2020-08-31-accounts

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BISHOP STREET METHODIST CHURCH, LEICESTER

ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2020

Bishop Street Methodist Church 10a Bishop Street Leicester LE1 6AF

Charity Number 1129068

INTRODUCTION

The work described in the Annual Report of Bishop Street Methodist Church, 1[st] September 2019 to 31[st] August 2020, falls within the objectives of the Methodist Church in Great Britain which are directly linked to its aims.

The aims of the Methodist Church are:

Worship – to increase awareness of God’s presence and to celebrate God’s love;
Learning and caring – to help people to learn and grow as Christians, through mutual support and care;
Service – to be a good neighbour to people in need and to challenge injustice;
Evangelism – to make more followers of Jesus Christ

The Trustees’ report that follows shows clearly that Bishop Street Methodist Church meets the public benefit requirement of the Charity Commissioners although, as for so many charities, the second half of the year spent largely under the Covid lockdown severely limited the Church’s ability to reach out in service as it usually does. Two leaseholders of church property, the Zinthiya Trust and Community Cycles provided much needed services to the community throughout the lockdowns.

CONTEXT

Bishop Street Methodist Church provides regular acts of worship open to members of the church and non members alike. It teaches Christianity through worship, sermons, small groups and Bible studies and undertakes pastoral work including visiting the sick and bereaved. It opens its buildings to a wide range of groups and activities. However, it does this in the context of its situation, its membership and the needs of people at any given time.

As a church in the city centre, many people in vulnerable circumstances pass through its doors. Its premises are widely used by a very diverse cross-section of the city centre community – which includes people living in the locality and large numbers who travel into the centre from across the city and county. Christians from the Leicester area, and community organisations with no Christian background all contribute to activities on the premises which enhance community life and support people who are marginalised. As a result of the pandemic, including extended restrictions in Leicester, the Church was closed between 22 March and the middle of August 2020. Worship services were available on a blog. (See section on Worship.)

The church community consists of people from a variety of countries and backgrounds. Many work unsocial hours and find church attendance difficult; some are seeking work or have low incomes; some are unable to work; some are students; a few are asylum seekers; some are families with small children; some are retired. Bishop Street welcomes such a diverse community and tries to be sensitive to differing needs and responsive to new initiatives, changes and ideas.

Bishop Street’s Annual report is presented under the following 6 sections

1. Worship – to increase awareness of God’s 4. Evangelism – to make more followers of presence and to celebrate God’s love; Jesus Christ Sunday worship Art at the Chapel Vice-president service Art Exhibitions Appeals Organ recitals & Concerts Weekday worship and one-off worship Talks in the Chapel Bible Study Heritage Worship consultation Liaison with Church self-help groups 2. Learning and caring – to help people to 5. Governance, Admin and Management learn and grow as Christians, through mutual Governance support and care; Structure Membership The Trustees Pastoral Care Management Cell group Environment People in vulnerable circumstances Students Sunday School 3. Service – to be a good neighbour to people 6. Finance in need and to challenge injustice; Responsibilities of the Trustees Chapel Café Independent Examiner’s Report Community Groups Statement of Financial Activities Interfaith Bank Balances and Fund Balances Property Leases School visit

1. Worship – to increase awareness of God’s presence and to celebrate God’s love

Sunday Worship

The Church is open 7 days a week and many people use it for private prayer as well as for public worship. On Sundays, morning worship continues, sometimes following a theme, such as during Lent. 6 times a year a café-church style of worship is held in a more informal setting in the café area of the Church. From the end of March 2020, when the church was closed until the end of August 2020, a blog was started for weekly worship material, including Youtube hymn videos and photographs, in copyright. Local preachers and ministers’ worship material was uploaded here: https://bishopstreetmethodistchurchsundaystuff.wordpress.com/

Facilities are offered for baptisms, weddings and funerals, with accompanying pastoral care.

Vice President Service

The 2019-20 Vice-President of the Methodist Conference, Professor Clive Marsh, who is also a member of Bishop Street Methodist Church led worship on 8[th] December, 2019.

