Churches Together in Greater Bristol trading as Together4Bristol
Registered Charity 1113815
Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2022
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Legal and Administrative Details
Status
The Charity was registered in England on 19 April 2006 under the charity registration number 1113815 and is governed by a constitution adopted at the annual general meeting on 19 November 2020.
Charitable Objects
The objects of Churches Together in Greater Bristol will be the advancement of the Christian religion and other purposes which are charitable according to the Law of England and Wales.
Trustees
The trustees serving during the year were
Rev Eric Aidoo Roger Allen Rev Chris Dobson Carlotta Kramskoy (to 21 August 2022) Derick Mulubwa Rev Stephen Newell Mark Sellers Fatima Sibanda Sheena Tranter
Correspondence Address
57 Avon Way, Stoke Bishop, Bristol, BS9 1SL
Independent Examiner
Paul Brown FCIE DChA
Suite 2, 42 Triangle West, Park Street, Bristol, BS8 1ES
Bankers and Investment Managers
Lloyds Bank Plc, Clevedon, PO Box 1000, BX1 1LT United Reformed Church (South Western Synod) Incorporated as holding trustee for the investment portfolio in M&G Charifund Income units
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Trustee Report
Introduction
Together4Bristol (‘T4B’) is the the trading name of Churches Together in Greater Bristol , a ‘unity for mission’ movement across the Bristol region, a member of Churches Together in England and a registered charity. It brings together three distinct areas of interest within the Christian community: churches, prayer and the ‘whole of life’.
Churches
Much of the ongoing activity centres around the various denominations and other groups, including around twenty local Churches Together groups.
Pentecost was celebrated jointly with the Queen’s Jubilee on College Green with a lunch and other activities.
In November, the Presidents invited church leaders in the Southmead area to join them, so they could understand better what is happening in the area, listen to the local leaders and pray for them.
We coordinated publicity for Christmas services and events across the city, under the banner of “Welcome to Christmas! – Celebrate the ‘Reason for the Season’”.
Prayer
We continued to hold monthly prayer meetings and quarterly meetings with the Mayor.
In February, there was a prayer vigil for peace in Ukraine.
Whole of Life
Roger Allen has been facilitating the Spheres work for about a dozen hours a week. This connects with the Gather Movement, which links about 150 ‘unity for mission movements’ across the UK. Roger, with Andy Street and Sheena Tranter, are part of the wider Gather team.
Andy and CAB helped set up Christian Action Brighton. Roger was interviewed by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, when he talked about how the Christian community across Bristol is engaging increasingly across the whole of life, and also at the Gather Movement Summit in June.
A small group was formed in June to help church leaders and the spheres work more closely to help release everyday Christians across the whole of life.
The T4B website continues to be updated by Adam Hudson with events and articles connected to the spheres. A monthly newsletter is sent to over 1,700, and the Facebook group has about 900 members. A ‘100 Friends Appeal’ is being prepared
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with the aim of making the website and social media activity financially sustainable.
There are eight Spheres, plus the Keyboard Group and Local Friends.
Arts Sphere
The Arts Sphere is also called ‘Kingdom Creatives’ (KiC). It flourished over the last year, facilitated by Erica Bebb, with about 325 connected creatives. There have been weekly Monday Zoom prayer and reflection gatherings delivered by the KiC Steering Group members. Also, open meetings started again at St Edyth’s Church.
Artwork created for prayer tents was deployed at the Bristol Diocese Retreat for ministers, which included golden banners and a tent with artwork on the theme of Psalm 23. Malcolm Bourne’s prophetic art, including ‘Covenant’ at Joseph Studios, was filmed by KiC’s Will Gowers, for the ‘From Darkness to Light’ exhibition in Bristol Cathedral. Malcolm also painted live at the Sutton Benger Arts Festival.
KiC assisted in the Bristol Recovery Festival through Dr Clare Fleming, and provided therapeutic artwork sessions for people recovering from homelessness.
Business and Workplace Sphere
The core Business and Workplace Sphere team has been reformed following Guy West’s sad death and a couple of retirements; it is now facilitated by Jez Sweetland, with Tim Simpson as prayer co-ordinator, and provides fortnightly prayer on the Upper Reaches Barge.
There are about 30 Christian Workplace Groups, facilitated by Mal Shaw of Transform Work UK, supported by a WhatsApp group and monthly Zoom calls.
Media Sphere
The Media Sphere has struggled without a facilitator over the pandemic. A prayer gathering, in partnership with Christians in Media, was planned but then postponed. KiC will be supporting the Media Sphere in the future.
Education Sphere
The Education Sphere is facilitated by Jane Gillis. It works closely with Bristol Schools Connection and other organisations encouraging Christians to ‘be and do church’ in our school communities, and a group meets regularly to pray for the Christians involved in Education across Bristol.
They have worked with KiC on the ‘Shining Like Stars’ film and with the council, alongside CAB, to help churches connect with Transforming Lives for Good to provide mentors in 8 deprived schools.
