## **Providence Baptist Chapel, Cheltenham – Registered Charity No. 1010275**
## **Trustees' Annual Report for the year to 30th April 2023**
The Trustees are pleased to submit their report and the financial statements of the Charity for the year ended 30th April 2023.
## **Reference and Administrative Details**
Providence Baptist Chapel, Cheltenham is a Registered Charity, no. 1010275. The principal address of the Charity is: Providence Baptist Chapel, Naunton Parade, Leckhampton, Cheltenham GL53 7NP.
The Charity Trustees for the year were as follows:
- Mr John Hope – Elder
- Mr Timothy Ilott – Deacon
Mr Pooyan Mehrshahi – Elder and Pastor (Chairman)
## **Structure and Governance**
The governing Constitution of the Charity was first adopted on 20[th] February 1992, with subsequent amendments on 22[nd] November 2000, 30[th] September 2014 and 23[rd] October 2014.
The Constitution requires that there shall be no fewer than three Charity Trustees, with no maximum figure. The Elders (including the Pastor) and the Deacons of the Church are Charity Trustees by virtue of their office. Since the Pastor is also an employee of the Church his position as a Trustee is subject to appropriate financial safeguards to prevent a conflict of interest.
If the number of 'ex officio' Trustees falls below three the Church shall elect from among its Members enough other Charity Trustees to meet the minimum requirement. (Unlike the ‘ex officio’ Trustees, these other Trustees must be re-elected annually.)
Throughout the 2022/2023 year there have always been sufficient 'ex officio' Charity Trustees to meet the required minimum number. Therefore it has not been necessary to appoint others.
## **Object of the Charity**
The object of the Charity is to advance the Christian religion for the public benefit, particularly in accordance with the Statement of Faith and Church Covenant which are annexed to the Constitution.
This object has been furthered principally by the continued use of the Charity’s Providence Baptist Chapel premises in Cheltenham for the preaching and teaching of the Christian religion; by the provision of children’s outreach work; by the support of open-air Christian outreach; and by the dissemination of the Scriptures and other Christian literature.
## **Review of Activities**
## Worship Services
Regular worship services have been held on Sunday mornings and evenings and on Wednesday evenings each week. All of these meetings have been open to members of the public and there has been a continuing growth in attendance. Several additions to the membership of the Church have occurred this year. A video live-stream of the majority of these services has been available using several online platforms. This has enabled many to follow the services who have been unable to attend in person due to limitations such as infirmity or distance. Regular on-line followers include a number from overseas. The archive of Providence Chapel sermons stored online at the SermonAudio website (including some in the Farsi (Persian) language) has also attracted many downloads from across the world.
## Other Activities
Meetings to provide teaching and other activities for children of junior school age and for toddlers and their parents/carers have continued to provide good opportunities for contact with non-church families.
Open-air ministry has been continued on a broadly fortnightly basis, either in Cheltenham or Gloucester town centres. This has been assisted in part by the Open Air Mission, but has also seen a larger number of people from Providence Baptist Chapel fellowship engaging in the work. Many items
Page 1 of 2
Charity Ref. 1010275
2022-23 TAR
of Christian literature have been distributed and several people contacted through these events have subsequently attended services at Providence Baptist Chapel.
Many other opportunities have arisen for the distribution of free copies of the complete Holy Bible, of Gospels of John and of other Christian literature. The marking in June 2022 of the Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II particularly opened the way for several hundred Jubilee Commemoration Bibles to be presented as gifts to children in local schools.
## **Public Benefit**
It is central to the beliefs and practice of the Church worshipping at Providence Baptist Chapel that truly great public benefit will only arise as people are brought to acknowledge their own sinfulness, turn from it, and place their trust solely in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who are equipped with this knowledge by faith will not only reap immeasurable personal spiritual benefit, they will also bring benefit to society at large through their good citizenship. The Church therefore continues to seek to carry the message of the Christian Gospel to a wide audience through the activities described previously (always in dependence upon the blessing of the Holy Spirit).
