OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2025-12-31-accounts

knowing Jesus and making him known in our community and beyond

2025 Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for the Parochial Church Council

of Huntington, Earswick and New Earswick, York

Section Page
Aims and Purposes 2
Objectives and Activities 2
Achievements and
Performance		 Worship& Prayer 3
Youth & Children 3
Pastoral Care 4
Mission & Outreach 5
Weddings,Baptism,Funerals 5
DeanerySynod 5
Building& Fabric 5
Ecological Issues 6
Finance Review Current Year 7
Funds 11
Reserves 11
Safeguarding Review 13
Structure, Governance and Management 14
Administrative Information 15

1

Aims and Purposes

All Saints and St Andrew’s Parochial Church Council (PCC) has the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent, the Reverend Ben Brady, Rector, in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The PCC is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of the church buildings and grounds of All Saints and St Andrew’s, Huntington, York.

Objectives and Activities

Our statement of purpose is “Knowing Jesus and making him known in our community and beyond”. The PCC has this in mind in all its planning and decision making. We are committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at All Saints and St Andrew’s Church, to become part of a church community and to live out their faith. The PCC maintains an overview of worship, pastoral care and outreach.

When planning our activities for the year, we have considered the Commission’s guidance on public benefit and particularly the supplementary guidance on charities for the advancement of religion.

We seek to enable people to live out their faith in Jesus Christ as part of the church community by:

To facilitate this work, we continue to develop and maintain the fabric of the church buildings.

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 2 of 15

Achievements and performance

a) Worship and Prayer

It has been a joy getting to see where God has been at work and in exploring how we continue to grow in discipleship and bear witness of Christ’s love for all to our community.

With new people coming on Sundays, we moved our “Together Services” to the 5th Sunday of the month, followed by a Bring and Share lunch.

During the Summer holidays we continued to provide weekly worship at both churches. Again, with new people attending our churches and exploring, we wanted to avoid the risk of seekers arriving at a closed church! This was only made possible with our gifted team of preachers and leaders.

We introduced ‘The 4pm’ service on the first Sunday of the month at St Andrew’s church. The hope was to engage with families who may otherwise be busy on Sunday mornings with sports/activities. The attendance has been very encouraging as we continue to build on relationships with the local primary schools in our parish. Elements have been taken from Messy Church that ran on Saturday afternoons and we still provide a meal for all those who come along. We have a committed team and as attendance hopefully increases, so will the team.

Our wonderful services during the Advent and Christmas season were well attended and it was great to partner with Brigade band for our Carols by Candlelight. The hospitality was wonderful, and it was great to see how special our community find the services we offer. Again this year, there were 4(!) Christingle services on Christmas Eve between both churches and all were well attended.

As we acknowledge where we have been and where we are going, we believe God will continue to guide our worship team by the Holy Spirit. I hope that as we collectively become more aware of God’s presence, we will see more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit pouring into our times together.

b) Youth and Children

At St Andrew’s church, we continue to offer age appropriate teaching for children aged 3-7 and 8-11 every Sunday morning. Once a month we also run Forest Church. We are able to use the woods next to our church to learn, worship and play outside.

A wonderful answer to prayer is seeing families attending services at both our churches. With this in mind, at All Saints, we are exploring and developing a flexible youth and children’s provision during the service for those who would like to go out during the service. We are drawing inspiration from a style called “Godly play”.

At St Andrew’s we continue to offer a Youth group on Monday nights for Secondary school aged children. On Tuesday we offer a Kids group for children at Primary school age. This time together is such a joy! To eat at a tuck shop, play games, and hear a Bible story and pray is so great. We would

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 3 of 15

love to see the group numbers increase as we continue to disciple the younger generation. We believe God will continue to bless us and use our links with the local schools.

The clergy currently lead assemblies every other Wednesday morning at Huntington Primary Academy and on Wednesday afternoons at New Earswick. Both schools used either All Saints or St Andrew’s building for their Christmas shows. We have made contact with one more primary school in Yearsley Grove and will be going in to lead an assembly in March 2026.

