2021-03-31-accounts - Townhill Baptist Church (Swansea)

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

----- Start of picture text -----
Trustees' Annual Report for the period
Period start date Period end date
Day Month Year T Day Month Year
From 1st April 2020 o 31st March 2021
----- End of picture text -----

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Section A Reference and administration details	Section A Reference and administration details	Section A Reference and administration details
Charity name Townhill Baptist Church (Swansea) Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) 1148030 Powys Avenue Townhill Swansea Postcode SA1 6PH
	Powys Avenue
	Townhill
	Swansea
	Postcode	SA1 6PH

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any)

----- Start of picture text -----
Dates acted if not for
Trustee name Office (if any) entitled to appoint trustee
whole year
(if any)
John Idris Baker Deacon Church Members’
Meeting
Andrew Trevor Deacon and Church Members’
1
Brown Treasurer Meeting
Allan David Rees Senior Elder Church Members’
2
Meeting
Robert Geoffrey Elder and Church Members’
3
Wellington Secretary Meeting
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
----- End of picture text -----

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

----- Start of picture text -----
Name Dates acted if not for whole year
Sarah Jane Bunce
----- End of picture text -----

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

----- Start of picture text -----
Type of adviser Name Address
Independent Mr Philip Tamlyn 10 Gower Street, Llansawel, SA11 2SW
Examiner
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Section B Structure, governance and
management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Constitution
Type of governing document
(eg. trust deed, constitution)
Unincorporated association
How the charity is
constituted
(eg. trust, association,
company)
Appointed by Church Members’ Meeting
Trustee selection methods
(eg. appointed by, elected by)
----- End of picture text -----

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
The existing trustees are responsible for the recruitment of new trustees but in so doing the trustees seek the views and recommendations of both elders and deacons.
In selecting new trustees, we seek to identify members of the church who are willing to volunteer their time and effort. Potential trustees are invited to attend trustees’ meetings as observers and are given more details of the charity’s aims and activities and, if all agree, they are then proposed as new trustees at the subsequent trustees’ meeting. The process allows due consideration of the person’s eligibility, personal competence and specialist knowledge/skills.
Following appointment, new trustees are introduced to their new role and given copies of the trust deed and a guide to the policies and procedures adopted by our charity. Several publications from the Charity Commission are also provided including the guidance on charities and public benefit and on the advancement of religion for the public benefit. This ensures that new trustees are aware of the scope of their responsibilities under the Charities Act.
The trustees have assessed the risks the charity faces and keep these risks under review. An annual health and safety check is carried out looking at the activities and premises of the church and all employees and members working with children have current Disclosure and Barring Service checks and Child Protection training as part of our Child Protection Policy.

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

The objects of the Church for the public benefit are to advance the Christian faith in accordance with the Statement of Beliefs appearing in the Schedule hereto in Swansea and in such other parts of the United Kingdom or the world as the Church may from time to time think fit and to fulfil such other purposes which are exclusively charitable according to the law of England and Wales and are connected with the charitable work of the Church.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

The church is committed to engaging with the community with the message of Jesus Christ. We use our building to provide a wide range of activities to benefit the community. To facilitate this community work, we look after and maintain our councilowned building. Our activities as a charity take account of the Commission’s guidance on public benefit and the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. We seek to know God more in our lives through prayer, praise, reading and applying God’s Word (the Bible) and to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ and to know Him more in their lives.

The church buildings provide many activities of benefit to the public. In addition to our regular Sunday services and weekly prayer meeting and Bible study, we also have a weekly club for children from Reception to Year 6 and a bi-weekly youth club open to children from Year 6 to Year 13. The church provides English classes to the community which are taught by one of our church members, for which a free crèche is provided by the church. A toddler group runs once a week and is open to all children and their carers from the community.

Looking back over the year (April 2020-March 2021)

During the past year, the work of the Kids’ club … It was a privilege and a blessing over the Christmas period to deliver a small gift to each of the families we have reached through this work and to tell them we haven’t forgotten them in the current situation.

Townhill Toddlers …

The Friday Youth group has continued to meet virtually using zoom. This has involved online games and activities, video clips and a short Bible based gospel talk. The attendance by church youth has been good. The youth have enjoyed and have told us that at times they felt that God has spoken to them through the Bible based talks and testimonies of leaders. We continue to pray for them individually - that they will be saved and for them to grow in their knowledge and love for Christ. Non-church youth have attended these meetings which has been encouraging but that has been more infrequent and has come as a result of personal invitation. It is our prayer that these youth and others from the community will re-join us when restrictions are lifted more fully. As restrictions ease we will make a full risk assessment and seek to meet again in person.

