2022-12-31-accounts - High Street Baptist Church

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89 High Street, Tring, Herts., HP23 4AB 01442 824054; www.tringbaptistchurch.co.uk admin@tringbaptistchurch.co.uk

– Annual Report for High Street Baptist Church for 2022 Charity Commission Number 1128094

Prepared by:

Catherine Rowland 12 March 2023

– Section A 1 Administrative details of the Charity, its Trustees and Advisers

The Principal office of the Charity is:

89 High Street Tring Hertfordshire HP23 4AB

The list below shows the names of Trustees who served during the Financial Year 2022, with dates in 2022 when they joined or retired from the Trustee Board

James Cave Joseph Egan Ruth Egan Nandi Hall Deborah Inns Cheryl Law Alison Layne-Smith Katharine Passmore Kevin Rogers Catherine Rowland Thelma Fisher – Retired December 2022 Cliff Brown – Resigned September 2022

– Section A 2 Structure, governance and management

(From the Charity Constitution as prepared in January 2009 and amended on 24 September 2020)

The Charity is constituted under the constitution dated 29 January 2009, amended 24 September 2020 and “The Church” means members of the charitable unincorporated association governed by this constitution and known as High Street Baptist Church, Tring (or such other name as shall

subsequently be adopted by decision of the Church Members’ Meeting and with the consent of the Charity Commission).

The Church is a member of the Baptist Union of Great Britain (Baptist Union) and the Central Baptist Association.

A – 2.1 Appointment and Removal of Charity Trustees

The statutory definition of Charity Trustees in the relevant Charities Acts is “persons having the general control and management of the administration of a charity”. The Church’s procedures are set out in Section 15 of the Constitution.

– Section A 3 Financial Review

Total income for the year was £114,994 (of which £1,113 was Restricted) and operating expenditure was £117,809 (of which £2,205 was Restricted) resulting in an overall deficit of £2,816 (of which £1,092 was Restricted).

During the year, the church reimbursed Trustees a total of £383.56 for regular church expenditure pre-authorised by the Church but initially paid for by those Trustees.

The Trustees continued to operate a reserves policy in line with that agreed by the Leadership Team on 6 July 2017 namely that £30K is held in the deposit account as reserves. This equates to three months expenditure. The policy will be reviewed in 2023 following the appointment of a new finance team.

At the end of the year there was £46,768 Unrestricted funds held in the current and deposit accounts and Restricted funds of £8,369 of which £7,941 remains in the Linking Lives fund and £429 in the BMS Fund.

A – 3.1 Public Benefit Statement

This is to confirm that the Charity’s Trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard on the guidance of public benefit published by the Commission in exercising their powers or duties.

The Church’s Objectives, Beliefs and Principal Activities employed to deliver this public benefit are shown below.

– Section B 1 Objectives and Activities

Purpose of the Charity is:

The principal Purpose of the Church is the advancement of the Christian faith according to the principles of the Baptist denomination. The Church may also advance education and carry out other charitable purposes in the United Kingdom and/or other parts of the world.

Beliefs of the Charity are:

That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer his laws.

That Christian Baptism is the immersion in water into the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost, of those who have professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who ‘died for our sins according to the Scriptures; was buried, and rose again on the third day’.

That it is the duty of every disciple to bear personal witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take part in the evangelisation of the world

Principle Activities of the Charity are:

In fulfilling the Purpose the Church will engage in a range of Activities either on its own or with others that will vary from time to time with Activities being initiated, expanded, or closed, as appropriate.

The Activities may include but are not restricted to:

regular public worship, prayer, Bible study, preaching and teaching;
baptism, as defined in the Union’s Declaration of Principle;
the Communion of the Lord’s Supper which shall normally be observed at least once a month;
evangelism and mission, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally;
the teaching, encouragement, welcome and inclusion of young people;
nurture and growth of Christian disciples;
education and training for Christian and community service;
giving and encouraging pastoral care;
supporting and encouraging charitable social action in the United Kingdom and abroad; and
encouraging relationships with and supporting Baptists and other Christians.

– Section B 2 Achievement and Performance

(Summary of the achievements of the Charity during 2022, as reported by the Church Secretary in March 2023)

Secretary’s Report 2022

It is hard to remember a year on that we started 2022 still with Covid-19 restrictions in place. These were lifted at the end of February and we were then able to resume many of our face-toface activities.

