Parish Governance
Each parish has a Parochial Church Council (PCC) which acts as the decision-making body for many of the church’s activities. It includes, among others, the Incumbent, a Lay Chair and a PCC Secretary (some also include other parish officers such as Churchwardens and PCC Treasurers).
Many of the roles and functions of the PCC can be found in the PCC Secretaries’ Handbook, below, which gives a clear interpretation of the Church Representation Rules in matters such as Parish Council meetings and Annual Parochial Church Council and Parishioners’ Meetings.
Additional information, including many of the forms set out for financial and safeguarding governance, can be found on the Parish Resources website.
The annual PCC Secretaries Letter from the Diocesan Secretary is a useful resource that covers upcoming APCMs, the full revision of the Electoral Roll, and the information that relates to the role of PCC Secretary. If you should have any queries please do not hesitate to get in touch with us and we will be happy to help.
Complaints Procedure and Support
The Diocesan Referals Group has produced a Complaints Procedure for use within a parish or Deanery within the Diocese. The policy sets out the various ways in which the Diocese of Southwark seeks to resolve complaints and can be found here.
To supplement the Complaints Procedure, the Diocesan Referals Group has also developed a Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Policy for use by parishes and Deaneries, which can be found here. In addition, as a continuation of our commitment to the Anti-Racism Charter, a guide for reporting racial incidents can be found here.
Annual Parochial Church Meetings (APCMs)
Annual Parochial Church Meetings have detailed timings for electoral roll revisions. An easy-to-use planner is available to help you in determining when different aspects have to take place depending on the date of your APCM.
We are currently updating our planner tool, thank you for your patience while we work on this.
Electoral Rolls and Deanery Representatives
Each year, parishes are asked to review the number of people listed on their electoral roll and confirm their Deanery Representatives on Deanery Synod. Reminders about this are sent from the Diocesan Secretary each year. The forms used for this, and additional resources to help with the process, can be obtained from the Parish Resources website and below:
ER Cert SG7 (white) Display Copy
ER Cert SG7 (blue) Diocese Copy
ER Cert SG7 (yellow) Deanery Copy
The Church of England revised Records Retention Schedule
We are pleased to announce that the revised Record Retention Schedule is now published and is available on the Church of England website on the following page.
Records and Information Management | The Church of England
You will notice that the former Records Retention Policy is now called the Records Retention Schedule. It no longer has the primary record holder column as only few records were just the responsibility of one church body, so the column is rather redundant.
We recommend downloading a new copy each time you need to use the Records Retention Schedule as there are further changes expected.
PCC Secretaries & Administrators Conference
Following the continuing success of the PCC Secretaries’ & Parish Administrators’ conferences, we were pleased to welcome PCC Secretaries & Parish Administrators from across the Diocese to events held both in-person and online in June 2024. Contributions from Trinity House Staff and the Archdeacon of Croydon covered a varied range of topics from the role and responsibilities of a PCC to to the wider context of Diocesan activities including Southwark Vision 2024-2035, Communications, and Lay Ministries.
The Slides from the 2025 Conference can be accessed here.
Event dates for the rest of the Triennium, venue TBC:
Saturday 30 May 2026 – in person
Monday 01/06/2026 – online
Saturday 29 May 2027 – in person
Monday 31/05/2027 – online
Churchwarden Elections
Churchwardens are elected at the Parishioners’ Meeting, usually held at the same time as the APCM. Details of the rules covering Churchwardens can be found in the Churchwardens’ Measure.
Following the election, the Churchwarden Declaration must be signed by the Chair of the meeting and by the elected Churchwarden(s). Churchwardens must then bring the completed Declaration to the Archdeacon’s Visitation Service (see Events Page for dates) to be handed in.
Below are the two documents that are required for Churchwarden election as well as the Declaration, available in Word (fill-able electronically) and PDF formats, for your convenience.