In February 2020, we started the Good News group , a monthly inclusive service for adults with additional needs. We held two meetings, attended by a total of seven adults with additional needs before lockdown. We have maintained contact with some of these adults during lockdown.

As a church, we seek to be positive about disability inclusion. We are linked to the Roofbreaker project run by the Christian

disability charity ‘Through the Roof’ whose main aim is 'transforming lives through Jesus with disabled people'. Kerry and Phil Tamlyn are the church Roofbreaker contacts, seeking to be available to discuss any disability issues and find solutions. For example, a boy with additional needs was struggling to cope with Sunday school classes: a new rota was set up to provide 1:1 support and a withdrawal area with beanbag/sensory tools. As a result, he began to positively engage with Sunday school classes again.

During lockdown, Kerry and Phil attended zoom events with Roofbreakers from around the UK discussing how church can effectively support people with disabilities during/after the pandemic. We hope to resume our Good News Group where people can connect with each other over cake, listen to a simple accessible message about Jesus and join in inclusive worship. The church has been added to an online map on the Through the Roof website so that disabled people looking for a church are able to find us and make contact about their needs if they would like to visit/attend.

During the last year, the pandemic restrictions have severely curtailed meetings and events at the church building with the Men’s breakfast suspended until things improve. However, our Community Worker with support from other church members has been continually active in the community providing support through:

Weekly shopping for people who are isolating or infirm
Delivering emergency food parcels
Collecting medications for people
Welfare calls and socially distanced visits to those in need and isolated.
Welfare telephone calls
Collecting food donations and delivering for the foodbanks.

Over and above these activities we have continued to develop relationships within the community and with groups looking to support those in need. Through our connection with a local food share scheme, we have begun to collect surplus food from two supermarkets locally along with a bakery and redistribute this food to families in need, in doing so we have ensured our compliance with all relevant food safety legislation. This work has been particularly needed and rewarding. We have reached many families in need and continue to support most of them.

Anne Rees has been greatly encouraged with the progress of all the students in English lessons despite not being able to meet at the church. Lessons have been conducted on a one-to-one basis over the telephone. This has proved to be far more effective than teaching them together, considering their varying degrees of ability. Some have opted for audio only, while others have enjoyed Facetime. Either way has been successful.

The Ladies’ Bible Study has taken place on Zoom on a weekly basis, which has catered for a small number of ladies, which is understandable as it is during the day when many ladies are at

work. The ladies that attend find it helpful, particularly as it includes a time to pray for one another and share our personal issues and encouragements, which in turn edify and build us up in the faith.

This Youth Bible Study is held fortnightly using Zoom is attended by the youth of the church, although it is open to all interested youngsters. The youth find it difficult to engage on and we look forward to being able to meet again in person. Nevertheless, the young people have continued to come which is positive.

The church building

The church carried out a much-needed upgrade to the audiovisual system in the church building and this has been a great help as we’ve emerged from the pandemic restrictions and are now able to hold hybrid events with people in the church building and simultaneously taking part on Zoom or watching on YouTube. As we hope to return to some kind of normality, we seek new organisations who are compatible with our aims and who would like to hire our building thus extending our services to the Townhill community.

Missionaries supported

We are very grateful to God that we can share in the work of the missionaries we support by prayer, email communication and finance.

We continue to support a range of missionaries and their organisations during this year through prayer and financial support. We receive regular newsletters from most of them. Much of the work has been constrained by pandemic restrictions, but the work of these dedicated people has continued in a significant measure.

In addition to the newsletters, we were greatly encouraged by our Zoom visit from our Romanian missionary, which was greatly enjoyed by us all.

This has inspired us to invite other missionaries to join us on Zoom, and it is really pleasing to know that most have accepted, for which we thank God. It is thrilling to anticipate talking to someone we can see and communicate with, whom we have been supporting for years.