Appeals

The church raised £101.50 to support All We Can and £48 for the Medaille Trust. The Harvest gifts of non-perishable food were donated to the Zinthiya Trust ‘Community Shop’ which enables people in need of food-bank items to select their items from the shelves. The perishable items were taken to the Community of Grace. A collection of household cleaning materials and toilet rolls for those in need (the Community of Grace) was begun in Lent 2020 but had to be suspended due to national lockdown. The Advent Gift service included the donation of gifts for a Leicester Women’s Refuge and the Community of Grace.

Weekday worship and one-off worship

Each Monday and Wednesday a short service is held at 1pm, with a Communion Service on the 1[st] Wednesday of each month. This was held on the first Wednesday of the month until lockdown. There were usually just three or four people at the service.

Every 1[st] Thursday of the month lunchtime prayers are shared by members of Churches Together in Leicester City Centre, and twice a year these are held at Bishop Street.

A modestly-attended prayer walk continued once a month on Wednesday afternoons around the city centre during the autumn of 2019. A prayer diary was distributed to all members for use during the lockdown and beyond.

Bible Study

The Bible study group which meets each Thursday at Bishop Street between 12 and 1.00pm is coming to the end of St Matthew’s gospel. This was started when St Matthew was the gospel of the year in 2018. There was much to say! Nevertheless, there is much in it that has not been discussed at all. We had hoped to finish in March with the final chapter to go, when lockdown occurred. The group has not been able to meet since then but the members are in regular contact by telephone. Numbers attending vary between 4 and 7.

Worship consultation

Worship consultations are held during the year, to which all members of the congregation are invited, to plan services and special events over the forthcoming months. Preachers in June 2020 were invited to join the “Bible Month” initiative which focussed on the book of Ruth on Sunday mornings. A former Circuit Superintendent minister, Rev’d David Palmer led the Chapel anniversary service on 3rd November 2019.

2. Learning and caring – to help people to learn and grow as Christians, through mutual support and care.

Membership

One person became a member on the Sunday before lockdown in March 2020. There were therefore 53 members at the end of the Methodist year August 2020. Pastoral group leaders and the minister were involved in weekly phone calls or emails to members of their groups during periods of lockdown. One member was hospitalised for two months with Covid-19 and made a gradual recovery.

Pastoral care

Pastoral visitors have been keeping in regular contact with their groups. Informal contact by email, phone, text and letter has been maintained between members of the congregation, cell group members and Bible Study group members. A new local and the Connexional Prayer journals were distributed in May 2020 and personal prayer journals were made available for use during the Thy Kingdom Come period between Ascension and Pentecost. Copies of ‘Our Church’s Future Story ‘ and ‘Inclusive Church’ texts on equality and diversity themes are also circulating among members, both generously donated by Professor Clive Marsh. Therefore prayer and study have been encouraged through more resources.

Social media

Last year the vision-planning group recommended strengthening the Church’s online presence, which is happening through the WordPress site https://bishopstreetmethodistchurchsundaystuff.wordpress.com . Work on improving the website has continued. There is also a new Facebook group: Bishop Street Community which has been set up for regular postings. A WhatsApp group was created to maintain contact with the more tech-savvy congregation members.

Cell Group

A Cell group was meeting every four to six weeks on a Tuesday afternoon at Bishop Street and started with refreshments. One person joined the group during the year so that there were usually four or five people attending. They continued with the study of "The Meaning in the Miracles" by the Anglican priest Jeffrey John.

Environment

The on-going project to install solar panels on the Church roof finally made some progress during the year. Permission for the panels was granted by the Methodist Conservation Office, conditional on using dark panels and dark frames to minimise the visual difference from the slate roof. The pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020 inevitably added new delays, but by the end of August a site visit with the installers, Carbon Legacy Ltd, was imminent, to sort out details of access, roof fixings and inverter location. Having received generous donations to fund the costs we were finally set for installation in autumn 2020 of an array of panels with a rated capacity of around 20kW, which will give huge costsavings on our daytime electricity use and means much of our energy will be from our own non-carbon source.

