You may have noticed some changes around the church - we have invested in some new equipment as follows:

• brightened up the children’s area with new furniture for pre-school age, we hope to get some more for primary age children
• a sandwich board to advertise when the church is open and smaller noticeboards for the metal grille – not yet fitted
• a round coffee table
• a new tea urn
• a wheelchair for use by church members
• we had a donation of a two piece carpet to cover the central grill. This will need to be joined properly

Sue Burgess

It is nearly half way through the financial year so a good time for an update. Some main points:-

Income

• Latest Gift Aid payment, covering 18 months, was £9,691.
• Grants received - £1,000 from the MacRobert Trust for building works and a £500 grant from the Dr John Anderson Trust for our children’s work - both very welcome contributions.
• Donation - £3,000 – used for paths – very welcome too.

Expenditure

• The refurbished paths cost £3,150 excluding the lights, for which I am awaiting the bill. Many thanks must go to Warren who spent hours in the cold and rain digging/filling in the trenches for the cabling which saved us a considerable cost for labour. Thanks also to Luke and Daniel – friends, who earned some pocket money helping him.
• Following up quinquennial requirements, the asbestos survey cost £944.
• We have also purchased a new vibrant purple chasuble (£112), replacing a very worn out one which was beyond repair.

Investments

Sue Burgess

The lot of a Treasurer is to sway from happiness to concern – and so it has been at the beginning of the year. First all the good news.

Our harvest collection of pennies on Rainy Days raised £391.75 which was a tremendous result although it did mean it must have been very wet. The Vestry have decided to ask that we build a well in Nepal, since we can nominate our favoured country. Since the total was over £300, the well should be named after St Thomas, and we should get some feedback from locals – I’ll report as soon as it comes in.

We were also delighted to receive our annual grant from the MacRobert Trust, which goes towards the upkeep of the church building. This is always very welcome as we continue to preserve the legacy of a historic building.

In addition, we were awarded a grant from the John Anderson Will Trust towards the work of STomp. This gentleman died in 1735, and his trust fund still supports church work all over the North-East of Scotland. The Family Worship Group have been discussing how this grant is used and will be making recommendations to the Vestry on its use to enhance youth worship.

I hope that by now, you will all have noticed the beautifully refurbished altar cloth for the side chapel altar, which was used at the Institution - and we also used the new Burse, Veil and Purificators on the altar which our supplier had despatched at lightning speed to be there in time for the service. In the next few months, look out for all the new additional Burse and Veil combinations in the different colours for the Church Year, and a new fabric altar frontal for the main altar. This is part of a recommendation by the Worship and Spirituality Group to replace worn out fabric in the church. We hope in coming months to raise money for some new chasubles and stoles. Many thanks to all the Sacristans for repairing the old, but looking forward and advising on the new.

The flowers for the Institution looked magnificent, and a small donation was received to help towards the cost – many thanks. It is very gratifying that people are willing to contribute towards all sorts of costs – big and small in addition to their regular giving.

The Investment Team – part of the Finance Team - continue to develop our strategy for looking after the investments of St Thomas and despite some ups and downs in the market, continue to make good gains, raising money for all our projects.

Now for the less good news – the damage to trees in the graveyard over the Festive Season was considerable, and the cost of clearance and safety work was not in our annual budget. The cutting down and chopping up of the trees has cost £1500 since we had to use a professional company for safety reasons despite lots of offers of help from individuals. This has placed an extra burden on church finances in a year when we had been concentrating on major renovation at the Rectory. We have had donations towards this work, and it is hoped to recoup some more of the cost by selling the timber. Thankfully, no-one was hurt by the falling trees and no graves were badly damaged.

Many thanks to all on the Finance Team (now numbering 5 people) and to all contributors, either for their regular financial support or for all the many one-off donations we receive.

Sue Burgess - Treasurer

At end June, the finances at St Thomas are looking reasonably good, although expected costs for repairs and new windows in the Rectory have not yet appeared. It is hoped the work will be done over the summer.

Significant items in the last quarter include the success in selling our four War Stocks. This involved long phone calls and form filling – they were so old, very little paperwork existed, and one was registered to a non-existent address in Huntly, although we received all the dividends!

The biggest cost of the quarter was for our quinquennial report which details the state of the fabric of the church and provides a plan for its on- going maintenance. New rules required a new format for the report, which is now comprehensive, and we thank Gerry Robb for his work on this. It is available from Warren if anyone wants to study it.  

Our new investment account showed a slight fall at the end of the 3rd quarter due to pressures in the international economic situation, but since end June, has recovered – it was expected that this would go up and down, but we are confident that over the year, it will show far better results by monitoring it weekly, and making changes to investments to take advantage of funds performing well.

Detailed reports on the operating account and investment account are available.

Sue Burgess

At the half-year, up to the end of March, St Thomas’s finances were showing a surplus. However, considerable work is planned on the Rectory roof and windows through the summer which means that some of this surplus will be used to cover the joint costs with St Kentigern’s.

The main action over the last few months has been the transfer of most of our investments and bank savings into a new investment fund which is now being actively monitored and managed on a weekly basis. In two months this has already resulted in a substantial increase in the capital and it is hoped that the income from these investments will contribute towards the costs of the Rectory repairs. Many thanks to Warren for his skill and work on the investments as part of the Finance Team and also to Isobel and Chris for their contributions to the Finance Team.

£56.34 was collected from jars in church for the Bishops Lent Appeal 2013 – thank you to all who contribute small change – this runs throughout the year.

Also - some more good news. Some of you may have noticed an old carved wooden box on the table near the door of the church. I always wondered what it was for, and it had a keyhole (but no key) and a slot in the front. I managed to extract the contents which amounted to £45! Wonderful! The sort of box Treasurers love.

If anyone has any questions about finances or would like more details about the half- year performance against budget or the investments, please contact me.

Sue Burgess, Treasurer

The financial situation at St Thomas’ is looking much better at the end of the year, than it was at the beginning. Full accounts will be available at the AGM on 9th December. At present they are being prepared for the independent examiner. It is also hoped to submit them to OSCR before the year end – well ahead of the June deadline. There are still challenges ahead – following the quinquennial reports on the Church and Rectory completed in October, there will be significant repair and maintenance costs for the Rectory during the next year. The reports will also be available at the AGM if anyone would like to see them. This year, they have taken a new format following guidelines from the Diocese, and provide an excellent, detailed appraisal of the state of both buildings, and a planning tool for necessary future work. Many thanks to Gerry Robb for his considerable efforts in preparing these. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Isobel Cargill who deals with all the collections in church and provides considerable support to me through the year.

The year end is nearly here, and financially St Thomas is looking much healthier thanks to the generosity of members. Full accounts will be available at the AGM.

Reclaiming Gift Aid has enabled us to bolster up our savings account - the extra 25p per £1 given makes a huge difference to our income. Even if you are putting small change into the weekly collection, if you are a taxpayer please put it in one of the brown envelopes so we can reclaim the tax.

The stewardship campaign continues and there may still be members who would like to reassess their giving.  Please contact me if you would like to discuss your contribution.  Recently we received a very generous donation towards the costs of the website and communication. Part of this is being used to produce fliers to advertise St Thomas services - these will be available for hotels/B &B and other businesses.  Many thanks for this support.

As part of our application for a Public Performance Licence which will enable us to hold more fundraising events in the church, Chris Erni has conducted a comprehensive risk assessment for the church. This is very detailed and will be available for members at the AGM. Everyone needs to be aware of safety issues and we thank Chris for his expertise and help.