We have continued to hold our services on a hybrid basis with a few who for one reason or another cannot physically attend the service being able to access it via zoom. Average weekly attendance both in person and on line is between 60 and 70.

We have again been blessed through the Sunday teaching from Joe, Ruth, Kevin and others. January saw the start of a series exploring Joseph’s story and learning key lessons for our lives as we follow Jesus.

Leading up to Easter our sermon series was entitled ‘The Walk’ providing an insight into the essential practices of discipleship.

For the first time in 3 years, we were able to celebrate Easter with the Good Friday ‘Walk of Witness’ through the town and our sunrise service on Pitstone Hill. The egg rolling and decorating competition also resumed followed by bacon butties back at the church expertly cooked by the men’s curry group.

In May we joined with Baptists across the country as we linked in with the Baptist Assembly Morning Worship. This was followed later in the month with Joe preaching on the Baptist DNA.

During the summer our sermon series was based on Ephesians 6:10-17 ‘The Armour of God’ and how we can equip ourselves for modern day life by being strong and mighty in God’s power. We produced our own High Street music video to the theme ‘God suit on – be strong in the Lord.’ Members of the congregation young and old had great fun recording their contributions to the video.

Following an exploration of the book of Nahum with Kevin we then looked at the seven churches in Revelation and the relevance of their message for us as Christians today.

Our Christmas theme was ‘Rediscover Joy this Christmas.’ We once again held our ‘Remembering Loved Ones’ service which was greatly appreciated by the dozen or so who attended.

We held our Carols by Candlelight service on the Thursday before Christmas rather than on the Sunday before for two reasons – the availability of our musicians and to avoid a clash with the World Cup final! Numbers were down slightly on previous years which may have been due to the change of day or the fact that many were laid up with the nasty cold and flu bugs circulating alongside Covid-19.

On Christmas Day we prepared a Christmas Lunch for the local community. All who attended not only enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by our volunteers but also took home a hamper of goodies. Altogether some 40 people including helpers sat down to lunch. The event was considered a success although some learning points have been noted to improve the arrangements if we feel it is right to repeat the activity next year.

The book group met online each term and various courses were also offered. These included ‘The Bereavement Journey’ aimed at anyone who had suffered a bereavement at any time or in any way and an ‘Unanswered Prayer’ course based on Pete Greig’s book ‘God on Mute.’

During the Autumn term we held a consultation with the congregation regarding participation in small groups. Out of this it became clear that there was an appetite to create more ‘housegroups’ where individuals could gather in small groups to study the Word and pray together. Work on forming some new groups was begun with the aim of launching the new groups early in 2023. Anyone interested in joining group can speak to Nandi or Joe.

It was good to once again hold a range of social events bringing all ages together and helping folk to re-connect after the isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pancake and Sausage Sundays returned. A family walk, games afternoon, craft event and picnic were also organised.

‘A Grand Day Out’ took place in September kindly hosted by Cheryl at her lovely home by Wendover Woods. Some 40 or so friends gathered beginning with a barbecue and the opportunity to partake in various activities including craft and juggling. The afternoon ended with a short service followed by a cream tea.

We received a grant of £5000 from the Baptist Insurance Company for community activities which enabled us to offer free craft activities at our regular groups during the Tring Spring Fair. For the Summer Carnival we once again took the lead on the Churches Together stall. Our theme was ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’ and we created a world made of mesh to which people could tie prayer ribbons. The ‘World’ then toured the other churches in Tring over the summer.

We opened our doors again during the Tring Christmas Festival. Hundreds crossed our threshold either to participate in crafts in the back hall, take advantage of the quite space in the church or to partake of hot chocolate and Christmas biscuits in the foyer.

Our Children’s and Youth work resumed in person at the end of February. The Baby Group continues to be well received by the young Mum’s providing an opportunity to chat and share experiences with each other. Average attendance is 9 Mums and babies although some weeks there can be as many as 14.

Many of these Mums have moved on to the Wednesday morning Tots session. This continues to prove very popular with an average weekly attendance of 30 adults and 46 children. At Christmas the group held a ‘special’ session where the children were told the Christmas story, sung carols and participated in some Christmas crafts.

During the Easter holidays we held an Arts and Crafts morning for children up to age 11. Some 30 children and 20 adults attended. In the summer holidays 87 children and 44 adults enjoyed an activity morning with the theme of Carnival.

In previous years we have held a ‘Light’ party as an alternative to Halloween but this year we held a ‘Pumpkin Patch Crafts’ event which was enjoyed by all who came.