Community Cycles, based in Pilgrim House, were identified by the City Council as an essential service during the lockdown, and as well as remaining open for repairs to people's bicycles, were also contracted to provide second-hand bikes for essential workers. With a major shift by the city council towards cycle-lane provision around the city centre, Community Cycles is well set to enable more people to access the city centre without use of cars.

People in Vulnerable circumstances

As well as supporting the work of the British Red Cross, and the City of Sanctuary in Leicester, the church continued to support asylum seekers within the congregation both pastorally and through Benevolent Fund collections taken on Communion Sundays. Open Church, on Mondays, in addition to serving refreshments, also provides a meeting place for a number of long-term unemployed people, people living on their own and people with health issues. Lockdown has curtailed Open Church but Rental groups include a number of support and self-help groups which have continued.

Students

Students participate in the activities at the chaplaincy centres at their university. The Church is a link church to the Student Christian Movement and was represented at the Christian Union Freshers Fair at De Montfort University.

Sunday School

Activities suited to creche children, juniors and teenagers continued to be offered until the end of March 2020 when the lockdown prevented all further gathering. Participation in the later part of the Sunday services is an element of Sunday worship valued by both the young people and the older congregation, as is the annual Nativity play, which in December 2019 was a performance of 'If Christmas Happened Today' by Fay Rowland. After lockdown, contact between the sunday school members was much more limited and mostly restricted to sending birthday and Easter presents where possible, and sending material for family use.

3. Service – to be a good neighbour to people in need and to challenge injustice.

Chapel Café

The Chapel Café continues to be run by the Zinthiya Trust and is open 6 days a week. It is a Social Enterprise venture where people are supported into employment through work placements and apprenticeship. They are offered training and qualifications in Customer Service and Food Safety. It supports the church in being a welcoming and accepting place to anyone in the community, and encourages groups to use the café for a variety of events.

Three trained listeners offer a “listening ear” three mornings a week in the Café. Supervision for these listeners was introduced in early 2019, so that the service could be advertised in one or two health centres. A couple of telephone listening relationships continued throughout the lockdown

Community Groups

The building continues to be heavily used throughout the week, with a mix of self-help groups, community organisations, charities and Christian groups. Regular user groups: 6 Alcoholics Anonymous and 1 Polish AA group; 2 Narcotics Anonymous groups and 1 Cocaine Anonymous Group. Living without Abuse – various support/advice sessions Leicester City Council Christian Fellowship group ( café) Portrait Drawing Class (café) ‘In Stiches’ morning Knitting group

Other organisations that make use of us monthly or from time to time include: Citizens Advice, Civil service pensioners meetings, LWA, WEA. Prayer for Leicester, Cards for Good Causes, Urban Leicester sketch club, Great family project, Leicester health insights, Book binders association, Charnwood school visit, NHS social isolation event, Extinction Rebellion, Art zone Leicester, Macular Society support meetings,, Victorian Society winter programme, Café Mama breast-feeding support group, Leicester Health Insights group, Sainsbury Veterans social gathering, choir rehearsals, literature and poetry evening and CND.

During lockdown the church has been able to remain open for Covid compliance support meetings such as AA/CA/NA with additional compliance checks on top of the guidance

Inter Faith

Following an invitation to ISKCON’s ‘Mountain of Food’ festival on 28 October 2019, an evening on Hindu Bhajan and Christian hymns was held on 6 Feb 2020, attended by over 30 people. This was facilitated by the St Philip’s Centre. Dr Laura Johnson of the St Philip’s Centre spoke to the congregation at a service on 17 November 2019.

Property

During the year, as well as routine maintenance, LED upgrades to the café lights have been carried out, sensor lighting has been installed, and measures taken to achieve Covid compliance at varying levels depending upon the lockdown guidance. Preparation work for the solar panels was also carried out prior to the installation in early 2021.