We have collaborated with Yo-yo to run a weekly lunchtime group at Huntington Secondary School on Tuesdays. This is a space for snacks, games and talking about Jesus. We average around 15 pupils and they keep coming back!

c) Pastoral Care

In 2025 we continued to build on our pastoral care ministry, offering face to face support to people with a variety of needs. Many of our home visits are for members of our congregation who are unable to get to church and there have been opportunities to listen to and to support the care and practical needs of each person. We have had the privilege of taking part in funerals this year as a number of our folk have sadly passed away.

The Pastoral Care Team met 6 times during the year to support each other, to give feedback when necessary and to keep clergy and other leaders up to date.

We welcomed our new rector Ben Brady earlier on in the year and were happy to have him come to one of our meetings so that he could get a grasp of the ministry.

Safeguarding continues to be a priority and all the team are fully up to date with the necessary courses. The Pastoral Care Team is just part of the overall pastoral work in our churches. We recognise that the whole church shares in this important work. Our Cake and Company ministry has continued to offer a warm space with friendship. We have regularly had new people coming and the local area Coordinator (who works for the Council) supports us and often sends people our way. The Telephone Prayer Chain operated as usual, providing a means of urgent prayer and contact when needed. We are always amazed and thankful for all the pastoral care that happens in our churches.

d) Mission and Outreach

Much of the ministry of All Saints and St Andrew’s centres around the Tots, Children and Youth Work, Cake and Company, Young Adults, and the developing Eco Group. We have a very large fringe at All Saints and St Andrew’s.

Apart from these areas we have had a number of other community related events this year.

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 4 of 15

Songs of Praise – Sunday 19[th] October in the afternoon we held an invitational Songs of Praise at All Saints Church. This attracted both regular church family and guests. We served cream teas and people attending were invited to vote for their favourite hymn to sing.

Carol Service for York Against Cancer – We again had the service in All Saints on Saturday 6[th] December in the afternoon, this time with a choir from the Levison Centre – all of whom have had their lives impacted by cancer. This was well attended and provided an excellent opportunity to share some of the good news of Christmas with families and folk who have been bereaved or in other ways affected by cancer.

Carol Singing – A group of us went Carol Singing on two evenings – firstly at New Lodge, New Earswick and the Hogshead pub. Secondly at the Blacksmiths Arms, around a small part of Huntington then finishing at the Working Mens Club.

Darley Funeral Directors Carol Service – We held a carol service in All Saints which was hosted by Darley Funeral Directors and ourselves, specifically for the bereaved. Again, this was well attended. Alpha – was advertised during the Christmas season to begin in January 2026. We have five guests.

e) Weddings, Baptisms and Funerals

During 2025 there were two weddings, ten baptisms and twenty six funerals across both Churches.

f) Deanery Synod

The York Deanery Synod met only twice in 2025-26 – the third session was cancelled due the lack of available host churches large enough to accommodate all elected & clergy representatives from each church due to the very large number of churches in York Deanery.

The first York Deanery synod meeting took place on Wednesday 11th June 2025. The routine business of the meeting was undertaken and then the Racial Justice Education Advisor spoke about the importance of awareness of inequality in the church community. The second meeting took place on Thursday October 9th 2025. The routine business of the meeting was undertaken and then the new Bishop of Selby, Fiona Winfield spoke about the work and importance of church wardens in their parishes and to encourage them in their elected roles.

g) Building & Fabric

During 2025 the Building and Fabric Working Group have, with the assistance of the Church Wardens and others, continued to maintain and improve both our Church buildings, and the grounds. In accordance with the ‘Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure’ the wardens have maintained up to date Logbooks and checked the Terrier and Inventory records for each church building.

