2024-06-30-accounts - United Church Of God British Isles

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AGM Reports 23 September 2024

Chairman’s report – Jason Godfrey.

Greetings! I would like to welcome everyone to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of the Charity, the United Church of God British Isles.

I want to acknowledge the passing of our previous Chairman, David Payne. His effort in the work of the Charity throughout many years is evident and will continue to assist all who will follow and continue the work given to us to complete. We are grateful for the legacy left to us by David.

Some have wondered “Why does the Church need to have charitable status?” The Charity is a legal requirement for the Church to be able to function as a religious organisation and all that that involves. The Charity organises the day to day running of the Church through the CEO who is appointed by the National Council to look after the administration of the Church and acts at the bidding of the Council. The financial aspects of the Church are agreed and monitored by the National Council.

Not only do we abide by the UCGIA Rules of Association and our own Constitution, but we also follow the rules laid down by the Charity Commission and the laws of the land. Should the time ever come when we cannot function as a church to complete the task given to us under this construct, then we will surely pivot to a new model.

Council positions have become vacant this year due to terms expiring and through resignation. The tenure of Chairman, that I assumed from David Payne, is also expiring. The charity thrives by the input of the council members whomever they may be from time to time.

I thank ALL those who have given their time and effort in supporting the United Church of God BI – the Charity. Those who have been involved in the running of the Charity and the decisions made to further the Church’s mission including but not limited to: the Feast of Tabernacles, Family Camp, specific training, and the preaching of the Gospel.

We live in an ever-changing world, and we need to be ready to address all of the challenges ahead without compromising our goals.

I will now hand you over to our CEO, David Fenney, to give you a more in-depth assessment of the functioning of the Church as a Charity.

3. CEO’s report - David Fenney.

The United Church of God in the British Isles continued to function through the 2023–2024 year. During the year, the Church held the 2023 Feast of Tabernacles at The Prince of Wales Hotel in Southport; a summer family camp at The Wilderness Centre in Gloucestershire; part-time office staff worked both in the office, and from home. The work of the Church in preaching the Gospel has continued, with Internet advertising and large-scale literature distribution.

This report covers the period July 2023 to June 2024. Here is a collection of statistics that presents a snapshot of UCG-BI as of June 2024:

192 members on file.
49 prospectives/associates on file.
175 donors on file.
139 co-workers on file.
5 congregations that meet in-person most weeks: Stirling, Ballymena, Gloucester, Bricket Wood, London.
1 congregation that meets in-person twice-a-month: Preston, which meets also on Zoom each week in a combination of members from Preston, Sheffield, Isle of Man, Ireland, and elsewhere in England. Note that as of July 2024, Preston congregation is now meeting inperson three times a month of two different locations.
10 elders/ministers, plus (8) wives, plus deacons (7) and deaconesses (8), serving in our congregations. David Payne, a long-serving elder and National Council member, died in May 2024. Two deacons were ordained during the year.
Beyond Today magazine + Supplement , in 2023-2024 a total of 37,749 copies were distributed, an average of 6,292 per issue.
The September/October 2024 Beyond Today + Supplement – the current issue – was mailed to 6,936 subscribers, of which 6,570 are in UK, 353 in Ireland, 13 in IOM.
United News , mailed to 175 members’ homes.
Bible Study Course , mailed to 81 students; since the Course was introduced 7,115 students have received all 12 lessons and of those, 973 have completed and returned all 12 tests.
2023-2024 incoming mail , a total of 9,166 items of mail – including 7,670 Internet responses and 1,496 postal items – were received.
2023-2024 outgoing mail , a total of 8,623 envelopes were mailed out, containing 17,632 items of literature.
Internet advertising : The total cost of the Google ads in the year was USD$35,592, which were reimbursed to UCG IA , at a cost to UCG-BI of £28,879.
£280,667 total estimated annual income for the 2023-2024 year.
£308,667 total estimated annual expenditure for the 2023-2024 year.
The Church’s principal sources of income in the year were: direct donations, £178,482; Holy Day offerings £63,504; Gift Aid refunds, £28,754. These accounted for around 96% of total income in the year.
Postage was UCG-BI’s largest single expenditure item, at £54,947; with wages at £54,487; rent and utilities at £38,824. These three items accounted for 49% of expenditure in the year.
For the last three years UCG-BI has not requested a direct financial subsidy from UCG IA , although we do receive from UCG IA without charge, extensive stocks of printed literature.
The Supplement is written, composed, desktop-published, and printed commercially in the UK at UCG-BI expense.
UCG-BI has 6 part-time employees; although it is essentially a volunteer organisation, including the work of the ministry and the National Council, which is the board of trustees of the UCG-BI registered charity.

