2024-01-31-accounts - The Church In Great Notley

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

AGM REPORTS 28TH APRIL 2024

MINISTRY TEAM REPORT

What a year! 2023 marked the 25[th] anniversary of The Church in Great Notley. We began the year with a joyful silver jubilee service, with lots of friends and faces from CIGN past and present in attendance. It was a fantastic opportunity to thank people for their contribution in the life and witness of the church. Later on in the year, we welcomed back Rev’d Jacqui King and Rev’d Olivia Maxfield-Coote to lead and preach, and it was a joy to see them again.

This year we were encouraged to see a number of people take significant steps of faith and belonging. We were delighted to host a confirmation service in April, in which Stephen, Cathy, Holly and Sarah were confirmed. Later, in August, Tom and Leah were baptised. Lucie, Pauline and Helen together with Sarah, Tom, Holly, Cathy and Stephen were all admitted to Church Membership. The ministry team has also changed shape: in September, Nikki was ordained deacon and began her curacy working across the Three Churches as well as continuing her work in school, and in November Roman was licensed as an Associate Priest to the benefice.

Variety Concert Update

Preparations for our musical variety concert, due to take place on Saturday 20th of April, are underway and we have a promising uptake on the numbers of performers intending to come along. We would love for there to be a full house in the audience to come and support this concert so please continue to spread the word and there is still space for volunteers to help things run smoothly on the day. Blessings to all!

Alex Lawrence Music Co-ordinator

It has been very encouraging to welcome new folk to CIGN. One particular answer to prayer came in the summer with Alex’s arrival that ushered in a new music group. It has been uplifting and refreshing to have live singers and musicians again, and we’d like to thank all who are involved in leading us in worship. Also this year, Lisa Gregson began work in September as our Benefice Administrator based in the office at The Church in Great Notley. Her work has alleviated a significant amount of administration from the ministry team, which means they have more time for encouraging ministry and mission – e.g. dreaming and scheming! It has also been great for the office to be used so well, and provides a welcome point when people enter the Church. 2023 has also seen a growth in outreach in our local community, with the re-establishment of links with Notley Green school and regular Holy Communion services at Longmead nursing home on London Road – particular thanks to June and Wendy and to Fr Neil Tozer for their ministry here.

the church vision to show the love of Jesus in word and action so that others may come to know him as Lord and Saviour. The group is staffed by over ten members of the congregation and typically rehearses on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of its members.

One core aim of the group is to expand the repertoire of hymns and songs used in our services which has been aided by the acquirement of the full selection of mission praise hymn books. There has been positive feedback thus far about the contribution that having live music has made during services. This has seen a reduction in the necessity for the use of audio tracks which were used in the interim period between the music groups previous and current format.

Many exciting developments have come about in recent months. The remainder of 2024 is a blank canvas to create and try out some new ideas, dust off some old favourites, continue to improve our experience in church and engage with members of our local community. The music group will participate in this by:

There have been many more joys! This year has also marked the introduction of the Benefice 5[th] Sunday services. It has been good to host and to travel around the Benefice, and worship with our brothers and sisters together. Thanks to all who have supported this initiative. In December, we introduced the Posada – a knitted Mary and Joseph - who travelled around Great Notley visiting schools, homes, the nursery and of course our fantastic Christmas Tree festival! Thanks to all who made that a success – and of course to Suzanne for co-ordinating it and bringing the community together.

This year we’ve needed to do a big push to get our finances on more of an even keel. We are deeply grateful to all who give to this church in various ways – and particularly to those who have increased their financial offerings this year. It has been a big source of encouragement. Thanks are particularly due to Lisa for her hard and diligent work as Treasurer and to Cath for patiently co-ordinating hiring arrangements which is our main source of income.

1. Development of the group:

Seeking more musicians and singers to join and lead us in worship
Increasing the diversity between traditional hymns and modern worship songs
Introducing these songs during the opening of services
Evenings of Prayer – Time to gather together in prayer and song

As we look to the future, we will be looking at doing some re-visioning: how is God calling us to serve our community and grow in faith for the next 25 years – and beyond? We will be embarking on a season of waiting, listening and hearing to find out what God is preparing for us to do in Great Notley. So, we will be praying and discerning as a whole church throughout the summer to help us develop some priorities for mission and evangelism.

2. Introducing more Concerts throughout the year:

Variety Concerts – An invitation to all in our community to enjoy and celebrate musical offerings
Evening Concerts – Themed concerts with additional activities such as quizzes and food.

