2022-12-31-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 2022 to 31 December 2022

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 (retired 20 November 2022) 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. (who has since been ordained priest, as Father Stephen).

In 2022 we sought to continue to build on the work of previous years but have still not been able to achieve our ultimate goal of offering weekly Liturgies as we are 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 at present negotiating a longer-term agreement with St Peter’s Church to enable us to stay there and have more services.

Our services have now resumed their pre-Covid pattern, 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. We celebrated Vesperal Liturgies on the eve of the Great Feasts.

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. 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.

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.

Christine Brown was elected as Parish Warden at the Annual General Meeting of the Parish.

Summer Camp, and involvement in the local and wider community

The Summer Camp of the Deanery recommenced its activities, at its normal location in South Wales, in 2022.

Several children and 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). 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 ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to th8 trust$1 members of The Otlhodox Euchanslic Community In SoLrth LorKlon On accounts for th• year ended 31 December 2022 Charlty no (rfany) 1105211 Sot out on pages 3and4 I report lo the tfustees on my examin¥ion of the accounts of the ave ohanty (Ihe Tru¢t') for thg ygar end1 31112 12022. Responslbllftlos and basls of r8rt As the thanty's trustees, y(xJ are res)nsIb for the preparatton of Ihe accounts in 8ax)[dan with the requii ements of the Charities Ad 2011 (Yhe Acr). I report in respect of my examination Cf tho Tnjst's ac£ounls carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applic8ble Diredions givan by the Charity Commission under sedion 14S(S)(b) of the Act. Independont examiner's Btatement I have completed my examination. I confirni that no material matters have eome to my atteniion In nnon wl'.h ihe examlnation {othert which 9i¥es me caiise to believe that in. any material respect". the aunting teGoids were nct kepl in xcordarKe with sedion 130 of the Charities Act; or the accounts did not ac£ord witi the actounting records: or th¢ acwunts did not MplY wilh the appliGabk requirements ConMIng Ihe fomi and wnleirt of xcounts set out in the Charities (Ac(xJunls and Reports) Regul¢itions 2008 other than any requirement that th0 9eeountR givo 2 Iruo aiid fairf viow whieh 12 not g mattor ¢onsidered as part of an indeFX:ndenl examination, I have no 1X)nM3 and ha coff, across no other matters in Connection with the examination lo whith ader,tion should be drawn in thij report in or(ler to enable a proper under*anding of the accounts to be rethd. ' Please Lklete the words in ble brncl ets rfthey do not apply. Signod: Nam•: tli Liff c IER Oct 2018

Relevant prof088lonal quaJlfjGafjonts) off boLIy lif any): Addr88S: 26 fjhclebJood R SLJII .) Section B Disclosure Only complete rfthe examiner needs to hijhligm material matters of concem (see CQ32, Independent examination Df Gtsrty arUnts.. directi And guidanc* for examiner3). Glvo hèm brlef detslls of any ttems that tho •xamlner wlshos to dlsclos•. IER Oct 2018

(HARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Recei tsand me its accounts CC16a For th8 ppr14xI from 01 Jan 22 To 31 Dec 22 Section A Receipts and payments Restrb¢ted funds Enhlowffleni funds lunds Total funds Last Ihe re% t k) tr rAre#£ 10 Ihe rareMt Al Recei see Colecto so[v• Colothon wt4•lop•s Other Donation lother )erYKl 0thOT Dllnabon (Extra.{Kthn. • g ¢tt/p othgr Donjbon th Gfft aid form I wwdop• sfanthrwj Trdèr Grft Ajd l£vm6 SLgnthty (Mdpr- Qth Bk 18( + Imstmth rtom• 41 J.662 1,097 28.401 3,882 14.1 3.1 J,128 2.•86 3.562 I.JV7 401 20.359 3.•62 14.6SO 3.1LK) 16.4th) 7.24J BookÉ 1.218 1218 ss Income 401 S7,24• tan Inve•tm•n table). ,267 A3Pa m•nts Pastorlll Care Expw- C1¢h OB,034 1,217 75,U4 B.217 &691 V• eks Don4ton Expw•n- C•rnp 13,2Je 1,114 Sub total •4.062 94,562 A4 A•••t and inv••tm•nt pur¢hiM•. see tabl• Sub total 794.S82 Net of r•¢•iptrfpaymentsJ . AS Trnn¥l•rs bets¥•en fund• A6 Cash lunds last y•ar •nd Cash fvnds this re 29S,047 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end UnTr5tricted •und¢ f the period Restrjcted fundi Endowme'nt GGXA R3

•r•£ to nMw•¢ E B1 Cash fund• 79.018 106.841 CAF CJh C•5h TO Gash lun(ts Unrvtrlcled fund¥ R•¥trlct•d funds Endovmxnt lunds DEt311s Fki•J Details B3 InvMtm•nl 11sets GaufvJ¥t. 7fA Iz FiThl ¢urr•nt¥• Deiails 84 A88•18 r•talned for the charty6 ownu S•1 of kon6 Ok Cross krm ofN¥t lrnm P V•Mdu• Details BS Llabllltl•s by Me or tr1••1 of Date of roval &gnobn Pn'nt Nam• CCKX R4 ISSI