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2023-03-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

From Period start date To Period end date Day 01 April 2022 Day31 March 2023

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name[ST. GREGORIOS INDIAN (MALANKARA) ORTHODOX ] CHURCH. LONDON

Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any) 1000423

Charity's principal address

St. Gregorios Church,

Cranfield Road London Postcode SE4 1UF

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
Sl
No		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted
if not for
**whole year **		 Name of person
(or body)entitled to
appoint (ifany)
1 Fr. Nithin Prasad Koshy Chair Diocesan Bishop
2 Mr. Vincent Alexander Mathew Trustee(Secretary) General body
3 Mr. Joseph George Trustee(Treasurer) General body
4 Mr. SunnyDaniel Trustee General body
5 Mr. BennyVarghese Trustee General body
6 Mr. RoyThomas Trustee General body
7 Mr. Binu Mathew Trustee General body
8 Mr. Jobin George Trustee Until Dec-22 General body
9 Mrs. Beena Mathew Trustee General body
10 Mr. Shainu Mathew Trustee Until Dec-22 General body
11 Mr. Jacob Parakkala Mathew Ex-officio General body
12 Mr. Roys Philip Ex-officio General Body
13 Mr. Sabu koshy Internal Auditor General body

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Governing documents as Constitution passed by the church 2[nd] July 1989

(eg. trust deed, constitution) Society How the charity is constituted

(eg. trust, association, company)

Elected managing committee members are the trustees Trustee selection methods

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

Trustees are elected from the eligible members at the Annual General Body meeting in March each year, which is followed by a joint meeting between the outgoing trustees and the incoming trustees. The formal handover of the reports and accounts takes place in this joint meeting as well as a briefing is given to new trustees emphasising their duties and responsibilities.

The Indian Orthodox Church, also known as the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, is an Autocephalous Orthodox Church with its central office in the Indian state of Kerala. The IOC is autonomous church and headed by the Catholicose. Its present primate is Baselios Mar Thoma Paulose II, Catholicose of the East. The structure of St. Gregorios Church, London is also episcopal polity. Churches in UK, Europe and African Diocese is currently under pastoral care of diocesan bishop His Grace Abraham Mar Stephanos

The chairperson of the charity is the Vicar, who is normally appointed by the Diocesan Bishop for a period of three years.

Trustees are the managing committee members. Their term of office is one year. The managing committee is responsible for maintenance of the church and day to day administration. The trustees meet at least once a month.

Risks are mitigated by a careful evaluation and budgeting of the income and expenditure at the start of the financial year. Misuse of funds and church property are safeguarded by strict adherence to the rules and regulations by all the trustees and church members.

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Section C Objectives and activities

The principal object of the charity is advancement of Christian religion and particularly Orthodox faith, enabling as many people as possible to worship in our church and become part of our parish community.

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

The primary objective of the St. Gregorios Indian Orthodox Church is the manifestation of faith in the Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in accordance with the Apostolic and ancient traditions of the Malankara Orthodox Church. Our services and worship put faith in to practice through prayer and scripture and sacraments. The church shall enter into any activity to provide for the religious, educational and cultural needs as proper to the life of a Parish Church with the approval of the appropriate authorities and also benefiting the wider community.

When planning our activities for the year, the trustees have considered the commission’s guidance on public benefit and in particular the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. We try to enable ordinary people to live out their faith as part of our parish, through the Holy Eucharist, learning about the Gospel and developing their knowledge and trust in Jesus Christ. The church as followers of Christ, tries to carry out the mission given to us by caring for the marginalised, less fortunate in the society. The disabled, diseased deprived people are supported with humble efforts.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

Holy Eucharist is celebrated all Sundays and on every main Christian festival such as Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas, enabling people from all communities join these services. For the convenience of the worshipers, simultaneous services are held at St. Margaret Patten’s Church Road Lane, Eastcheap, London, EC3M 1HS until December 2022.

Pastoral care is an integral part of the whole ministry of the Church. Having a great variety of expressions, it focuses appropriately on the needs of individuals and social groups within the Church and wider community, irrespective of religious and cultural barriers.

The church offered a range of services over the course of the year that our community find both beneficial and spiritually uplifting.

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Ecumenical Relationships.

The church is a member of the Churches together in Britain and Ireland and Oriental Orthodox Churches and Brockley local churches. The Church encourages all members to take part in the church activities in some form or the other. The large gathering of the faithful in these events imparts positive network of family and friends within a spiritual atmosphere enhances personal, socio-cultural and spiritual development.

Charitable activities .

In addition to advancing Christian religious faith, the church supports variety of charity work. In the reporting year, the church celebrated various events and activities.