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 5 of 15

At St Andrews the early part of the year was spent working to complete the refurbishment of the south aisle with new floor coverings, cushioned storage benches above the heaters and oak panelling around the entrance door. A sump pump was fitted in the new undercroft to combat frequent issues of standing water and flooding, this appears to be working well. The badly leaking guttering on the east elevation along Huntington Road was replaced and at the same time the walls beneath were repointed with lime plaster as directed by the architect in the last Quinquennial report. Other smaller tasks of maintenance and repair were undertaken by working parties at different points throughout the year. This included landscape gardening to the north of the building alongside the Sleeper Track following a generous donation of plants. Some major tree work was also carried out in this area by Joseph Rowntree Trust. Later in the year we had the sections of oak floorboarding in the worship space refurbished. This involved sanding and applying protective lacquer which will maintain the floor for the multiple varied activities that take place in this space whilst also being easier to keep clean and looking much brighter. Thanks are due to the many who have contributed in so many ways by providing their labour, applying for grants, making financial contributions or providing encouragement.

At All Saints repair work was carried out on the north side of the roof, where the chancel meets the nave and water was leaking into the Mackay room. Constructive meetings were held with representatives from the local parish council who have responsibility for the upkeep of the churchyard. This led to a grant to renew the churchyard compost bays and for replacing a rotten bench. This work will much improve the churchyard and be of benefit to the local community. We are pleased to report that the church is now equipped with Wi-Fi which is a great step forwards and will be used regularly for worship and meetings. Keith continues to put in an enormous amount of work to procure quotes and technical drawings which are required for the faculty application for the new vestry screens. This work is ongoing with the intention of being able to securely open the church to the public for more hours in future.

The Church Wardens have worked alongside the parish Health & Safety Officer to carry out regular safety inspections at both church buildings any actions arising are dealt with as soon as practically possible.

Work will continue next year to maintain and improve both our church buildings, including work to clean and repair the organ at All Saints and ongoing research into the possible installation of solar panels at St Andrews.

h) Ecological Issues

Green group continued to maintain their focus on caring for the environment, mindful of the Church of England’s 5[th] Mark of Mission. “Treasure: To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

We held our extremely successful Snowdrop festival again in February over a weekend. There were 300 visitors including families. As well as the snowdrops there were a range of outdoor and indoor activities, including crafts and a treasure hunt. Visitors were welcomed into All Saints

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 6 of 15

where refreshments were served. Local organisations attended including St Nick’s, River Foss Society and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Donations received went to the church and to the group to use for ongoing projects. This year we have been able to use the money raised to purchase 4 bird and 2 bat boxes for All Saints churchyard.

We have continued our work to improve both churchyards for wildlife, including working with the Tansy Beetle Project to establish our own Tansy patch into which we hope to introduce a Tansy Beetle population. Following a site meeting with the local parish councils who are responsible for looking after All Saints churchyard we have been able to obtain grants to repair the compost bays and install a bench in a quieter part of the churchyard for reflection. Green group members are involved in establishing the new garden at St Andrews and we were delighted to welcome a donation of plants from the York Foodbank Trust from their garden at the Yorkshire show.

In addition to this at our meetings we worked on ensuring that All Saints and St Andrews maintains its Silver Eco-church award status. We organised a special service to mark Eco-Sunday in September, we arranged and conducted a nature count at St Andrews in the summer, and group members also conducted fungus and moth counts at other times of the year. We provided support to Building and Fabric to ensure building related repair and maintenance tasks are done with consideration for creation wherever possible.

Finance Review

2025 Results (Current year, Accrual Accounts)

The total receipts for the parish unrestricted/day to day designated funds were £258,186 an increase of £15,101 on 2024. This result was supported by a good response to our Prayer and Gift week, a higher than expected gift aid claim, increases in giving and a grant towards our fuel costs. Our Regular (planned) Giving increased by some £10,170, or 6.9% to £156,965. This is the third year of increases above 5% and moves us closer to our ‘catch up’ objective. A summary of our other main contributions includes: ‘Prayer and Gift Week’ £19,584, Gift Aid, from 2024, £38,870 and hall rentals £19,325. In other areas income has remained encouraging with grants being received to support several of our specific projects. These totalled £24,870 and included funding from the Diocese for the upkeep of St Andrew’s and All Saints graveyard and roof, support from our Ward committee for providing ‘Warm Spaces’ / community events and reclaimed VAT for repairs at All Saints.

