2024-12-31-accounts - Cheltenham Network Church

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CHELTENHAM NETWORK CHURCH

TRUSTEES REPORT 2024

E F Brown (Chair) – C Brown (Treasurer) –S Harrison- L C Power – S J Robinson – A Tickle

Charity no 1079714

General Management

The trustees continue to be closely involved in the affairs and management of the church. They met formally five times during the year.

The Trustees have focused their efforts as follows: Safeguarding and staff matters Engagement with the South Cheltenham Council – Co-opted by Vicar as required Representatives at the BMO Visitor's Council of Reference Meeting – co-opted by the vicar

Continuing to work as a fully integrated body with Emmanuel Church – sealing our partnership for the next 4 years and beyond.

All the trustees have completed ‘Safeguarding’ training provided by the Gloucester Diocese.

We continue to work together with Emmanuel Church, meeting in the Emmanuel building and sharing our vicar and their facilities. The church has become blended as one homogenous group of people. We still hold our trust in the greatest esteem and work to fit the Bishop’s Missional Order which means outreach and meeting the needs of the community. We have now adopted a “working title” of Emmanuel Network Church. While retaining our legal name of Cheltenham Network Church and the Bishops’ Missional Order attached to that, we appear to be one church to all intents and purposes. We retain separate treasurers and finances.

We continue to be an integral part of the South Cheltenham Team and enjoy an excellent working relationship with the leaders and members of the other churches in our area.

Finance

The treasurer attends trustee meetings and keeps the trustees up to date on all financial matters.

Giving increased in line with inflation from the previous year. Expenses were almost identical at £79059 giving a balance on 31st December 2023 of £29368.

We continue to have been paying the Diocese £500 less per month to cover the vicar’s salary. By changing the reserves policy, we have been able to make a number of extra payments to the Diocese to bring CNC up to date with its commitment as at the end of December 2024. The trustees and treasurer will review things regularly with a view to returning to paying the diocese the required monthly amount as soon as we can but in the meantime the adhoc payments ensure we are not running up any debt to the Diocese.

As a matter of good financial governance, CNC aims to have reserves of at least £20,000. In addition, we have over £8000 in the Building Fund.

The trustees are regularly looking at expenditure and are working on a more formal budget going forward.

The annual accounts for 2024 have been independently examined and approved by the Trustees.

The church has a policy of giving away 10% of our annual income to other charitable causes that come within the objects of the Trust.

Public Benefit

The trustees confirm that the general guidance on public benefit given by the Charity Commission has been duly considered and that the charity has complied with its duty to have due regard to public benefit. In particular this is seen in several activities:-

We continue to financially support a local family organisation called 'Family Space'. It
provides many services for disadvantaged families and works in partnership with
Cheltenham YMCA. Two of our members also work regularly for them.
We made monetary donations and food to Family Space, Family Elderly Sponsorship in Ethiopia and Gloucestershire Youth For Christ
We also gave £250 to support a church in Tanzania.
One of our members also volunteers with our local Christians against Poverty group.
We held a service on Refugee Sunday where we highlighted the work and issue in Cheltenham.
Three members of the church take a regular part in the work of the "Street Pastors' in Cheltenham. This involves being out on the streets on week-end nights to care for many young people to get them home safely.
We ran an “Alpha” course this year which is an opportunity to meet, share a meal and talk about what faith in Christ might look like. This was open to anyone and attended by those known to us and those less so.
The church services, children's work and other meetings are open to all and enable individuals and families to have a greater sense of well being and be in community with one another.
Various Networks have commenced such as a cycling, hiking and more are starting up in the future which are open to all and the main aim is to reach non-church members.
We started up a monthly coffee morning for people over 55 which is well attended.
Together with Emmanuel we run events such as a weekly toddler group which are open to all. This was paused in November due to operational difficulties; it is envisioned that it will start again in 2026.
We ran a Shrove Tuesday event in the February half term which was largely attended by non-church goers who enjoyed the craft activities, toys and pancakes.
On Easter Sunday we held a Easter Egg hunt in the church garden which was open to all before our service.
In the summer holidays, we ran a stay and play session for local families
We ran a Music in the Garden event with local musicians, a food van. We like to use our garden (it is not a churchyard!) for as many community events as possible. This was attended by many not known to us and appreciated by the community.
We ran a Halloween event – a totally free event where children (with parents) were invited to pop in during their “trick or treat” journeys for more treats such as glitter tattoos, doughnuts, hot drinks, hunting for sweets and chat. This was a huge success, really appreciated by the community and enjoyed by all.
We run popular youth groups both during Sunday mornings and on a weekday evening. These are open to all. On a Sunday morning it is for ages 11-18 and on a weekday there are two – one for 11-15 and one for 16-19s.
At harvest we hosted the whole of the local primary school for a service.
At Christmas, we ran outreach services at the local school and at Church for all; additionally, we sang carols at a local pub and a psychiatric hospital for the elderly. We held a Community Carol Service where prominent members of the local community took part in the readings etc. We held a family Christingle service at the start of advent and a Crib Service on Christmas Eve – these services were advertised within the parish and on social media. We also ran “Jesus Rocks” a hidden painted stone with a picture of someone from the nativity story which children were invited to find in the weeks before Christmas and being to our Crib Service, thus involving all local children.
Our youth worker, in addition to running weekly Tuesday evening sessions which are well attended, also took the youth away for a weekend together in February and took them to Satellites, a large Christian festival for young people in the summer. These events are all open to any. Our youth worker also runs Christian Union clubs at 1 local secondary school and is looking to expand this to two other schools. These are open to all.

