payment. In fact, please start when you have had time to pray and think about your response.
We do not want you to feel pushed into to giving but we do want you to have a clear picture about our financial picture. Over and over again, this church has seen God provide. And so, before we do anything else we want to pray. We’re going to give out the stewardship booklets now. And I’ll handover to Dan/Alistair who will be leading us in prayer for the church and our finances.
The 24 hour ‘Prayerathon’ took place over Saturday and Sunday, 5 and 6 October. Amazingly we maintained a continuous chain of prayer, with members of the church family praying throughout the day and night.
On Saturday morning we met together in church for a morning of prayer and worship. It was wonderful to gather together and commit our church to God in prayer.
We were reminded that our times are in God’s hands and prayed for the timing and process of appointing a new Vicar.
Prayer stations were set up around the church, each giving specific request for prayer for the ministries within our church, including: small groups, children and youth, pastoral support, worship, and, for those involved in leadership and governance: staff, volunteers, members of the PCC, wardens, Parish Representatives.
On Sunday 6th October, as part of Vision Sunday, the church family was given an update regarding the current financial position at All Saints. Please do continue to pray over the finances and, if you do not already have a stewardship booklet, please pick one up from church or download one from the website.
As this new term starts there are lots of things to which we look forward and so much for which we are thankful.
Vacancy News
We officially entered a 'Period of Vacancy' (that is a period without an incumbent) on 6 September. On 23 September the PCC agreed to make a formal request to advertise for a new vicar. The paperwork for this request has now been sent to the Bishop. We wait to hear as to if/when we will be able to advertise.
At the same meeting, the PCC approved the draft documents that have been produced by the Vacancy Working Group. These include the Role Description, Person Specification and Parish Profile. Thank you to all those who contributed to the consultation programme in August. The information given in these documents will help to give a prospective new vicar an insight into All Saints and the role of the new incumbent.
The next stage is for the PCC to meet with the Archdeacon (as the Bishop's representative) to discuss the draft documents, advertising the vacancy, and other aspects of the selection process.
Once this meeting is completed, the two elected Parish Representatives: Alison Fletcher and Michael Gordon will continue to work with the Archdeacon and others within the diocese to discern the final selection process, interview, and make the decisions regarding appointment.
There is a lot of activity and discernment in the Diocese at the moment, and it is not definite that we will be able to advertise straight away. Even if everything runs as smoothly and as quickly as it can, it is unlikely that we would advertise before January 2020.
We have, however, been blessed with a wonderful team of staff and volunteers throughout this Period of Vacancy. A pause also provides an opportunity for the church family to continue to devote themselves to prayer for the Holy Spirit to guide us as a church.
Please continue to pray that all things will be in God's timing. While we are keen to advertise as soon as possible, let us hold on to the fact that all things are in His timing and His plan is greater.
Please pray that God will continue to prepare the way and that He will lead whoever is to be the next vicar of All Saints to apply.
Please pray for our Parish Representative: for wisdom, clarity of thought, strength and discernment.
Whilst we might be without an incumbent, we are not sheep without a shepherd. Let us continue to hold on to the Good Shepherd who told us to love God and to love each other.
Sarah Leighton & Ruth Watkin
The PCC has agreed that during this August we would have a simplified programme of services. In particular, we will be merging the 9.15am and 11.00am services into a single 10.30am services drawing on both their quite different styles. This will allow some of our volunteers and staff members to have a period of Sabbath. We are hugely grateful to our small army of volunteers. You do a great job all year round. Thank you! We very much hope that everyone will benefit from lighter duty rotas. We also hope that you will use the opportunity to get to know church family members from across the different services The services during August are below. We hope that you enjoy them.
All Saints, Ecclesall is committed to high standards in the safeguarding and care of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Our Safeguarding Officer is Rob Coleman, who can be contacted by calling 0114 2687574 or emailing rob.coleman@allsaintsecclesall.org.uk, and our Safeguarding Policies can be viewed by clicking on this link.
Further information on safeguarding within the Church of England together with details of organisations and agencies that provide support can be found on the Sheffield Diocese website: https://www.sheffield.anglican.org/safeguarding
Our Privacy Notice can be found here.