1. Church/local congregations/work of the ministry:

a. This area of the Church’s work accounted for 30% of expenditure (19% previous year).
b. All congregations have continued to be supported, with the ministry or other speakers present for in-person or Zoom services wherever and whenever possible.
c. Zoom services linking Preston and Sheffield congregation members with members elsewhere in the British Isles, have continued weekly.
d. The 2023 Feast of Tabernacles took place at The Prince of Wales Hotel in Southport, with Zoom connections to members at home. The 2024 Spring Holy Day services took place in-person and over Zoom .
e. Congregational record-keeping is being formalised and enhanced to ensure the Church’s database maintains an adequate “parish record” of all associated with the Church.
f. Average in-person monthly attendance figures for all congregations began to be submitted to MMS in Cincinnati in January 2024, at the request of the UCG IA Council of Elders.
g. A website page with contact and other details for every congregation is being worked on.
h. Overall, UCG-BI is dependent on the work of volunteers in all areas of its operations. The ministry of the United Church of God in the British Isles is essentially unpaid.
i. Since 2020 members have been encouraged to send their Holy Day offerings to the Church office, and directly into the Church’s bank account if possible. This approach remains necessary due to the ever-growing challenge of finding convenient bank branches for congregational offerings to be paid into.
j. The Church continues to rely on the support of local leaders within our congregations. The ministry has continued to review existing and future leadership needs.
k. A Family Summer Camp took place at The Wilderness Centre in Gloucestershire in August 2023, attracting Church families from both the UK and several European countries.
l. The newsletter News & Events has continued to be published on an as-needed basis and distributed to members both in the British Isles and to a sizeable list of recipients overseas who have an interest in, or a connection with, the Church in the British Isles. There were 6 issues of News & Events distributed during the 2023–2024 year. All communications from the UCG IA Cincinnati home office intended for the Church members were forwarded in a timely manner.
m. Various meetings and discussions took place by Zoom during the year: ministerial, pastoral, National Council, Feast planning, personal counselling, midweek Bible studies, training sessions for speaking in Church.
n. UCG IA president Rick Shabi and his wife Deborah visited the UK between Tuesday 18 and Monday 24 July 2023. During that period Mr and Mrs Shabi visited the Church office and its personnel in Chalfont St Giles, had lunch with the office staff, met with most members of the UCG-British Isles National Council in a Zoom meeting, met informally with local members, attended the Sabbath service with the combined Bricket Wood and London congregations, and participated in a meeting with the British Isles

ministry on Sunday 23 July 2023. On Wednesday 19 July Mr Shabi presented the fortnightly midweek Bible Study on Zoom ; he also gave the Sabbath sermon in Bricket Wood on 22 July, connected by Zoom throughout the British Isles and beyond.

o. A married couple from the UK attended the Labor Day Training and Development Weekend in Cincinnati in September 2023.
p. Leadership training event: Elders and wives, deacons, deaconesses, and spouses, together with other congregational leaders from the British Isles congregations, assembled Friday 29 March to Monday 1 April at the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, for a training and leadership development workshop. Including six guests from Cincinnati, a total of fifty-seven adults and eight children were present. Presentations were given by Rick Shabi, Darris McNeely, and Steve Myers from Cincinnati. Topics addressed included pastors as disciples, accountable elders, advancing the mission, a people for the vision, Church matters, ministerial matters, preparing for the future/mentoring, sonship or adoption, and the nature of Christ. Time was also allocated to question-and-answer discussions. The direct cost of the event with the hotel amounted to £24,847.00; additional costs, mainly attendees’ travel and meals, brought the total cost to £30,000, met from UCG-BI restricted and ring-fenced funds.

