Visitation News

Diocese of Liverpool

archdeacons’ visitation news Spring 2015 - issue 13

What we are saying and how we are saying it...

We live in a world where image is important. Where we are conditioned to form impressions of organisations and institutions based on a quick appraisal of what we are seeing. So if we are to be a growing church, attracting and building disciples, then we need to think about both what we are saying and how we are saying it. church buildings. That’s why we have placed so much emphasis on the Archdeacons’ Parish Reviews as they represent an opportunity to have honest, supportive and challenging conversations about the health of the church.

We do this in what is hopefully an atmosphere of trust and respect as we work together to build God’s kingdom in our diocese.

That’s the theme we will be looking at during this year’s Visitations and it has been a theme of both of us over the past year or so. We pick up some of these ideas in this issue as we consider the Archdeacons’ Parish Reviews we have conducted and highlight an excellent book – How to get your church noticed – which is packed full of practical ideas and advice on getting the message out.

Our bishop, Bishop Paul Bayes, has stated he wants a “bigger church to make a bigger difference”. We want to help make that a reality in each and every community in our diocese.

We look forward to exploring this further with you at this year’s Visitations.

We thank you for the part you play in this and pray every blessing on you and your parish.

Everything about our lives sends a message about who we are, what we believe in and how serious we are about our faith and engaging with others. The message is not just about words – the famous quote attributed to St Francis about using words where necessary could never be more relevant.

Our actual words are only a small part of the message we convey. The condition of our building, the friendliness of our welcome, the way we are organised, the amount we reflect the communities we serve: all of these are strong messages about who we are and what we stand for.

As your archdeacons we both want to see healthy, viable, well-ordered and attractive

The return of WACattack – The challenge of change Saturday 31 October 10am to 3pm in and around the cathedral.

Come and celebrate the life of the archdeaconry as we: 1. commit ourselves to the challenges and changes that lay ahead 2. worship together with an Archdeaconry Eucharist 3. we say farewell to Archdeacon Peter and his wife Pat. I hope that each parish in the archdeaconry will ensure that as many members of their congregation as possible come along on the day and that at least 15 members, plus clergy and readers will attend the Eucharist.

The day will include opportunities for all of us to look at, and share, what has changed in our parishes, our churches, our schools, our families and our faith since WACattack 2009, as well as committing ourselves to those challenges and changes that lay ahead.

So make sure you take your ‘Invitation’ leaflets with you and I look forward to seeing you in October.

The Venerable Ricky Panter Archdeacon of Liverpool Telephone: 0151 705 2154 Email: ricky.panter@liverpool.anglican.org The Venerable Peter Bradley Archdeacon of Warrington Telephone: 0151 705 2154 Email: peter.bradley@liverpool.anglican.org

www.ecclesiastical.com/churchmatters

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Archdeacons’ Parish Reviews – “both helpful and encouraging” Changing the ways we do things can be scary – even for archdeacons – so it was not without trepidation that they chose to take on the workload that was involved in carrying out the Parish Reviews.

“In many ways it would have been easier to simply stick with the traditional articles of enquiry and let the parish officers deal with a bureaucracy of tick lists and questions,” explains Archdeacon Peter, “but we have found that time spent with wardens is mostly a productive and constructive way to get to the heart of the matter in every parish.”

“It is a comprehensive approach and certainly for the first visit with parishes the challenge is making sure everything is in place,” adds Archdeacon Ricky, “but it’s vitally important to get the basics right.”

So the review looks at some practical considerations in a form that wardens receive ahead of their meeting. This looks at areas such as the Growth Planning Framework and Parish Dashboard as well as the Quinquennial. It also provides a checklist for making sure wardens know where everything that falls into their areas of responsibility is – registers, policy documents and insurance documents for example.

Feedback from the parishes that have had reviews are largely positive and the review has certainly helped sharpen conversations between wardens, their PCCs, archdeacons and others about better management of the parish. “It can seem a chore, but it’s a chore we can’t escape,” says Ricky “and simply trying to ignore it will not work. But as charitable trustees we have a responsibility to manage our churches well. And a wellmanaged church speaks volumes about how seriously we take our faith and live out our lives.”

