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2026-03-31-accounts

Hardwick Evan elical Church g

Trustees' report 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026

Reference and Administrative details

Charity name Hardwick Christian Fellowship Other name the charity uses Hardwick Evangelical Church Registered charity number 1163049 Charity’s principal address Unit 17, Broadway House, 149-151 St. Neots Road Hardwick, CAMBRIDGE, CB23 7QJ Email address HardwickEvangelical@gmail.com Website HardwickEvangelicalChurch.co.uk

Structure, Governance and Management

The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation governed by constitution.

Every appointed charity trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a general meeting of the members of the CIO

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole year
1 Revd K Gaze Minister
2 Mrs E Instone-Brewer Secretary
3 Miss E Pamplin Treasurer
4 Dr S Gaze Trustee

Objectives of the charity

The objectives of the charity are the advancement of the Christian Faith and other charitable work focusing mainly on Hardwick and nearby villages, to the public benefit as defined in guidance issued by the Charity Commission.

Summary of the main activities of the charity

The church undertook the following activities and encouraged ordinary people to live out the faith as part of a local church through:

Details of the charity's activities

Financial review

At the end of the financial year 2025-2026, Net Current Assets were £142,097.

Receipts in the financial year amounted to £48,427 whilst payments amounted to £53,721. Full accounts have been prepared and submitted to the Charity Commission.

Receipts consisted predominantly of charitable giving from members and others who attend the church along with the Gift Aid tax recoverable on them. There were no significant gifts from individuals this year.

Payments include the salary of one part-time minister.

The charity seeks to maintain a minimum reserve of six months’ salaries and related costs and committed expenditure for rental of the office.

The trustees have no concerns regarding the charity as an ongoing concern.

Leadership Team

The Leadership Team is responsible for discerning the spiritual direction of the church and facilitating growth and development in Christ of church members and the wider community. The Leadership Team comprised the minister and three lay members. The team meets regularly roughly fortnightly, and in intervening weeks follow up with specific leadership duties (e.g. pastoral care, specific event planning, meeting with trustees). The range of meetings enable us to pray, discuss, plan, worship and learn together as a leadership team.

Trustees

The Trustee Team comprised the minister ( ex officio ), secretary and treasurer, with an added elected trustee. The general duties of the trustees are to ensure that the church continues to fulfil its aims as a charity by being included in the hands-on management of the church, and submitting an annual report to the Charity Commission. The trustees aim to meet together every month, sometimes with the leadership team to plan church business meetings and other practical matters, and sometimes alone to review the church’s policies.

Sunday morning services

We continue to meet regularly on Sunday mornings in Hardwick School for a church service 10.30am-12noon, for Young Church, and youth group, for worship, fellowship and teaching.

We continued to have Communion regularly, usually on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month.

We also run occasional all-age services which involve more sensory / craft activities, which are attended by several families from local villages.

We met in November with other churches west of Cambridge for our annual Joint Church Service.

Weekday Groups

Weekday groups have continued to meet during the year with a combination of online and in-person meetings for Bible study, prayer and mutual support.

Preaching

Preaching topics during the year included Women in the Bible, The Sermon on the Mount, Images of the Church in the Bible. Podcasts of talks can be accessed via the church website.

The Living Room

The Living Room has been useful for hosting various small group meetings, Coffee @ The Living Room, Craft @ The Living Room, Wednesday Bible Study. The room has also been used for other groups, and has become the preferred meeting place for the Joint Church Service planning group and the WCCYM (West Cambridge Christian Youth Ministries) Executive .

Community events

At Christmas time, we once again built a Life-Size Nativity scene outside Hardwick School, together with others from the community who helped with the construction and maintenance. There were about 300 people at the Carols on Christmas Eve at the Nativity scene. We also organised carol singing around the village with people from St Mary’s church.

In December, we provided 35 Christmas hampers for families in the village who needed them, along with some other community groups. The hampers are administered through the school, who identify families who would benefit from them. We do not know who the families are.

During term time, we facilitated the Baby and Toddler Group. This is not specifically a church activity (i.e. there is no Christian content), and remains a community group in its own right.

Kate Gaze continues to work on the allotments at Hardwick School with students from year 3 / 4.

Over the Easter period 2026, we set up Easter reflections based around a series of gardens, on the green outside the school.

Further afield, we have taken part in the Cambridge Mapping Project, which collected data from church in and around Cambridge to ascertain how churches were trying to meet the needs of their communities.

Churches working together for Hardwick

Since the start of Hardwick Evangelical Church, we have sought to be in good relationship with the congregation and leadership of St Mary’s Church, Hardwick, recognising that some of what we do is done more effectively as two distinct churches but there are also areas where it is more effective to work together. We continue to enjoy a good relationship, and Village Prayers continue to run as a joint venture on Wednesday mornings usually on Zoom but in-person in St Mary’s Cabin on the first Wednesday of the month.

