A big thank you to all officers on Parochial Church Councils (PCC) working hard across the diocese.

There are more than 200 parishes in the county with PCCs which include a Secretary, Treasurer, Chairperson. Vice Chairperson, and others.

In this series we will be hearing from people on PCCs discussing how they work – find out more about their roles and their advice to those thinking of taking up the position.

If it were not for the PCC, the churches would not run as smoothly as they do.

 

Helen Perry was asked to be a Parochial Church Council (PCC) secretary 17 years ago after applying for an administration position at a Cornish church.

She hadn’t planned on becoming the secretary, but sometimes things happen when you least expect them.

Helen was an optometrist, but unfortunately when the company she was working for began to have financial problems, she decided to look for work elsewhere.

Whilst job hunting, she came across an administration vacancy for Kenwyn with St Allen Church.

She says: “I went for the job and they said to me ‘the PCC secretary has resigned, can you do that as well? Oh, and the meeting is tomorrow night?’

“So, I got asked to do it – and have been doing it ever since.”

Helen, who was born in London and moved to Cornwall some 40 years ago, grew up in the church.

She says: “I can’t ever remember a time not going to church. I have been going ever since I was a little child. I went to Sunday school, still sing in the church choir, and joined the bellringers. Church has always been part of my life.

“When I was a child, my mother was PCC Secretary in Devon and my husband has been PCC Secretary for the Parish of St Mary, Truro, located within Truro Cathedral, for more than 30 years.”

Being a PCC Secretary has rewarding parts as well as less exciting ones.

“It is great to see you’re getting things done – achieving things.” – Helen Perry

She explains: “It is great to see you’re getting things done – achieving things. Seeing the paperwork go through, agreed and completed is rewarding.

“The less interesting bit for me is typing back all the minutes from the meetings. We have about six meetings a year.”

Helen works from home and says this means she can be ‘on call’ 24/7.

“We don’t have a church office,” she reveals, “So we say the church office is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. People can get me whenever.”

Helen believes her role as secretary hasn’t changed much over the last 17 years. The only difference now is there is less paper and printing as most of it is completed online.

Due to church reorganisation, her role as PCC Secretary will be coming to an end soon – but she will still have her bellringing.

“Bellringing is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Helen says. “It is a skill that takes quite a long time to learn. It is also a lovely community thing with a good group of people.”