Leases

Following the end of the CLC bookshop tenancy in No. 10 (Pilgrim House), there was a move around by other tenants. The Zinthiya Trust Community Shop moved from the smaller shop unit into the larger eastside unit formerly housing CLC. The vacated smaller unit was taken on by the Community Cycle Project, headed up by Dwight Hove, which had been previously making use of the Church basement. The Zinthiya Trust has also been renting the No. 10 upstairs meeting room (Welcome Centre) for several years. With the ending of funding for the women's project that had been based there, they ended that rental, and plans were moved forward for the church to hire out the room on an hourly basis, including for use by the WEA for adult education classes. In June 2020 Newenglish Design, who have occupied the large back office on the first floor of Pilgrim House for 20 years, gave notice to leave at the end of September (a victim of the Covid-19 crisis). In August 2019 the small office room at the top of the Church community rooms began a lease to the After18 support project which helps refugee young people in transition from child to adulthood.

School visit

Year 1 from Charnwood School visited on Tuesday 29 January 2020. The children were given a tour of the chapel in small groups including the Heritage room, and the Gallery. The church organist played a hymn for which the children learned the chorus. The church minister attended the school assembly taken by Year 1 pupils on the theme of the birth of Christ.

4. Evangelism – to make more followers of Jesus Christ

Art at the Chapel

Arts Enabler Leonie DuBarry-Gurr has supported and encouraged the use of the Chapel as a performance and exhibition venue. She has extensive and strong links with creative communities in Leicester, which has led to many new people being introduced onto the premises via exhibitions, concerts, and creative groups.

Leicester Lo-Fi Photography has moved into the basement of the church and had an exhibition in the church. A weekly community poetry group Wordplay has been established and is open to all.

With the chapel and gallery being closed for much of the year, work has been directed towards planning for future exhibitions and creating a refreshed, safe, welcoming environment for when the church reopens. Exhibitions that had to be cancelled have been rescheduled.

Art Exhibitions

A number of exhibitions were facilitated by Art at the Chapel including

Leicester Life-Drawing – Mother and Child joint exhibition with Handel’s Messiah music and choral scores

Hamilton Arts Group - community exhibition Martin Frost - solo exhibition

De Montfort University Photography Students - group exhibition in support of the Epilepsy Society Leicester University - Images of Research

The Art at The Chapel Open 2020 was announced and requests for submissions continued throughout lockdown.

Organ Recitals & Concerts

Monthly organ recitals on fourth Thursday lunchtimes were held regularly, except during lockdown, and featured a variety of local organists including Bishop Street’s own organist Martin Briers (Christmas Music and Carols), Philip Bricher and Tom Keogh among others. A concert was held through Art at the Chapel by the pianist Kelly Moran with accompanying digital imagery on 17th October 2019. The nationally-known organist, Nigel Ogden played a third concert for the church on 9[th] November 2019. A ‘Come and Sing’ performance of Handel’s Messiah was held on 14[th] December 2019 when the conductor of the Knighton Chamber orchestra coordinated 60 singers and the orchestra. The performance was enjoyed by an additional 60 people.

Talks in the Chapel

On Thursday 5th December 2019, Neil Crutchley spoke about the carol ‘While shepherds watched their flocks by night’ and illustrated it with different musical settings. On Thursday 23rd January 2020, Brian Johnson spoke about Joseph Roberts, who was a member of Bishop Street in the 19[th] century, and founded the grocery business Joseph Roberts and Son.

Heritage

A Heritage Open Day was held on Saturday 14[th] September 2019 to coincide with the Leicestershire and Leicester Historic Churches Trust Ride and Stride Day.

The ‘What makes a Methodist’ display was laid out in the Heritage room. 35 people visited the room, several used the hand held boards to guide them round the church and there were enquires about the War Memorial information. Information was displayed about Joseph Roberts, a 19[th] Century member of Bishop Street.