In September Junior Church returned to offering three separate groups: Scramblers for the 0-4 age group, Adventurers for school years Reception to year 3 and Explorers for school years 4-6. This change has been welcomed by leaders and children alike. We have 6 children on the register for Scramblers, 5 for Adventurers and 6 for Explorers with an average weekly attendance of 3-4 in each group.

The Monday night youth group has continued to flourish with a steady group of 12 regular attenders and one or two new faces as well.

The group have enjoyed a range of activities during the year including a woodland hike, junkyard crazy golf, a visit to Val’s horses and a table football World Cup tournament which saw Thomas and Young-James crowned 2022 champions and their names marked on the HP23 trophy. Old favourites also included P's cooking sessions and the bonfire night at Polly and Julian’s.

2022 saw the sad departure of one of our youth leaders, Amy. A party was held to celebrate her contribution to the youth work at High Street over the last few years. The Christmas party saw Amy return, unbeknownst to the young people - she hid in a cupboard dressed as Father Christmas and gave them a scare by jumping out and surprising them (very, very funny!)

A new Sunday Youth session started in the Autumn term with a Youth Alpha course which went very well and laid a good foundation to continue building Sunday Youth ministry in 2023. Six young people attended the sessions.

We have seen some changes to our mission partners this year.

At the start of the year the two Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) families we have supported working in Gulu, Uganda, had begun to hand over their work to local people and this continued in the first months of 2022. In April, both the Darbys and the Ovendens had a farewell service that included the commissioning of a newly built office block. On their return to the UK, they had a final three months with BMS, including a sabbatical and conducting a large number of church visits. Joe and Lois Ovenden were assigned to us for the weekend of May 7th and 8th, but sadly Joe was unwell and so Lois came alone to speak at our service, which was much appreciated. Both families have now settled in Sheffield.

We then looked with BMS at who we could partner with in the future and we agreed to partner with Genesis, a Ugandan farming expert from Gulu, Uganda, and a with young family, Mel and Tom Spears with their daughters, Maisie and Rosa who live in Chad. The Spears family live and work at Guinebor II Hospital, Chad, where Tom is a hospital doctor and Mel has been doing a lot of work in helping children suffering from malnutrition. Recent newsletters are posted in the back hall of the church and copies are available, either by email or by letter.

In October we were able to arrange a visit by Daniel Munayer, the Executive Director of Musalaha, (a charity based in Jerusalem devoted to working for reconciliation especially between Jews and Palestinians). On a previous occasion Daniel spoke at the UN Security Council. We called an open meeting and about thirty people including representatives from all of the Churches Together in Tring attended either in person or on zoom. Daniel spoke on effective reconciliation, particularly that between Jews and Palestinians in Israel. He was well received.

Our Eco Church activity has continued to progress throughout 2022 and this summary uses the five key areas of the Eco Church award as headings.

Worship & Teaching : In May 2022 one of our ministers, Joe Egan, gave a presentation to the Baptist Assembly on the Baptist Union Environment Network (BUEN), which was set up following collaboration with members from High Street in order to encourage all Baptist churches to include creation care in the church life. The climate crisis and its effect feature regularly in Sunday intercessions.

Buildings : During the year a fault with a solar panel on the church roof was dealt with. Measures are in place to reduce the church’s energy consumption to both save money and reduce the use of gas.

Land : The church garden has continued to be maintained by a team of volunteers and we had the first apples from our recently planted apple tree! The garden has been used by both church groups and Our Bookshop in Tring, who held an outdoor book event there.

Community & Global Engagement : In January 2022 Tring’s Repair Café started a monthly session in the church hall. We offer our building on Thursdays to the local Ukraine support group for meetups and English lessons.

Lifestyle : We continue to support other churches on their eco journey with frequent meetings and talks including the Churches Together groups in Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted. The annual church lifestyle survey provided many useful responses demonstrating how people are changing their habits to reduce their environmental impact.

Our Linking Lives work continued in the first part of the year and we held a Celebration Service in May. Sadly, Cliff who has faithfully co-ordinated the work since its inception relinquished the role as he and Jo moved to Stratford-on-Avon. This meant that we had to suspend taking on new referrals while we considered the future of the project. A new Coordinator has been found and they will undertake training with Linking Lives UK in the first half of 2023 and we then hope to open up the work to new referrals once again.

