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ANNUAL TRUSTEES REPORT FOR THE SQUARE METHODIST CHURCH

September 2021 - August 2022

Name of Church: The Square Methodist Church, Dunstable

Address: Ashton Square, High St South, Dunstable LU6 3SN

Correspondence address: as above

Name of person to whom correspondence should be addressed:

Rev Nina Johnson (Rev Claudia Lupi from Sept 2022)

Names of those who have served as managing trustees in the year (Church Council):

Rev Nina Johnson [Minister] (Rev Claudia Lupi from Sept 2022 – accounts sign off for 2021-22 performed by Rev Lupi)

[Church stewards]

Lisa Foster

Maria Simon [Treasurer] Vacant post [Pastoral committee secretary] Council Rota [Council secretary]

[Council members elected by the AGM]

Sharon Andrew Bridget Calvert Pearl Mathieson Barrie Wells Jenny Smith Stephen Parkinson

[representatives from areas of church life]

Ian Ellis [Property team] Carole Pratt [S Club] Stephen Turner [Musical Director] Janet Robinson [Safeguarding Officer] Ivor Mitchelmore [Local Preacher] Wendy Armiger [Worship Leader] Terry Sissons [Circuit Steward]

Structure

The Square is part of the South Bedfordshire Methodist Circuit. The decision making body is the Church Council but all members are involved in the running of the church and setting its strategy at the General Church Meeting.

Aims and Mission

Our church mission statement:

We are a town centre church aiming to radiate God’s love, as revealed in Jesus Christ, for the local community and the wider world. We seek to help people in their search for God through our worship, prayer and action.

Review of the year (September 2021 – August 2022)

Sunday worship services

Since re-opening post-Covid, our weekly attendance has settled currently at about 5055 (compared with 60-80 pre-Covid) including the children and their leaders. However our traditionally formatted services are now live streamed, which many have found to be a huge blessing.
Since lockdown, S Club (Sunday School) has been driven mainly by 3 families who attend regularly with attendance from other families being more erratic. The number of children present on any given Sunday is usually between 4 and 10. We no longer have an under 5s group or crèche.
The most regular attendees are predominantly in their 70s and 80s although some in that age group have not returned as they are still reluctant to come out and mix with others.
Some of our congregation have found alternative ways to worship including our online provision either live-streamed or later at a more convenient time.
Our current pattern of worship, continuing from pre-pandemic, is a Cafe Worship on the 1[st] Sunday in the month with more traditional worship every other Sunday. We are moving towards having a second Cafe Worship on the third Sunday of every month in the church hall at the same time as a more traditional service in the church. This is being offered by a team who want to develop it into a form of outreach to which the non-churched can be invited.
Pre-Covid we had 4-5 evening services a quarter. We have been unable to return to any form of evening service because of insufficient volunteers to man it.

Other forms of mission or ‘church’ (e.g. church-led community groups, etc.)

Our building, with all its halls, is widely used by the community including various uniformed groups (Scouts, Beavers and Cubs, Brownies, Rainbows and Guides), a church-based drama group, the local Mind charity, Slimming World, various U3a groups, Street Pastors, a big band who use our hall to rehearse and various church groups. We would very much like to build relationships with all these users of our building and are exploring ways in which we can do that.
The building is also used by Curlie’s Cafe – an initiative by St Hugh’s Church in Leagrave to feed the homeless of Dunstable on a Saturday evening. As part of our mission, we

allow them to use our building free of charge to offer this service to the people of our community.

As stated above, we are developing a second Cafe Worship as a basis for outreach and to have informal fellowship and worship to invite non-churched people to.
This past year has seen the start of our garden project; we have been working with the town council to improve our garden on the north side and are now looking at developing the south side. A small group meet on Wednesday lunchtimes to water and weed and litter pick and have found it an excellent way to engage with the community passing by. We are in the town’s Heritage Action Zone (hence their support) and as such our garden was part of the town’s entry to both Anglia in Bloom and Britain in Bloom – the judging for both of these happened in July 2022, resulting in the town being given a Gold Award.

Activities aimed at young people

Our S Club is our Sunday school – please see information under Sunday services.
Following Covid, numbers attending the ‘Inters Youth Group’ had declined and a decision was taken to close the group at the end of July 2022.
We used to have a mums and toddlers group but this had ceased to meet 6 months before the pandemic. There are no plans to try again.
We have Rainbows, Brownies and Guides, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts based at the church. We plan to appoint a church council member to liaise more closely with them in order to (re-)build a better relationship with them once again. We have a second Beaver pack we are hosting while their new clubhouse is being built.
We have an amateur dramatic society, Square Drama Circle, who have one family of young people amongst their members; they would welcome more.

