OpenCharities

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

← Parochial Church Council Of The Ecclesiastical Parish Of Warton

2024-12-31-accounts

The Parish of St Oswald, Warton and St Mary, Borwick

Annual Report and

Financial Statements

of the

Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Warton for the year ended

2

31 December 2024

Charity No. 1146393

Believing | Living | Sharing

This page intentionally left blank

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

3

The Parochial Church Council of St Oswald, Warton and St Mary, Borwick Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2024

Aim and Purposes

Warton Parochial Church Council (“the PCC”) has the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent in promoting across the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical.

Objectives and Activities

The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at our churches and to become part of our parish community. The PCC maintains an overview of worship throughout the parish and makes suggestions on how our services can involve the different groups that live within our parish. Our services and worship put faith into practice through prayer and scripture, music and sacrament.

When planning our activities for the year, we are mindful of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the supplementary guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. We try to enable people to live out their faith as part of our parish community through:

We seek to develop our life together as we affirm individual strengths; value diversity; nurture growth, vocations and leadership; work towards accessibility and respect and sustain our environment.

To facilitate this work, it is important that we maintain the fabric of St Oswald’s Church, Warton, the Church Hall at Warton, and St Mary’s Church, Borwick. St Mary’s has its own District Church Council (“the DCC”) with powers delegated from the PCC.

Achievements and Performance

The PCC is keen to offer a range of services during the week and over the course of the year that our community finds both beneficial and spiritually fulfilling. Our worship is centred on the Eucharist; our usual pattern of services includes Sunday and midweek Eucharists across the Benefice. We offer a range of environments from more formal, traditional and choral services to smaller and more intimate opportunities for prayer and worship.

On 21 January 2024, the Reverend Alice Ormondroyd was installed as minister of the Benefice by Bishop Philip North of the Diocese of Blackburn. The invaluable contributions of our Licensed Lay minister, Annette Mackensie, and visiting retired ministers during the interregnum were recognised. A reorganisation of the

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

4

Sunday service schedule occurred mid-year with Warton and Borwick (1st and 3rd weeks of month) Eucharists at 9.30am and the Yealand service moving to 11am. A monthly ‘Lighthouse’ service was introduced to Borwick on Sunday afternoons.

Details of activities and events follow in the individual reports.

Structure, Governance and Management

The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules and the legal Scheme which established St Mary’s as a District Church with a DCC.

The Warton PCC consists of the incumbent (the Vicar), the Parochial Churchwardens, the Deputy Churchwardens for St Mary’s, the Deanery Synod representatives, the Licensed Lay Ministers, 10 members elected by those members of the congregation who are on the St Oswald’s part of the electoral roll and 2 members elected by those members of the congregation who are on the St Mary’s part of the electoral roll. All those who attend our services are encouraged to register on the electoral roll and stand for election to the PCC and DCC as appropriate.

The PCC members are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to the parish including how the funds of the PCC are to be spent.

The full PCC met 5 times during the year with a chair chosen from the members. There were no separate Fabric and Finance committee meetings having been effectively subsumed into the full PCC. The committees are responsible to the PCC and report back to it, with minutes of their decisions being received by the full PCC and discussed as necessary. St Mary’s DCC met three times in addition to the Annual District Church Meeting and was chaired by either the incumbent or Joyce Tombs.

At the Annual Parochial Church Meeting 2024, held in May, there were 121 names on the church electoral roll: 108 in the St Oswald’s part and 13 names in the St Mary’s part.

Administrative information

St Oswald’s Church (the Parish Church) is situated in Main Street, Warton and St Mary’s Church, Borwick (a District Church/Chapel of Ease) is situated between the villages of Borwick and Priest Hutton. The churches are part of the United Benefice of Warton and Borwick with Yealand, in the Deanery of Tunstall, in the Diocese of Blackburn, within the Church of England.

The PCC is a body corporate (PCC Powers Measure 1956, Church Representation Rules 2020) and is registered with the Charity Commission (R.1146393).

