Trustee Report for Charities Commission 1/4/24-31/3/25
NB The audited accounts will be entered separately, in early Jan 26, by Armstrong Watson Accountants, Workington, Cumbria.
Our parish is part of a Deanery within the Ecumenical Patriarchate of The Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
We have been faithfully and regularly served by The Very Reverend Archimandrite Antonios Kakalis, following the death of our founder, Archpriest John Musther in February 2023. This is in a voluntary capacity, extra to his many other academic and ecclesiastical commitments.
We had a visit from our Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira & Gt Britain, and three visits from His Grace, Bishop Raphael of Ilion.
There has been no change of trustees during the above period.
Our multi-national parish membership continues to steadily rise, mainly with younger families and singles. There have been several Baptisms and Chrismations plus two weddings.
The trustees met three times, two being online meetings. This is additional to the Parish Advisory Council, and the Annual General meeting in September.
The parish church and its activities are maintained by our many volunteers, with no paid workers.
The major expense during this period was the urgently required rewiring and updating of our electricity system by Field View Electrical Ltd.
As well as our weekly Sunday Services, other events were a pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, and a Christmas Craft Fayre in aid of the homeless and disadvantaged.
Philip Lambert, one of our trustees, is an accredited member of the Religious Education Hub, which enables him to host interactive student sessions at the church. Feedback from local schools is very positive.
Our Subdeacon, Richard Downing, attends the Churches Together in Keswick group.
Due to our increasing numbers, we are planning a building project to enlarge the worship space. The building, a former Methodist Chapel, is within The Lake District National Park, and we own no surrounding land. Thus, the enlargement will be internal, involving less used spaces within the building.
Plans for this project are going well and several generous donations account for our increased income during this period. Andrew Sherwood, another of our trustees and a musician, together with pianist and soprano colleagues, performed a summer concert at our local Anglican parish church in support of the building project. This was all done on a voluntary basis. JJM 22/12/25