In collaboration with WCCYM, we also presented “It’s Your Move” booklets to Year 6 students at the Hardwick campus of our local primary school.

Pippins (Community Café) has continued to run on the first Saturday of the month in the school hall. This is a joint venture between the two churches and the Community Association. This has proved immensely popular in the village – and beyond – and in June 2024 it celebrated its 10th ‘birthday’.

Working together for nearby villages

Through WCCYM and the annual Joint Church Service, we have many links with churches and Christians in nearby villages, across denominations. A lot of these contacts are centred around youth work but there are other very useful conversations that emerge from the relationships that are built.

As part of the Eastern Baptist Association (EBA), we have additional links with local Baptist Ministers who meet up every 2-3 months for prayer and support. We also meet as cluster churches three times a year for tea and a Service.

Online presence

For some years now, the church has had a website, YouTube channel and a Facebook page. We continue to publish news online for the local community and record our weekly sermons which are made available in podcast form for streaming or download.

Young Church

This year Young Church has continued to be co-ordinated by a skilled volunteer.

At the start of the year, we regularly had 6 children attending Young Church each week ranging from age 6-12 years. Due to the different needs of the children, we usually had 2 or 3 leaders helping each week. The high adult to child ratio allowed us to provide 1:1 support for those children who may need it. In January the 3 secondary school aged children transitioned from Young Church to Youth which has made Young Church a smaller, younger group. In recent months we have been pleased to have another family join us on a Sunday morning after links made through previous Allsorts sessions

and All age services. There are now usually 3-4 children who attend each week. Until a few weeks ago the Young Church would meet from 10.30am-11.40am, before joining the rest of church for a time of prayer and worship in the hall. Now we have changed the format so that the children start off in the main hall with the rest of church and then go out to their group part way through the service. This has made it easier for some of the children to be part of the worship team.

A typical Young Church session includes a welcome activity related to the week’s theme or something from the previous week, ‘God Spot’ (a time for everyone to share with others and thank God for the things he has done that week), a Bible story and snack, a related game, craft or other practical activity and discussion. We also take time for prayer and reflection encouraging the children to take time to listen to God as well as talk to him. The children often use individual journals to record this. We also have a ‘cosy corner’ set up in the room with a variety of fidget toys and sensory items, and offer movement breaks for the children who may need them.

Throughout the year we have mostly used Foundation Stones curriculum resources to support our planning. The session leader has then adapted these plans to meet the specific needs of the children in our group. From the end of April to July we completed a series on the disciples and thought about what it looks like for us to be followers of Jesus. Following this we have largely followed the themes from the preaching series with sessions on The Sermon on the Mount, Biblical Images of the Church and Old Testament Leaders. While our Young Church sessions sometimes have a slightly different focus to those from the preaching series we have seen benefits of following the same series as the rest of the church.

Community Outreach

At Christmas and Easter we held all age services which has helped us to maintain links with families who used to attend our Allsorts events. These services have received positive feedback from those who have attended and have been a good opportunity to continue to share the gospel message with people who don’t regularly attend church. We are hoping to hold another all age service in the summer term.

On 31st October some of our children’s work volunteers and Young Church children helped to run a Light Station in the village. This was our second year of doing this and it was again very well received by the many families who came along. The idea behind the Light Station, as we had learnt about during our Sermon on the Mount series, was to have members of our church being a visible, positive presence to families who were out celebrating Halloween. Rather than hiding away we wanted to represent God’s love and light to our community. We set up lots of lanterns that the children in Young Church had decorated and provided free hot drinks and refreshments for the adults and children. Rather than ‘trick or treat’ we offered ‘truth and treat’ giving families a bible story to take away as well as sweets, glow sticks and many other goodies. It was lovely to have opportunity to chat with lots of the families we already know from previous church events as well as many other families in the village.

Youth Work

This year has seen three of the young people from Young Church move to Youth. This means that we regularly have five young people attending, with a couple of others who occasionally attend. We continue to run youth sessions on most Sundays during the main service, and with the slightly bigger spread of ages now, we will sometimes split into two smaller groups within that for part of the session. Themes have often followed the sermon series, including the Sermon on the Mount, Communion, different images to describe the Church and Judges. We are pleased to be preparing for a baptism for one of the young people this July.

At the end of the last academic year in July, with representatives from WCCYM, St Mary’s Church, our children’s work coordinator and a young person doing work experience with WCCYM, we ran a session for Year 6 pupils in Hardwick Primary School, to give out the ‘It’s Your Move’ Scripture Union books and do some activities to help prepare them for secondary school. We have the same session planned for early July this year.