PCC members are either ex-officio, elected by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (the APCM) holding office for three years, or co-opted by the PCC. Members of the Deanery Synod are ex-officio members of the PCC, holding office for three years; they are also elected by the APCM. All appointments and elections are done in accordance with the Church Representation Rules 2020.

PCC members who have served at any time from 1 January 2024 until the date this report was approved are:

Incumbent: Rev Alice Ormondroyd (appointed 21 January 2024)

Churchwarden: Dr Alison Semple (deceased 10 February 2024)

Deputy Churchwardens Mrs Jodie Kilty – Churchyard and Eco Church for St Oswald’s: (appointed 26 May 2024)

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

5

Mr Alan Bird – Church Fabric and Heritage Officer (appointed 15 June 2024) Licensed Lay Minister: Mrs Annette MacKenzie Deanery Synod Mrs Pamela De Feu (appointed during the vacancy in Representatives: 2023)

Elected Members: Dr Trevor Blease PCC Treasurer Miss Tracey Lawther Safeguarding Officer, Church Hall Mrs Marjorie Ashton Mr Nicholas C Vereker Mrs Sandra Parker Hospitality Mrs Pamela De Feu Children and Youth Mrs Christine Wellock Mrs Dorothy Pearce (Elected 11[th] November 2024)

Approved by the PCC on 6 May 2025 and signed on its behalf by

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

6

Reports from Church Officers, Committees and Organisations

Vicar’s Report

Mother Alice Ormondroyd

The first year in post as Vicar of the United Benefice has been busy and fruitful, but not without significant challenge. There are so many wonderful opportunities for mission in our communities, and the process of discerning what God is doing and joining in with the work of the Spirit has been a significant focus. Both St Oswald’s and St Mary’s are open every day and provide welcome and hospitality to both locals and those passing through. We continue to pray that our open buildings and the many opportunities for worship and other community meetings and events may become the gateway to faith in Jesus Christ. Central to the ministry and mission of our Church is the building of relationships with those within our congregations and in the wider community, a task that takes time. I am very grateful to those in the community who are working alongside me to develop a pattern of ministry that meets the needs of the community whilst being sustainable and life giving for our ministers and volunteers.

As an immediate focus the missional priorities ‘Joyful, Sustainable, and Safe’ were presented to St Oswald’s PCC and St Mary’s DCC in the Spring of 2024. A great deal of work has been done to look at all aspects of our worshipping life together to ensure that worship is joyful, accessible and inclusive, so that many people are given the opportunity to play their part in leading through reading, leading intercessions, offering music in worship, and most recently, serving as deacons at the Eucharist at St Oswald’s. At St Mary’s a new worshipping community has been established, ‘The Lighthouse’, with the aim of providing contemporary, relaxed worship and facilitating deeper engagement with the Scriptures and offering creative prayer for our world.

Sustainability of resource (financial, ministers, volunteers, and stewardship of our wider environment) has been another focus, and we continue to ask the questions: what is possible with the resource that we have? Where do we need to ask God to grow our resource? In addition to regular giving, we have undertaken fundraising activities and have already seen the fruits of such generosity with the new LED lighting installed at St Mary’s and a lighting scheme being developed at St Oswald’s especially to create brighter side aisles for those attending Eucharist’s in the Lady Chapel on Thursdays and Sundays. It has also been a great encouragement to our Parish that we were awarded a Diocesan Vision Fund Grant to enable some new technologies to be implemented in our churches to further widen access to worship (new audiovisual equipment at St Mary’s and the installation of wireless Broadband at St Oswald’s).

The volunteer team at both churches demonstrates great resilience, tenacity, wisdom and skill, but work continues to discern how we work as the Body of Christ together, each playing our respective roles in a way which feels positive, and manageable. It has been a particular encouragement this year to see Jodie Kilty and Alan Bird stepping into deputy churchwarden roles at St Oswald’s, bringing enormous enthusiasm and vision, and complementing the existing work of others on the PCC.

