THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST LADOCA IN THE PARISH OF LADOCK
The Annual Report and Financial Statement of the Parochial Church Council for
THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST LADOCA IN THE PARISH OF LADOCK 2024
‘Ladock Church is a place to welcome and embrace all who come to hear the word of God, to worship and pray, and for fellowship. This motivates and enables us to reach out to the wider community to share the love of God’.
The Annual Report and Financial Statement of the Parochial Church Council for 2024 for presentation at the Annual Parish Church Council Meetng in Ladock Church on 23 March 2025.
The report has been prepared to comply with the requirements of The Charities Act 2011.
Priest in Charge: Reverend Caroline Husband (since 5 November 2024)
Associate Priest: Reverend Linda Whetter Banks: Lloyds Bank St Austell, CAF Bank Treasurer: Mr Robert Thomas
Independent Examiner: Mr Geoffrey Warring
The Parochial Church Council is a corporate body established by the Church of England. The PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Measure. The Parochial Church Council is expected by order to register with the Charity Commissioners.
Members of the Parochial Church Council of Ladock Parish Church are either ex-officio or elected by the Annual Church Council meetng in accordance with the Church Representation Rules.
The Parochial Church Council met five times during 2024. Mrs Shirley Soper is our designated Safeguarding Officer.
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The Standing Committee, which consists of the incumbent, the church warden, treasurer and secretary, is the only committee required by law and has the power to transact the business of the PCC between its meetings, subject to any directions given by the council.
Members of the Parochial Church Council for 2024
Incumbent: The post was vacant until November 5 2024, when the Reverend Caroline Husband was licensed as Priest in charge of the Probus Team.
Non Stipendary Associate Priest: Reverend Linda Whetter
Curate: Reverend Paul Salaman (until September 2024)
Ex Officio
Church Warden: Mr Jeremy Sharp
Head Teacher of Grampound Road School Head Teacher Ladock School
Elected Members
Chair: Reverend Caroline Husband (from 5 November 2024) Lay Vice Chair and Chair until November: Mrs Shirley Soper Associate Priest: Reverend Linda Whetter
Curate: Reverend Paul Salaman (until September 2024)
Secretary: Mrs Jennifer Thomas Safeguarding Officer: Mrs Shirley Soper Bell Tower Captain: Mr Jonathan Young Fabric Officer: Mr Simon Holborow
Administration and Electoral Roll Officer: Mrs Barbara Holt
Website and Rotas: Mrs Suzanne Smith
General: Mrs Vanessa Morcom
Deanery Synod Representatives: Mr Jeremy Sharp and Mrs Shirley Soper At the end of 2024 the Electoral Roll number stood at 39 (2023, 32)
Ladock Church PCC Annual Report
Aim and Purposes
The PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the Priest in Charge in:
- The promotion of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the doctrines and practices of the Church of England
- Promoting in the parish the whole mission of the church, pastoral, social, evangelistic and ecumenical
- To know Jesus better and make Him better known
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- Practical support and care for people in the parish, from the youngest to the eldest, irrespective of level of need or ability to pay
- Providing financial support to other organisations with similar objectives.
Objectives and activities
In addition to the unchanging and overriding objectives listed above, during the past year we have focused on the following:
- The need to attract and recruit a new Priest in Charge
- The maintenance of our pattern of services to provide a focus of continuity during a
time of great change in the Team, Deanery and Diocese
- To continue to bring new worshippers to our Church community
- To ensure that the church remains at the heart of the village life
- To improve links with our Church schools and make provision for children through our Sunday Club
- To complete the work to expand and improve the churchyard
- To raise funds for the maintenance of the fabric of the church and also for the restoration of our bells
Achievements, Performance and Outlook
Our search for a replacement for our Rector finally came to a happy conclusion at the licensing service in November of the Reverend Caroline Husband as Priest in Charge of the original Probus Team as well as the parishes of St Michael Penkivel, Tresillian and Lamorran with Merther. We understand that once the legal formalities are complete, Caroline will become Rector of the newly-enlarged benefice, to be known as the Upper Fal Parishes. She will have oversight responsibilities for all the parishes but she will not have the title of Oversight Minister.
Caroline’s arrival coincided with the busiest period of the church year, but she rose to the challenge and managed to find the time to take services in all the parishes before the New Year, enabling her to appreciate the differences in approach throughout the benefice. She has been guided and supported by our Associate Priest Linda Whetter and the retired clergy, Pat Robson, Father Greg Standen and Reverend Brian McQuillen. We all owe them an immense debt of gratitude for all their support both before and after Caroline’s appointment. Our curate, Paul Salaman, came to the end of his curacy with us in September: he has moved to a full time appointment at St Stephen; there is no sign of a replacement at the time of writing.
