Parish Secretaries are elected by parish members at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) and hold a vital role including sending out notices of meetings, preparing reports for meetings, and taking accurate minutes of meetings. They are also expected to deal with correspondence, keep a check on the parish diary, remain up-to-date with what is going on in the parish and the diocese, and be able to brief the Chair of the PCC.
Resources & Support
In preparation for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) each year there is an opportunity for each parish to revise its Electoral Roll to reflect more closely its church membership. The numbers of those included on the Roll has to be reported at the APCM, and normally Electoral Roll Officers should ensure that the names of those who have moved or died, or who live outside the parish but have not worshipped regularly for six months, or others who are no longer eligible for membership, have been removed. The period up to the APCM each year is also a good time to remind eligible members of the congregation of the existence of the Roll and invite them to apply to join.
Electoral Roll officers are reminded of the requirement to liaise with their counterparts in other parishes about members moving between parishes. It is good practice to inform “lapsed” members who live outside the parish that they are to be removed from the Roll.
The revision of the Roll must be completed at least fourteen days (but not more than 28 days) before the APCM, and the revised Roll is then closed until after the APCM. The revised Roll must be exhibited in church for the period between its completion and the APCM in order that inaccuracies can be notified and corrected. Young people who have their sixteenth birthday during the closure period can apply for membership before the Roll is closed, completing the “become sixteen on…” sentence. They become members on their sixteenth birthday and can attend the APCM as members of the Roll.
The size of the Electoral Roll determines the number of elected members in the Parochial Church Council. This is another reason for the fourteen-day period before the APCM: the notices for the APCM must specify the number of members to be elected to the PCC. No-one over 18 can be elected to the PCC until they have been members of the Roll for six months. This does not apply to young people under the age of 18, who can be elected to the PCC from their 16th birthday.
Electoral Roll Revision
It should be noted that once every six years all Electoral Rolls are deleted and a completely new roll prepared. The next occasion for such a wholesale revision in scheduled for 2025. This means that the old electoral roll will cease to be valid and everyone wishing to be included on the new electoral roll will need to make fresh application.
Essential documents to manage your parish/benefice's electoral roll
Advising the diocese of your electoral roll number
Once you've held your APCM, the electoral roll number reported should be advised to the diocese via the . Enter your log in details at the prompt "Log in to enter or view your data" and then select ‘Enter your Data’ at the top opf the page, then click on your church. You should then see the below and then click on the link as circled to then enter Electoral Roll (and Easter attendance)
If you are experiencing log in problems with the parish returns website, please contact information.services@diocant.org. If you are still experiencing difficulties inputting the data, please send the electoral roll certificate (but not the roll itself) to information.services@diocant.org for us to input. Thank you.