Jodie Kilty has led our Eco Church initiative at St Oswald’s, and brings challenge and sound theology to the urgent task of Christian discipleship as stewards of God’s creation. It has been wonderful to see her building relationships with so many in the wider community who are also passionate about sustainability and growing an Eco Group. Alan Bird is bringing together a passion for Heritage with practical wisdom about communicating our history, making signage in both the church and the churchyard at St Oswald’s to draw people into the story of our church and its place in the community, working closely with Sue Brown to do this. We look forward to planned community events specifically designed to celebrate our history and communicate our Eco Church vision in the coming months.

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

7

In the PCC at St Oswald’s, we are beginning to develop ‘link officer’ roles, giving individuals a particular area of church life to support and advocate for at the PCC. This, coupled with a more streamlined design for meetings with reports distributed in advance, is leading to more efficient and productive meetings. Antonia Allum has been instrumental in helping to shape this in her work serving the PCC.

At St Mary’s the members of the DCC work tirelessly to maintain the building and offer beautiful hospitality. Last year two couples were married at St Mary’s, and we have another couple booked for 2026, and we welcomed over 150 people with Bishop Philip to celebrate the end of their young people’s holiday week at Borwick Hall, many of whom commented on the warmth and generosity of members of St Mary’s DCC who assisted in the smooth running of these occasions.

Finally, an increased focus on the absolute priority of being a safe church has resulted in some excellent engagement with safeguarding training and an increase in reporting concerns, all of which have been dealt with incredible sensitivity, care and wisdom by our outstanding Safeguarding Officer, Tracey Lawther.

Some highlights of the last year at St Oswald’s and St Mary’s:

In March 2025 the United Benefice was selected as one of only 6 Benefices in Blackburn Diocese to join the first Rural Cohort of the Diocesan Renewal Programme. This year long programme will see opportunities for us to reflect on the life and mission of our churches, discern a strategy for growth and renewal, and provide significant input from experienced practitioners who will journey with us as we seek to grow deeper in faith and wider in love and service to our communities.

My enormous thanks go to Annette MacKenzie, LLM, to The Revd Peter Mann, The Revd Paul Warren, to Joyce Tombs, Noeline and Harry Clarke, Sally Fletcher at St Mary’s, and Tracey Lawther, Trevor Blease, Jodie Kilty, Alan Bird, Emma Brantley-Tziros, Vanessa and Kevin Alpin, Chris and Sue Hopwood, Michaela Lawrence, and the members of the PCC at St Oswald’s, along with all others called faithfully to serve our church and wider community in the name of Christ. It has been a joy to partner in the Gospel with you this year.

Mother Alice March 2025

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

8

St Oswald’s Deputy Churchwarden Report

Jodie Kilty – Deputy Churchwarden (Eco Church) for St Oswald’s

Jodie Kilty was elected to the role of Deputy Churchwarden ‘Eco Church’ at the annual church meeting on 26th May 2024 with the sole remit of working towards Net Zero and other sustainability goals. As no traditional Churchwarden came forward through 2024 (though Alan Bird joined that summer as Deputy Churchwarden ‘Heritage’), many Churchwarden functions such as day-to-day oversight and care of St Oswald’s church and churchyard has kindly been carried out by a number of volunteers who give of their time generously.

Chris Hopwood and Trevor Blease continued to help ensure the church is opened daily for visitors and have dealt with fabric matters as they have arisen. Chris Hopwood has also continued to coordinate the team of volunteers who ensure the churchyard is kept in an excellent condition.

On Sundays Marjorie Ashton has kindly coordinated the welcomers at the morning Eucharist.

To everyone who has helped in any way with our Sunday and midweek services, with the church cleaning, with general maintenance and other essential tasks around the church and churchyard, a big thank you.

Bible Study Group

Annette MacKenzie LLM

A Bible Study group has continued through the year at Borwick at the home of Noeline Clarke, and even at her new home now. Meeting on the second Monday of the month in the morning, the group has completed working through the Gospel of Mark and is now studying passages related to the Holy Spirit and His/Her work in our lives.