2. Proclamation:

a. This area of the Church’s work accounted for 45% of expenditure (50% previous year).
b. We have continued to distribute Beyond Today magazine throughout the British Isles.
c. The British & European Supplement to Beyond Today magazine has continued to be published. The continuing efforts of Barbara Fenney as editorial coordinator and Jan Schroeder as production manager, together with the efforts of writers and reviewers, are much appreciated. This publication continues to include articles presenting basic biblical knowledge with a Christian-living focus. Our website ucg.org.uk has PDFs of most issues of the Supplement back to the January/February 2005 issue. Several articles from past issues of the Supplement have been used in UCG IA ’s United News and also in UCG-Australia’s Bible Insight’s Weekly .
d. Circulation of Beyond Today magazine and the Supplement averaged 6,292 subscriber copies during the year, 6 issues: with a high of 6,959 and a low of 5,987. The number of Internet-only readers in the British Isles is not readily quantifiable.
e. Internet advertising of Church publications continued throughout the year in the United Kingdom and Ireland, being undertaken on our behalf by the Media and Communications Services department in the UCG IA Cincinnati home office, at UCGBI expense.
f. Our historical magazine subscription renewal rate has never been higher than 30%, and since 2020 it has been in the range 3–10%, and in the 2023-2024 year averaged about 3%.
g. In response to ongoing Internet advertising, the office has continued to receive requests for booklets and Bible study aids. In the 12-month period July 2023 to June 2024, the office mailed 6,854 booklets and study aids – 55 different titles – to those who requested them, up from 6,100 in the previous year. The five most requested titles this year were: The Ten Commandments , The Book of Revelation Unveiled , Angels - God's Messengers and Spirit Army , You Can Have Living Faith , Is the Bible True? These five accounted for 49% of all booklet mailings. The most requested title individually accounted for 16% of all booklet/study aid mailings.
h. The subscriber mailing address carriers for Beyond Today and the Supplement have continued to have ‘ads’ for related literature and for UCG IA ’s Beyond Today TV programme, in the form of ‘mini-advertorials’. This no-cost advertising has borne good fruit, and we have continued with it. Subscribers use the carriers to request literature that is offered; some returned carriers include comments that are included in the letters page of the Supplement or are sent on to the Cincinnati home office. Recently, the text of carriers has been posted on the ucg.org.uk website, under the News & Events section of the About Us tab.

3. Administration:

a. This area of the Church’s work accounted for 25% of expenditure (31% previous year).
b. The continuing efforts of our office manager Mrs Jan Schroeder to support the office functions are much appreciated.
c. The office, with both part-time employees, and volunteers who come into the office and who also work from home, has continued to meet the various demands placed on it. Recently, the ill-health of one regular volunteer has impacted the mailing work of the office. Workarounds and the assistance of other local volunteers has allowed work to continue.
d. Mailing literature from the Church office continues to be a weekly task. While the bulk mailing of the Beyond Today magazine and Supplement continues to be contracted to a commercial organisation, First Move in High Wycombe, requests for new subscriptions to Beyond Today magazine and back issue requests, are mailed directly from the Church office.
e. Office equipment: ongoing upgrades to office equipment were made as required. In addition, we are grateful for the ongoing help and support of UCG IA ’s IT personnel.
f. UCG-BI continues to rent office space at Peterson House in Chalfont St Giles. This lease has been renewed for several years on an annual basis, with the current lease running to February 2025, which will be renewed again shortly.
g. UCG-BI continues to rent a business unit in Warrington. We use this unit for storage of Church property, records, and equipment. This workshop unit has electrical power and plumbed facilities, plus a loading bay. The current 3-year lease for this unit runs to June 2026.
h. In consequence of the level of donation and other income, together with our budgeted expenditure as primarily a volunteer organisation, for a third successive year UCG-BI did not request an annual International Subsidy from UCG IA for 2023–2024. This year, along with budgetary data, Cincinnati requested extensive information from all international areas, for review by the UCG IA ’s president and Council of Elders.
i. Primus Accountancy in Golborne, Greater Manchester, was engaged to review the 2022-2023 accounts, and will shortly start work on the 2023-2024 accounts.
j. HSBC “Safeguard” requirements: UCG-BI has been required by HSBC bank to update certain basic information about our organisation and its “connected parties”, in our case our trustees. HSBC stated they require this because “As part of our commitment to fight fraud and financial crime, we need to make sure we hold the right information about you and your organisation. Having accurate information about all our customers is a key part of our ability to detect and deter fraudulent transactions, money laundering and tax evasion. So, from time to time, we’ll ask you to confirm, update or

give us new information. This is what we call Safeguard.” As further motivation to comply with this request, HSBC added the statement “Although its rare, we must inform you a possible outcome of the review is we may decide to no longer provide banking services for your organisation – even if you’ve provided us with all the information we asked for.” The completed information package was submitted to HSBC on 28[th] July 2024 and is being reviewed.

