2020-12-31-accounts - Exeter City Centre Chaplaincy

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Exeter High Street During Lockdown by Lead Chaplain Rev’d Paul Collings

2020 ANNUAL REPORT

ECCC, c/o The Mint Methodist Church, Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT ; email: exeterccchaplaincy@gmail.com Registered charity Number 1160294

INTRODUCTION TO THE ANNUAL REPORT

INTRODUCTION TO THE ANNUAL REPORT BY REV’D SHEILA SWARBRICK, Chair of Trustees.

Welcome to the seventh annual report of the Exeter City Centre Chaplaincy covering the calendar year 2020. This was a year of great change for the chaplaincy, city, country and indeed world as we all adjusted to the Covid 19 pandemic. At the beginning of the year chaplaincy ministry began as before with visits and prayer meetings in churches and a Trustee meeting on 24 February. Norman Wallwork was planning to retire as Lead Chaplain at a service in July.

With lockdown and the closure of most retail in the city centre ministry changed. Some chaplains wrote cards to their shops and the prayer ministry continued with weekly reflections provided in a rota between Paul Collings and Norman Wallwork with David Smith joining in later in the year. These were shared with the Trustees, and I found Norman’s reflection at Ascensiontide helpful. He commented how Luke described after the ascension the disciples returning to the city with great joy and entering the temple, their place of worship. This was not the experience for us in May 2020. He continued

‘But the MINISTRY OF PRAYERFUL INTERCESSION has never seemed a more necessary ministry than it is at the present time.’

In July the lead chaplains completed a risk assessment for the team so that a few chaplains could consider restarting visits in a safe way with the permission of the manager or owner of each shop. A few agreed to resume over the summer and in the autumn while others for a variety of reasons chose to retire or to wait until later. With very little activity and obviously no training of new chaplains expenditure was minimal. Thus, the lead chaplains and I agreed to return

donations from churches in 2020 and not to request any donation in 2021.

The city centre continues to change rapidly but the ministry of this very small group of dedicated, prayerful Christians offering a listening ear to those working in retail is vital. 2020 may not have had much active visiting but prayer continued.

The Exeter City Centre Chaplaincy came into being through the financial, prayerful and people support of different churches in the city. It will only flourish if we continue to work together affirming our shared calling in Christ to care for our city. We hope that you can commit to supporting this ministry through your prayers, your giving and perhaps encouraging someone to become a volunteer chaplain. If you need more information, please get in touch.

Finally, my thanks to the hardworking chaplains and for the support of the other trustees, without you there would be no city centre chaplaincy.

Rev’d Sheila Swarbrick (Chair of Trustees)

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Rev’d Sheila Swarbrick - Central Parish - Chair (Aug-Dec)
Rev’d Simon Taylor - South Street Baptist (Jan-Aug)
Rev’d Dr Alastair Logan - United Reformed Church
Peter Coleman - Mint Methodist Church
Rev’d Paul Collings - St Nicholas Methodist Church
Major Sue Camp-Richards (R) - Salvation Army Officer
David Smith - Church of England
Hon. Treasurer - Dr Sean Swarbrick

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CHAPLAINS

Lead Chaplains

Rev’d Prebendary Norman Wallwork - Methodist Church
Rev’d Paul Collings - Methodist Church
Sandie Walton - Church of England

Volunteer Chaplains

Major Sue Camp-Richards (R) - Salvation Army
Josie James - Methodist
Barbara Pillidge - Methodist
David Smith - Church of England
Maureen Stoolman - Methodist
Mary Wannell - Salvation Army
Jane Williams - Salvation Army
Tim Gainsford - Vine Church
Pamela Howarth - Baptist Church

Aims and Purpose

Exeter City Centre Chaplaincy seeks to reflect the love of God through: Visiting stores and other places of business in the City Centre on a regular basis and caring for the business community within the City Centre, through listening and offering support as required.

Mission Statement

We seek to serve the people who work in business community within Exeter City Centre as a practical Christian presence, expressing the caring love of God.

We seek to minister to their needs and to contribute to the well-being of the City Centre through being alongside them in their everyday lives.

Aims

to contribute to a vibrant and harmonious City Centre;
to be a visible presence of the Christian faith in the City Centre;
to be a listening ear, offering pastoral care and support;
to support people of all faiths and none within their work environment;
to respond to those wanting to explore matters of life and faith;
to offer support to people in times of trouble, anxiety or crisis;
to interact with the City Centre institutions and businesses to contribute to the well-being of the business community;
to speak up for those in the City Centre business community whose voice is not heard;
to be aware of needs or problems in the City Centre affecting the business community and to work with statutory bodies and other agencies to help to alleviate them;
to build bridges of understanding, trust and co-operation between workplaces, businesses or agencies and the faith communities.

The Nature of the Chaplaincy

The City Centre Chaplaincy

is a team of trained volunteer chaplains working on behalf of the City Centre churches, governed by the Board of Trustees and managed by the Lead Chaplains.
is established by the Christian churches but with clear links and referral pathways to the other faith communities in the city;
provides a professional and confidential service, with confidentiality only compromised where a person is believed to be in danger;
is independent of businesses, unions or statutory agencies;
expresses care and concern for the City Centre business community, irrespective of people’s faith or beliefs, and without preaching or proselytising.

Structure and Governance

Exeter City Centre Chaplaincy is registered with the Charity Commissioner as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) number 1160294

The Charity is overseen by a Board of Trustees who oversee the developing work of the chaplaincy. The Board of Trustees is made up of representatives from Exeter churches, who provide governance for the life and work of the chaplaincy service. They provide a link between ECCC and the churches and community in central Exeter to promote and champion the work of the chaplaincy service.