About £237,011 was spent on general running costs and providing the Christian ministry by the parish, £5,443 higher than 2024. We also contributed around £19,000 from our other funds to support our day-to-day mission. Our Freewill Giving, to the Diocese, of £135,924 remains our largest expenditure, which includes stipends, housing for the clergy, clergy training and a contribution to the cost of running the Diocese. This was increased in 2025 and broadly matches the target set by the Diocese to ‘cover our costs’. In other areas our staff costs continue to increase

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 7 of 15

in line with inflation as they are linked to the ‘The Real Living Wage’, our fuel and other utility costs were lower than expected at £10,300 which is around £2,600 less than 2024.

Donations made by the PCC during the year, included the tithes on 2024 Gift Day and 2023 planned giving (totalling £16,054), which were made to the International Justice Mission (IJM), Christian Mission Society (CMS), Reflect (York), York Schools & Youth Trust (YoYo), Family Matters (York), Tearfund, Foodbank (York) Open Doors, Restore (York) and One Voice (York). We made one off donations to the British Legion Poppy Appeal (Remembrance Day) and the Children’s Society (from the Christingles).

The overall result for the year in unrestricted/designated funds was beneficial with receipts exceeding expenditure by some £17,877, which is only £3,860 less than the total support we provided. This represents wonderful progress towards our objective of balancing our books for day-to-day mission on an annual basis. Given this encouraging conclusion we were able to return £18,240 to our Outreach and Mission fund which continues to support our day-to-day mission.

In summary we have had an encouraging year when compared to our annual budget and single year financial targets and we give thanks for this. However, we expect our 2026 budget to require some £14,000 of support from our Outreach and Mission fund and continued growth in our regular giving to achieve a balanced result over the year.

The value of our restricted funds has increased by some £11,676. This reflects the funding we have received in grants and specific donations over the year for our projects including the continuing refurbishments of St Andrew’s and the Vestry project at All Saints. That said a considerable amount of work has been completed during the year (circa £41,000) with the largest spend being our St Andrew’s extension outreach project. Plans are in place to complete this work and continue to expend the remaining funding.

Other Items. Our Gift Aid accrual for 2025 giving is set at £43,000 of which £39,000 is allocated to our General fund and £4,000 to other restricted funds. During the year Scottish Widows closed our savings account which released some £70,000. This has now been re-invested with Cambridge and Counties bank in a one-year fixed interest bond, to reflect the access constraint this is now shown as an investment in the accounts.

The overall financial situation is set out in the Receipts and Payments and Balance Sheet (Church of England format) reports below and further detail is available on request.

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 8 of 15

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 9 of 15

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 10 of 15

Funds

The PCC use several funds. The general (unrestricted) account covers the day to day running costs of the church; this is supported by designated funds for specific PCC activities. There are also restricted funds which are only used for the purpose for which they were established. Funds are held in three bank accounts: one current, one immediate access saving account and one higher interest savings account. The small Charity Fund holds money on behalf of the John Hodgson & Mary Ann Gibson charities and is controlled by its own trustees. The detail of our funds and holding accounts is set out in our ‘Financial Policy’ which is available from the Parish Office.

Reserves

Our reserves policy is reviewed annually as part of the budget setting activity. The overall principles of our approach are that reserves will only be held for specific reasons which include a graded range of cover for our running costs (3 to 6 months), an allowance for unplanned maintenance work and mitigation for our forecast budget deficit. Our current reserves requirement is set at £96,000 built up as follows.

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 11 of 15

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 12 of 15

Safeguarding Review

We continue to be vigilant regarding our own local safeguarding practices, following the guidance in the Church of England document “Promoting a Safer Church.” The York diocese continues to be our support in this and are available for advice whenever we need it.

The safeguarding officer continues into the second year, and the deputy and two clergy, including our new rector, make up the team who deal with safeguarding issues as they arise. Appropriate DBS records and training (constantly a work in progress!) are kept up to date and safer recruitment practices are in place.

The transfer to ChurchSuite means that this information will eventually be digitally kept and used to flag up renewals of training or DBS requirements. This is a work in progress as this report is written.

We now have another recruiter for DBS checks – making 3 in all.

