2020-12-31-accounts - The Orthodox Eucharistic Community In South London

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THE ORTHODOX EUCHARISTIC COMMUNITY IN SOUTH LONDON

Registered charity number 1105211

Address for contact: Birchenhoe, Crowfield, Brackley NN13 5TW

ANNUAL REPORT

for the calendar year 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020

Trustees

In the year, the following persons served as Trustees of the Orthodox Eucharistic Community in South London (“ the Charity”) :

Very Reverend Archpriest Alexander Fostiropoulos (Chair) Ms. Carol S. Graves Mr. Alexis Martinowsky Mr. Élie Heriard-Dubreuil Ms. F.M.H. Rattray Mr. R.A. Hookway Mr. K.M.S. Alton Honeywell

The Charity does not act as a custodian trustee.

Structure and Administration

The Charity was established by a Trust Deed dated 20 June 2004 and its object is to advance the Orthodox Christian Faith, as defined in the Trust Deed. It does this through its support for the canonical Orthodox Parish of St. Peter and St. Paul, Clapham, London SW4 which is a Parish within the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople headed by His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople. The Parish is part of the Deanery in the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, headed by His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas.

The Trust Deed permits a maximum of twelve trustees all of whom must be communicant members of the Orthodox Church.

New Trustees are appointed by the existing trustees when necessary or when a vacancy occurs. The Trustees hope that new, younger, Trustees will be appointed in the next few years.

Public Benefit

The Trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commissioners’ advice and consider that the activities of the Charity are in the public benefit.

Vulnerable Beneficiaries

The Trustees have adopted formal policies for the protection of children and vulnerable beneficiaries, details of which are readily available to those attending the worship and activities of the Parish.

Review of the Year: Activities and Performance

Our parish is served by its rector, the Very Reverend Archpriest Alexander Fostiropoulos and the non-stipendiary clergy Reverend Ian Page and the Reverend Stefan Strekopytov, who are both priests and Morys Ireland, who was ordained to the Diaconate on 5 December 2020 and is now known as Deacon Stephen.

In 2020 we sought to continue to build on the work of previous years but have not yet been able to achieve our goal of offering weekly Liturgies as we are still sharing the facilities of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Clapham Manor Street. Securing a dedicated place of worship continues to be a very high priority as we are unlikely to be able to extend our opportunities for worship without such an arrangement. However, we are deeply grateful to the PCC and parishioners of St. Peter’s Church for their hospitality.

Until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the closure of places of worship in March 2020, our services followed the same pattern as in previous years, with the Divine Liturgy on the second, fourth and fifth (when one occurs) Sunday of each month with the Vigil service on the previous evening. They are primarily conducted in English with some Church Slavonic and Greek. At the Liturgy, the Lord’s Prayer is sung first in English, then Slavonic, Greek, Romanian, and sometimes French, reflecting the countries and backgrounds of most of our parishioners. When permitted by relaxations of the Covid-19 restrictions, we celebrated Vesperal Liturgies on the eve of the Great Feasts. In 2020, Lenten services had to cease, and there could be no services in Holy Week and throughout the Easter period. Parishioners were able to follow services broadcast online by other Orthodox communities in the UK and elsewhere.

Normally, near the end of the Sunday Liturgy, after Holy Communion, we have classes for our children, run by parents under the guidance of Father Alexander. The children’s ages range from toddlers up to early teens. The numbers taking part vary with holidays and half-terms but average some fifteen children. All these activities had to be suspended during the pandemic. Our adult members are nurtured in the Christian faith by the sermon during each Sunday Liturgy, the didactic

nature of the liturgical services and by our well-stocked bookstall, which in usual times is manned before and after the Sunday Liturgy by volunteers from the parish.

Despite the pandemic, pastoral work in the Parish was able to continue outside church services. Our priests continued the pastoral care of our parishioners by visiting them regularly, especially those who have had to move some distance away, are elderly, in ill-health, or incapacitated.

Our parish now cares for over 300 souls including almost 100 children and young people, and our Sunday Liturgy now has typically over 80 worshippers. In normal times, our main opportunity to get to know each other is our ‘bring and share’ lunch on Sunday. Joyce Roberson, our Church Warden, and the Parish Advisory Council are continuing to look at ways of encouraging more people to work together in the service of the church.

We are especially grateful to Rebecca Vucetic and Margaret Haig for their dedicated and expert leadership of the singing during the celebration of the services.

Summer Camp and involvement in the local and wider community

In 2020 the annual summer camp for the parishes and communities of our Deanery had to be cancelled on account of the Covid-19 restrictions. Unfortunately, the camp in 2021 also had to be cancelled for the same reason. The running of the camp is an important outreach to the younger people of the Parish.

Historically, in 2019 the annual summer camp for the parishes and communities of our Deanery was held, as it has been for many years, in South Wales. Several children and also helpers from our parish participated in the camp, which was run under the guidance and pastoral supervision of our parish rector. It is manned entirely by volunteers and offers children 9-16 years old, almost all of them living in cities, the unique opportunity to experience 2 weeks of (real) camping in the countryside, where they can develop practical and leadership skills. No child is refused a place on account of their race, religion or financial situation. Although the cost is kept minimal, bursaries are given to any child in financial need. The children attending the camp come from the whole of the U.K and in a few cases from abroad.