We are grateful to our dedicated band of volunteers who have continued working alongside our existing clients during the year.

In 2022 we have not had to deal with any safeguarding incidents connected with church activities, volunteers or staff.

The 2021 review identified the need for many of the church volunteer workers and staff to refresh their safeguarding training and their DBS check. The church was fortunate in being able to host a Baptist Union (BU) level 2 training course for the Central Baptist Association (CBA) on 26 March 2022 which was attended by 13 people from the church plus members from other CBA churches. DBS checks were undertaken for those whose check was more than 3 years old.

Following another recommendation of the 2021 review the BU level 1 Safeguarding video was shown to the whole church at the morning service on 13[th] March.

All except two of our trustees have now attended a BU level 3 safeguarding course and Ken our Safeguarding Officer is actively seeking suitable training opportunities for those who have not so far attended.

In May the trustees agreed to host the Berkhamsted and Tring Ukrainian Support Group’s meeting and language course on Thursday mornings. Ken liaised with the group leaders to ensure that they had a safeguarding policy in place and their volunteers knew how to report matters of concern.

Thanks go to Ken for all he does in this aspect of church life and to Ruth and Catherine, the other members of our Safeguarding team and to Polly who is the DBS verifier for the church.

Our annual election of Deacons took place in November. Thelma stood down following completion of her 7-year stint and all the remaining Deacons were re-elected for either their first or second 3-year term.

We held our first Baptism in our new portable baptistry in July when Debbie was baptised.

During the year we welcomed Jennie and Eddie into membership.

It was with great sadness that we learnt in April of the death of John Groom – a truly faithful servant of our Lord who along with his wife Joyce had joined our fellowship a few years previously. The church was packed for his thanksgiving service with family and friends old and new in attendance.

Financially 2022 was going to be a challenging year as we had set a budget that was going to draw on our reserves by some £12500. Thanks to careful stewardship and the generosity of our congregation we have ended the year with a shortfall of just £2272.

As ever our thanks go to Joe, Ruth, Kevin, Polly and Carolyn who have worked tirelessly during the year. However, I would not be able to report on such a plethora of activities without the support of many of the congregation who volunteer their time to our work and mission. Even so many of our activities struggle through lack of volunteers and so as I end this report for 2022 I would like to challenge you to prayerfully consider whether you are able to give of your time either regularly or on an ad hoc basis to ensure that the Lord’s work at High Street continues to flourish in 2023.

This Report & Accounts was approved at the Annual General Meeting of the church, held on 12 March 2023 at which the following trustees were present:

Joseph Egan Kevin Rogers Catherine Rowland Nandi Hall Deborah Inns James Cave Katharine Passmore Alison Layne-Smith Signed …………................................................ Print name…..………………............................................. Date…………….................................................... Signed ………………………………………………………. Print name…………………………………………………………. Date………………………………………………………………………. Signed……………………………………………………………………………… Print name………………………………………………………………………… Date……………………………………………………………………………………..

FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31/12/22

FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31/12/22	FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31/12/22	FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31/12/22	FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31/12/22


GENERAL RECEIPTS & PAYMENT ACCOUNT				2022			2021
		*Note*		Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Total
Receipts
Weekly offerings + Gift Day				76,459	-	76,459	69,513
Donations and other income		2		8,190		8,190	21,392
Income tax recovered on gifts				9,862	-	9,862	18,086
Investment income		3		87	-	87	6
Rents/contributions for use of premises				14,283	-	14,283	5,719
Fundraising Income				-	-	-	212
Grant income		4b		5,000	-	5,000	500
restricted income				-	1,113	1,113
				113,881	1,113	114,994	115,427
Payments
Ministry		5		44,061	-	44,061	41,729
Mission		6		32,167	-	32,167	31,995
Upkeep of church premises		7		22,862	-	22,862	16,368
Administration		8		16,515	-	16,515	13,322
Restricted Expenditure		4		-	2,205	2,205	15,468
				115,604	2,205	117,809	118,882
Church Surplus (deficit) for the year				1,724 -	1,092 -	2,816 -	3,455 -

Capital Repaym't from Baptist Union Loan				-	-	-	-

Surplus (deficit) for the year				1,724 -	1,092 -	2,816 -	3,455 -

Balance brought forward				48,492	9,461	57,953	61,408
Balance carried forward				46,768	8,369	55,138	57,953


STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AT 31 DECEMBER				2022
						2022	2021
						Total	Total
ASSETS:
Bank and other cash balances:						54,623	57,953
Current Accruals						515

Total Assets						55,138	59,974

LIABILITIES:
Current Liabilities		11a				-	-
Long-term loans		11b				-	-

Total Liabilities						-	-

NET ASSETS						55,138	59,974

REPRESENTING BALANCE ON THE FOLLOWING ACCOUNTS				:
				Unrestricted	Restricted	Total
General accounts				46,768	7,855	54,623	57,953
Other monetary assets:		9		-	515	515	-
Total Monetary Assets				46,768	8,369	55,138	57,953

Non-monetary assets: Held for investment purpos		e 10a		-	-	-	-
Held for church's own use		10b		2,886,289	-	2,886,289	2,428,228

The restricted funds held in the general accounts comprise: £428				.54 in the BMS collections and Gl		obes account
and £7940.84 in the Linking Lives fund.
						2022	2021
2 Donations and other income:

Sundry income, refunds etc						2,525	1,501
Friday lunch café						-	-
Other items (GAYL, FiT)						449	794
Children's Work Income						5,217	2,240
Legacies						-	5,000
Govt Furlough Grant						-	2,357
						8,190	11,891

						2022	2021
3 Investment income:
Bank interest						87	6
Trust income (if any)						-	-
Other items						-	-
						87	6

4a Restricted Funds
Sums gifted by the church to BMS and Home Mission appear un				der Payments: Mission; they are a		gift from church income.
'Other causes'here are sums earmarked to be passed to the reci				pient organisation, eg coffee mor		ning to go to BMS and Harvest
gifts to DENS. Restricted Income and Expenditure for 2022 comp				rises these plus the baptistry proj		ect, and the Linking Lives project
funding.

	Category	Open Bal		Income	Expenditure	Close Bal
	Baptist Missionary Society		0	429	0	429
	Baptistry		1,540	515	2,055	0
	Linking Lives		7,921	170	150	7,941
	Total Restricted		9,461	1,113	2,205	8,369

The £515 Income on the Baptristy Fund was accrued to avoid t				hat Restricted Fund becoming'ove		rdrawn'.

4b Grants Received
In 2022 we received a grant of £5000 from Baptist insurance BIC				for outreach work with local com		munity projects and events.
These funds are not restricted.


5 Ministry:						2022	2021
Cost of Ministry (inc Stipends, NI, Manse, Pension, Ministers'ph				ones)		43,661	41,329
Visiting speakers						400	400
						44,061	41,729
6 Mission:
Junior Church, Youth and Children's work						18,537	18,143
Others (all external giving, social fund, affiliations and fellowship				giving)		5,123	5,990
Support costs (inc refreshments, Christmas costs, printing, equip				ment, sundries)		6,320	4,167
BU pension fund deficit payments						2,187	3,695
						32,167	31,995
7 Upkeep of church premises:
Lighting, heating and water						5,055	1,906
Cleaning (inc. wages)						5,636	4,673
Insurances						3,766	3,400
Repairs and maintenance						5,273	4,046
Manse upkeep						3,132	2,343
Loan interest paid						-	-
						22,862	16,368
8 Administration:
Costs associated with Church Administrator						16,515	13,322

9 Other monetary assets:See note 4are Baptistry Fund						515	-

10 Non-monetary assets:(if applicable)

(a) Held for investment purposes:						-	-

(b) Held for the church's own use:						2,886,289	2,886,289

The church is the beneficial owner (subject to the relevant trusts)				of the following assets, the legal
title to which is held by the church's custodian trustee [the Baptis				t Union Corporation Ltd]:
Church buildings at 89 High Street, Tring HP23 4AB £2,365,440				(insured value); Manse at 12
Anns Close, Tring HP23 4HA £383,569 (insured value). The chur				ch also owns fixtures and fittings
with an insured value of £137,280.

11 Liabilities:(if applicable)

(a) Current:						-	-

(b) Long-term loans:						-	-

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

High Street Baptist Church, Tring	High Street Baptist Church, Tring	High Street Baptist Church, Tring

31stDecember, 2021	Charity no (if any)	1128094

1 to 3

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity for the year ended 31 DEC 2022

As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the Responsibilities and basis of accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the report 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 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 which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

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

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: nn March, 2023 Name: Malcolm W Rogers Relevant professional ACIE qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 24a, Friars Walk, TRING,. Hertfordshire, HP23 4AY