This includes providing support to the ECCC Leadership Team and leading initiatives to ensure the successful delivery of the ECCC

vision for the City of Exeter.

The task of the Board of Trustees is to.

Promote the integration of pastoral/spiritual care into the running and delivery of ECCC.
Establish and maintain relationships that will enhance ECCC.
Articulate an understanding of chaplaincy culture and systems.
Support, promote and encourage ethical decision-making and care.
Foster a collaborative relationship with Christian and other faith relationship communities.
Lead initiatives to seek and secure funding to support ECCC activities and service year on year.

RESERVES POLICY 2020 – 2021

We submit our annual report in accordance with the requirements of the Exeter City Centre Chaplaincy aims and objectives and those of Charities SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice).

The trustees have established their mission aims taking into account all of the resources available in terms of people and money

Mission initiatives/projects have been costed or estimates made of projected future costs which take into account the needs identified by the Lead Chaplains and Trustees

We have agreed a Reserves Policy which is set out below and is recorded in the trustees’ minutes and our Annual Report

We recognise the need to be accountable as charity trustees for all the money which comes into our hands and will provide further information as required.

The Chaplaincy Reserves Policy deals with Our General Fund: This as at 31 December 2020 stands at £5702.50

General Funds Reserve

These funds are on deposit at the Cooperative Bank.

We aim, ideally, to hold in reserve sufficient money in these reserves to cover six months expenditure – approx. £2.5k. The chaplaincy needs this money in reserve as working capital to cover normal running costs, peaks in expenditure, and a contingency for developing our service to the city centre.

In particular we intend to

[Develop our training programme for newly recruited ] volunteer chaplains
[Extend the scope of our outreach to include shops ] and businesses currently not covered by our volunteer chaplains
[Continue to develop our current chaplains’ skills ] more readily to support the people we serve.

This Reserves Policy is reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

A LEAD CHAPLAIN’S REVIEW OF THE YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS

ANNUAL REPORT for January to December 2020

From the Re=ring Lead Chaplain – The Revd Norman Wallwork

The general work of the Chaplaincy as listed below * con:nued un:l mid-March 2020 which brought the first Covid-19 lock-down

*shop and store visits

*immediate wriDen repor:ng back
*the no:ng to Lead Chaplains of hellos , conversa+ons and

on significant conversa+ons

*Tuesday and Friday Prayers
*Chaplains’ gathering
*Trustees’ mee:ngs
Regular mee:ngs, visits, a planned Quiet Day, mee:ngs of chaplains with lead chaplains, the Annual Dedica:on and

Commissioning Service, carol events - were all deferred for planning to September 2021.

Similarly, the Trustees person to person would take place as Government Restric:ons allow.
For the first fiscal year of the pandemic the chaplaincy suspended subscrip:on dues from local churches.
Some Gree:ng Cards were posted during Easter 2020. A few chaplains held conversa:ons at the door of shops during the slightly relaxed periods during the lock-downs. One lead chaplain made regular tours of the city centre and monitored temporary and permanent changes in the retail scene.
A few chaplain and lead chaplain one to one conversa:ons in person took place in October 2020.
From November 2020 three of the chaplains took it in turn to provide on-line Prayers, Reflec:ons, Devo:ons and CityCentre up-dates each Tuesday and these have con:nued into the autumn of 2021. These were well received by the chaplains and the trustees.
During the lock-downs, five of the twelve chaplains ini:ated conversa:ons about stepping down from the chaplaincy.

The Chaplains Training Programme Includes:

Pre-training observation and investigation

Self-directed independent exploratory study on visible presence
Module 1: Exploring visible presence together in a taught module
Module 2: Chaplaincy skills – taught session and exploration
Shadowing experience – a taster experience guided by a lead or volunteer chaplain
Module 3: The chaplaincy community – learning how the volunteer fits and relates within the chaplaincy team
Module 4: The chaplaincy toolkit – different models of practice, policy and expectations
Preparation assessment for commissioning
In between some modules all new volunteer chaplains are expected to undertake some ‘homework’ as preparation for the next one. Lead Chaplains provide mentoring and coaching support throughout the whole process.

Chaplaincy Prayer

Loving God, we give you thanks for those who work in the businesses and shops at the heart of Exeter.

Pour out your Spirit on the City Centre Chaplaincy which serves them. Day by day may we celebrate your presence in our life together; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Exeter City Centre Chaplaincy Financial Statement

Summaryfor Year EndingDecember 2020	Summaryfor Year EndingDecember 2020	Summaryfor Year EndingDecember 2020

In hand on	5944.12

Income		Expenditure

Mint Methodist Church	500.00	Publicity	0.00
Quakers	240.00	Insurance	448.00
South Street Baptist	130.00	Lead Chaplains' expenses	145.82
Southernhay URC	400.00	Volunteer chaplains' expenses	125.90
S Sidwell and St Matthe	w 25.00	Events	60.00
Standing order	5.00	Information Comm Office DD	35.00
		Southernhay URC refund *	400.00
		Exeter Quakers refund *	220.00
		Administration	106.90

Total income	1300.00	Total expenditure	1541.62

		In hand on	5702.50
		includes £2500 in reserves

*** Indicates that due to sponsoring churches inability to meet and the curtailing of the Chaplaincy activities resulting in less demands upon funds, the trustees returned the donations to Southernhay United Reformed Church and Exeter Quakers for the fiscal year ending December 2020.**