It is hoped that the camp, in this format, will be able to recommence in 2022.

Our Parish is an active member of the Churches Together in Clapham (CTiC), a group of some 13 churches of different denominations in Clapham which continues to support and works with the following community-based projects:

The Hub, a safe place for vulnerable people

Robes, an overnight shelter for the homeless

A number of community groups including Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Marijuana Anonymous (MA) and Co-Dependents Anonymous (CoDA) and subject to the present restrictions meet regularly at St. Peter’s Church and the facilities used by these groups have recently been refurbished by our Parish.

The Parish also supports the work of the Ace of Clubs charity, a local Day Centre which helps homeless and vulnerable people by providing hot meals, showers, clothing, advice and friendship, by organising money collections, especially at Christmas, and selling tickets to parishioners which they can give to homeless people to enable them to have a meal at the Ace of Clubs.

We collect food donated by parishioners after every Liturgy and the food is taken once a month by two parishioners to a local food bank. During the pandemic parishioners have been encouraged to make direct donations of money and in kind to the food bank and Ace of Clubs.

Members of our parish participate annually in the Clapham area service for the international World Day of Prayer.

The rector of the parish also works as a Chaplain in Higher Education, based at King’s College, London and at the London School of Economics.

Financial support and place of worship

Our finances continue to be robust (see attached report), despite the lack of services during the pandemic; an appeal for donations in May 2020 quickly reached its target through the generosity of parishioners. We are, however, still aware that we need to raise more money, by regular donations, preferably made under the Gift Aid scheme. Our long-term aspiration remains to have a dedicated place of worship whilst ideally continuing to pay for the services of a housed and dedicated full-time priest.

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all who have been so generous in donating money to our parish and to the Priest-in-Charge, people and PCC of St. Peter’s Church for their hospitality.

CHARITY COMMISSION Independent examiper's repnrt the FOR ENGLAND AND WALES accounts Sectlon A Indepondenr Examiner's Report Ra)rt to thè trustÈ8AI The Orthodox Eucharislic Cornnnity in South London On accounts for tha lear ended Charlty i lrfany) 44f4e i iu Set out on pages 3and4 I repon io tile irustees on my examinatson th me aco)unts of the above charty {Ihe Trusfi for the year ended 31112 12020. Responslblllues and basls of rnport As tne chamys tnjstees. you a responsible lor the preparatK)n of the cnunts in a(xordarK8 wth the reguiremgnts of the Chalibes Act 2011 (Ihe Act.). I report in respect of my exaffthnaion of the Trust's 8Ctounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in Crying out my examination. I have followod all the applicabb Dire(aions given by the Chaiity Commt83ion under section 145(5){b) of ttte Act. exaiiiliiefs siateinvllt appl. Delete l ] rfnot apph'c8ble. I have Lxmmwed ny examin1(. I cnnfimi that no materia matters have eome to my attention in conneclion viilh the examination (other than that disdosed bdqm") whKh gives me G3u to that in, any material the oUntIng re(x)rds were not kept in acwrdance with section 130 of the Charitses Ad; or the accounts did nol accord wrth the a(xounling records,. or the accourrt5 did nol comply with the applicable reqUIreentS coming the lo and )ntent of ac(x)unts set out in the Charities ts a.- ?epc-. ") Rv¥tsi&-.s fjQ08 ..an .rf req that the accounts give a Yrue and fai¢ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examinatK)n. I have no cn$ and have come &ross no other rnatters in connection with the exaninatiC to vthich attention should be drawn in this report in . F¥ease thte the words in Ihe brackets rfthey do not awy. Sign•d: Lk 9D21 Narno: Pki li Pf- IER Oct 2018

R•l8vant professlonal quallficationls) or body Ilf any): Address: [YJ6lcbJOoJ po1 LofdDo SLJI Section 8 Disclosure Only rx)mplete rf the examin@r nowls to highlight mAtwial m2tt@rs ol concAm (see CC32. Independent eXanatIon of chanty actounts: direGts'ons and guidan for exaFrrfners). Give here brfef detslls of any Items that the @xaminor wish8s lo disclose. M/A IER Oct 2018

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Receipts and payments accounts CC16a Qr the period from 01 Jan20 31 0eG 20 Section A Receipts and payments lund• funds fund• Total funds L*st Jw • nMT•5t£ nuwB3t£ A1 R•cei Cole£)on settr Coltsthoh 2.107 2.107 1.&10 1.910 .376 7.114 IT.410 OlhBr Donaban IExtra.o 37$ 11.6S4 711a Sl¥thig Order Gfft th lorms 17.4YJ rtere5 Grft Lamp trè YOQkS &372 ff,JIB 1.550 Sub lotalfGross in(rn forAR,' 65,415 375 tsblel. i,si# ImJ.12S 375 Pastord C¥e 72.428 $.62 428 0.fj22 7.483 z•,Jzu J,1J5 80¢ts 471 Sub 11 •2.11J A4 Asset •nd Inv1•nI purcha¥qs. Isee tablel Sub tst•i 91113 91113 125,407 Not ofrn¢elpW(paymentsJ a TrnnK•r% fund¥ A6 Cash funds last yyar end •21.012 37 921J87 134.836 134,836 1Jl%.922 191235 13é.8X CCYY. P.1 ISSI

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