Every two months the PCC receives a report on safeguarding. The PSO and the Rector meet prior to the PCC to discuss any issues. The report to the PCC is based on the Safeguarding Dashboard which highlights questions that need to be reconsidered after a given period of time. This ensures that nothing is missed with regard to safeguarding across the life of the church. It is a necessary, relentless cycle.

It is pleasing to report how amenable most people have been to doing the training asked of them, especially with the addition of the module “Raising the awareness of domestic abuse” which has been added to the training for those working with children and vulnerable adults.

We continue to display appropriate information about safeguarding around our buildings and on our website.

This year we had a “Safeguarding Sunday” slot in November where all the congregations were reminded of our culture where everyone is involved in recognising and reporting safeguarding issues.

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 13 of 15

Structure, Governance and Management

Our PCC is appointed in accordance with the Church Representation Rules. Our PCC consists of the incumbent (the Rector), Associate Minister, Churchwardens, Reader and members elected by our congregation, who are on the Electoral Roll of the church. All those who attend our services are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll to support and/or stand for election to the PCC.

The PCC members, as trustees of the charity, are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to our parish including deciding on how the funds of the PCC are to be spent and the appointment and care of our staff and volunteers. Members receive initial briefing and an annual training on the workings and responsibilities of the PCC. PCC members normally serve for three years with a limit of 6 years in any one period of service.

The full PCC met six times during the year with a quorate attendance on each occasion. Given the wide responsibilities the PCC interacts with groups who provide mission activities, provide for maintenance of our buildings and undertake administrative assistance to our mission. All these sections of our mission and support work report at least annually to PCC covering their activities, engagement with volunteers and plans for the following year(s).

Risks and Issues

Our PCC and Activity groups maintain a series of Risk logs that match our activities. Each element is reviewed annually and reported to the main PCC. Mitigations include the use of recognised Church of England policies and practices for addressing risks around Safeguarding, Child Protection, Data Protection, use of Charity Commission guidance on the control of our finances and a structured set of inspections for our buildings. Where necessary we have documented our own specific policies for the application of more general guidance, and these are reviewed annually. Activity based risk assessments are produced for both regular and occasional events for which the PCC are responsible.

No major new risks have been reported to the PCC over the year and the PCC remain vigilant in the areas of Safeguarding, Health and Safety reporting and care of Volunteers and Staff through regular reporting and agenda items.

Administrative information

All Saints Church is situated in Church Lane and St Andrew's Church on Huntington Road in the Huntington suburb of York. The parish is part of the Diocese of York within the Church of England. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) is a charity registered under the name: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Huntington, Earswick & New Earswick. The Charity Number

is: 1130268.

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268 Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 14 of 15

Administrative information

The following PCC members have served between 1 January and 31 December 2025:

Rector The Rev’d. Ben Brady (from February 2025) Associate Minister The Rev’d. Chris Park ( Co-chair/PCC Secretary) Deacon The Rev’d. Judith Lindsey Wardens: All Saints Mr John Farrall, Mrs Juliet Wright (until April 2025) Wardens: St Andrew’s Mrs Elizabeth Barker

Elected Representatives to the Deanery Synod

Mrs Pamela Baylis Mr John Farrall

Elected Members

Mr Alan Adamson Mrs Alison Hodgson Mr Peter Aspin (until Apr 2025) Mrs Carol Gosling Mr Chris Clarke Mr Steve Gosling Mr David Chettle Mr Ian Richardson Mr Andrew Coombes (Treasurer/Lay Prof Paul Tiffin (until July 2025) Vice-Chair) Mr Ben Griffiths (until Apr 2025) Mrs Elaine Harvie

Co-opted members

Miss Aimee Crossland - Youth & Children’s Leader

Mr Keith Blanshard - Assistant Warden, Buildings (from April 2025)

Ex-Officio Members – Nil

Approval

Our report was approved by the PCC on 23 March 2026, and signed on their behalf by the Reverend Ben Brady (PCC Chair).

Rev’d. Ben Brady, Rector

The Parochial Church Council of Huntington, York Charity Number 1130268

Trustees' Annual Charity Report 2025 Page 15 of 15