The Parochial Church Council - PCC

You will find information here on what a PCC is, who the members are and more about the Electoral Roll.

Parochial Church Councils (PCCs)

• The PCC is the governing body of the parish. 
• PCCs are statutory bodies. 
• They were first created by the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 and in 1921 PCCs replaced vestry meetings for most purposes. 
• Their composition, powers and duties are regulated by the Church Representation Rules which are created and amended under the Synodical Government Measure 1969. 
• Although PCCs have identifiable constitutional features, they do not individually have their own constitutions. 
• The members of a PCC are treated as Charity Trustees for most of the purposes of charities legislation.  Those PCCs with gross annual income over £100,000 must register with the Charity Commission - St Thomas’s charity number is 1133882. 
• The proceedings of all PCCs are required to be conducted in accordance with charity legislation and must be minuted.

The membership of the PCC includes:

• All clergy beneficed in or licensed to the parish.
• If the parish is part of a team ministry, then all the clergy members of the team of that ministry.
• Any deaconess or lay worker licensed to the parish.
• The churchwardens, (also the deputy churchwardens of any districts legally defined by Scheme within the parish).
• If the PCC so determines, any Licensed Lay Ministers whose names are on the church electoral roll of the parish.
• All persons whose names are on the church electoral roll of the parish and who are lay members of the Deanery Synod, Diocesan Synod or General Synod.
• Elected representatives of the laity:
  6 – where there are 50 or fewer names on the church electoral roll
  9 – where there are 100 or fewer names on the church electoral roll
  a further 3 representatives for every 100 (or part thereof) names on the electoral roll up to a maximum of 15.
• Co-opted members up to one fifth of the number of the lay representation or two, whichever number is greater.  These can be either lay or clergy.

The Electoral Roll

The Electoral Roll is a list of names and addresses of every person who can vote in the annual parochial church meeting. Changes to the Electoral Roll are made throughout the year and reported to the PCC at every meeting. The exception being the month before the APCM (see details below).

To be added to the Electoral Roll a person needs to complete and sign an application form.  Click here to download the form, which you can fill in and return to the Electoral Officer - see below for more details.

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Preparing the Electoral Roll for the APCM

Notices of revision should be posted 5-6 weeks before the annual parochial church meeting on or near the main church door, with a copy of the existing roll. This should be displayed for 14 days. Anyone who wishes to join the roll, not existing members, need to fill in an application form and return it to the Electoral Roll Officer. Our Electoral Roll Officer is Lynn Kinsey who can be contacted in the parish office. The Electoral Roll Officer will then make the appropriate changes and then display the revised roll between 15-28 days before the annual parochial church meeting. The list should remain displayed until the date of the meeting. Changes can be made to names and addresses on the roll at this point but no new names can be added until the completion of the annual parochial church meeting.

After the APCM new members can be added to the Electoral Roll

The Annual Meeting

It is normal for the Election of Churchwardens and the Annual Parochial Church Meeting to be held at the same time. However, the Statutory Notice for the APCM as laid down in the Rules makes no provision for the Election of Churchwardens, so there have to be two notices. Both Notices have to be displayed for a period of at least fourteen days including the two Sundays before the Meeting.

Note also that the Election of Churchwardens can be attended by people who are not on the Electoral Roll. They can attend and vote for the Churchwardens.

Non Electoral Roll members are not entitled to attend the APCM and they can be excluded from that meeting. At St Thomas’s we allow Non Electoral Roll parishioners to attend the APCM, they are however unable to vote at the APCM.

Employees are unable to vote. Robert Lewis and Lynn Kinsey attend the APCM and PCC meetings but they are unable to vote at either.

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