For the Remembrance Sunday Service on 9[th] November 2019, Alison Skinner had researched the interconnected stories of four Bishop Street World War 1 volunteers: William Kingsley Callard and Arthur Jack Wakerley who died in 1916 and 1917 respectively; and Frank Mitchell Mantle and William Arthur Scales Turner who both survived the war and also went on to have significant roles in World War 2. After meeting with Sara Parratt-Halbert, the North East Regional Learning and Development officer on the Connexional team for the Methodist Church, on 21[st] January 2020, the Heritage team agreed that she should produce a comic strip style booklet telling the story of John Wesley’s visits to Leicester and the eventual founding of Bishop Street Chapel in 1815. Meetings with Sara continued by Zoom during the summer; and the contents and layout of the booklet agreed. Printing went ahead in September in the hopes that the booklet, Have Horse will Travel, would be available for sale and distribution during the autumn.

Work continues to produce a history of the chapel from 1965 onwards drawing on the memories of members of the congregation.

Liaison with Church self-help groups

The Liaison Worker has continued to build bridges between the congregation and premises user groups by getting to know leaders and members of support groups and other user groups, such as the In Stitches Craft group and the One Roof Leicester Winter Night Shelter volunteer team. He has also offered Friday mornings for the Chapel Café Listening Service. Plans were in hand for the work to form part of the Together Mission Week advocated by the Northampton District but were curtailed by Covid-19. However, engagement with groups had progressed well and some interest had been shown in Christian Spirituality and literature made available to the groups by the Liaison Worker. Many of the independent self-help groups feel positive about links with the Church. The Liaison Worker was furloughed for 5 months between April and August 2020.

5. Governance, Structure and Management

GOVERNANCE

The appointment of Trustees and other officers follows the Constitutional Practice and Discipline of the Methodist Church (CPD). The primary governing body of Bishop Street Methodist Church is the Church Council (the trustees), which is responsible for the general oversight of the church. One Trustee marked with an asterisk * received remuneration from the church in respect of their work during the year. The management of these two individuals follows the procedures of the Methodist Church and they, (together with connected parties) are absent from the trustee meeting when any decisions are taken in respect of their remuneration. The four trustees marked[--] additionally perform roles for the Leicester Trinity Methodist Circuit, a charity related to Bishop Street Methodist Church, for which they receive stipends, expenses or other remuneration from that charity in line with Methodist charity governance and procedures.

Annual General Meeting

All Church members can attend this meeting and are invited to raise any issue. Church Stewards and Church Representatives are elected at this meeting. The meeting was held via video conferencing this year.

Church Council

The Church Council comprising Office holders, elected Church Stewards, elected Church Representatives, Circuit ministerial staff and a Circuit Steward meets three times a year. The Council is chaired by the Minister. All decisions taken at Church Council are minuted, and a summary is circulated via the church notices. The Church has had vision planning meetings at least three times during the year, including through video conferencing, once using the facilitation of former Methodist London District Chair, Rev’d Jenny Impey, and an architect visited in December 2019 to discuss possibilities for developing the sanctuary. The Church Council has oversight of the Finance and Property Committee, Forward Planning Group and the Safeguarding Group.

THE TRUSTEES

The Trustees who served the charity were:

Officer holders

--Rev Fran Rhys (Chair) Alison Skinner (Secretary) *[--] Martin Briers (Treasurer) Patsy Green (Pastoral Secretary) Pelani Ziba (Health & Safety)

Stewards

Margaret Byron, Peter Chitsenga Mary Gill, Boas Lee Tony Moore, Hope Ncube Tanvi Pate, Francisca Incoom (From May 2020)

Church reps Circuit reps Deirdre Brunning - Pedzi Katsande Leon Dundas[--] Rev Paula Hunt Margaret Mackley[--] Rev Derek McLean Miriam Stevenson Robin Stevenson Gillian Butcher