Family Sphere
The Family Sphere, also called ‘Love Family’, is co-facilitated by Sarah Abell and Stu Dendy. Jane Auld retired, after leading the Sphere and National Parenting Initiative (NPI), in a pioneering way. Love Family is well connected with Relationships Academy, Home for Good (Stu is the Bristol Coordinator), Parent
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Buddies, NPI, Kids Matter, Mullers and several other charities and organisations.
Home for Good promotes fostering, adoption and supported lodgings in the city. In response to the council’s request for emergency fostering, Love Family with help from CAB, found 30 Christian couples who are now fostering. The core group met in person each term, and once a month online, to pray for the various family initiatives and charities in the city.
Health Sphere
The Health Sphere is co-facilitated by Clare Fleming and Sheena Tranter. It has a weekly morning prayer meeting. Bristol Healing Rooms offer zoom and in-person prayer every week in venues across Bristol. A conference was hosted, with Chuck Parry of Bethel Healing School. Several training weekends were held in the Brecon Beacons, and a team manned a healing room at a conference in Jerusalem.
Close links have been developed between the Health Sphere and KiC, as creativity can be a key part of inner healing. There are a growing number of Christian Workplace Groups in hospitals, such as Southmead.
Politics and Social Action Sphere
The Politics and Social Action Sphere, also called ‘Christian Action Bristol’ (CAB), is led by Andy Street. Colse Leung has done excellent work through the CAB website and social media (with a Facebook page with over 560 followers) and across all 14 of the specific areas of social action supported by CAB. This includes the support of those impacted by addiction; those struggling with debt; those seeking housing; those caught up in the criminal justice system; women caught up in modern day slavery through the sex-trade; refugees and asylum seekers and others.
There has continued to be considerable engagement with the Mayor and the council. At a recent Zoom gathering of the City Office, 40 out of 400 participants were from the Christian community. CAB commissioned the Good Faith Partnership’s ‘Bristol Churches Recovery Renewal Report’, which was launched in March with over 40 church leaders.
From February 2022 CAB has worked with the Good Faith Partnership and Love Bristol (in Poland), to lead the Bristol churches’ response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Alongside hosts providing temporary accommodation for nearly 800 refugees, 15 ‘Welcome Hubs’ have been set up by churches, commissioned by Bristol City Council and supported by Bridges for Communities and the Bristol Hospitality Network. This is a unique multi-agency, multi-sector collaborative effort.
Over the Summer CAB, alongside the Good Faith Partnership, has led the setting up of a network of ‘Welcoming Spaces’ located at churches across the city to support those people struggling with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis: an initiative instigated by Bristol City Council, alongside CAB and other partners. Over 20 churches came forward to host a Welcoming Space, and 16 were opening their doors on a weekly basis by November.
The Bristol Churches Winter Night Shelter ran from November 2021 to March
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2022, supported by 150 volunteers from 34 different churches. The Noise 2022 ran over the May Bank Holiday weekend and aimed to show God’s love in practical ways: over 700 volunteers from 45 churches took part in 60 practical community projects in 19 neighbourhoods of Bristol. Noise 365 takes this vision into every day of the year.
In October the Bristol Churches City Fund opened for applications from charities across the city seeking to support those impacted by food poverty and insecurity. A total pot of £40,000 has been set aside for distribution, with a relaunch planned in the New Year.
Sport Sphere
The Sport Sphere is co-facilitated by Akeel Yousaf and Grant Sheppard. It links several sport charities across Bristol and Bath, such as World Sport Ministries, Christians in Sport and Christian Surfers and Skaters. Occasional prayer gatherings linked more widely, for example with the Chaplains involved with Bristol Sport.
Keyboard Group
Carmen Carrol, the Keyboard Networker, connected with many Black-led churches in Bristol and attended a number of conferences, including the Gather Conference in Manchester and the CTE Forum in Swanwick.
Carmen participated in the Bristol Cathedral consultation on monuments and memorials connected to the transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans, and also in the preparation for the Cathedral’s “All God’s Children” exhibition.
With Colse Leung, Carmen worked on developing a church ‘Charter of Change’ and ‘The Good Foundations Checklist’ which contains ten practical steps for addressing racism.
Local Friends
Local Friends is a T4B project led by Paul Hazelden, which supports social prescribing in the Bristol Area. Local Friends has a group of around 20 volunteers, many drawn from local churches, who provide a variety of support for lonely and isolated people in the communities around Sea Mills and Stoke Bishop.
People
As the year started, the trustees were employing two people: Ian Taylor (the Enabler of Mission and Unity, or ‘EMU’) and Carmen Carroll (the Keyboard Networker). At the end of March, Ian voluntarily gave up his salary and began working on a voluntary basis. The money freed up enabled us to employ an administrator. After a careful selection process, Paul Hazelden was appointed as the Compliance and Finance Officer (or ‘CAFO’) towards the end of May.
Governance
This report covers 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. There were no serious
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incidents in this financial period.
We raised funds from the public, but did not work with any professional fundraisers or commercial participators.
We did not make any grants, and had no income from contracts with central government or local authorities, or from outside the UK. We did not operate outside England and Wales and have no subsidiaries.
None of our trustees received any remuneration, payments or benefits from the charity other than refunds of legitimate trustee expenses, and none of them took up employment with the charity.