Mrs E F Brown (Chair of Trustees)

CHELTENHAM NETWORK CHURCH STATEMENT OF FINANCES YEAR ENDED 31.12.2024 BALANCE AT 31.12.2023 RECEIPTS 2024 2023 NON GIFT AID GIFT AIO TAX REcLTED BANK INTEREST CHARITIES AID DONATION NETWORKS DESIGNATED GIFnNG SUNDRIES 3871.46 54430.00 13667.50 note 2 882.55 3240.00 1311.10 375.60 232.96 3043.99 54010.09 13588.00 281.93 3240.1)0 7.00 1518.56 78011.17 £108,427.89 PAYMENTS EVENTS EMPLOYMENT COSTS 847.49 9612.50 8088.40 8328.00 EQUIPMENT MISSIONINETWORKS DONATIONS - GENERAL 330.00 1249.39 2773.16 901.99 10fA.95 2915.00 YOUTH WORK OFFICE COSTS 7407.04 1739.13 $728.83 1002.98 RENT I HEATING l•tc. SUNDRIES PARISH SHARE DESIGNATED GIFTING WEBSITE REBRANDING 217.94 60233.08 1699.80 0.00 74.91 53506.00 938.00 79069.33 REPRESENTED BY: CURRENT ACCOUNT CAF. 13119.61 SHAWBROOK BANK FIXEO TERM 16249.os 29368.66 LESS UNPRESENTED CHEQUES

R•pr•s#ntgd by: Curr•nt A¢¢ount CAF £15,012.53 Shawbrook Bank £15.404.19 £30A16.72
al Tax rgclalmable In due courno at bl Tax and Nl payable in duo cour¥e 31.12.2024 GÈn.fund Gen.lund £1.1)07.50 £326
Th• foll¢)wlng accounts also held . 31.12.23 £1.448.12 8.000.00 ro¢ei 31.12.24 £1,484.14 01 Bulldlng Fund aeeount CAF S'brook £36.02
DONATIONS ARE SHOWN BELOW TANZANIA £253.16 C.Y.F.CHRIST FAMILY SPACE UFE CHURCH.ELDERLY) SPONSORSHIP SCHEMEI £600 Mthfy 0 - £1,200 Mthty SIO * £720 Mthty - ,520. .77 S. The book valu• ol •B•et• Insuranco valuè was at 31. 12. 2tr24 w £1.7Sfj £6.227 I havo ¢x•mln•d th• b¢>ok•.vouchrn & nk 8tstomonts of Ch•lt•nham Il•trrtork Church In accordan¢o wlth th• Ch•rbtlM Act 2011 & cortlfy that the Jtatoment• of flnon¢•8 ar• true & accurata r•cord8 of th• accounts fol th• y•ar •ndlng 318t D•c•mb•r.2024 C.A. BROWN TR&4SURER D.PALMER INOEPENDENT EXAIIJINER

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of CH£LI ty]E )woki< CduQC14 11-102+ On accounts for the year ended Charity no lif any) ioyqxlf Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charrty {°the Trusl.) for the year ended Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of Ihe Trusl, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (°the Act") I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5){b) of the Aa. I have completed my examination. I confim that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below ') in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounls do not accord with Ihe accounting records Independent examiner's ststement I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please del te the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Signed: Date: Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body lif any): Address: C frl Gu iiK)14 IER October 2018

Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER October 2018

R•pr•s#ntgd by: Curr•nt A¢¢ount CAF £15,012.53 Shawbrook Bank £15.404.19 £30A16.72
al Tax rgclalmable In due courno at bl Tax and Nl payable in duo cour¥e 31.12.2024 GÈn.fund Gen.lund £1.1)07.50 £326
Th• foll¢)wlng accounts also held . 31.12.23 £1.448.12 8.000.00 ro¢ei 31.12.24 £1,484.14 01 Bulldlng Fund aeeount CAF S'brook £36.02
DONATIONS ARE SHOWN BELOW TANZANIA £253.16 C.Y.F.CHRIST FAMILY SPACE UFE CHURCH.ELDERLY) SPONSORSHIP SCHEMEI £600 Mthfy 0 - £1,200 Mthty SIO * £720 Mthty - ,520. .77 S. The book valu• ol •B•et• Insuranco valuè was at 31. 12. 2tr24 w £1.7Sfj £6.227 I havo ¢x•mln•d th• b¢>ok•.vouchrn & nk 8tstomonts of Ch•lt•nham Il•trrtork Church In accordan¢o wlth th• Ch•rbtlM Act 2011 & cortlfy that the Jtatoment• of flnon¢•8 ar• true & accurata r•cord8 of th• accounts fol th• y•ar •ndlng 318t D•c•mb•r.2024 C.A. BROWN TR&4SURER D.PALMER INOEPENDENT EXAIIJINER