Resources

Our church is entirely manned by volunteers and is heavily reliant on a few hardworking people. Unfortunately we have struggled as we come out of the pandemic to recruit volunteers for essential church roles.
Our property team do a wonderful job, doing as much maintenance as they can themselves.
We are blessed with a committed core of mostly older members who play the organ, operate the sound system for services, manage the heating and energy operation/usage of the building, help with some of the cleaning and any catering, and have more recently recruited a youth member to assist with live streaming services, which has been ably taken on during and post-pandemic by a community volunteer linked to the Scout group who also manages our website for us.

Looking forwards:

We desperately need more manpower as we are limited as to what we can do by a lack of volunteers. We have come up with good ideas in the last 2 years but have had to either abandon them or scale them back as we were unable to carry them through because of lack of people to help organise them. The week by week management of the church has been more than enough without introducing new initiatives.
We are looking forward to the arrival of our new minister in September 2022.

CHURCH RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS

THE METHODIST CHURCH STANDARD FORM OF ACCOUNTS

THE SQUARE METHODIST CHURCH DUNSTABLE

Church

FOR THE YEAR ENDED

31 August 2022

Circuit SOUTH BEDFORDSHIRE	Circuit no.	34/04
Registered Charity - Charity Registration number
		1126936

If not a registered charity Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Gift Aid number

(The HMRC number is equivalent to a registered charity number in terms of evidence of charitable status and may be used to give to donors or grant funders wishing to see evidence of the organisation's charitable status. Methodist charities in England and Wales that are not registered charities are excepted from registration under Statutory Instrument 2014 No.242)

Minister:

REV. CLAUDIA LUPI

Church Stewards:

MRS L FOSTER

Treasurer:

DR MARIA SIMON

Church R and P 2015.xls

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THE SQUARE METHODIST Church CHURCH DUNSTABLE

ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2022

	SECTION A		Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds	Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds	£ 63,974 92 11,195 21,203 Totals this year	£ 63,974 92 11,195 21,203 Totals this year	Totals last year
			£	£	£		£
a1	RECEIPTS	Note
a2	Offerings and Tax recovered		63,974		63,974		64,831
a3	Bank and CFB interest and Investment income		92		92		45
a4	Lettings		11,195		11,195		2,210
a5	Other receipts		15,326	5,877	21,203		4,665
a6	TOTAL RECEIPTS		90,587	5,877	96,464	(a7)	71,751

	SECTION B				56,386 751 7,584 15,319 3,409
b1	PAYMENTS
b2	Circuit Assessment or Share		56,386		56,386		57,854
b3	Donations		751		751
b4	Repairs and Maintenance		5,856	1,728	7,584		9,689
b5	Utilities (Insurances, water charges,heating& lighting)		15,319		15,319		9,844
b6	Property related - direct employment costs
b7	Otherpayments		3,409	1,429	3,409		4,010
b8	TOTAL PAYMENTS		81,721	3,157	84,878	(b9)	81,397
					11,586
	SECTION C
c1	NET RECEIPTS/PAYMENTS FOR THE YEAR (a6-b8)		8,866	2,720	11,586		(9,646)

c2	Total funds brought forward from last year		45,565	4,750	50,315	(c6)	59,961
					61,901
c3	(c1+c2) Sub total		54,431	7,470	61,901		50,315

c4	Transfers and adjustments			318	318	(c7)

c5	TOTAL FUNDS AT END OF YEAR (c3+c4)		54,431	7,788	62,219	(c8)	50,315	(c6)

	SECTION D
d	FOR INFORMATION ONLY: MONEY RECEIVED AND PASSED ON TO EXTERNAL (these amounts are not to be included in total receipts/payments figures above)	£ ORGANISATIONS	£
d1	Balance brought forward from lastyear	3,158	7,545
d2	Offerings/Gifts - received for external organisations	1,619	347
d3	Offerings/Gifts -passed to external organisations	4,459	4,734
d4	BALANCE STILL TO BE PAID (d1+d2-d3)	318	3,158

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Church R and P 2015.xls

THE SQUARE METHODIST CHURCH DUNSTABLE Church

SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL

SECTION E Please follow the Guidance Notes to complete this page Summary of the Church accounts for the year ended 31 August 2022 and Internal Organisations reporting to the Church Council/Church Meeting. Note that the funds of an Internal Organisation would normally be Restricted funds unless it could be clearly shown that they could be used for any Methodist purpose. This section must be completed to arrive at the gross income and expenditure totals of the Church. If gross income exceeds the Accruals threshold, then the Accruals method of accounting AND A DIFFERENT FORM must be used to report the accounts (see Methodist website). Please refer to the guidance notes regarding transfers between the District and connected District Organisations.