We welcome all feedback, suggestions, and ideas as to what we can do with music in our church. If you or anyone you know would like to get involved in our mission in any capacity, please let us know. Specifically, we would like to hear about songs or hymns people would like to hear that maybe we have not done yet or haven’t done in a while.

One hope is to increase opportunities to deepen faith. We are excited to provide opportunities for faith to grow in young people with Wiggle Church for under 7s starting in April, as well as building on our links with Notley Green school through chaplaincy, cake ministry, and being school governors. We also hope to run groups for youth and adults to grow in confidence and trust in God.

On behalf of all the ministers, I would like to extend huge thanks to all who work so hard at The Church in Great Notley, particularly members of the Church Council.

We worship a God who is able to do more than we can ask or imagine, so once again, we place ourselves and our church into God’s hands, looking forward to the future with hope and expectancy.

Rachel - on behalf of David, Roman, and Nikki

BENEFICE ADMINISTRATOR

I started the role of Benefice Administrator on 7[th] September 2023. The following is a summary of the main activities and role as it has developed:

Life Events: I initially worked with Reverend Rachel to understand the process and procedure for all these life events and then documented this for me to be able to follow.

Baptisms : This includes initial emails, dealing with forms, Trello updates, calendar details, follow up emails, keeping a record of baptisms.

Weddings : This includes dealing with initial enquiries, dealing with forms, updating Trello, updating calendars, linking in with officiant and verger, invoicing, keeping a record of weddings and other elements as needed.

Funerals and Interments of ashes : This includes initial emails/calls from funeral directors, dealing with forms, booking in with officiant, linking in with verger, Trello updates, invoicing, and other elements as needed. Dealing with CR1 forms. Interment process specific to Church (St Peter & St Paul bricks and All Saints plaques). Keeping an overall record of funerals, interments.

Website: Initially I undertook a general review and updating of contacts across the site/different churches. Regular tasks have developed including, Foodbank information, what’s on posters, other posters, Rayne in Focus, What’s ahead Rayne, Black Notley Pew sheets

Invoicing: Developed pro-forma invoice records to use for weddings, funerals, interments, room hiring (not at Great Notley) and other as needed. (Thanks to Charlotte at Rayne). Have continued with this and send invoice/donation records to treasurers. Charging amounts recently reviewed and will put together summary of charges across the Benefice to use.

members and administrator posts.

We are due to review the Model Parish Checklist to ensure that we are compliant and also progressing with Safer Recruitment in all paid and volunteer roles.

Overall training is up to date. Five volunteers have completed Safeguarding training: Basic Awareness and Foundation. One volunteer has completed Leadership (compressed).

DBS is carried out to comply with the new National Safeguarding Standards, which includes a new Confidential Declaration Form. Three new DBS checks have been carried out during 2023.

Judy Spearman Safeguarding Officer

SNACKANORY

Our ever popular preschool group is still a wonderful group to run. We have at least one new parent every week. We have seen one member now regularly attending our Sunday services with their children and one member having their child baptised.

We currently have 210 members on our Facebook group with weekly attendance being between eighteen and twentyfive.

Suzanne Gillingham Children and Families Worker

SOLO PARENTS

Solo Parents continues to meet once a month, however we are looking at changing the time due to parents work commitments. We currently have seven members on our WhatsApp group .

Suzanne Gillingham

WORSHIP MUSIC TEAM

Development of the worship music team began in June 2023 with the primary aim of assisting the ministers in sharing the musical

responsibilities of leading the congregation in worship and promoting

confidentiality are respected. Rosemary Freeman receives prayer requests by ‘phone, email or in person. They are then circulated to those on the prayer chain list. The support that we can give each other in this way is invaluable.

Rosemary Freeman

PURELY PRAYER

In 2022, Rosemary Freeman and June Frisbee started a prayer group called Purely Prayer which met once a month to pray for our church and other prayer needs known to us. As this prayer group wasn’t attended by anyone other than Rosemary and June it was decided to disband it in 2023.

Rosemary Freeman

SAFEGUARDING

The Church in Great Notley is committed to the Chelmsford Diocesan Safeguarding Policy. The Annual Review for this policy was carried out at the Church Council meeting in January 2023. It was agreed and then signed by Rev’d Rachel and two Council members. The Policy for 2024 is due to be reviewed at the next Council meeting.

During 2023 work has continued to ensure that our church is compliant with Safeguarding, using E-manual and any changes to documents. Safeguarding Posters – Safeguarding Policy, Promoting a Safer Church has been agreed, signed and displayed on the notice board, together with the Safeguarding Poster.