STRUCTURE

Bishop Street Methodist Church is part of the Leicester Trinity Methodist Circuit, and the Northampton District of the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

a) Finance and Property Committee

The major risks are identified and recorded by the Finance and Property Committee. The committee prepares accounts and budget and oversees day-to-day finance and property matters. Income and Expenditure is monitored in total and is compared with the approved annual budget on a monthly basis to detect trends as part of the risk management process to avoid unforeseen calls on reserves. There is a regular annual review process undertaken and recorded. The Trustees have agreed financial management arrangements requiring dual signatures on all cheques, and prior approval for all, except minor items, of expenditure. Church Council delegated to Finance and Property Committee the approval of Covid-19 risk assessments. The Centre Administrator, Chris Parker, was made the Covid-19 responsible person once the church reopened in August 2020. The group met via video conferencing from April 2020.

b) Forward Planning Group

This group, open to all members of the congregation, meets to plan future activities. This group was involved in the vision planning process and met via video conferencing from April 2020.

c) Safeguarding Group

This group oversees all issues related to Safeguarding. Bishop Street Methodist Church commits itself to ensuring the implementation of connexional safeguarding policy; government legislation, guidance and safe practice in the circuit and in the churches. New volunteers and post-holders within the church undertook the ‘Creating Safer Space Foundation Module’ safeguarding training organised by the Methodist Church. Volunteers are recruited, selected and supervised according to the Safer Recruitment Policy. DBS checks and renewals were carried out even during the lockdown. A lone working policy was adopted this year.

MANAGEMENT

Paid staff and volunteers

Day to day management of the premises is delegated to the Centre Administrator. A new worker, Chris Parker, who is also the church cleaner, started in the Centre Administrator role from 1.10.19. He was furloughed between April and July 2020 for 4 ½ months. The Liaison Worker continued to build bridges with premises user groups and was furloughed for 5 months between April and August 2020; Art at the Chapel work is staffed by the Arts Enabler and Administrator, who was a new appointee from April 2019; The cleanliness of the premises is maintained by the cleaner. All employees undergo an annual appraisal and take part in regular supervisions and reference group meetings.

6. FINANCE

i. Financial Review

The finances have been seriously impacted by the Covid-19 Pandemic which will continue into 2020-21. Fortunately total collections (cash, envelopes and standing orders) reduced by only approximately 13.1% but the main area impacted was in respect of Lettings which reduced by 48.6% (£11,075). The reduction in respect of Income from Leases was 8.1% (£2,283).

Total receipts on unrestricted funds were £63,956, a reduction of approximately 3.6% on the previous year. The overall reduction in Receipts being cushioned by increased Donations of £9,065

Our Circuit Assessment contribution, calculated on a formula basis involving membership, attendance, income and reserves, increased by 7.4% following an 11.75% increase in the previous year.

The net result for the year was a Deficit of £14,749 on unrestricted funds. The outstanding loan to the Leicester Trinity Circuit remains at £14,000.

The accounts include a small restricted fund held, and administered, on behalf of Churches Together in Leicester City Centre which at 31[st] August 2019 amounted to £417.

ii Reserves

(a) General (Unrestricted) Fund (excluding Designated) This includes our Bank (Co-operative Community Directplus) and Central Finance Board (“CFB”) accounts plus cash in hand. At the end of the financial year (31.8.20) this totalled £30,395 but includes the outstanding interest free loan from the Leicester Trinity Methodist Circuit of £14,000.

We aim ideally to hold in reserves sufficient money in our General Fund to cover six months budgeted expenditure

Designated Funds

The Joyce Smith Bequest and a smaller bequest were transferred to two Designated Funds in the previous year and at 31.8.20 were £12,369 (Liaison Worker Fund) and £18,975 (Energy Efficiency Project).

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE TRUSTEES

The charity's trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The 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 state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;

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 that 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 and the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. 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.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

Barry Wilford has been re-appointed as independent examiner for the ensuing year.

Signed on behalf of the trustees Rev Fran Rhys Chair

23 January 2021

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF BISHOP STREET METHODIST CHURCH LEICESTER

YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2020

I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 August 2020 set out on pages 13-14.

RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF TRUSTESS AND INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under Section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:
examine the accounts under Section 145 of the Charities Act
to follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission (under Section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act); and
to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

BASIS OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S STATEMENT

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by a charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S STATEMENT

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material aspect the requirements:
to keep accountings records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and
to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act

have not been met; or

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
(3) I have not obtained independent verification of all investments with the Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes ("TMCP") or held in other Trusts, Bank balances and Funds at the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church ("CFB"), which are individually in excess of £10,000 (ten thousand pounds) at the balance sheet date.

Barry Wilford Independent Examiner 7 Wickham Road Oadby Leicester LE3 5SJ 15 January 2021

Bishop Street Methodist Church Statement of Financial Activities For the period from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020

	Unrestricted Funds	Unrestricted Funds	Restricted Funds £ 1,972 7 - 8,309 10,289 - 750 96 - 5,440 6,286 (4,002) 20,106	Totals this year £ 15,525 516 37,699 20,504 74,244 24,674 1,655 4,745 16,537 37,380 84,991 (10,747) 74,316	Totals last year
	Note	£	£		£
RECEIPTS
Offerings and Tax recoverable		13,553	1,972		17,867
Bank and CFB interest and Investment Income		509	7		657
Lettings		37,699	-		51,058
Other receipts		12.195	8,309		12,141
TOTAL RECEIPTS		63,955	10,289		81,723

PAYMENTS
Circuit Assessment or Share		24,674	-		22,969
Donations		905	750		1,786
Repairs and Maintenance		4,649	96		14,221
Utilities (Insurances, water charges, heating & lighting)		16,537	-		11,149
Other payments		31,940	5,440		38,244
TOTAL PAYMENTS		78,704	6,286		88,369

NET RECEIPTS/PAYMENTS FOR THE YEAR		(14,749)	(4,002)		(6,646)

Total funds brought forward from last year		54,209	20,106		80,961

Sub-total		39,460	24,108	63,569	74,316

Transfers and adjustments		602	(602)	-	-
			23,507	63,569
TOTAL FUNDS AT END OF YEAR		40,062	23,507	63,569	74,316

BANK BALANCES AND FUND BALANCES

BANK BALANCES	OPENING BALANCES 1 September 2019	CLOSING BALANCES 31 August 2020
	£	£
Cash in hand		19
Co-operative Bank Current Account	14,106	13,178
Central Finance Board Bank (CFB)	38,286	35,411
Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes (TMCP)	35,924	28,961
Other funds	(14,000)	(14,000)

TOTAL CASH FUNDS HELD BY CHURCH	74,316	63,569
OTHER ASSETS AND LIABILITIES	1 September 2019	31 August 2020
	£	£
Investments (including Endowments)
Land & Buildings	1,269,155	1,281,846
Other Assets
Loan(s)
Other Liabilities
FUND BALANCES 1 September 2019		31 August 2020
	£	£
Unrestricted
General Fund	30,395	21,905
Leicester Trinity Circuit Loan	(14,000)	(14,000)
TOTAL GENERAL FUND	16,395	7,905
Designated
Energy Efficiency Fund	18,924	18,975
Liaison Worker Fund	18,079	12,369
Art at the Chapel Sales	811	813
TOTAL DESIGNATED FUNDS	37,814	32,157
Restricted
Art at the Chapel	11,150	6,216
Benevolent Fund	238	130
CTLCC – Christians Together in Leicester City Centre	416	417
Development Fund	1,575	1,940
Flower Fund	250	168
Heritage Fund	5,101	5,103
LiaisonWorker Fund	743	-
Methodist Art Collection 2019	(35)	-
Mission in Leicester City Centre	903	906
Organ Fund	(57)	97
President’s Visit 2019	(135)	-
Red Cross Appeal	(44)	-
Solar Panels	-	8,531
TOTAL RESTRICTED FUNDS	20,106	23,508
TOTAL CHURCH FUND BALANCES	74,316	63,569