	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL	SUMMARY OF CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTING TO THE CHURCH COUNCIL
	SECTION E Please follow the Guidance Notes to complete this page
	SECTION E
	Summary of the Church accounts for the year ended 31 August 2022 and Internal Organisations reporting to the Church Council/Church Meeting. Note that the funds of an Internal Organisation would normally be Restricted funds unless it could be clearly shown that they could be used for any Methodist purpose. This section must be completed to arrive at the gross income and expenditure totals of the Church. If gross income exceeds the Accruals threshold, then the Accruals method of accounting AND A DIFFERENT FORM must be used to report the accounts (see Methodist website). Please refer to the guidance notes regarding transfers between the District and connected District Organisations.
	INTERNAL ORGANISATIONS	Receipts		Payments		Net Receipts/ Payments	Adjustments		Opening balances		Closingbalances
e1	Inters Youth Group (now closed)	3		244		(241)			241
e2	Ladies Thursday Club	984		1,172		(188)			901		713
e3	Square Drama	3,522		3,184		338			5,193		5,531
e4	S CLUB	526		283		243	1		475		719
e5	Square FC	870		1,267		(397)			510		113
e6
e7
e8	Sub total of Internal Organisations funds	5,905		6,150		(245)	1		7,320	(e11)	7,076	(e12)
e9	Church accounts (totals brought forward from page 2 - totals column)	96,464 (a7) 102,369	(a7)	84,878	(b9)	11,586	318	(c7)	50,315	(c6)	62,219	(c8)
e10	TOTAL CASH FUNDS HELD BY CHURCH			91,028		11,341	319		57,635	(x)	69,295	(y)
	Continue on a separate sheet if necessary and bring the totals forward	TOTAL RECEIPTS		TOTAL PAYMENTS

SECTION F

STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES

	STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
	CHURCH - CASH FUNDS HELD at 31 August 2022 Central FinanceBoard Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes Other funds Total funds held by Internal Organisations (the closing balance total from above) (e12) Bank DepositAccount SUB TOTAL - Church accounts TOTAL CASH FUNDS HELD BY CHURCH Cash in hand BankCurrentAccount	OPENING BALANCES 41,391 8,924 50,315 (c6) 7,320 (e11) 57,635 (x)	CLOSING BALANCES
f1	Cash in hand
f2	BankCurrentAccount		38,829
f3	Bank DepositAccount
f4	Central FinanceBoard		23,390
f5	Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes
f6	Other funds
f7	SUB TOTAL - Church accounts		62,219	(c8)
f8	Total funds held by Internal Organisations (the closing balance total from above) (e12)		7,076	(e12)
f9	TOTAL CASH FUNDS HELD BY CHURCH		69,295	(y)

	SECTION G OTHER ASSETS and LIABILITIES Other Assets Other Liabilities Investments (includeEndowments) Land &Buildings (seenotesreInsurancevalue) Loan(s)-showamount outstanding at yearend	At 1 September 2021 8,269,580 153,900 114	At 31 August 2022 8,873,321 165,136
g1	Investments (includeEndowments)
g2	Land &Buildings (seenotesreInsurancevalue)	8,269,580	8,873,321
g3	Other Assets	153,900	165,136
g4	Loan(s)-showamount outstanding at yearend
g5	Other Liabilities	114

f4 Include only Funds held at the Central Finance Board

f5 Include only Funds held at Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes

g1 Include any other investments (not the cash element of TMCP trusts accounts this is included in line f5

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2015 Church R and P.xls

Name of Church: THE SQUARE METHODIST CHURCH DUNSTABLE No: 1126936

Declarations and Scrutiny

I confirm that these Receipt and Payment based accounts for the year to 31 August 2022 have been prepared from the records of the Church and that they include all funds under the control of the Church trustees.

Signature of treasurer ……………………………………………………… Date……01.10.22…..

Name and address of treasurer ……Dr Maria Simon…………………………………….

…34 Clarige Close, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire…………………. Post Code…LU7 4TW……

Presentation to the Church trustees

I confirm that the annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 August 2022 were/will be* presented to the meeting of the Church trustees held on ……31.10.22…..

Signature of the Chair of the meeting ……………………………………………

Name of the Chair of the meeting ………Rev. Claudia Lupi……………… Date ……19.10.22……

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of the

The Square Methodist Church

Charity Number …………..

Responsibilities and basis of report

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the The Square Methodist Church for the year ended 31 August 2022 set out on pages 2 to 3 As the Church’s trustees, 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 Church’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 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.

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2015 church R and P.xls

Name of Church: The Square Methodist Church Dunstable No: 1126936

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 (other than that disclosed below*) which give me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act; or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records.
[the [the

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.

I have not obtained independent verification of all investments with the Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes or held in other trusts, bank balances and funds at the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church which are individually in excess of £10,000 (ten thousand pounds) at the balance sheet date.

Signature of independent examiner

CJSheehan

Name of independent examiner C J sheehan

Relevant professional qualification of independent examiner Chartered Accountant

Name of firm (where appropriate) ………………………………………………………………………

Address 88 Goswell End Road, Harlington, Beds

……………………………………………………………………………….. Post Code LU5 6NX

Date 30/11/2022

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