2021-12-31-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 2021 to 31 December 2021

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 priests the Reverend Ian Page and the Reverend Stefan Strekopytov, and Deacon Stephen Ireland.

In 2021 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. Indeed, we are looking to a longer-term agreement with St Peter’s Church to enable us to stay there and have more services.

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 periods of lockdown, 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 have had to be suspended during the pandemic but are now gradually being restored. 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. 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.

Joyce Roberson has retired as Parish Warden after serving in that capacity from the beginning of the Parish in 2003. We are deeply grateful to her for everything she has done, and for the stability and faithfulness which she represented. May God richly reward her for her dedication!

Summer Camp and involvement in the local and wider community

In 2021 the annual summer camp for the parishes and communities of our Deanery had to be cancelled once again on account of the Covid-19 restrictions. The running of the camp is an important outreach to the younger people of the Parish, and it is now planned to run again in 2022.

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 staffed 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 tent 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.

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), 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. 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 FOR ENGLANO ANO WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report R•port to tho tru#ta•gl membor5 of The Orthodox Eucharistic Comrnunty in South London On accounts for tho year endod 31 December 2021 Charity no Ilf any) 1105211 Set out on pages 3and4 I rep io the twslees on my examination of the )Unts of the chartyllhe Trusf) for the year ended 3111212021. Responslbllltlm and basis of report As the chanty's trustees, you are responsible for the prep8ratson of the accounts in a(xordanoY with the requirements of the Charities Acl 2011 (Ihe A<). I report in resFod of my examination of the Trust's ac£ounts carrbed out under section 145 of the 2011 Acl and in carying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Direcb'ons given by the Chanty Commi88ion under section 145(51{bl of the Act. Independent examiner's statement aPp1th]I Del8te [ ] rf not 8pphc8ble. I have fxjmpleted my examination. I confim thal no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examinth'on (other than that diyAYosed ') which oives me cause to believe that in. any material respect.. the acxounting records wer• not kept in accordance with section 130 of Ihe Chants'es Art", or the ac£ounts did not actord with the accounting records., or the ac£ounts did not comply wtih the applicable requirements conrxming the fom and o)ntent of acu>unts set out in the Charities (Accounts and ReFQrtS) Regulalions 2008 other than any requlrement that the accounts give a 'true and fairf view which is a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no COnm9 have coffÉ xross no other matters in (x)nnedit with the exanmnation to which attention should be drawn in this report in order lo enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please d81ete the words in the brackets rfthey do not apply. Slgned: 12 rlknl b22 Name: Pt+lLI Pf LOT IER Oct 2018

Reknant wofesslonal qualifiGationls) or body (rfany): Addrnss: 26 R oth L£)00 s11 fjL Section B Di81-.IDsiire Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matenal matters of Goncern (see CC32. Independent examination of charty acxx)unts: directions and guidance for examiners). Glve hare brfef dotslls of any Items thatth• •xamlMr wlshqs to disclose. IER Oct 2018

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WAIES Recelpts and pa ments accounts To CC168 or the period frorn 01 Jan 21 31 Dec 21 Section A Receipts and payments ilnresinci•d funde R•tyiGi•d funds Endowffteni Lasty••r funds Totsl fund• th• r•r•#É 10 Ihe nBavesi£ A1 R•¢•i 92S 107 2.405 2,910 ZQ.376 Collxoon Ihrou Don•bon lokner 8ENcesl Other Dcnaton 1Extra.orLln. uthef UonaTron 4id vn¥EW staty Oiderwth GftAid fo stanth OTder- Othw Thilere8 359 Xt.369 16.4fy) 17.410 145 7.24J 14$ 7.243 633 ¢amp Ftros Books 471 66.927 Sub total(Gross income for ARI 1.2 81. A2 Asut and Inv•stm•nt sal, IM• t4bl•l. unnyGid• 901,610 Sub lotal 961.510 Tot•1 r•ceipts Z7 1.013,600 A3 Paym•nt• Pooloral Cw• Rwrdn¢ EY- RwThDg p¥h Vèr 751 7$•44 72.421 •.622 7.0•1 leo Dvuks Dombon Experrn••. C•n 4n 734 1,814 Sub tothl 734 09,977 92,113 Ad and investment pur¢ha8M. (S t•blo) Nv*4 A%&•18 Sub total 734 89.977 92.113 N•t orrnc•lpfPaYm•nts) AS Trnn•f•rs b•tw••n fund• A6 Cash lunds last y•ar •nd Cash fvnds this Near•nd 32J1 37 32.690 921,387 1J155.M7 123.332 375 IJIS6.022 IP23JJZ 134,6J6 1.016.022 CCXX R3 ac¢Nmts ISSI

Section B Staternent of assets and liabilities at the end of the period RtrIct•d fund rn•mtt Endowment futtds fund• Vd•aT••i É 81 Cuh fund8 N8BC CAF C¥O1 Vir4•) Mo 2. Unr••trict•d fund• R¢•trict•d lund• fund• DLtai15 Deiails B3 Inv••tm•nl 1s••18 B4 A8•eti rgtsln•d for the charfty'• own use Sel ollyJr Detsil$ BS Ll•bllltles &'gntd by ono or bo tsf*l S"gnalure Pn"ni N•m Dale ol roval CCXX R4 8¢¢¢A ISSI