Breaking Bread

Annette MacKenzie LLM

Breaking Bread has continued to offer a meal after the mid-week Eucharist, although attendance at this is not a requirement. It continues to thrive mainly because it is appreciated by all who attend as well as the dedication of the members of the teams involved, who appreciate the importance of the social interaction that occurs. As well as regulars, we also welcome chance visitors, and young children in the holidays with their parents or grandparents.

St Oswald’s Church Hall - Warton Community Wellbeing Centre

Tracey Lawther

Situated at the centre of Warton Village, the Hall operates as a not-for-profit community focussed enterprise, looked after by two contractors and a voluntary committee. The hall, fitness and treatment rooms offer a venue at a reasonable cost, to individuals and organisations, with a theme of community wellbeing at the heart of our work.

The main hall is an airy well lit, warm, spacious room and is an excellent venue for its current users, regularly hosting Yoga, Dance, Pilates, LDS Dance School, and St Oswald’s Junior and Bubble Church, as well as private bookings for parties, charity events, group meetings, and the occasional Local and General elections. Most of these activities are evenings and weekends, leaving some midweek, daytime capacity for potential hirers.

Both areas have continued to grow and thrive, and we appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of our valued contractors Carol and Antonia for their commitment and their hard work.

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

9

Our main area of concern that you need to be aware of is the hall floor, which is showing signs of damp ingress through the concrete floor slab which has started to rot some of the wooden flooring, this has been occurring over a number of years. We have made some temporary repairs, but we all need to be mindful that the floor will eventually need replacing in the next 10 to 15 years. As a committee, we have started to make some small steps in building up funds and we will need to look at grants and fundraisers in the future. As a committee we are keen to ensure our sustainability for the future so please keep a look out for developments in the months ahead.

We would continue to appreciate your help by telling friends and neighbours at any opportunity, about what the centre has to offer.

Thank you as always to all our users, supporters, volunteers and the community, for keeping this valuable enterprise afloat.

Safeguarding

Tracey Lawther

Our commitment to ensure a safe environment for all, particularly children and vulnerable adults, and those at risk, remains our top priority The benefice has due regard of the House of Bishop’s Safeguarding practice guidance. The safeguarding policy is displayed alongside relevant contact details and a more comprehensive folder is available at the back of church.

All PCC members, and all children and youth volunteers are supported to apply for their DBS clearance and to undertake online and Face to Face training to ensure our compliance. The diocese has created a very useful online safeguarding hub and dashboard to help us in our work and to clarify those in key roles in our benefice, as well as to help us to keep track of DBS checks, training compliance and risk assessments. I am pleased to report we have continued to see a significant rise in compliance and steps are being taken to ensure we are 100% compliant in all areas.

We have seen an increase in children’s activities that we offer the community and an increase in volunteers to support their success who are committed to complying with the requirements of the role. I want to highlight the comprehensive resources which are available via the diocesan website and the signposting which is available at:

https://www.blackburn.anglician.org/safeguarding

Over the past year there has been some low-level safeguarding concerns/ issues that have been addressed in accordance with our safeguarding policy, but no reports have reached the threshold, and we have not been required to make any referrals to external agencies.

Safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone so please speak to a member of the safeguarding team if you need any clarification on how we make our church communities safe as possible for children and vulnerable adults.

St Oswald’s Choir

Emma Brantley-Tziros Organist Keith Worsman

The Choir have continued from strength to strength throughout the year. We have been led by Emma Brantley-Tziros, with the support of so many valuable members of the Choir.

The Choir managed to be in full attendance for the Christmas Carol Service in December and sounded wonderful with rave reviews and lovely comments with over 150 in attendance. Many of the Choir were able to come to the Community Carols too where we were able to perform an impromptu “Carol of the bells” as an extra addition to the traditional Carols along with the local folk band The Red Cats. Again, we

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

10

had over 150 visitors in the congregation that night, with glowing reviews. The first service was an hour and 5 mins long, the second 30 mins.