Work continues to ensure the benefice as a whole is compliant with The Church of England Practice Guidance for Safer Recruitment, which applies to all paid and volunteer posts. There is a Recruitment Pack available containing all the paperwork required for recruitment of paid and volunteer posts. This has been updated recently, with current documents and is available on request.

Model Volunteer Job Roles have been written for Working with Children and Adults plus Safeguarding Officers, Church Wardens, PCC and CC

Rota: Co-ordinated with Rachel and updated Rota.

General: Book in requests for bellringing. Various emails dealt with day -to-day.

Church specific

Great Notley : CiGN newsletter distribution to cover holiday, notice boards, leaflets,

All Saints : Rayne in Focus and What’s Ahead updated on the website as needed. Printed out Churchyard Guidance.

St Peter & St Paul : Pew sheets printed weekly. Link in with and book in the payback team. Printed out Churchyard Guidance. Memorial wall record updating.

Printing – posters, baptism cards, churchyard leaflets, pew sheets and other leaflets as needed,

Foodbank: Print off any leaflets, update website and update Great Notley and St Peter & St Paul Facebook.

Calendar: I have created Google calendars for St Peter & St Paul, FSR (Black Notley Church Hall) and the Old School Room (Rayne). There was already one for All Saints. Unfortunately I have been unable to set them up to enable others to edit etc. This means I have to do the inputting which is not onerous but just inconvenient for others. I will continue to look to resolve this issue but hopefully in the meantime we can make it work.

Other: Wedding Information morning – helped develop paperwork, booklet, programme, invites and attended on day.

In addition to continuing with this work as it comes up, upcoming work will include the following:

Get the community bookshelf at Great Notley started and continue to manage.
Finish the procedure for hiring of FSR (Black Notley Church Hall).
Pull together excel wedding schedule to hopefully help with all the different aspects and roles to help with the process.
Continue to review website and information on the website, e.g. FAQs, other information sheets, forms for use.
Input more information to BN Parish magazine.

I very much enjoy the role and have been very grateful for the warm welcome and all the help I have received from people across the Three Churches.

Lisa Gregson,

Benefice Administrator

BIBLE STUDY GROUP

We are a very informal group who just want to explore the Bible in a friendly and relaxed way.

We meet at the church on the 1st and 3rd Friday afternoons at 2.30pm. Recently we have been looking at the book of Amos, and the beginning of the Gospel of John. Our future study in April will be the Book of Daniel.

All are welcome to join us at any time.

Maggie Ouwehand

directory for the whole congregation.

Denominational statistics and annual returns have been completed.

June Frisbee Membership Secretary

PASTORAL

We continue to welcome new people to Sunday services. A lot of the work of the Pastoral Team goes on behind the scenes. We do try to keep in touch with as many people as possible, especially those we have not seen in church for a while. We do not always get a response to our communication. We also try to keep track of people when they move so that we can keep our Pastoral List up to date. The Family Photo Album continues to be updated as much as possible. This is of course all done in line with the rules regarding date protection and with the permission of each individual.

CAFÉ & CHAT

We continue to meet every 1st Thursday of every month and in the winter months, October-March, also the 3rd Thursday for hot soup and homemade cakes.

We have a great team of volunteers Betty, Daphne, Jan, Jacquie, Lucie, Paul Freeman, Sandra Thomas and Stephane. They all make wonderful cakes as well as helping with setting up the tables and chairs, making tea/coffee and of course the washing up.

Unfortunately we have lost a great volunteer in Carol Shilling who sadly died very recently after a short illness. She had been a wonderful helper since the early years of Friendship Club and now Café & Chat. We give thanks to God for how blessed we have been over so many years to have enjoyed her company and commitment to Friendship Club/Cafe & Chat and in several other capacities at CiGN.

Our thirteen guests enjoy the chatter, quizzes and more importantly the cakes. They mostly come to every session unless unwell.

Jacquie Franchette continues to help us although she has left our church membership, she still does all the wonderful quizzes each month, which

Several people have had health issues, including falls and surgeries, during the year and there have been some close family deaths. Many have been prayed for on the Prayer Chain e-mail. Do speak to Rosemary Freeman if you would like to be included in this. We have been pleased to help out with transport for hospital appointments for one of our members.

The planned monthly visits to Longmead Nursing Home continue to take place although we were sad not to be able to visit at Christmas, due to illness at the home. At the request of one of the families we have been including communion in the short services. It is lovely to be able to include staff members in this act of worship, which they much appreciate.

June Frisbee Pastoral Co-ordinator

PRAYER CHAIN

The Prayer Chain consists of people from our congregation who have committed to pray (currently twentyfive) and any issues of

JUNIOR CHURCH

After a short break from sessions (Sept-Dec 23), we have returned with one session a month, and are hoping to increase this to two very soon. We have had two new children attending with each session having around five in attendance. We currently have twenty-two children on our WhatsApp group.