But for both archdeacons it is important to see these meetings as supportive.

Archdeacon Peter explains: “It’s not about beating parishes with a stick – we know the pressures you are under – but it is about being robust about the basics so we can have productive conversations about the mission of our churches.”

And it seems to work – as one parish said: “Although we were unsure what to expect, we found the review meeting with you both helpful and encouraging.”

Transforming Wigan: Looking at fresh ideas for church Transforming Wigan is a seven-year £1.2 million programme which aims to: turn around the mission and financial strength in the strategically most vulnerable part of our diocese, enabling it to become a missional powerhouse transfer the learning and good practice to other parts of the diocese (and beyond) so that we can continue to build on strength and mitigate weakness.

This will be done through a number of separate but complimentary interventions both to tackle some of the obstacles to growth (such as the core challenges of ageing money, unsustainable leadership patterns and broken buildings) and set a clear framework for the future.

We want to: reduce the average age of those attending and engaging with church increase the giving base broaden the leadership base to allow for vocations to flourish deal with the ‘buildings issue’ configure the deanery around healthy and viable missional units fit for future purpose, with each reflecting a clear mixed economy of church.

Transforming Wigan is about the reimagination and re-invention of this core resource initially in Wigan and then across the wider diocese. As such it is directly and intentionally designed to improve the mission and financial strength of the diocese.

The Transforming Wigan challenge It is clear to all involved in the shaping of the Transforming Wigan project that church as it has been in Wigan will not be sustainable.

The congregational demographic is skewed, buildings are a problem and growth is at best patchy. It is also clear that it won’t simply be a pattern of gentle decline – in ten years’ time numbers and money will fall off a cliff.

That said, there remains a richness and vibrancy about the local and church communities of Wigan. There is a pride and generosity of spirit among the congregations that continues to manifest itself in the giving of time, talents and treasure – a testimony to the faithfulness of generations of Christians.

The key will be to unlock this latent spirit where it isn’t sufficiently strong, give greater licence to those where there is vision and desire, and set a new tone and a new missional ambition.

Church Insurance Made Simple We’ve been talking to you, our customers, over the last year to find out how we can help make it easier for you to understand your insurance cover. Thanks to what you have told us, we have now developed a new series of ‘Made Simple’ documents to help you with key topics where you wanted straightforward, easy-to-follow, advice.

National Crime Helpline for Churches The Church Buildings Council has set up a national crime helpline for churches to use after a theft.

Once a theft is reported it will trigger an alert to auctions houses, museums and crime prevention agencies which is a fast, effective way of preventing the sale and permanent loss of treasures.

Both the Church Buildings Council and Ecclesiastical are keen that we can all enjoy the many treasures and artworks in churches. But, while the fear of crime is greater than the reality there is no room for complacency and we encourage churches to take simple security measures to protect their church contents such as marking metal items with SmartWater (see overleaf).

In addition we have also produced the following ‘Made Simple’ guides: Church Buildings – an explanation of the insurance issues related to church buildings such as ensuring you have fire risk assessments and avoiding slips, trips and falls.

People in Church Premises – looking at health and safety and other matters to consider to help keep regular visitors to your buildings safe.

To report the loss of a treasure or artwork from your church contact the Church Crime Alert team on 020 7898 1860, or email churchcrimealert@churchofengland. org. Visit www.ecclesiastical.com/ churchsecurity for more information on keeping your church secure.

Events – from fundraising to Christmas services, a summary of what you need to know and when you need to tell us about events at your church.

The new guides are available to read or download from our website. Each provides a simple summary of a topic together with links to web pages and other documents that include moredetailed information.

For those of you looking after your church insurance, we now have a simple guide to administering your policy. This includes help and advice on paying premiums and ways you might save money, including interest-free direct debits or increasing the excess on your policy (the amount you pay if there is a claim).

It also explains when you need to tell us about changes or activities at your church.

Community outreach – churches increasingly offer services such as night shelters – here we summarise the main topics and what you need to consider with your outreach activities.