Two of our missionaries have very recently finished serving overseas. We look forward to catching up and finding out what new path God will be leading them on, having faithfully led them this far.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

Much of the work in our church is carried out on a voluntary basis. We give thanks to God that he has provided many gifted people to work in the church and we continue in prayer for more workers.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

The church currently has 22 members and between 20 and 50 people regularly come to our Sunday Services including children from the community. A core group of 20 children come to our children’s club each week, 8-15 teenagers enjoy the youth club and between 10 and 20 children come to Townhill Toddlers.
Once again this year we enjoyed our Christmas special ‘Carols, Candles and Cakes’ . Some people from the community joined us in singing carols and hearing the Christmas story. It was a relaxed event for families and friends of the church.
For St David’s Day we had an evening quiz event. This was attended by people from the church and community, as well as having some youngsters too. We were able to look back and see how good God has been through the history of Wales and of St David.
We had a great evening event for Harvest this year. This was attended by people young and old. We enjoyed some snacks together and had a quiz about food. We thanked God for all that we have. We also heard about the local food bank and donated food gifts to this great cause.
We had two fun days this year , both were attended by families from the community, most of which have returned time and time again. It was good to see some children now growing up that have come through clubs of the church. We had many craft stalls, game stalls, a bouncy castle and face painting. Sweets and prizes were awarded to the best colouring and for guessing ‘how many sweets in the jar’.
It has been a busy but good year for our outreach events. We have seen families return and have gained new friends in the community too. We pray that we can continue to serve the community in this way and find new ways to reach people as we move into the next year and hopefully out of lockdown.
Anne Rees continues to teach English Classes.
The church has continued to implement its Child Protection Policy and all those working with children have up to date DBS checks and receive training from the Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) in Child Protection.

Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

Overall, the church posted a small surplus this year (our receipts exceeded our payments by £744).
Our Special Reserve is set at half our annual spending, so for the new 2020/2021 financial year it will be set to £27,500. This is for real emergencies e.g. significant building repairs, loss of ongoing donations if a number of members were to leave at the same time, or if there was a significant change in financial circumstances of several members. By maintaining this reserve, the church can continue its work for some time whilst dealing with serious financial pressures such as these. When we spend part of the special reserve we need to set the budget in following years to restore it.
Our General Reserve for the coming year will begin at around £36,450. The General Reserve funds such things as maintaining the manse, the minibus, the church laptop, the dishwasher, church chairs and the church projector.
The reserves of the church mean that the church doesn’t face a crisis if there’s a major expense such as replacing the heating system or the church roof, and also provides funds to take advantage of short-term opportunities.
As in previous years, we will also maintain at least £2000 in our current account to ensure we are always in credit.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Not applicable.

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
The church has seen a significant fall in regular donations compared to last year. Gift Aided donations are unchanged in the 2019/2020 financial year, but donations made to the collection box have fallen again this year, this time by about £1850. We continue to be able to claim tax back on donations received in the collection box via the government ‘Gift Aid on Small Donations’ scheme which amounted to £7647.31 last year.
We have not received any income from hiring the church building or the manse this year. The rent for the manse is usually about £4000 p.a.
We received a small amount of money this year from the sale of the old minibus.
Low interest rates continue but, due to higher balances, interest received on bank balances is slightly higher than the previous year. Interest rates are currently expected to remain low.
The church has received no grants this year. If anyone knows of any potential grants we can apply for, please contact Sarah Bunce.
We continue to employ our Community Worker who has used his initiative well to engage with the community as detailed above.

Section F Other optional information

The COVID-19 pandemic presented previously unknown challenges. It was the first time in 8 centuries that government had ordered all churches to close. In our case, rising concern about rapidly increasing numbers of cases locally and about mass gatherings in unventilated indoor settings had led us to suspend all face to face gatherings from 16.3.2020, a week before we were required to do so, and to replace Sunday morning and evening services, Wednesday evening prayer meetings, and some other meetings including some youth activities with online meetings. For those unable to join in an online meeting we arranged phone calls so that the audio of the meeting could be relayed to them. Sermons continued to be recorded and made available on Youtube but also streamed live to widen participation as much as possible. We closed before being forced to both to protect the physical health of those attending and to avoid the church being, and being seen to be, a risk to the community around us. Our witness and service to the community around the church is its prime purpose. We knew that being unable to conduct this in person would be a loss, but did could not risk that witness being tainted by a sense that we were being irresponsible to the very community we serve.

The online services were effective for collective worship and for hearing sermons, but after some months of meeting online we knew that we had been missing the informal face to face contact we had been used to after each service. We began randomly allocated breakout groups after each Sunday morning service. These informal groups proved helpful for many people for sharing joys and needs and for reflecting on what we had learnt and been challenged by in the service and in our own lives and have been an important means of mutual support.