St Patrons Day – 6th Nov 2022

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

Parumala Thirumeni’s Perunal is an important event in the church calendar and this year’s. Perunal was extra special as our Guest of Honor for the event was H.G. Abraham Mar Stephanos who was newly elected as the Bishop of UK, Europe & Africa diocese. H.G. Abraham Mar Stephanos had previously served the church as the vicar and was instrumental in purchasing the present premises and hence it was a privilege to have H.G. Abraham Mar Stephanos to lead us to the Perunal programme. It was decided by the Managing Committee that the Felicitation ceremony of his grace will also be undertaken to recognize the efforts taken by the Thirumeni during his days as a priest for the church.

Various programmes were scheduled for the different church groups and had a good participation of church members. The padayatra started in different areas, were well organized by the prayer group members and were received by H.G. Abraham Mar Stephanos. After the holy Qurbana on 6th Nov’22 we invited H.E Archbishop Anglos and H.E Rt. Rev Christopher Chessun to the felicitation ceremony of H.G Abraham Mar Stephanos.

Holy Week – Our Church celebrated the Holy week from 10th – 16th April ‘22 Holy week services were conducted. We had a very blessed Holy Week. Holy Liturgical Service was conducted at Brockley church led by Rev. Fr Nithin Prasad Koshy.

Social and Fund-Raising Events

The Youths in the church had organized a Cake Sale Event to raise money for the victims of the Turkish-Syrian earthquakes. This was a good event, and it was nice to see all the members of the church working together to raise money - especially in a post-COVID environment, since we hadn't had such an event for a long time. We made about £300 in donations, and this amount was transferred to the Diocesan relief fund.

Food bank for local community needs were undertaken with the generous contribution of the members.

In addition to advancing Christian religious faith, the church supports variety of charity work.

St Gregorios Indian Orthodox Church had generated GBP 20,282 through various Charity events and Donations.

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Our church had donated money for various causes and individuals. Following are the details of Charity Disbursements done by our church for the financial year 2022-23.

Hospital CharityAssistance £1,000
Help for
(homeless/Education/Org/Poor)		 £1,000
Religious Support(external) £500
Local Charity £750
CharityFor Sick £2640
Sponsored Charity £2098
Diocesan Charity £429

Funds were dispersed to various charitable activities in India and U.K. Monetary grants were given to individuals in India with poor economic background to support their medical treatment and relief of sufferings. Food bank for local community needs were undertaken with the generous contribution of the members. The policy on grants is very transparent. The application for grants is thoroughly vetted by the trustees and vicar and an appropriate amount is allocated based on the circumstances without any involvement of a third-party agency and thus avoiding any overhead expenses.

Section D Achievements and performance

SENIOR CITIZENS FORUM

The Senior Citizens Forum had 1 virtual meeting held in Zoom with H G Abraham Mar Stephanos which kept the fellowship active and to have a catch-up meet. Around 20 members had attended the Online meet.

CHRISTMAS Event

Our Parish Christmas service “Nuhro - 2022” was conducted on 17th December 2022, Saturday followed by the evening prayer.

YOUTH EVENT

This has been the first year back since the pandemic, and hence has been the first time in a long while that we’ve organized or participated in any events. Due to this, it has been a challenge to get back to the numbers we had before the pandemic. This, to us, seems like a deeper issue as it suggests that the youth are engaging less with the church altogether. There has been a palpable decrease in engagement since the pandemic, and we have tried to recover the previous energy, but there is still a long way to go.

Other than this change in momentum, it has been a good year for the youth, and everyone has had the chance to get involved and take ownership of various events. This year, we’ve worked closely with the managing committee to try and get up to speed with previous years and the events organized before.

FOOD BANK

As a service to our local community, instead of donating canned and non-perishable food donated by parish members, this year the Church has donated £750 for the Lewisham council food bank as local charity.

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Section D Achievements and erformance p

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

The church has membership of nearly 325 families, many of whom are residents in other part of U.K but our services are open to all, we enable our community to celebrate and thank God at the milestones of the journey through life. There were 3 baptisms and through baptism we thank God for the gift of life.

The Church realizes that the children are the foundations of the future society and hence great emphasis is given to provide for the development of their character enabling them to achieve and contribute to the society.

Regular Sunday school classes were conducted virtually over zoom every Sunday for the children. The school follows the curriculum of the Orthodox Sunday school Association of the East. The curriculum focuses on lessons and thoughts from the Bible, history and traditions of the Church, prayers and offices of liturgy as well as activities including singing and drama, to promote self-development and social interaction. Through this, the Sunday School aims to provide a proper understanding of human values and how the Christian way of life can provide a caring and compassionate outlook to the society.

The church lays strong emphasis in the organizing of the Orthodox Vacation Bible School. This is an intensive programme aimed towards the children. Church members volunteer to organize the various activities as a part of the programme. OVBS itself is centred around the children of our church, with the aim of teaching them about our Orthodox faith & deepening theirs. The youth helped with several activities during the day, starting with icebreakers. We separated all the kids and parents into groups of 4 around the church and played several games with them. In addition, personality development sessions were held for the benefit of the young children. We have developed our Safeguarding Policy a mandatory requirement and the volunteers who deal with children are all vetted by CRB checks.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the

charity’s policy on reserves

Total receipts of funds were £ 212,308 and total expenses were £ 225,193 The policy of the church is to maintain a balance on unrestricted funds which equates to at least three months unrestricted payments, equivalent to £25,000 to cover emergency situations that may arise from time to time.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

Principal source of the funds of the church is from voluntary contributions of membership and donations.

The expenditure is budgeted, spread in proportion to the needs of the various activities

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

Full name(s) Mr. Vincent Alexander Mathew

Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Authorised person

Date 27/12/2023

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TAR March 23

ST.GREGORIOS INDIAN (MALAN KARA) ORTHODOX
CHURCH, LONDON
 ST.GREGORIOS INDIAN (MALAN KARA) ORTHODOX
CHURCH, LONDON
 ST.GREGORIOS INDIAN (MALAN KARA) ORTHODOX
CHURCH, LONDON
 1000423 1000423 CC16a
For the period
from		 01/04/2022
Period start date		 To 31/03/2023
Period end date
Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts Unrestricted
funds
to the nearest
£
52,917
108,228
20,282
26,828
3,699
354
-
212,308
-
-
-
212,308
15,142
8,417
45,750
77,952
1,245
2,262
6,935
5,000
2,306
8,200
15,295
4,871
-
31,818
-
225,193
-
-
-
225,193
- 12,885
-
85,594
72,709		 Restricted
funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
47,426
47,426		 Endowment
funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Total funds
to the nearest £
52,917
108,228
20,282
26,828
3,699
354
-
-
212,308
-
-
-
212,308
15,142
8,417
45,750
77,952
1,245
2,262
6,935
5,000
2,306
8,200
15,295
4,871
-
31,818
-
225,193
-
-
-
225,193

- 12,885		 Last year
to the nearest £
VoluntarySubscription 52,917 55,839
VoluntaryDonations 108,228 39,483
Activities forgeneration of funds 20,282 34,214
Gift Aid HMRC 26,828 20,666
SundaySchool 3,699 170
Interest/Refunds 354 -
- -
Sub total(Gross income for
AR)		 212,308 150,372
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
-
- -
Sub total - -
Total receipts
A3 Payments
150,372
Wges(NI,Taxes) 15,142 17,569
Mission of Congregation 8,417 22,115
PropertyMaintenance 45,750 6,390
Runningcosts 77,952 38,032
Statonery ,Printing,Utilities 1,245 801
Cost of fund rasing 2,262 -
Cultural events 6,935 -
Ecumenical &Organisational 5,000 5,000
Travel reimbursement 2,306 1,627
St.Andrws/St Margaret Pattens Church 8,200 3,750
Diocese Clergy,visitingdignatories 15,295 11,150
Sundyschool activities 4,871 389
Vicars exgratia,solicitors fees,visa, - 6,000
Parsonage mortgage,expenses,bills 31,818 32,567
- -
**Sub total ** 225,193 145,390
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
-
-
**Sub total ** - -
Total payments
Net of receipts/(payments)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash funds this year end
145,390
- 12,885 -
- 12,885		 4,982
- - - -
85,594 47,426 133,020 126,062
72,709 47,426 120,135 131,044

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

18/07/2023

1

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
B5 Liabilities
B3 Investment assets
B2 Other monetary assets
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use
B1 Cash funds		 Details
Details
St. Gregorios Church Building
Parsonage
Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Details
Cash Funds
Reserve Funds
Icons, Puthuran etc
Details
Furniture and Fixtures
Other assets for church services
Signature		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
to nearest £
21,593
20,702
61,668
746
-
15,426
83,261
36,874
Agreement Error
Agreement Error
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
1,000,000
395,000
35,000
10,000
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
liability relates
Amount due
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Print Name
Joseph George		 Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
1,250,000
420,000
20,000
900
-
-
-
-
-
When due
(optional)
Date of
approval
Joseph George 11/06/2023

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

18/07/2023

2

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ ST.GREGORIOS INDIAN (MALAN KARA) ORTHODOX CHURCH, members of LONDON On accounts for the year 31/03/2023 Charity no 1000423 ended (if any) Set out on pages 1 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts St. Gregorios Indian (Malankara) Orthodox Church, Brockley, London for the year ended 31/03/2023. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts St. Gregorios

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: 08/06/2023 Name: Sabu Koshy Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 135 Demesne Road, Wallington, London, SM6 8EW

1

October 2018

IER