- New members: Claire Spencer and Andrew Burdett were welcomed to the Council and the past services of Janet Appleton and Susan McLintock were recognised and greatly appreciated.
- The new Servery Area: A Faculty has been submitted to the church authorities for the setting up of this new area in keeping with its location within the church. The project will cost around £10K and we are seeking grant aid to complete the funding of the work
- The Old Churchyard Restoration: We await the archaeologist’s report on what needs to be done to preserve the old churchyard.
- Video Installation: Whilst the new sound system is working and paid for, the video system is not yet fit for purpose. We have a technician visit coming up in the next few weeks to address the current issues in the hope we can sign off this work by the end of June.
- The Art Exhibition: This was clearly very successful in all respects. It is likely that we will do something similar another year but probably not every year.
- The Earth Day: It was felt this was a good example of the church demonstrating concern for current issues and also raising valuable funding.
- The Heating System: A fault with the pressure levels in our boiler has been identified. This is being addressed.
- Our Mission Action Plan: The Council went through the three agreed aims and discussed actions proposed to achieve these aims.
Aim 1: Increase our relevance to the younger generation including to younger children and families.
- Identify a suitable area of the churchyard and seek out someone to run a children’s gardening club in tandem with Snics Snacks on a Friday afternoon or on another weekday after school
- Create stronger links with school and parents eg ensuring link to seasonal church newsletters and website is in school electronic mailing
- Identify and offer a parenting course aimed at families with primary and/or pre-school children
- Review worship opportunities for families and children
Aim 2: Become a focus for community engagement with contemporary world issues
- Celebrate Earth Day and promote sound recycling practice
- Continue to coordinate and raise consciousness of refugee issues through Taplow for Ukraine
- Use and promote fairly traded goods
- Organise other events providing the opportunity for local people to reflect on issues of the day
Aim 3: Build on existing activity to increase opportunities to keep doors open and provide friendship and support to both congregation and wider community
- Continue to hold quarterly Friends events with varied topics to appeal to a broad audience, and to promote the Friends
- Hold an additional open church event four times a year eg. Earth Day, Art exhibition, Christmas pop up shop
- Widen the scope of Hope Café to make the afternoon more appealing to a wider group of people
- Facilitate rental bookings for concerts and other local cultural activities
- The Electoral Roll: There are now 90 people on the electoral roll.
- The next Meeting: This will be held on Monday, 17th July, 2023
