Parish Council Update - December 2023

Bible Reading

Devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Open doors and open hearts. Making the most of every opportunity. May these words sit in our hearts for the year ahead, and the decades ahead, as we seek to serve Jesus and share his gospel of grace.

Vision 2030

As we head towards 2030, God has continued to provide all we need. After a year of focus on evangelism, we hope to see 2024 as the year of belonging - a time to welcome new members, and a time to find our own place in serving in God's Church. God has a place for all people to belong in his kingdom. How can we help each other find that place?

Buildings

The first stage of building work is now complete. Stage 2, which involves a large development of an auditorium, offices, and other facilities, is the next stage in our future building plans. A building team has been put together for this and will begin meeting next year.

Staff

We now have a full staff team as of January, with Micah joining us. This will enable to Rector's role to be stepped back a bit from running congregations to overseeing the work of the whole Parish and staff team. This could be a time for a very helpful shift in the way we think about the role of the Rector in the future. His position now oversees 10 congregations over two sites, 10 pastors and 4 youth and children's pastors/ministers, and a full-time administration position, as well as student ministry positions. As our Rector Bruce moves on to a new ministry/Parish, this will be a time of good transition for the St Phil's and St Mark's as a new Rector is appointed and the role is established by him. It will most likely look different from the past as the Church continues to grow and move forward with ministry.

Staffing 2024:

Stipends of staff for 2024 were finalised at this month's meeting. Our budget will, as usual, increase for 2024, but we will be drawing down on some planned savings to kickstart this increased budget. We also will make some further savings, no longer having to budget for loan interest, and there will be reduced costs as there will be some time with the Rector's position vacant. This will reduce the required offertory increase to around 13-14%. The budget will be finalised in January/February.

Works report

In his absence, David Mayes kindly provided us with a written works report for this meeting, the details of which are as follows:

Ermington:

The Development Application submitted to Parramatta Council for a new shade shelter over the new playground was approved last month. We are having some difficulty simply registering the Ermington site address with Parramatta Council which is holding matters up considerably and preventing a Construction Certificate from being obtained. Please pray, as this work is urgent - the funds from our grant need to be expended very soon.

A grant application has been made for the Community Building Partnership grants for the possible installation of a disabled-accessible toilet at St Mark's, along with roofing repairs to the toilet area.

Eastwood:

The On-site Detention Tank (OSD) and Carpark have now been completed (December 9th). The security lighting for the carpark will be installed later this week.

A glass balustrade infill is soon to be fitted for the new ramp to provide improved safety.

A grant application is being made for the Community Building Partnership grants for the possible installation of a retractable shade shelter on the back of the CMC over the deck.

Bells (Eastwood): Documentation was finalised and then rejected by Ryde council on several levels. We are still investigating how we might be able to respond to this. No further action has been taken this month.

Building Loan update

Our final loan amount for the current building work was reduced to $194,350. With a generous gift of $150,000 from one of our members, this interest-bearing part of our loan has now been reduced to zero! With only a $50,000 interest-free loan remaining, we anticipate being able to repay this much earlier than expected. Praise God!

If you would like to contribute to the building work, please head to our giving page on the website for more details on direct giving...

Giving page

All our giving information for tax-deductible and other giving, including regular giving, building giving, and Scripture giving (tax-deductible), can be found on our giving page on our website:

Giving page

Tax receipts can be issued by the wardens on request. For more information or to request a tax receipt, please email our wardens: wardens@stphils.org.au

Finances

Our 2023 budget includes a 12% increase from last year.

Details for online banking can be found on our website here: Giving page

Budget summary 2023 - November year to date:

• Income required:
  Year to date: $832,604
  Weekly: $17,196
• Current offertory:
  Year to date: $805,443
  Weekly: $16,780
• Shortfall: $27,161
  The current offertory is 96.7% of the budget (a downward trend of 0.3% from last month)

We are always thankful for the generosity of our members. This regular giving enables the daily ministry to continue at St Phil's and St Mark's. We ask all members to be prayerful in their giving, regularly considering how God has equipped them to financially support his work both here and throughout the world.

Other business

Andrew Glover will take the position of Acting Rector from January 30 2024 until a new Rector is appointed by the Archbishop. Please be in prayer for Andrew and the staff team as they head into the new year.

The Rector thanked the Parish Council for their work over the past year, and for their gospel partnership which has always been so encouraging.

Prayer

The meeting closed in prayer at 10:20pm