The great majority of meetings held at the Chapel are open to any who may wish to come (subject only to restrictions of age or membership status in some cases). Those worship services which are live-streamed or held in archive on the internet (as referred to above) are freely available to anybody.
The Charity Commission places a duty upon the Trustees to ensure that due regard is given to its guidance on public benefit. For the reasons given above the Trustees are satisfied that the activities of Providence Baptist Chapel are fully focussed on the provision of benefit to the public.
## **Financial Review**
## Reserves
It is the policy of the Trustees to keep in reserve a sum equivalent to not less than one year's running costs. This is to ensure that in the event of a significant unexpected reduction in income there is financial provision for a twelve months ‘buffer period’, thus allowing time to find alternative sources of funding.
The running costs have been taken as the total payments from the General Fund, less any significant non-recurring items. For 2022/2023 this has been estimated to be £59,000.
At the end of the year the total balance held by the Charity in unrestricted funds was £172,719. Thus the planned level of Reserve can be held for the forthcoming year while still having available some £113,180 for other expenditure.
The Trustees are therefore satisfied that the above stated Policy on Reserves has been met and that the present financial state of the Charity is sound.
## Charitable Expenditure
During the year a new Financial Strategy has been developed and adopted with the aim of ensuring that the expenditure of available funds on the Charity’s stated Objects is more clearly prioritised.
## Signed
John Hope, Trustee and Church Secretary Authorised to sign on behalf of the Trustees
18[th] January 2024
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Charity Ref. 1010275
2022-23 TAR
||**Providence Chapel**|**Providence Chapel**|**Providence Chapel**|**1010275**|**1010275**|**1010275**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**For the period**
**from**|**01/05/2022**|**To**||**30/04/2023**|||
|||||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||||
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**81,532**
**18,177**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**99,709**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**99,709**
**57,657**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**57,657**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**57,657**
**42,052**
**-**
**130,667**
**172,719**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**5,193**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**5,193**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**5,193**
**4,220**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,220**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**4,220**
**973**
**-**
**28,153**
**29,126**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**86,725**
**18,177**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**104,902**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**104,902**
**61,877**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**61,877**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**61,877**
**43,025**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|WeeklyOfferings|**81,532**||||||**79,148**|
|Gift Aid|**18,177**||||||**8,865**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**99,709**||||||**88,013**|
|||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**||||||||
||**-**|||||||
||**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||||
||||||||**88,013**|
|||||||||
|Direct Charitable Expenses|**57,657**||||||**56,164**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**57,657**||||||**56,164**|
|||||||||
|**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_**||||||||
||||||||**56,164**|
|||||||||
||**42,052**|**973**|**-**||**43,025**||**31,849**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**130,667**|**28,153**|**-**||**158,820**||**126,971**|
||**172,719**|**29,126**|**-**||**201,845**||**158,820**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
11/12/2023
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**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Cash at bank
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**172,719**
**29,126**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**172,719**
**29,126**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
John Kenneth Hope|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
|||John Kenneth Hope|18/01/2024|
|||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
11/12/2023
2
## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
## **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report**
**Report to the trustees/** Charity Name **members of** Providence Chapel **On accounts for the year** 30[th] April 2023 **Charity no** 1010275 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** 1 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
**Respective** The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The **responsibilities of** charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under **trustees and examiner** section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to:
- examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
- to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and
- to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
- **Basis of independent** My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given **examiner’s statement** by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
- **Independent** In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention
- **examiner's statement** 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in, any material respect, the requirements:
- to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and
- to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act
- have not been met; or
2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
|**Signed:**
**Name:**
**Relevant professional**
**qualification(s) or body**
**(if any):**
**Address:**
|I Brotherton|11/12/2023|
|---|---|---|
||||
||Ian Brotherton||
||||
||ICPA||
||||
||Abbey Accountancy Ltd||
||North Warehouse, The Docks, Gloucester, GL1 2EP||
1
**IER**
**March 2012**
## **Section B Disclosure**
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material problems.
**Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** .
2
**IER**
**March 2012**