During the summer of 2020, after the prohibition on in-person meeting had been lifted, we worked to consider how we could safely reopen to meet at the church building. Under the updated guidance, the church itself is responsible for ensuring that meetings can be held safely, including that there is checking in for contact tracing, hand hygiene, social distancing, ventilation, and information for anyone attending to support their compliance with these requirements. Our small building had typically been close to full on a Sunday morning before the pandemic, so we knew that we would have to limit numbers of attendees and take a lot of care with distancing. We also knew at this stage that those who most needed to attend - those whose ability to join online had been most limited - were also those at most risk of serious illness were they to contract COVID-19.

We planned to reopen for a few people to attend the church and link into online meetings from the start of September 2020, and a small number met at the church building to join an online mid-week meeting. Within days, it was clear that local case numbers were again rising rapidly and that we should suspend plans to reopen until things were more clearly safe. This one midweek meeting, as well as reminding us that we were not in control of the timing of the pandemic or of its effects, also taught us that to run effective hybrid meetings where some people were in the church and others were online would need better technology than we had. Having explored some options we decided to use the building's extended closure to replace the existing PA system with one that would support videoconferencing and filming for any permutation of in person and hybrid meetings, including live streaming of preaching from the church building as well as preaching being streamed from elsewhere into the building. We hoped that this system would support a wider range of opportunities for collective worship and witness as soon as restrictions began to lift and, God willing, far into the future.

The subsequent phase of the pandemic was more prolonged than we hoped. It remained permissible for churches to open and we were aware that some, with much larger buildings and more room to distance, did so. We decided that we should only reopen for worship when there was less risk of transmission and when we could offer hybrid meetings online & in person. We did this for Sunday morning services only from 11.4.2021 and have negotiated some teething problems to continue until now, subject to restrictions on numbers and distancing, with no live singing to date and with generous ventilation. We hope to explore restarting singing depending on ongoing risk assessment. Meanwhile, in line with changing guidance and subject to risk assessment, we have been able to offer some youth meetings in person outdoors and at the manse as well as some online youth meetings. We continue to try to ensure that this range of formats can allow everyone to meet in some form, and we look forward to being able to do more in person for those activities that don't work online. Our fuller range of children's and youth work is an important example where we know that the community values what we were able to offer families before the pandemic, and we are determined to restore more of this work as soon as we safely can.

The pandemic has seen levels of practical and material need in the community that have been unprecedented in recent memory. We have expanded the small contribution we can make to meeting this need through our church worker's increased working hours and close engagement with statutory and voluntary support services in Townhill. This work was sustained through each phase of the pandemic, in line with guidance allowing church buildings to be used for support even when closed for worship.

Through all this, we have been reminded to thank God: that so many of us have been healthy even when heavily exposed to risk of illness, that the church's closure came at a time when we had better access to facilities for meeting online than ever before, and that as we emerge from the tightest restrictions we can use our new hybrid format to hear from preachers and speakers from further afield and to share the gospel with people anywhere there's an internet connection as well as on Townhill itself. Our tendency to self-reliance has been challenged and we have been blessed by being forced back to a greater reliance on God for our security, our safety, our work and our future. As our mission sees changes in its practical outworking, we pray that our focus will remain on Him, that His will be done in the church, and that His name will be glorified whatever the future holds.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)

Date

Townhill Baptist Church (Swansea)

1148030

Receipts and payments accounts For the period 1st April 2020 31st March 2021 To from

CC16a

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 57,445 - - - 121 57,566 - - - 57,566	Restricted funds to the nearest £ 1,880 - - - - 1,880 - - - 1,880	Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - -	Total funds to the nearest £ 59,325 - - - 121 59,446 - - - 59,446	Last year to the nearest £
Donations and legacies
Donations andgrants	57,445				55,202

Other trading activites
Buildings Hire	-				-
Buildings Rent Received	-				-

Other income
Vehicles - Sales	-				350

Investments
Interest Received	121				194

*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	57,566				55,747

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					55,747

Expenditure on charitable activities

Activities(Sundays & Midweek)	500	-	-	500	1,534
Activities(Kids Club) ~~CCXX R1 t SS~~	-	-	- ~~1~~	-	501
~~accouns ()~~