The Choir have still been affected by the loss of our dear Alison Semple and ensure we still make refences to her. On her death anniversary we sang her favourite hymn and had quiet time. She is still very much missed. We look forward to her commemorative plaque being installed among us.

We organised a Pre-Christmas Jacob’s Join early December which was a great success and really brought the Choir together - being able to socialise as well as air some views at the same time. A very positive experience and some have asked for a repeat event, though some don’t want it too regularly! Some of us met again at the end of January. To date no others are scheduled.

The Hymns and Pimms evening in May 2024 was a great success and we’ve been asked to host another in May 2025.

Emma has also still been attending regular RSCM Choir Director courses. We are still using the Sunday-by-Sunday RSCM resource which aids in our now shared music planning across the Benefice. This is an ongoing work-in-progress with thanks to others who contribute as and when need in the planning. Emma is very grateful to Annette for her help and guidance.

Rev Alice has asked for the final hymns at the 9.30am to be more child friendly and so we have been accommodating where and when we can whilst having more family themed music at the Altogether services.

We are still enjoying, and most are happy with, our regular two practices a week Monday and Thursday 6.30pm where we can practice for the upcoming Sunday and future anthems and events. Unfortunately, a lot of our Choir members have obligations elsewhere with other choirs and can only attend one rehearsal a week, but it always produces a delightful sound by the Sunday with 5 or 12 singing!

Palm Sunday saw us starting our service in the Rectory Ruins again where the Choir led the procession across the street singing loud for all to hear, gaining comments from the community. Mothering Sunday was another delight where the Choir were able to shine once again.

Our Facebook presence has continued to be prolific, and we are still convinced that more villagers are attending our musical events now due to our regular Facebook presence.

Junior Choir had a short revival with Madeleine Freeman as leader. It has recently been paused again due to attendance levels and outside commitments. We are hoping that with Alice’s involvement with the schools she may been able to advertise Junior Choir for it to be able to restart.

Having lost Angela Sewell when she moved, we now have one new member Catherine Prince who is a fabulous alto and joins us when she can, as she attends church in Over Kellet. Our tenor Tom Watton goes from strength to strength, often on his own but he is dedicated and frequently takes music home to google and learn, armed with recordings of Keith playing his part on the organ.

Some Choir members have been attending Marilyn Prescott’s occasional Sunday evening services at Morecambe Parish Church, great to have a link choir and director.

Again, we would like to express our continued gratitude to our incredible Keith Worsman, our organist, whose expertise, flexibility and support is invaluable. Huge thanks to Michaela Lawrence, Julia Smith, Natalie Miller, Madeleine Freeman and Gill Helliwell for their continued support in their incredible roles within the Choir.

We have a very important season approaching - Ash Weds and Lent then Easter so rehearsals are very important. We are struggling with attendance sadly, particularly very recently.

We are also still struggling for members especially men, despite our recent advert campaigns.

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

11

Alison used to say that the Choir was the family she’d chosen and so most of us feel the same; we endeavour to keep on - the future looks bright, thank you for all your support.

Young Generations

Emma Brantley-Tziros

The Young Generations meet the first Sunday of the month 6-8pm in St Oswald’s. We eat together, share news, discuss important topics, consider some bible stories and play games and crafts where we witness where appropriate.

We continued meeting until July then broke for Summer and started back in September with 6 members and are now up to approximately 12. We started the new school year off with discussing The Beatitudes then moving on to the 10 Commandments: discussing and crafting. One month we had an extraordinary meeting to make paper flowers.

We are very fortunate to be still using and enjoying our countertop professional oven bought last year. We have booked a Monthly Coffee Morning slot in Feb 2026 with the Junior Church to help boost our monetary funds too. Our Lent challenge is helping the EggCup charity. We have enjoyed adopting a windowsill in Church where we can showcase our work each month with photos, crafts etc.

The group are delightful and have appreciated the common routine particularly at the end of the session where they help to tidy up and hoover so they can then play their favourite Gladiators! We are hoping to encourage the group to continue to think about the wider world and for us to support our witnessing to them, with music too.