Thanks!

I would like to thank the members and supporters of the Church and the Charity for their continued support, encouragement, involvement in the work of the Church.
I would also like to thank the home office personnel of UCG IA , together with the Council of Elders and the administration, for their support, advice and sharing of ideas, for the ucg.org website, and for printed literature supplies – Beyond Today magazines, booklets, study aids, Bible Study Course lessons, and other items – provided without charge to UCG-BI.

CEO’s business plan David Fenney

CEO’s business plan

Now well into the 2024–2025 financial year, the work of the United Church of God – British Isles is continuing. We are aware of our Mission statement: “The mission of the United Church of God, an International Association , is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God in all the world, make disciples in all nations and care for those disciples.”

During this year, we will continue to preach the gospel and prepare a people, by placing a high priority on finding, developing, training, encouraging, and mentoring more leaders, speakers, and administrators. We will continue to use the skills, abilities, talents, and spiritual gifts of those God has placed within this Church – even enhancing those skills where possible.

I have reported on previous occasions that our key challenges include the need to:

Equip the saints for the work of the Church in terms of identifying, training, developing, and mentoring teachers and leaders from among those God has called to us.
Inspire others to carry on the work of this present generation of volunteer administrators, that they in turn might contribute to our support structure at all levels.
Foster a welcoming Church environment in our present and potential future congregations that will encourage the interest, growth and development of people who contact us in response to God’s calling and our preaching of the Gospel.

1. Church/local congregations/work of the ministry:

a. 26% of the Church’s overall expenditure budget has been proposed for this area.
b. The immediate challenges remain those of supporting our congregations; preparing to welcome potential new attendees; continuing to use Zoom to link with members at home.
c. The Church continue to receive requests for information about services from both members and others who are remote from our existing congregations. Inviting such people to be part of our Church services via Zoom provides us with an opportunity to interact with them.
d. Stemming from the leadership training event earlier in 2024, initiatives related to the use of social media and training in public speaking are being developed.
e. Attention is still needed to enhance congregational record-keeping such as Sabbath and Holy Day attendances, numbers of new contacts, births and deaths, ages of children.
f. Congregational midweek Bible Studies over Zoom are continuing, usually on a fortnightly basis and with occasion breaks throughout the year.
g. Continuing pastoral development is necessary, together with the encouragement and motivation of existing members to support the work of the Church. Member training that addresses congregational, administrative, ministerial, and pastoral needs must also continue.
h. The Church will continue to encourage suitable individuals and couples to attend UCG IA ’s training activities, as opportunities present themselves.
i. The Feast of Tabernacles will take place this year, 2024, at The Prince of Wales Hotel in Southport, with a full schedule of Church services and social activities and with overseas visitors expected. Zoom connections to the services will be arranged for those at home during the Feast.
j. Locations for the Feast of Tabernacles in 2025 and 2026 have been considered by the ministry, with a return to Llandudno in North Wales proposed for 2025, and a venue in Aviemore, Scotland, being considered for 2026. Feast site selection and overall planning for the Feast remains a standing function of the ministry, in liaison with the National Council.
k. A family camp activity took place at Dalesdown , Horsham, West Sussex in August 2024. With the current demographics within our Church community, it is anticipated that similar activities will continue in the coming years.
l. The Church needs to produce regular member and co-worker letters. Ideally, these would be produced either by personnel in the British Isles or by the adaption of equivalent letters from UCG IA . These letters and other information updates can be posted on the ucg.org.uk website.
m. Following the leadership training event in March/April, there will likely be a followup two-day meeting of the UCG-BI ministry at the end of December 2024 with pastoral personnel from Cincinnati.

2. Proclamation:

a. 48% of the Church’s expenditure budget has been proposed for this area.
b. Our Beyond Today magazine subscriber list in the UK and Ireland stands around 6,900 for the September-October 2024 issue.
c. The July/August 2024 issue of the Supplement was its 25[th] anniversary issue.
d. Our subscriber list has fluctuated over time – historically, it has been as low as 1,500 and as high as 12,000. A large majority of our subscribers are neither Church members nor connected with the Church in any way. While explicit subscription cancellations

are regularly received, they remain relatively low numbers and have not noticeably increased in recent times.