The clergy’s enthusiasm, dedication and encouragement have been instrumental in ensuring that we have been able to maintain our regular pattern of services throughout the year: a Sunday Eucharist every week, with Evensong on the fourth Sunday and Morning Prayer every Tuesday. The choir have continued to sing on the first and third Sundays, attracting new members over the year. Once again 
we are deeply indebted to
Margaret Edwards for her leadership and playing, the physical challenges notwithstanding. The choir has been asked to sing at weddings and funerals in other parishes during the year: it has been an honour to contribute at such personal and significant occasions. We have maintained the pattern of special services: Mothering Sunday, Harvest, Remembrance, Carol Service and the increasingly popular Crib Service.
The outcome of all this work is reflected in the attendance figures for our services and the increase in the numbers on our electoral roll. The latter rose from 32 in 2023 to 39; the average attendance at ‘Usual’ Sunday services was 28 (26 in 2023); the worshipping community was 50 (52). There were 2 baptisms, 6 funerals and no weddings during the year (2023: 2, 3 and 1 respectively).
The Church has traditionally been at the heart of life in the village of Ladock. We have sought to ensure that this has continued. We have close links with the Community Hall, with one PCC member sitting on their committee. The current Chair of the Parish Council is a member of our congregation. The church fete took place for the first time since 2019 in the Hall, thus making the event a little more accessible to people who live in the centre of the village. The attendance and financial result were both encouraging. We hosted another Johnny Cowling Gospel Evening in the Church during February, attracting fans from far and wide.
The monthly coffee mornings are appreciated and well supported. We have continued to make contributions to external organisations. The Christmas tree festival has become an annual fixture, of interest to churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike. The details of these donations and our fundraising activities are given in the financial section of this report.
Our Associate Priest has continued with her programme of pastoral visits. She is in great demand but almost miraculously she manages to keep in contact with the needy throughout the Benefice. As we emphasised in our last report, it is becoming harder to maintain this service as clergy numbers continue to fall. We are worried that any switch to Oversight Ministry will make this type of ministry even harder to sustain: parishioners are used to being visited by priests during their times of need; often they find it difficult to accept that this is not possible. We feel it is essential for the Church to have effective pastoral care in every parish.
Fortunately, the future of the Ladock News has been secured, allowing us to continue to use this as a means of spreading Church news; the Church Facebook page and website have been useful in this respect also. We are conscious that we need to have a greater presence in Grampound Road; we have started placing details of services in their village magazine and making sure that we display posters on their noticeboards, but there is much more that we can do.
Whilst we have strong links with Ladock School, who use the Church for their services, assemblies, teaching and other activities several times a week, we are conscious that the connections with our other Church School at Grampound Road are limited: Reverend Linda Whetter has been working hard to restore links. Our Sunday Club for children has continued with the help of Christine Rimmer, Jo Morcom, Sue Smith and Jenny Thomas, but it has been hard to attract sufficient numbers. We have begun discussions to ascertain how we can improve matters.
One of the highlights of the year was the dedication of our Churchyard extension and memorial garden by Bishop Hugh during
March. This was a joyous occasion when the awful weather relented for a few hours. The Summer and Autumn were spent planting shrubs and trees, before the first burial in November. There is further beautification work to be done, but we are now able to accept burials and ashes without any worries about space. Once again, we should record our appreciation of the legacies of Liz Hotten and Joan Mitchell, which have made this possible.
We have been aware that our bells and their frame are in need of repair, replacement and refurbishment. Matters came to a head during the summer when a gudgeon broke, rendering it dangerous to ring one of the bells. Having received surveys and quotes from three bell founders, we have embarked on a fundraising programme to raise approximately
£120,000 to cover the cost of the remedial work and refounding, using John Taylor of Loughborough, who installed some of the bells 150 years ago. We have obtained the necessary permissions and are now seeking to obtain grants as well as to engage the wider community in fundraising events. We are aware of the need to expedite the work, given the curtailing of the Listed Places of Worship scheme.
We attended all the meetings of the Deanery Synod during the year. Sadly, the views expressed in the 2023 report have not altered.
Our priority for 2025 is to complete the bells’ restoration project. As indicated above, we hope this will involve the entire community: our Schools, other village organisations and all the inhabitants, especially those who have moved into the area more recently. We aim to establish links that will remain intact long after the project is complete. This aside, we are investigating whether a parish nurse could be beneficial to our pastoral and community work. We will work hard to introduce Reverend Caroline to the entire parish, as well as the Church congregation. As always, we wish to ensure that we are able to offer a sincere welcome to everyone who comes through our doors.
We would like to pay a special tribute to David James, who stepped down as Treasurer during the summer: his dedication and enthusiasm in all aspects of our actvities, from the choir, running church events, maintenance as well as financial matters are sorely missed.
As always, apart from our clergy, thanks should be given to our Churchwarden, new PCC Treasurer, Safeguarding Officer, Secretary and members, as well as all the volunteers and unsung heroes who have helped keep the ship afloat, often battling against ill health themselves. Your contributions are not reflected in the financial reports but they are vital.