Suzanne Gillingham Children and Families Worker

LADIES OASIS

Our lovely ladies group continues to run once a month with five new members joining us. Three of those have also been attending our Sunday service too. Currently we have seventeen members on our WhatsApp group. Usual attendance is around ten people.

Suzanne Gillingham

LEGO CLUB

Our new Lego Club got off to a wonderful start with the first few sessions having thirty-three children in attendance. Numbers dropped slightly over the first month. We now have around fifteen attending regularly. Many of these new faces are attending our other activities too. This last term we have been working on building a Lego version of Noah's Ark.

Suzanne Gillingham Children and Families Worker

MEMBERSHIP

Membership stands at fifty four. We were pleased to welcome eight people into membership, including one adult transfer and two transfers from our Junior Membership. We were sad to loose one member who felt it was time to find a church community nearer to their home.

An updated Members Directory for 2024 was circulated electronically with paper copies available for those who required them. After further discussion at a Congregational Meeting it was decided not to pursue a

all the guests enjoy.

Going forward for 2024, we will continue to meet only on 1st Thursday of every month and in the winter months also, as we feel we haven’t got enough volunteers to keep the second session going.

Wendy Potter

CATERING

Our twice weekly coffee mornings are still well attended by the walking groups and some Church members.

Refreshments are served throughout the year for various occasions such as Messy Church, summer activities and of course the Christmas Tree Festival. It’s good to meet members of Great Notley Village on these special days.

My thanks go to Betty, Judith, Gina and Marie who are part of the team. My thanks also go to Lucie for setting up on a Tuesday morning for me.

Sandra Higby

CARE OF THE BUILDING

General maintenance of our Church building continues by both myself and my very good friend Ron. Things that have had attention include repair of toilet seats, lights and fittings, plumbing and the silly things that happen regularly throughout the year.

We now have most of our contractual servicing done by just one company which included a new entry panel for the intruder alarm system.

The cladding along the front of the Church is now beyond repair and therefore quotes have been obtained with view to replacement. A major inspection of all electrical circuitry within the Church has been carried out by Laser Electrical, the company that did the work when the Church was built. We await the results along with any costs before we can receive a Certificate of Safety.

As I do each year, I give thanks to both Ron and Marie for their continued nurture, time and dedication shown in the upkeep of all the Church gardens.

Mike Higby

COMMUNITY EVENTS

October half term saw another busy Pumpkin Trail and All Hallows event, serving around 120 parents and children in our community. The Christmas Tree Festival was another success and it was lovely to see so many people coming along to our craft fair and voting for their favourite trees.

Easter this year was slightly different. We decided to try something new. Alongside our Easter Messy Church we had a reflective space where you could experience Easter with your senses. It was lovely to walk the children and parents around and explain each station. We had around thirty children attend this event.

Suzanne Gillingham Children and Families Worker

FOURTH FRIDAY

Our 4th Friday is fairly well attended. We have around twenty children on our list with around ten in attendance over the last few sessions. We have purchased a badminton set which has been very popular and the children really enjoy the food activity we do at each session.

Suzanne Gillingham Children and Families Worker

CiGN FOODBANK DISTRIBUTION CENTRE

1st March 2023 - 29th February 2024

TOTAL Braintree Area

CRAFTY CUPPA

We continue to meet every Thursday in the vestibule, bringing our own crafts to do. We now have eleven crafters who come most weeks, it’s lovely now that some of our neighbours are joining us and we hope more will in the future.

Amanda Miller made us all lovely mugs with Crafty Cuppa sublimation on. We continue to buy the coffee, tea and biscuits which we all give a donation to each week which goes in the pot.

Every so often we do a lunch of jacket potatoes, cheese, tuna and salad with juice and dessert. Last Christmas (2023) we all went out to celebrate and had a lovely Christmas meal together.

We took part in The Christmas Tree Festival with our own tree, dressed in lots of different crafts that we all do. We are now planning our tree for 2024.

Wendy Potter

DATA PROTECTION

I have recently taken on the role of Data Protection Co-ordinator. We are undertaking a Data Audit Questionnaire in order to identify which data is held, by whom and how it is stored. The results will be used to produce a Data Map to review the scope, security and amount of data

Total vouchers issued - 4901 up 1645 from last year Adults - 7476 up 2674 from last year Children - 5089 up 1030 from last year

Great Notley Distribution Centre

Vouchers issued - 248 up 25 from last year Adults - 359 up 33 from last year Children - 371 up 15 from last year

We continue to be the quietest Distribution Centre in the Braintree Area, having provided 3 meals per day for 3 days for 730 people, plus a couple of bags full of extras per voucher. We had also been giving Tesco gift cards to the value of £10. This has now been discontinued.