15/07/2021

Activities(Townhill Toddlers)	-	-	-	-	214
Activities(Youth)	-	-	-	-	362
Activities(Special events)	298	-	-	298	399
Activities(Mission)	5,682	883	-	6,565	6,288
Activities(Food)	-	-	-	-	56
Activities(Licencing)	-	-	-	-	157
Activities(Misc)	-	-	-	-	70
Activities(Accommodation)	- 90	-	-	- 90	90
Financial HardshipAssistance		-	-	-	78
Salaries(CommunityWorker)	10,598	-	-	10,598	9,169
Salaries(Pastor)	12,343	-	-	12,343	6,031
Training	-	-	-	-	-

Other Payments
Administration Fees	489	-	-	489	575
Advertisingandpublicity	270	-	-	270	420
Buildings Fixtures and Fittings	-	-	-	-	-
Church Insurance	810	-	-	810	979
Manse Insurance	296	-	-	296	289
Church Maintenance	3,290	-	-	3,290	1,411
Manse Maintenance	217	-	-	217	6,882
Bank charges	-	-	-	-	-
Church cleaning	880	-	-	880	1,040
Cleaningsupplies	33	-	-	33	66
Electricity (Church)	271	-	-	271	145
Electricity (Manse)	82	-	-	82	284
Equipment Maintenance(General)	6	-	-	6	159
Equipment(General)	270	-	-	270	14
Gas(Church)	624	-	-	624	2,204
Gas(Manse)	- 111	-	-	- 111	432
ICT Hardware	1,394	-	-	1,394	-
ICT Software	387	-	-	387	-
Internet - Connection	456	-	-	456	400
Internet - Hosting	103	-	-	103	101
Legal costs	743	-	-	743	181
Publications	-	-	-	-	90
Stationeryand Supplies	48	-	-	48	44
Telephone	-	-	-	-	-
Vehicle - Purchases	-	-	-	-	12,165
Minibus Fuel	30	-	-	30	135
Minibus Insurance	978	-	-	978	1,035
Minibus Maintenance	1,059	-	-	1,059	177
Minibus Tax	165	-	-	165	- 28
Council Tax(Manse)	2,977	-	-	2,977	352

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

15/07/2021

Water(Church)	143		-		-		143		264
Water(Manse)	4		-		-		4		236
**Sub total **	45,247		883		-		46,130		55,003

A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-
**Sub total **	-	-	-	-	-

*Total payments*	45,247	883	-	46,130	55,003
*Net of receipts/(payments)*	12,319	997	-	13,316	744
A5 Transfers between funds	-	-	-	-	-
A6 Cash funds last year end	63,964	3	-	63,967	-
*Cash funds this year end*	76,283	1,000	-	77,283	744

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories

B1 Cash funds

B2 Other monetary assets

Current Details Cash Details Deposit *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Gift Aid	Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £	Endowment funds to nearest £
	169	-	-
	45,876	1,000	-
	30,238	-	-
	76,283	1,000	-
			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
Gift Aid	7,313		-
	-		-
	-		-
	-		-

CCXX R3 accounts (SS)

15/07/2021

-		-		-
-		-		-

B3 Investment assets

B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use

B5 Liabilities

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) - - - - -	Current value (optional)
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-
	-	-

Details

Details Details Football equipment Church library Audio/Visual equipment Freehold property Minibus Toys Laptop	Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates	Cost (optional) - 12,165 1,500 800 500 3,000 5,750 - - Amount due (optional) - - - - -	Current value (optional)
			-
			7,299
			150
			800
			50
			50
			5,750
			-
			-
			When due (optional)
		-
		-
		-
		-
		-

Date of approval

Signature

Print Name

CCXX R4 accounts (SS)

15/07/2021

CCXX R5 accounts ISSI 1510712021

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the truste8sI members of Townhill Bapts'st Church On accounts for the year ended 31st March 2021 Charity no Ilf any) 1148030 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (Ihe Tmst") for the year ended ReBponslbllltles and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the prèparation basls of report of the accounts in accordance with th8 requirements of the Charitie8 Act 2011 ('the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under $eclion 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examinab'on, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Chartly Commission under Section 145(5)(b> of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm Ihal no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below '} in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records wero not kept in accordance with sedion 130 of the Act or the a¢count$ do not accord Yth the accounting record8 Independent examinerf8 8tatsmont I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should bè drawn In order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the bTrGkets if they do not 8ppIy. Slgnod: Dats: 01.07.2021 Namo: Philip James Tamlyn Rolevant professional quallflcatlon(s) or body lif any): Address: 10 Gower Stfeet Brilon Ferry SA112SW IER October 2018