The APCM and our new PCC
should you stand for
election?
This
is the month when you must decide: is God calling you to
use your gifts to serve us, your local church?
It is time that you became a lay leader? The
Anglican Church has not always welcomed laity in
positions of leadership. Before the Church of
England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, the administration
and finances of a parish were, in law, almost entirely in
the hands of the incumbent and his churchwardens. The
parishioners had little or no say in anything that went
on, except to help in appointing churchwardens. While
church councils had been set up in many urban parishes,
they existed only at the whim of the incumbent, and could
be dissolved at any time. But
the fact that these early PCCs existed at all was proof
of how much the laity wanted to share the burdens of
parochial administration, and proof also that the clergy
wanted to include them! Things
changed in 1919, when Parochial Church Councils were
given a legal status for the first time. Rules as
to who should be on a PCC, and how its meetings should be
conducted soon followed. Down the years since then,
there have been many revisions and fine-tunings of the
system. So
– how does a PCC get there in the first place?
Well, the basis of the whole scheme is the electoral
roll. An
electoral roll is found in every parish. It is
simply the list of people who are qualified electors in
any given parish. To qualify for the electoral roll
in a parish, you have to be: -
over 16 -
baptised -
a communicant member of the C of E, or at least of a
Church in communion with the Cof E -
reside in the parish, or be registered as a non-resident
elector. The
current Rules state that there can be an annual revision
of the electoral roll, and also that there should be an
entirely new roll prepared in 1990, and thereafter in
every succeeding sixth year. (It is 2002 – twelve
years on - which is why we are revising our electoral
roll this month!) But
how do you get from the electoral roll to the PCC? Well,
this all happens at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting.
The Rules state that an ‘annual parochial
church meeting’ must be held not later than the 30th
April every year, and that everyone whose name is on the
electoral roll of the parish is invited to attend. This
APCM is most important: it elects lay members of
the parochial church council. (These lay members
must also be on the electoral roll, be actual
communicants, and at least 17 years old.) The
APCM has other business as well: -
the election (triennially) of lay representatives to the
deanery synod, -
the election of sidesmen, -
the receiving of parochial and other reports, -
and the general discussion of church and parochial
affairs. It
is usual for the first PCC meeting of the year to be held
on the same day as, and immediately after, the APCM. So
when you attend the APCM, should you stand also for the
PCC this year? It is something to pray about, and
to consider before God whether your gifts might not be of
use to the local church. Your
PCC has a number of duties and responsibilities: it must
look after the financial affairs of the church, the care,
maintenance and insurance of the fabric of the church and
its goods and ornaments. So we need people with
talent and skills! The
PCC also has the power to buy and manage property for
purposes that affect our parish, the power to frame an
annual budget of money in order to maintain the
church’s work, and the responsibility to contact the
bishop with regard to any matter that affects the welfare
of our church. If
you think this might be you, please contact a
Churchwarden for further details. |