The ‘Made Simple’ guides reflect our desire to make sure that churches understand what is covered by their insurance and what is not.

Plus we hope they will help to encourage churches to take simple steps to mitigate possible risks. The guides supplement the wide range of content we have on our Church Matters website. If you have any feedback on the new guides or ideas for topics we might cover, why not email us at churches@ecclesiastical.com with your thoughts?

All the new guides can be found at www.ecclesiastical.com/madesimple

Top Tip...

If you feel your church should normally be kept locked, you might like to consider making the key available to visitors. You could ask a local shop, Post Office or garage to safeguard the keys and take details of those visitors who wish to use them. Information about where to obtain the keys can be displayed in the porch area or on the church notice board.

The Ongoing Fight against Metal Thieves Top Tip...

SmartWater can be used on other items in addition to lead roofing – make sure you mark all church owned metals including memorial plaques as well as other valuables you may have inside your church such as silver, altar ware and valuable portable furnishings.

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Ecclesiastical has led a concerted effort in recent years to make churches less-attractive targets for thieves by working with the Church of England, parliament and other interested parties to tighten up the law on scrap metal dealing and increase building security.

While we have seen a reduction in recorded theft of lead roofing, it is important that we remain vigilant as metal theft has not gone away. This is one of the reasons why Ecclesiastical is continuing its proactive work with SmartWater and the police to target metal thieves. We also continue to encourage the use of other security products such as roof alarms to protect churches.

One key aspect of the ongoing fight against metal thieves has been to target the scrap metal and recycling industries in order to make it more difficult for thieves to sell on stolen goods. In the last 5 years, our partners at SmartWater have made over 1,150 visits to scrap yards accompanied by regional police forces in proactive ‘Days of Action’ to search for SmartWater-marked metals.

Man jailed for melting stolen lead

The purpose of these visits is to remind scrap dealers that they face being arrested and convicted of handling stolen goods if they buy SmartWater-marked metals. If scrap dealers

are checking for SmartWater and refusing to buy anything marked with it then thieves will quickly learn there is no point in stealing it in the first place.

For this reason, it is very important that you continue to display SmartWater deterrent signs around your church. These should be placed in highly visible locations where would-be thieves are most likely to see them. If you require new signage then please call SmartWater on 01952 204 102. Remember, you will not be covered for metal theft or any subsequent damage as a result of theft or attempted theft of metal unless you have applied SmartWater (or an alternative forensic marker approved by us), displayed the signage, and registered the product.

A number of helpful crime prevention tips – including information about SmartWater and roof alarms – can be found on the Ecclesiastical website at www.ecclesiastical.com/theftofmetal

An Abergavenny man has been jailed after being caught with £3,700 of stolen SmartWater-marked lead from a church roof.

Jonathan Vaughn, 35, was caught after police received an anonymous call to say he was melting lead in his garden in St Llanfoist. When officers recovered the lead it was found to be marked with SmartWater traceable liquid.

Subsequent analysis identified the lead as having come from St Mary’s Church roof in Abergavenny. At Cwmbran Magistrates’ Court, Vaughn admitted a charge of handling stolen goods.

He was sentenced to four months for the offence and 113 days for a previous offence of assault after magistrates activated a suspended sentence.

Mr Vaughn stated he had bought the lead to melt for Christmas money and refused to say where he’d bought it from.

COVER UPDATE We have recently increased the maximum you may claim for theft of external metal – for more information see your next policy renewal pack.

We are also now able to provide cover for metal theft when scaffolding is erected subject to certain conditions. For more information, visit www.ecclesiastical.com/theftofmetal or call 0845 777 3322.

Allchurches Trust aims to raise giving to record levels This January, insurer Ecclesiastical announced it had donated over £23m in 2014 to its charitable owner Allchurches Trust (ATL), a huge sum by any standard. But what is ATL and how does it use its resources to promote the Christian faith?

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St Giles Dell Centre, Ashtead, Surrey Ashtead is about 15 miles from London, close to the M25 motorway.

Faced with an old wooden church hall now well past its sell by date, members of the congregation have set about fundraising for new facilities.

Designs for the new Dell Centre include meeting rooms, a professional kitchen and a host of other facilities which the congregation envisage being used by the whole community. Pre- and afterschool clubs, social gatherings, fitness, dance and art classes are all on their agenda, alongside mentoring job seekers, community support and activities for the elderly.

The charity, founded in 1972, is chaired

by Sir Philip Mawer, former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and previously Secretary General of the General Synod of the Church of England.

A career public servant, he remains closely involved with the work of the Church and its clergy.

According to Sir Philip, ATL’s role is to support churches and other worthy causes linked to the Christian faith through a programme of financial grants.

Over the last decade, it has donated over £75m to projects as diverse as church building refurbishments and repairs, creating new facilities for people in need – even helping Anglicans in New Zealand establish a temporary cathedral following the devastating Christchurch earthquake.

In 2014 alone, ATL distributed grants of £9.7m, which went to a wide range of churches, dioceses and cathedrals throughout the British Isles. “ATL’s mission is to promote and support the Christian religion,” Sir Philip explains. “In broad terms, it does this by contributing financially to

charitable organisations and churches.

Every month, we receive over 100 applications for grants, which are considered carefully by our trustees.

“Although the majority of our support goes to the Church of England, grants are also made in response to applications from ecumenical partner churches, church schools and charities. We particularly welcome applications from less well-off parishes and for projects which will benefit mission and help local communities.”

Grants to parishes from ATL range in size depending on the scale of the project to be undertaken.

The prospects for ATL’s activities are very positive based on Ecclesiastical’s commitment to donate £50m during 2014-2016. “This is a hugely commendable ambition,” Sir Philip notes.

“What this means is that, given Ecclesiastical’s solid financial performance and favourable conditions in the insurance market, we hope to be able to increase our giving to the Church to record levels over the coming three years.”

For more information or to apply for a grant, visit ATL’s website at www.allchurchestrust.co.uk, where full details are available.

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St Aidan’s Church, Stobhill, Morpeth St Aidan’s is a modern church located in a deprived area on the outskirts of the market town of Morpeth, Northumberland.

With an outdated hall, the church was desperately in need of more community space. An exciting project was devised, resulting in the sale of the old church hall and the proceeds funding an extension to the church for community use. The new building will house a crèche, holiday clubs, a luncheon club and meeting rooms, and it can also be used to provide extra seating capacity for larger services, concerts and other events in the church.

Keeping up to date WIN an iPad Home insurance prize draw Just call us for a quote or let us have your home insurance renewal date and we will enter you into a prize draw to win an iPad for you or your church. You can enter the draw by calling 0800 917 3345 and quote IPAD15 or go on line at www.ecclesiastical.com/ipad

Top Tip...

If you are planning to support your community, for example, through providing a night shelter, food bank or parish nursing, there are important regulatory issues you need to be aware of. We can help you with free advice to make sure you comply with the regulatory requirements.

We hope you are familiar with our Church Matters website which has a wide range of information, guidance and tools you can use to help you look after your church.

All our risk management guidance notes are collected together and sorted into the key categories of security, health and safety, fire, and storms and bad weather.

Many customers also now get updates by email – just let us have your email address if you, too, would like to be updated in this way. For further information:

Our website: www.ecclesiastical.com/church

Do you need help with your finances?

Ecclesiastical Financial Advisory Services can offer you totally independent financial advice on investments, retirement and protection.

They can also help parishes who have funds to invest with their investment strategy. Please note, the value of investments can fall as well as rise and past performance is not a guide to future performance.

For more information call: 0800 107 0190 or email: getadvice@ecclesiastical.com

call 0845 777 3322 or email churches@ecclesiastical.com

Claims: call 0845 603 8381 (24-hour service) or email faithclaims@ecclesiastical.com Our customer service lines are normally open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, except for bank holidays. However, claims can be registered at any time during the day or night.

Did you know?

Here we highlight two features of your Parishguard policy that you may not be aware of.

Consequential loss Consequential loss cover is included in your Parishguard policy to help offset loss of income if your church has to close for repairs following insured damage that Ecclesiastical is covering under the Property section of your Parishguard policy. You may be able to claim up to £100,000 over a four-year period for loss of income from your normal church activities, such as service collections, income from hirers not being able to use the building and costs such as hiring alternate premises.

Money cover

Independent Financial Advice

Customer services:

The prospect of having money stolen by a church official or a volunteer is never an easy one for a church to contemplate, but sadly this is a risk that needs to be addressed.

In the last year there have been a number of court cases involving theft from church funds.

For example, in 2014, a deputy church treasurer in the Wirral was found guilty of systematically stealing collection money for over a decade, amounting to almost £20,000.

The good news is that our Parishguard policy offers some protection against the risk of misappropriation. However, in order to meet the conditions of the policy and ensure that a claim can be defended, you will need to provide specific information and make certain that important checks are carried out.

For example, regular reconciliations should be carried out of bank statements, cash-inhand and petty cash, and these checks should be conducted by someone not usually responsible for money, so that thefts cannot be concealed during the reconciliation.

Our website has more information about how to limit the risk of internal fraud.

Getting your church noticed We work in an age where it’s increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. Yet as a church called to proclaim the gospel afresh for each generation, we need to be challenged as to how we do this creatively and effectively... work again. Not taking it seriously can mean no one knows about the good work our churches do, and therefore Christianity becomes an irrelevance.

3. What is your background and how did you research it?

I trained as a journalist and worked on local newspapers for nine years before starting work as communications adviser for Portsmouth’s CofE diocese. So I already knew how the media worked. I’d also edited a parish magazine before. Over time, I built up some expertise on graphic design, and learnt what makes websites and social media effective. Many of the examples in the book are actually taken from real-life examples in Portsmouth Diocese or beyond.

I suppose I’ve been a bit of a magpie, finding out what has worked in one church and suggesting that other churches in the same situation might do something similar.

So Archdeacons’ Visitation News spoke to Neil Pugmire, Communications Adviser to the Diocese of Portsmouth, about his excellent book How to get your church noticed.

1. What prompted you to write the book?

Part of my role is to advise churches in Portsmouth about how to communicate effectively. There was no up-to-date manual I could give them that included everything parishes wanted to know – about a strategy, logos, noticeboards, magazines, posters, media liaison, websites and using your church building effectively.

So I thought I’d write one. That was back in 2006. I revised it in 2014 because the first edition was out of date and out of print.

2. Why is it important that churches take PR and publicity seriously?

We live in a world where we are surrounded by incredibly sophisticated publicity – advertising billboards, social media promotions, glossy magazines and hard-sell TV adverts. In the face of that, the typical photocopied church magazine or tatty poster on a noticeboard simply isn’t going to be noticed by those outside our doors. Taking publicity seriously involves firstly thinking about who we’re trying to reach and exactly what we’re trying to say, before we settle on a range of publicity methods, each of which might reach a different group. Few churches have even gone through this initial stage of planning, and assume that what worked before may

4. How was the first issue received?

Well, it sold out, which must be good! It had good reviews and it led to the national Church of England asking me to run courses for churches around the country on how they can get noticed.

5. Is there not a danger of this being about management, not God? Yes, possibly. It should go without saying that we should pray about everything we do, but sometimes it is worth saying it anyway! There is also the danger of churches thinking they can rely on God to prompt people to attend our services or events. Sometimes God actually wants us to be the answer to our own prayers. God might inspire someone to ask questions about faith, but they won’t find their way to your church if you haven’t publicised what you do effectively.

6. What made you decide to revise it and what have the revisions been?

The explosion in the use of social media and the growth in mobile-friendly websites and apps that can be viewed on Smartphones meant that the 2006 book was already looking dated. It was also getting harder to find, as no new copies were being printed.

Church House Publishing expressed an interest in a revised and expanded edition, so I made sure I included information about all these new techniques in the new edition. Going through the text with a fine toothcomb also threw up some other items that needed revising too. Part of the problem about working in this field is

that you never quite know what communication technique will take off next.

So it might need to be revised again in another few years!

7. How can churches best use your book?

Hopefully as a manual that can be used.

So after an initial skim, it might involve church members dipping into different parts of the book as they grapple with different things. Each of the 100 ways has a ‘how to’ section, which takes readers through how to do something in easy stages. Hopefully that helps to break down what can look like a daunting task.

There’s also an accompanying website – www.getyourchurchnoticed.com – where readers can pick up extra tips, and share details and images of what’s worked for them. Inevitably there is also a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/GetYourChurch Noticed) and Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/GetYrChrchNotic) to help us talk to each other about these issues.

8. In the Diocese of Liverpool we have been pursuing our growth agenda for years. How does getting a church noticed help with this?

The biggest misconceptions about churches is that they are all boring, irrelevant and on an inevitable decline.

If that’s not true about your church, you need ways to tell people about it or they may assume it’s also on the brink of closure. You will need ways to tell your local community, via the media, your church literature and online, about your good news – that your church is growing, full of families, helping the marginalised, attracting thousands of tourists or however else you are bucking the trend.

Hopefully this book will help you to do that.

How to get your church noticed is published by Church House Publishing and is available from the cathedral shop and other good stockists.

An excellent day with churchwardens...

Bishop Paul met over 200 churchwardens recently to celebrate and encourage them in their ministry.

THANK YOU from Archdeacon Peter As you may know, I am retiring at the end of November, having served as Curate – Up Holland Team Ministry (1979–1983), Vicar, Holy Spirit, Dovecot (1983–94), Team Rector, Up Holland (1994–2011), and Archdeacon of Warrington from 2001, not forgetting the Board of Ministry, GUML, CME and General Synod. Enough said, as this sounds more like my Crockford’s entry!!

My final service is at WACattack (see front page), so I wanted to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU for the commitment and support I have received during my time as curate, vicar, team rector and Archdeacon of Warrington!

The Bishop said: “As they are Bishop’s Officers, it was vitally important to me that I met with my – our – churchwardens.

I wanted to share with them some of my thoughts around the direction our

diocese is travelling and hear from those who have one of the key front-line ministries about what life is like in the real world. I had a fantastic morning and am so grateful to all who freely gave their time to be with us. I hope that all will join me in praying for strength and wisdom for all those who serve as churchwarden, and for those who may feel called to this role in future.”

Fit for mission Bishop Paul has started discussions around how we can support the growth agenda and tackle the critical burning platforms by becoming ‘a sharper, lighter church’. His paper, written on behalf of the Bishop’s Core Group, proposes ideas for how this can help us grow.

You can read a copy on our website.

The Lord who calls us also equips us as disciples, and I hope that the annual Deanery Visitations have been part of that. I have also valued the Visitations as enjoyable occasions combining both fellowship and worship – not to mention the jokes!! It has been both a privilege and an honour to work with so many of you in the work the Lord has called us to do. I wish you all well for the future and look forward to seeing you on 31 October in the cathedral.

Archdeacon Peter

Whilst Ecclesiastical has used reasonable endeavours to ensure that the information in this newsletter is correct at the time of publication, please note: (a) the information is not intended to constitute a definitive or complete statement of the law on any subject, (b) the information may over the course of time become incorrect or out of date; and (c) neither Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc. nor its subsidiaries can accept any responsibility or liability for action taken or losses suffered as a result of reliance placed on the information provided in this newsletter.

For more information call 0845 777 3322 email information@ecclesiastical.com visit www.ecclesiastical.com/churchmatters Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc (EIO) Reg. No. 24869. Ecclesiastical Insurance Group plc (EIG) Reg. No. 1718196. Ecclesiastical Life Ltd (ELL) Reg. No. 243111. Ecclesiastical Investment Management Ltd (EIM) Reg. No. 2519319. Ecclesiastical Financial Advisory Services Ltd (EFAS) Reg. No. 2046087. Ecclesiastical Services Ltd (ESL) Reg. No. 1811698. E.I.O. Trustees Ltd Reg. No. 941199. All companies are registered in England at Beaufort House, Brunswick Road, Gloucester, GL1 1JZ, UK. EIO and ELL are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. EFAS and EIM are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. ESL is an appointed representative of EIO who is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. © Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc 2015

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