e. Maintaining and increasing that circulation level remains a priority. We will continue to use Internet advertising as our primary advertising tool and will continue to fund the UCG IA Home Office to do this advertising on our behalf. In addition, we need to consider possibilities for increasing our renewal rate, which is currently around 3%.
f. The current widespread adoption and availability of video streaming allows ready access to UCG IA ’s video tools: Beyond Today television, Biblical Worldview , Magnified , Sermons and Bible Studies. We will advertise these tools in our mailing address carriers and on our ucg.org.uk website.
g. One outcome from the leadership training event earlier this year was the establishment of a UCG-BI social media committee. The committee is working to establish strategies for corporate, congregational, and individual use of social media of behalf of UCG-BI.
h. Should UCG IA publish any new booklets or study aids during the year, we will make copies available to our members and advertise them to our overall mailing list.
i. The subscriber mailing address carriers for the Beyond Today magazine will continue to carry no-cost ‘ads’ offering literature or highlighting the Beyond Today TV programme, and adapted content from the carriers will continue to be posted on the ucg.org.uk website.
j. Our writing skills will continue to be encouraged, developed, and enhanced. Articles for the Supplement , mini-advertorials for mailing address carriers and blogs for the ucg.org.uk website, are all needed – in the form of concise, yet challenging inspiring and encouraging, biblically-based Christian-living material for both the ‘un-churched’ and the ‘mainstream-churched’ audiences.

3. Administration:

a. 26% of the Church’s expenditure budget has been proposed for this area.
b. Concerning office workload generally: the Peterson House office is still a part-time work environment, with personnel typically working three days per week.
c. Office personnel, including the CEO and Treasurer, will continue to support activities such as: Database maintenance; Accounts records and bill-paying; Donations and Holy Day offerings records; Website content management and maintenance; Safeguarding policies, procedures, and record-keeping; Payroll and associated matters; Gift Aid and associated record-keeping.
d. The office PC network requires a project of work, for replacing elderly equipment, for enhancing backup arrangements, and to allow additional remote access by staff working from home. In addition, upgrades to office systems in UCG IA ’s Cincinnati home office may require corresponding updates to UCG-BI office systems. Contact has been made with UCGIA’s IT personnel regarding details. Also, the implications for the Church of Microsoft’s decision to no longer support Windows 10 beyond 2025 will need to be considered.
e. Both UCG IA and the UCG-BI National Council require that the Church functions in compliance with various policies and procedures: for example, policies for personnel,

travel and subsistence, health and safety, safeguarding. While UCG-BI does function in compliance with such policies and procedures, ongoing work is needed: (1) to keep our policies up to date, (2) to keep our personnel up to date with sensitive Churchwide matters such as safeguarding. These topics are overseen by the National Council.

f. The ministry, with the National Council and administration personnel, need to review and update a formal Strategic Plan for UCG-BI.
g. Particularly for functions such as safeguarding, training of suitable Church members is needed on an on-going basis. For safeguarding, the Church will make use of the seminars and courses that are offered by thirtyone:eight , of which UCG-BI is a member and which supports us in our Disclosure and Barring Service checking needs.
h. The ucg.org.uk website needs ongoing enhancement with topical content, together with Church news, local sermons, and other messages.
i. UCG-BI has a long-standing goal of ending its request for a financial subsidy from UCG IA . The non-financial subsidy we receive from UCG IA in the form of literature stocks sent to us without charge will likely remain.
j. General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), work has been underway to remove old data from our database and to implement enhancements to our record-keeping and records storage facilities. We have been and will continue to encourage the use of corporate email addresses by all those who are involved with working with the Church’s data records in their various forms.
k. The current lease of Peterson House in Chalfont St Giles will expire in February 2025; office staff will arrange another lease extension.

Conclusion

Here and around the world, we are witnessing dramatic cultural changes. It is as though all aspects of the familiar past are being forgotten, replaced, redrawn, obliterated, cancelled. Ties that bind people together are being broken, often with enthusiasm.

Yet the Church’s work assignment remains unchanged. It is to preach the established and unchanging gospel; to make disciples, to baptise and teach them; to maintain our physical and ethical foundations and to keep our spiritual equipment in constant readiness; to press on with the work our sponsor wants to find us ‘so doing’ when he comes.

One day, a voice will ring out saying “well done, good and faithful servant” and our current work will be completed, but we will not be stood down: having proved ourselves, we will simply be reassigned to ongoing aspects of our Master’s business.

In that context, let us indeed press on with our Master’s work.

Meeting finished at 20.25 and Zoom meeting closed.

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