Our partnership with WCCYM has continued, providing additional regular youth work activities for young people to get involved in, which young people in our church have come to. These activities have included:

We continue to rely on volunteers for our church youth work as well as helping with WCCYM activities, and are so grateful for the time they give to preparing and running activities, and the interest they take in the young people. We are also very thankful to those who provided food for the WCCYM youth service twice in the year.

Safeguarding

The church has two experienced Safeguarding leads, one having a focus on children and young people, and one having a focus on adults. They are responsible for updating any DBS checks that are needed, which is done through Thirtyone:eight. They are also responsible for updating the policy and any associated Safeguarding procedures for the church. The church Safeguarding policy is scheduled to be updated in June 2026.

Mission Links

Our current Mission Links are:

The church supports these Missions by annual financial giving.

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the above report.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Liz Pamplin Treasurer 28[th] August 2026

Enid Instone-Brewer Secretary 28[th] August 2026

HARDWICK EVANGELICAL CHURCH

INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

For the year ended 31 March 2026

1
Income
A
Gifts - Regular giving
B
Gifts - Youth Work (R)
C
Gift Aid tax refund
D
Outreach - Community Hub
D1
Outreach special projects
D2
Charitable activities - Toddler Group
E
Interest
F
Online fundraising
G
Other income
Total Income
2
Expenditure
A
Payroll:
1
Minister
2
Children & Families Worker
3
Youth Worker
B
Church Activities:
1
Church leadership
2
Children & Families' work
3
Youth work (R)
4
Pastoral
5
Welfare
6
Outreach - Community Hub
6b
Outreach special projects
6c
Charitable activities - Toddler Group
7
Event costs
8
Special Services & Speakers
9
Mission giving
C
Administration:
1
Fees & affiliations
2
Office / Living room
3
Equipment
4
Training & resources
5
Bookkeeping
6
Recruitment
7
Sundry
Total Expenditure
Net expenditure over Income		 ACTUAL
BUDGET
VARIANCE
£
£
£
34,300
34,356
(56)
300
300
0
6,600
6,200
400
1,100
0
1,100
719
0
719
831
0
831
4,428
4,900
(472)
149
120
29
0
0
0
48,427
45,876
2,551
28,199
28,483
284
0
20,000
20,000
0
0
0
28,199
48,483
20,284
661
1,300
639
303
1,000
697
128
700
572
0
300
300
0
250
250
0
0
0
1,862
1,500
(362)
831
0
(831)
2,072
2,500
428
574
500
(74)
5,000
4,950
(50)
11,430
13,000
1,570
2,309
1,200
(1,109)
9,405
9,000
(405)
248
500
252
548
1,000
452
1,361
1,400
39
138
500
362
82
0
(82)
14,091
13,600
(491)
53,721
75,083
21,362
(5,294)
(29,207)
23,913		 2025
£
32,757
435
12,290
1,392
840
1,037
4,162
146
250
53,309
26,988
250
27,238
802
507
237
0
13
107
1,639
885
2,122
250
5,250
11,812
1,061
8,873
239
1,303
1,502
100
0
13,078
52,128
1,181

NB: Negative figures are shown as red and in brackets

Movement in Cash Funds:
CAF Current Account
Higher Interest Bank A/c
United Trust Bank
Kingdom Bank:
Total*		 Balance at 1-
4-25
Income
Expenditure
21,449
44,027
(53,721)
21,075
380
52,436
2,853
52,431
1,167
147,391
48,427
(53,721)		 Transfers
Balance at 31-
3-26
11,755
21,455
55,289
53,598
0
142,097

* adjusted for accruals & prepayments

Notes to the accounts:

Income - exceeded Budget by £2,551

Budgeted income came in on Budget this year with the £1,720 excess being made up of the community hub grants, hamper contributions and recharge of room hire none of which are part of the Budget.

Expenditure - an underspend of £21,362 against Budget.

Overall, a deficit of £5,294 for the year.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF HARDWICK EVANGELICAL CHURCH I report on the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2026 which are set out on pages I to 7 of the Financial Statements. Respectlve responslbilities of the PCC and the Examiner The Charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The Charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144121 of the Charities Act 2011 Ithe 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act, follow procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners section 14515llbl of the 2011 Act, and state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Basis of the Independent Examinels Ststement My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from the PCC committee concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be reqtjired in 3 full audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair, view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. Independent Examiners Statement In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements to keep accounting records in accordance with section 103 of the 2011 act, or, to prepare accounts which accord with these accounting records have not been met. Or, to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Martin Lee 44 Anson Road Cambourne Date: