## **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**
**TAR**
**March 23**
1
## **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:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees.
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works.
- relationship with any related parties.
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
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.
**TAR**
**March 23**
2
## **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.
**TAR**
**March 23**
3
## **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:
- policy on grant making.
- policy programme related investment.
- contribution made by volunteers.
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.
**TAR**
**March 23**
4
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.
**TAR**
**March 23**
5
## 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.
**TAR**
**March 23**
6
**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:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
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
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
## **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
**TAR**
**March 23**
7
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
- Indian (Malankara) Orthodox Church, Brockley, London for the year ended 31/03/2023.
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:
- accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act or
- the accounts do not accord with those records
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**