We are looking to widen the supporting adult roles with the group as soon as possible. The group is predominantly run by Emma Brantley-Tziros with massive thanks to Pam de Feu and more recently Faye Vereker.

A delightful group of young people.

St Mary’s Church, Borwick

Sally Fletcher – Deputy Churchwarden for the St Mary’s District Church Council (DCC)

On 21 January 2024 we welcomed our new vicar, the Revd Alice Ormondroyd, after a period of Vacancy since March 2023. Throughout that period St Mary’s had been incredibly well supported by several retired clergy and, not least, by our Licensed Lay Minister, Annette MacKenzie, to whom we remain extremely grateful.

Together they have continued to support us, and Alice, throughout 2024, as a result of which we have settled into a pattern of worship comprising a twice monthly Sunday morning Eucharist, and a monthly, informal, Sunday evening act of worship. The latter is known as “The Lighthouse” (after the 1970’s gospel song of the same name) and was an initiative set up by Revd Alice to attract more families into church. Recently a worship band, engaged with help from Bishop Gill, has further enhanced the quality and uplifting effect of the music. We are hoping to utilise grant funding to purchase better audio-visual equipment in 2025 to further modernise the presentation of this service. Meanwhile it is wonderful to see the special ambience of St Mary’s church, and the reordered facilities that were created immediately prior to the pandemic, being enjoyed in this way.

Our typical congregation size, which had grown to around 12 in 2023, now remains fairly low, (in the region of 6 to 10). The change of Benefice service pattern during the year, which means that the Sunday morning services at our Parish church, St Oswald’s, now clash with our Sunday morning Eucharists at St Mary’s, has sadly reduced our numbers. We remain hopeful that this can be improved in the year ahead. At our Patronal Festival in September, we attracted over 45 people to share the Eucharist in our beautiful church. A highlight of the year was a visit from Bishop Philip in May 2024 who hosted a Eucharist service at St Mary’s to conclude a “Young People’s Holiday” at Borwick Hall in the May half term. In the Bishop’s own

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

12

words “It was so generous of you to allow us so completely to take over your beautiful church building for the day. We filled it with flowers, band and banners and packed it with 90 teenagers and their families, and all I heard from you was encouragement and support. That is such a beautiful sign of your support your Parish has for ministry to young people in our region.”

During the year we celebrated all the major Christian festivals, together with Remembrance Day, two delightful weddings, and a baptism. In Holy Week we enjoyed our customary and very beautiful “Hour at the Cross” on Good Friday. Unfortunately, however, our Easter Sunday Eucharist service could not be held due to its clashing with a cycling race centred at the hall across the road and rendering access to St Mary’s both difficult and unacceptably hazardous.

As described in the Finance Report later, we were delighted to replace the high energy, high maintenance, lighting in the church with low energy, highly efficacious LED lamps, and also to have all necessary repairs and maintenance undertaken to help maintain the integrity of the building for many years to come. The District Church Council met three times during the year (in February, August and October) and the Annual District Church Meeting was held on 23 April 2024.

We were pleased to provide Winter Warmer Lunches, concluding the 2023/24 “season” in March 2024 and recommencing in November for winter 2024/25. Typically, between 20 and 30 people attended the fortnightly ‘get togethers’ in the Village Hall to enjoy a variety of delicious home-made soups with sandwiches, tea and cakes. Our thanks go to the Borwick Poors Land charity, the village hall committee, and all those church volunteers who shopped, cooked, prepared and served food, and who, together, made this possible and financially viable. Thanks also to all those who attended and helped to create a very convivial atmosphere and donated generously to support the broader activities of the church. A very delicious and well attended “Afternoon Tea”, which was also catered for entirely by church volunteers, was held on 17 August, to boost church funds.

Other fund-raising activity is described in the Finance Report. Once again thanks go to everyone involved in projects and activities which were specifically to raise money for the new lighting and repairs, and to all those who kindly donated.

