PCC Report September 2026
PCC September 2026
The latest PCC meeting was held on 15th September. The main focus of the meeting were on how we look after our planet and our people, with a presentation on creation care and the safeguarding policies review. More regular items such as finance, mission and outreach, and General Synod were also covered but I have focussed this blog on the more substantive discussions of the evening.
The meeting began with some updates arising from the July meeting (see previous blog for further details):
The selected hymn book is the right size for the pews and comes in within the budget set. Decisions are yet to be made on what will happen to the old hymn books but reusing or recycling preferred.
The community connection project is underway with 20 organisations selected and invited for interviews. There will be an opportunity for the whole congregation to get involved with this work towards the end of October.
The job advert for the youth minister is now live and we pray that the right person will be led to St Andrews for this opportunity.
Lucy has now met with all the vergers and a job specification has been drafted, following the decision to move from self employed to employed status for these roles.
Creation Care
Our main strategy and vision item was a presentation from Ian Smith on Creation Care, part of the Stewardship section of our Mission Action Plan.
Ian shared that the ethos of the group is that changes are organic rather than imposed, and improve to sustainability whilst offering mutual benefits. There are some key targets with St Andrews working to achieve net zero by 2030 and the Gold Eco Church award. There has been a recent change in governance, with the Heating Project working group having direct relationship with other committees in the church such as CCMC and PCC, and the Creation Care Steering Group having more ad hoc involvement.
Ian talked PCC through progress to date including:
reduced nave heating and lighting energy by 30%
improved recycling and composting,
a land management plan to consider nature in our outside spaces
community engagement events such as the green fair and toy swap
the lowering of the Holt Room ceiling which saves energy in heating.
Ian also outlined several next steps including further LED lighting and potential destratification fans as well as the plans for low carbon heating. However, it was agreed by all that our main focus needed to be greater involvement of both the wider congregation and the community. This is a key part of Eco Church Gold, but is also the way to make lasting and wide-ranging improvements to our creation care.
Some ideas were shared by the PCC on next steps as well. One suggestion was looking at further reducing our paper use by printing fewer pew sheets, acknowledging that many now review these online. Another was to consider if we could do more to encourage ride sharing, cycling or walking to church.
The PCC thanked Ian for his presentation and expressed thanks to the whole Creation Care Steering Group for their continued work.
Heating Project
There was an update planned on the heating project but due to some unplanned absences at the consultants, the low carbon heating report was not ready to be shared. Hopefully one more iteration will iron out the remaining questions, and the report can be shared shortly after. The project timeline will be updated and the aim is for the report to be shared with CCMC by the end of October.
Safeguarding
This meeting was an opportunity to review our policies, procedures and statements relating to safeguarding including:
Parish safeguarding policy
Procedure for dealing with safeguarding concerns and allegations
Policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders
Parish statement on domestic abuse
All policies were agreed with a couple of minor revisions. There were some meaningful discussions around how our policies reflect St Andrews as an inclusive church as the importance of language in both inclusivity and in recognising the preferred terms of those who have experienced abuse. The level of discussion the policies generated reinforced that safeguarding is not just policy it is personal.
As part of this item, the PCC also reviewed the list of non-Church activities for children, young people and vulnerable adults and discussed the national standards audit. St Andrews is now entering the 3rd year of the 3-year cycle of review. This year the focus is on Victims and Survivors, and Learning Supervision and Support. St Andrews will start with the latter because the promised material about Victims and Survivors has not yet been provided.
Jo and Kelly (in her absence) along with the whole safeguarding team were thanked for their hard work in safeguarding both those who worship at St Andrews and who use our spaces.
Comments