We have had five new volunteers join our group, and therefore have no staffing issues at present. A new centre has recently opened in Braintree town centre, and initially will be open on Saturdays.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who support us in prayer and donations, and for our dedicated team of volunteers.

Maggie Ouwehand Foodbank Manager

we hold.

We must be able to demonstrate that we take the security of personal data seriously and also comply with The Data Protection Act 2018 and Safeguarding Legislation. The processes used must be clear and practical whilst complying with legislation.

A Data Protection Policy and some supporting documents have been produced and are available in a folder in the Church Office. This work is ongoing.

I am grateful for all the help, support and advice I have received.

Pauline Banks

FINANCIAL REPORT

Despite the accounts showing a £2,973 deficit, we have had a much better year financially. Our hiring bought in just shy of £21,000. Catering income also increased to £2,217.

The deficit is linked to the Children’s and Families’ worker salary. The majority of the funding for this was received in the previous financial year, 2022/23.

Last year, due to an increase in one off offering, I predicted that our offerings would drop back to £12,000-£14,000 next year. I am pleased to say and extremely grateful to all who give that we received circa £15,500.

We successfully obtained a top up grant from the URC of £4,000, which was used to increase the Children’s and Families’ worker hours and basic pay.

Our gas and electricity costs have remained significantly high, increasing by approx. 70%, however we were fortunate to obtain grants in 2023/24. In August, we upgraded our intruder alarm system which cost £600 and funding for this was taken from the MCA (Building) account.

The volunteer cleaning team continue to provide a weekly cleaning service of the worship area. A big thank you to all involved. If anyone would like to be added to the rota please let me know.

The old assets on our previous balance sheets were written off this year. They were not really fixed assets and depreciation had never been applied, so a total of £2,697.39 was written off in the financial year 2023/24.

The overall cash position for year ending 2023/24
	£
The year end bank balances are	52,363
Of this the amount set aside for the fabric of
the church is	19,934
Leaving	32,429
However, this includes the Howard bequest balance £754
This leaves cash for general purposes of approximately£31,675
The Independent Examiner is happy with the underlying books and
records and how they are maintained. I have transferred our records
over to a new finance system, which is purpose built for charities.

Next financial year

Salary costs

The URC have considered our funding for 2024/25 and 2025/26. They agreed to provide circa £11,000 towards the funding for 2024/25, meaning we need to cover around £2,000. They will also consider some funding for 2025/26 but the majority of that year’s funding will need to be sought by grants from our other denominations or private grants.  Building maintenance

In the next financial year we will need to spend some monies from the reserve account to address the overdue maintenance of the church. The facias around the church and the window arches needs replacing at a cost of £3,960. By replacing these with UPVC facias we negate the need of future maintenance.

The windows for the office and junior church room also need replacing. I suggest they are replaced by UPVC windows at a cost of £1,616.40. This will again negate the need for any future maintenance.

Lisa Scott

Treasurer

Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of the Church in Great Notley

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Church in Great Notley (the Church) for the year ended 31 January 2024. The accounts are those presented in the Annual Report dated28 April 2024.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As members of the Church Council 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 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

accounting records were not kept in respect of the Church as required by section 130 of the Act.
the accounts do not accord with those records; or
the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

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.

Signed: Name: Sarah Prior ACA Address: Pearcroft Aldecar Lane Saxmundham IP17 1HN Date: 7 October 2024

Comments on my review

The underlying accounting records are comprehensive and easy to follow. All payments and receipts are fully recorded and properly authorised. The treasurer keeps the church well and regularly updated on all key financial matters.

Whilst the church had made a deficit in the year, this is primarily reflective of the timing of receipt of the grant to cover the youth worker costs. This should not reoccur in 2025 but thereafter the church will have to cover a greater share of these costs. Beyond this the church has had improving finances over the course of the year with increased income. It has though had to bear increased costs, notably energy costs. Overall, however, this is a brightening picture.

The SAGE accounting system is not well suited to cash accounting and continues to cause difficulties in preparing the final accounts. The issues thrown up have been sorted out to get the records ready for transfer to a more suitable accounting system which will be in place for the 2025 year end.

I note that work is ongoing to ensure that all church groups, existing and new, that are run under the auspices and control of the church council are identified and included in the accounts where appropriate.