Finally, we would like to give our sincere thanks to all those who support St Mary’s in any way; to Alice, our vicar, to Annette, our amazing LLM, to those who give financial support, to those who clean, decorate, maintain, lock and unlock the church, to welcomers and readers at services, to the providers of refreshments, and everyone else who gives of their time and talents, be it in admin, organisation or finance. A special thank you also goes to our friends and colleagues on the PCC of Yealand Conyers who have been particularly helpful and supportive of us at St Mary’s in recent months. Many thanks to you all.

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

13

Finance Report and Accounts of the PCC of Warton for the year ended 31 December 2024 Trevor Blease (PCC Treasurer) Joyce Tombs (St Mary’s Treasurer)

Overall financial position

Overall, the Parish achieved an increase in income from £92,197 in 2023, to £127,292 for the year ended 31 December 2024. This was to some extent the result of determined and focused fund raising across both churches in order to finance necessary property repairs, maintenance and improvements. Voluntary income, which included £16,059 received from successful grant applications, increased from £51,626 to £80,966, whilst income from activities for generating funds rose from £26,879 to £34,774. This was boosted by the results of some great efforts at St Mary’s to raise money for a new low energy lighting system, and the continuing growth and success of the operation of the Warton church hall and gym facilities.

By the end of 2024 a number of projects for which funds had been raised had not yet been undertaken, and so the increase in expenditure was lower than the increase in income. Total payments were £110,162, compared with £99,319 for 2023. This included £40,000 paid to the Diocese of Blackburn, being the full amount of the renegotiated Parish Share, as agreed in advance with the Board of Finance.

The net result was an overall surplus of income over expenditure of £17,131 for the year (2023: deficit £6,689). Cash balances increased by a further £6,581 due to the redemption of an investment account held by St Mary’s to fund building repairs.

As a result, the value of investments held by the Parish was reduced by a net amount of £5,862 to £24,943, whilst cash balances increased by £23,712 to £97,997. The net effect on Parish Reserves was an increase of £17,850, of which almost £15,000 was represented by grants received but not used by the year end. Of total reserves of £122,940 at 31 December 2024, £58,834 was restricted for use in connection with the buildings and churchyard. Of the £64,106 of unrestricted funds, £8,492 was designated by the PCC for specific purposes including £1,213 in the newly defined Young People Fund. See Note 19 to the attached Accounts.

St Oswald’s Church and Church Hall

Warton, St. Oswald’s gross income was £118,788 (2023: £89,870). The largest contributor to the increase was in investment income and grants which totalled £18,203 (2023: £3,147). Of this sum, £14,817 of grants was unspent in 2024, hence flattering the end-year position. The importance of grant application activity, for which we have a very high success rate, should be noted.

Voluntary receipts, excluding grants, were £57,725 (2023: £46,573) for which thanks are due to all donors. A more proactive attitude to fund raising now exists which has made a significant cumulative effect. Note 2 shows a large increase in the non-regular giving due to a large anonymous donation and also a legacy donation; a major source of income for many churches and one which the Trustees are keen to encourage in our Parish.

The Church Hall continues to be a key asset. Income increased by 18% and costs decreased by 8%, due to lower maintenance costs, resulting in a surplus of £5,791 (2023: £828). The contractors, Antonia and Carol for the gym and hall respectively, are a critical part of this ongoing success story and our thanks go to them and other members of the Hall committee.

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

14

Total expenditure was £97,420 (2023: £93,581) almost all of the increase ascribed to the increased payment of our Parish Share contribution to £40,000 (2023: £33,000). It is important to note that the 2023 figure had been significantly reduced from the amount formally requested by the Diocese due to the Parish’s inability to pay. In turn the 2024 contribution was similarly reduced by negotiation with the Diocese, from an original sum close to £60,000. As noted in the 2023 financial statements, now that we have paid the negotiated 2024 amount, the 2023 shortfall, plus that from earlier years (believed to be about £24,000) has effectively been written off by the Diocese. From this position, a 6% p.a. increase in the Parish Share contributions for 2025 (to £42,400) and 2026 (to £45,000) has also been agreed providing some welcomed certainty for the coming period.