None of our staff received total employee benefits of £60,000 or more; the total value of employee benefits paid to our highest paid member of staff was £8,717.64.
Excluding the trustees, the charity had around 50 volunteers during the financial period, most of them working within the various Spheres; another 20 people were volunteers for Local Friends.
The charity did not review its internal financial controls during this financial year, but the review took place early in the following year.
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Responsibilities of the Trustees
Law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the Charity’s financial activities during the year and of its financial position at the end of the year. In preparing financial statements giving a true and fair view, the Trustees should follow best practice and:
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select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
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make judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
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state whether applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
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prepare the financial statements on the going-concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will continue in operation.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. The Trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities
Declaration
The Trustees declare that they have approved the above statement and the Financial Statements that follow
Chairperson Date ............................................................................... .................................... Trustee Date ............................................................................... ....................................
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Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees of Churches Together in Greater Bristol
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Churches Together in Greater Bristol (the Trust) for the year ended 31 December 2022.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent Examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Paul Brown FCIE DChA Suite 2, 42 Triangle West Park Street Bristol BS8 1ES 4th October 2023
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Receipts and Payments Accounts 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022
Receipts and payments
| Funds | to the nearest £ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | |
| Receipts | 1. | |||
| Full members | 2. | 12,789 | 12,789 | |
| Associate members | 280 | 280 | ||
| Donations | 620 | 620 | ||
| Bank Interest | 6 | 6 | ||
| EA – Evangelism | 737 | 737 | ||
| EA – Media | 154 | 154 | ||
| EA – Prayer | 1,653 | 1,653 | ||
| EA – Spheres | 1,653 | 1,653 | ||
| Arise | 750 | 750 | ||
| Gifts | 100 | 100 | ||
| Keyboard | 3. | 2,122 | 2,122 | |
| Local Friends | 4. | 500 | 500 | |
| Passion Play 2023 | 200 | 200 | ||
| T4B Website | 3,327 | 3,246 | ||
| Welcome Churches | 5,000 | 5,000 | ||
| Total Receipts | 17,891 | 11,999 | 29,890 | |
| Payments | 1. | |||
| Salaries | 5,106 | 5,106 | ||
| Admin | 2,101 | 2,101 | ||
| Subscriptions | 420 | 420 | ||
| Presidents | 56 | 56 | ||
| EA – Evangelism | ||||
| EA – Media | ||||
| EA – Prayer | ||||
| EA – Spheres | 429 | 429 | ||
| Arise | 1,215 | 1,215 | ||
| Gifts | 230 | 230 | ||
| Keyboard | 3. | 11,465 | 11,465 | |
| Local Friends | 4. | 5,088 | 5,088 | |
| Passion Play 2023 | 200 | 200 | ||
| T4B Website | 5,002 | 5,002 | ||
| Welcome Churches | 5,000 | 5,000 | ||
| Total Payments | 8,112 | 28,200 | 36,312 |
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| Funds | to the nearest £ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | |
| Balances | ||||
| Brought Forward | 9,808 | 29,300 | 39,108 | |
| Total Receipts | 17,891 | 11,999 | 29,890 | |
| Total Payments | 8,112 | 28,200 | 36,312 | |
| Carried Forward | 19,587 | 13,100 | 32,687 |
Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Funds | to the nearest £ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | |
| Cash Funds | 5. | |||
| Current | 7,239 | 4436 | 11,675 | |
| Deposit | 11,938 | 11,938 | ||
| PayPal | 411 | 411 | ||
| M&G | 8,664 | 8,664 | ||
| Total Cash Funds | 19,587 | 13,100 | 32,687 |
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Notes
1. Receipts and Payments
There were no asset or investment purchases or sales in this financial period.
2. Full Members
The membership fees received from the full members was made up as follows.
| Member | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Anglican | £3,615 | £3,570 |
| Baptist | £800 | |
| Catholic | £3,819 | £3,819 |
| Church of God of Prophecy | ||
| Congregational Federation | ||
| Greek Orthodox | £50 | |
| Methodist | £3,480 | |
| Moravian | £100 | |
| New Testament Church of God | ||
| Redeemed Christian Church of God | ||
| Religious Society of Friends | £420 | |
| Salvation Army | £500 | |
| United Reformed Church | £1,400 | £1,400 |
| Woodlands Group of Churches | £425 | £400 |
| Total | £12,789 | £11,009 |
3. Keyboard
The fund originated from investments donated by former Christ Church, Cotham, Bristol. The main objective of the fund is to promote cooperation between white and black led churches. Following discussions in 2018, Carmen Carrol was appointed networker in April 2019. These funds are restricted and are not available to support the normal running costs of T4B.
4. Local Friends
Local Friends is a T4B project which supports social prescribing in the Bristol Area.
5. Cash Funds
There were no other assets or liabilities in this financial period.
Copyright © 2023 Together4Bristol, charity registration number 1113815 Together4Bristol is the trading name of Churches Together in Greater Bristol Last updated: 21:12 on 12 October 2023, revision: 16 Location: /home/paul/C/T4B/2023/Meet/231014_A/T4B_Annual_2022_Report.odt
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