OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2020-12-31-accounts

GRACE TRUST (BRISTOL) Trustees’ Annual Report For Period: 01 January 2020 - 31 December 2020

A. REFERENCE & ADMINISTRATION DETAILS:

Charity Name: Grace Trust (Bristol)

Other names charity is known by: Grace Church Bristol

Registered Charity Number: 1094803

Charity’s Principal Address: 37 Sutherland Avenue Downend Bristol BS16 6QW

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity:

Mr. Peter Bowley Mr. Thomas Haigh Mr. Timothy Hacker

Mr. Jonathan Sussex

B. STRUCTURE & GOVERNANCE:

Grace Trust (Bristol) is governed by our Declaration of Trust Deed dated 14[th ] July 2002. Trustees have been appointed at the declaration of trust and are appointed according to Sections (5) and (6) of the trust deed.

The chairman of the trust is elected or reappointed annually (according to Section (10) of the trust deed) at the Annual General Meeting usually held in October.

Mr. Jonathan Sussex was appointed as a trustee in October 2020 to replace Mr John O’Driscoll who voluntarily resigned as a trustee, and relinquished his duties related to the trust in October 2019.

C. OBJECTIVES & ACTIVITIES:

Summary of our objects:

The objects of the charity are set out in our governing trust deed and are:

  1. The advancement of the Christian faith in accordance with the doctrines set out in the First Schedule of the trust deed; the worship of God in the city of Bristol and elsewhere by any means whatsoever including (but not by way of limitation) the preaching and proclamation of the Christian gospel and the teaching of Christian doctrine and principles and the pastoral care of Christian people.

  2. The relief of persons who are in a condition of need, hardship, distress or who are aged or sick.

objects:

In planning our activities for the year we kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, and in particular the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion.

In particular we try to enable ordinary people to believe, live and represent the truth of God and his gospel to the community in which we reside.

The focus of our activities remains the weekly Sunday Morning Church Service. This regular gathering includes worship and prayer, studying the Bible, the gospel and developing knowledge and trust in Jesus Christ. This church service is aimed at people of all ages and we provide weekly Sunday morning creche activities for children from six months to the age of four, a full Sunday school program for children between five and ten years old, and an additional teaching program for children aged 10 to 12 years old.

In addition to the weekly Sunday morning Church service we offer:

A great contribution is made by church member volunteers. We are grateful for the many hours volunteers have spent preparing and participating in all of our activities. Without their valuable contribution of time, energy and expertise we would not have been able to achieve so much.

D. ACHIEVEMENTS & PERFORMANCE:

GENERAL:

2020 has been an exceptionally unusual and disrupted year due to the deep, lasting and ongoing effects on the Covid-19 Pandemic.

For the first 10-12 weeks of the year, our operations and activities remained broadly similar to previous years with regular Sunday services, midweek activities, and outreach events.

In addition to the regular activities of the church, in January we held a Saturday Women’s Seminar with a guest speaker, addressing the topic of anxiety; and in March we hosted our first singles weekend retreat.

However, from March 2020, and the first lockdown all our regular activities and initiatives came to a complete standstill.

We invested in new technology to allow us to take our Sunday services online, which we did every week from mid-March until the end of August. We also used Zoom for midweek meetings and gatherings such as our small groups, teens and singles meetings, and prayer meetings.

From September 2020 we restarted “in-person services” but were unable to use the local school to meet, so had to move our public services to another venue. We used this venue from September 2020 through to the end of the year, except for 4 Sundays (during the second lockdown) where we once again broadcast online-only our services.

We have seen a small increase of new people visiting the church during the September-December 2020 period.

The pandemic stopped us from hosting our annual teens summer camp, and curtailed all of our regular outreach activities including our mothers and toddlers group, our participation in the homeless shelter, our children’s holiday clubs, our “Switch” teens outreach group, our food bank collections, our Monday night football outreach, and our Easter outreach events.

PARTNERSHIPS:

The pandemic also curtailed our links with other churches and pastors in the city of Bristol and surrounding areas; and limited our interactions with other pastors in our Sovereign Grace Churches denomination.

In February 2020, we launched a fund to allow people from the church to make donations to support members of our church going on future short-term missions trips, and also a fund to collect donations to support church planting efforts in Hungary. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic all short-term missions trips planned were cancelled, and the church plant in Hungary was postponed.

We did continue our partnership with Covenant Mercies; a non-profit organisation based in the USA that seeks to provide spiritual, physical and educational care for poverty stricken orphans in Africa. People from the church have continued to sponsor orphans in either Zambia, Ethiopia and Uganda.

Members of our church have also benefitted from the partnership and ongoing work (and conferences) of Biblical Counselling UK, and Ligonier Ministry.

Finally, we continued our partnership with Union School of Theology, to provide the Bristol Union Learning Community, a distance-learning scheme that provides formal theological training to men pursuing pastoral ministry. This is the fourth year we have partnered with Union to train men for ministry. Again, because of the pandemic, this training was carried out online via Zoom.

OTHER:

2020 and the pandemic allowed us to think about new initiatives and ways of reaching out to the community. We were unable to hold our usual Christmas services, but in lieu of this, members of the church wrote, filmed, produced, edited and published two outreach videos, one aimed at children in the community, and one a”songs of praise” type production aimed at all ages. The videos were well-received and shared widely by people in the church, and we received hundreds of hits/views on our YouTube channel.

We also undertook a “Help & Hope” initiative where people in the church gave donations to allow us to work with two local schools, and some local old people’s homes, to give away over 100 gifts bags to disadvantaged pupils and families, and older, vulnerable members of the local community. These gift bags contained supermarket vouchers, food and drinks and a CD of Christmas music, and a message of hope.