The Restoration and Fabric fund increased from around £32,000 to just over £51,000 primarily due to a £10,317 grant received from a trust administered by the Diocese for prospective work on the south aisle and tower, and also due to the redesignation of £14,000 from the church hall account. The latter will be needed for the replacement of the hall floor in the medium term. This work was costed at £30,000 a few years ago. The biggest uncertainty in our financial position is the cost of fixing the major damp problem in the south and west of the church building. The quinquennial inspection report will hopefully start to provide some clarity and appropriate sources of finance will be investigated.

Meanwhile unrestricted funds rose from £28,754 as reported at 31 December 2023, to £34,246 at 31 December 2024. However, the latter includes £3,821 held in the PCC of Warton Choir Fund. This is a designated fund which historically had not been consolidated into the Warton, St Oswald balance sheet or indeed Parish reserves.

Sincere thanks go to Jean Robinson and Janet Mann for counting and banking all the St Oswald’s cheque and cash receipts and to Malcolm Brown for processing and submitting the Parish’s Gift Aid claims. This is invaluable work and much appreciated. Thanks also go to the various individuals who provided their time, talents and initiative in successfully applying for grants.

St Mary’s Church, Borwick

In 2024 the DCC challenged themselves with the task of replacing the high-level lighting in church with new LED lamps which are long lasting, highly efficient and relatively cheap to run. The works were costed at around £2,750 and a fund-raising campaign was launched in the Spring to raise this sum. Online and in person donations were received from across the Benefice and indeed beyond. DCC members rose to the challenge by undertaking sponsored individual tasks including running a marathon, swimming a mile, and walking across Morecambe Bay. The response was overwhelming, not least to Sally Fletcher’s swim, which raised over £1,000, as did Revd Alice’s epic marathon run. The target was exceeded and the works undertaken, transforming the lighting within the church. Thanks go to all sponsors and donors who made this possible.

The DCC also decided to undertake the bulk of the repairs highlighted in the latest Quinquennial Inspection Report at a cost of £4,560. This was financed by releasing restricted funds held in an investment account to avoid diminishing unrestricted cash funds necessary for day-to-day operations.

The DCC are therefore very pleased that whilst over £7,300 of building and fabric related works were completed during the year, the overall reserves (i.e. combined cash and investment balances) have only reduced by just over £3,500. This was achieved in part by an increase in voluntary receipts of over £2,000 to £7,183 (2023: £5,053), given by both new and longstanding regular donors, to whom the DCC is very grateful. Total receipts were £13,508 (2023: £7,217) boosted, in addition to the above, by a better return on investments and deposits, by fees from the two weddings held in the year, and by a £500 grant from the

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

15

Borwick Poors Land charity to our Warm Spaces fund. The latter enabled our popular Winter Warmer lunches to be held for a third successive winter.

Despite an anticipated increase in electricity costs from £1,816 to £2,232, church running expenses were kept below 2023 levels at £4,805 (2023: £5,156). The St Mary’s contribution to total Parish share was kindly held by St Oswald’s at £4,800. So total unrestricted expenditure was £10,426 in line with the prior year (2023: £10,196).

There was a £258 surplus (2023: deficit £2,979) on unrestricted (or general) income and expenditure, and £4,495 net expenditure (2023: Nil) on restricted funds. At 31 December 2024 cash balances stood at £12,440 (2023: £10,096) and investments at £24,943 (2023: £30,805), representing reserves of £37,383 (2023: £40,901).

The challenge for St Mary’s remains the need to rebuild attendances and to attract more people to help with delivering the mission and administration, whilst maintaining a sound financial footing.

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

16

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees/Members of the Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Warton

TO BE ADDED

Mr Trevor Williams Address: 3 Kershaw Drive, Lancaster LA1 3FY Date:

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

17

Cash at bank and in hand at 31 December

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

18

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

19

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

20

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

21

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

22

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

23

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

24

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

25

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick

26

Annual Report 2024 Warton and Borwick