The Parochial Church Council (PCC) at St Michael’s works in partnership with the clergy to support the mission and ministry of the church. PCC members are trustees of St Michael’s and share responsibility for prayerfully discerning the direction of the church, ensuring that its life and work reflect our Christian faith and serve the whole community.
The PCC has a key role in overseeing the spiritual, pastoral, financial and practical affairs of the parish. This includes caring for the church buildings, managing finances responsibly, complying with charity and safeguarding requirements, and encouraging the church’s involvement in worship, outreach and community life.
PCC members are elected from the congregation and are committed to serving with integrity, openness and teamwork, seeking God’s guidance as they support St Michael’s in growing and learning together, serving together and sharing Jesus together.
The PCC meets each month and receives reports from different ministry areas. Below are some of the reports received over the past year. They are a great way to celebrate all that God has been doing through our various ministries.
And you can read more about the Solitude practice here
Our next series is on Service and runs each Sunday from 19 April to 10 May. Prior to that, on Sunday 12 April, we will be reviewing the previous practices
The teaching is from the Practicing the Way resources, which can be found online here
We also recommend the Practicing the Way book by John Mark Comer
“Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Live as he did: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did” by John Mark Comer (Available from all good book stores ISBN 0281086672 and on Amazon ))
There is also a podcast specifically on the book – listen on spotify here.
Don’t we get any money from the Church of England?
All ministry at St Michael’s is resourced by us.
We have amazing buildings, don’t we have lots of money?
The short answer is no. We still have daily running costs on our buildings, and we have loans which still need to be repaid.
Why is there a gap in our finances?
Expenditure is always tightly monitored. But there is a gap in our finances, because only 50% of those who worship here give financially to the Church.
We are thrilled to have achieved our Bronze Eco Church accreditation with A Rocha and are working towards achieving our Silver Award.
Eco Group
St Michael’s Eco Group was formed in October 2021 on the back of celebrating Climate Sunday the previous month. In the two years that have followed, we have achieved a lot and come a long way.
The following things we have set up and happen regularly:
*NEW* Ecover washing and washing up liquid refills available to buy at Repair Cafe and on first Sunday of the month.
We buy Eco-friendly washing up liquid in bulk and sell
We grow some of our own vegetables
We have recycling facilities in every room and in the churchyard
We use ECO friendly paper
Our toilet paper is either recycled or Eco friendly
All our toilet roll holders are made from recycled tetra paks
We have put the following things in place:
We no longer use disposable cups in any of our Church Services
We have twinned all our toilets through a toilet twinning charity
We have held Clothes Swap Events
We have held Plant Swap Events
We have held community litter picks
We have installed solar panels on our Church Centre
We have put up a Bee pole in the Churchyard
We have a water butt on site
We have held a 5-week sermon series on God’s Creation
We have created, published and analysed a sustainable travel survey
We have updated our travel page to include all forms of sustainable transport
Left an area of the Churchyard un-mowed and wild
We no longer serve individually wrapped biscuits
It is hoped that by all of us making small changes we can help to influence the culture at St Michael’s to help us look after our Environment. If you would like any more information on the Eco Group please contact eco@stmichaelsbristol.org
Going forward we are looking to:
Have an energy audit on all our buildings
Plant wild flowers to encourage more wildlife
Buy more Eco-friendly items in bulk to sell
Look into having an electric charging point installed in our car park