Once again people from the church participated in the “Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Appeal” and we were able to contribute more than 25 shoe boxes to the Samaritan’s Purse charity for them to deliver gifts to underprivileged children overseas.

Members of our church have also continued to give to our Benevolence Fund, which is designed to financially assist other members of our church who might be in financial hardship. We are grateful for the sacrificial giving and compassion of the members of our church to care and support one another in this manner.

E. FINANCIAL REVIEW

Summary of the charity’s policy on reserves:

It is the trust’s aim to maintain a balance on unrestricted funds (if possible) which equates to at least one month unrestricted payments, or approximately £5,000, to cover emergency situations that may arise from time to time.

Not applicable.

Our main source of funding this year has been through voluntary donations from members of the church.

The total income for the year was £164,257.45 with total expenses being £142,747.44

We continued to operate an account for all income and expenditure associated with Sovereign Grace UK. The total income for the year on this account was £2,210.94 with total expenses being £218.77

An account was operated for all income and expenditure associated and related to Covenant Mercies UK. The total income for the year on this account was £11,191.75 with total expenses being £15,419.24

F. DECLARATION

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Signature:

Full Name: Peter John Bowley

Position: Chairman of trustees

Date: 25 October 2021

2020 - Income & Expense Report Summary Btheen oiioir2020 and 3111212020 Expenses £142,747.44 Income £164,257A5 Pastoral Support £85,734.61 • Office Rent I14,L¥g0.04 Gifts £5.878.21 Captsl l*ms £5,351.60 IT WeblHardwarelSofMre £4,331.33 Offite Utilities £3.975.75 Meeting ReTht £3.732.11 Telephone £1280.00 Car Expense5 & UKTra¥el IL266.25 Other £15,197.54 Tithe5 £124,692.03 CO￿nant Return £3I405.42 NPH £2,$00.00 Benevolent Fund £1,363.Crf) ITFO £1.300.00 STM £895.00 Grft5 Income £750.CQ General Income £207.00 Offitr Income £120.rxi G2 Camp £25. É30,¢p>).fp) Spendlng £I0,￿X1. £io,(Kx).fx) £0. -£io.rKxJ.c .a0,￿x). /// Expenses ll Ineome Incom• & Exp•nses by Category Income Benevoknt Fund É1.363.fp) Covenant Rewm £31405.42 G2 Camp GeTre￿ Income £207. Grfr5 Income £750.(K) ITFO I,3￿.c￿) NFV 15(X). Office In¢omt £120.(X) Prew8d wth 8anktwi¢y on 2wion021 Pag4 l of2

Tncome & Expense5 by Category {Contlnued) ¥rM £895.00 rithe5 124.692.03 IncomeTrtal £164257.45 Expen5e5 Benevdent Fundwithdrawzl -£1563.08 BookslP3Stors -£995.70 B¢ok5hop 'tal ￿emS -£817.95 -£&351.60 Car Expenses & UKTrav Ca￿rIng -Q26625 -£476.98 ChldrenlCre£he -£408.33 Conference -U18.48 Ccwenant Mercles -£942.90 G2 -£126SI Genernl Expenses GKU -£221.35 -L5M7821 HoiplTal WeblHarth¥arÉlSoftsvar* -£428.17 -C4.331.33 Lrf¢ & Srudtsts -£74.46 Marri -£1162.40 Meeting Rent Mother5 &Toddlqr5 Mu5icIWor5hiplPA .£313.39 Office Genewal Office Rent .É14.¢X)0.04 Office Utilitye5 -£3.975.75 Outreath -£1.325.44 pastor￿ Support Profe55ional CPAr%es Publicity StatiorAryIP05t3ze Swtch -£85.734.61 -£1.884.40 -a37.98 -£484.17 -£34.44 Texhir¢ Materials Telephone &%￿n$esT0t -£495.00 .£1280.00 -£141747.44 £21￿10.01 Prwed with Banktyhity on 2011012021 Page2of2

Sovereign Grace - Income & Expense Report Summary Betyéeen 0110112020 and 3111212020 Expenses £218.77 Incom• £2,210.94 Expenses £218.77 Gift £1.250.00 Gift5 Income £240.C(J Conference £720.00 Professional Charge5 £0.94 É1.5C#).00 Spendlng I,o(KJ.00 (s￿).00 £0.00 .£500.00 EKpense$ 11 Intome Income & Expenses by Category Income Conferonco 20. Glft £1,250.LK) G1ft5 hcome 240.fKs Pr¢fe5510n￿ cha￿e5 InctyneT4wl £0.94 a21Q94 Expenses Expenses en5e5Totcl -É21&77 -Q1&77 TOTAL <1,99117 Prtpared on 2011012021 Page l of I

Cov Mercies 2020 - Income & Expense Report Summary Bets¥een 0110112020 and 3111212020 Expens•s £15.419.24 Income £11.191.75 Gifts £15,360.74 • Professional Charges £58.50 • Covenant Mercies £8,404.00 Covenant Return £2.787.75 I20,0￿.00 S￿ndIng £io.ot#J.00 £0.00 -£io.oTr).00 -£20.Ot#J.00 2// Expenses ll InC¢￿e Income & Exponws by Category Income Covenint merC￿S 404.00 Covenant Retym a787.75 IncomeTotal Expenses Glfrs -£15.360.74 PrOfes￿onal Charyes Expen$esT¢tol TOTAL -£58.50 -£15,419.24 -U,227A• Prep•th Bankrtvity on 2wion021 Pwlofl