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2022-12-31-accounts

The Gathering - Cardiff A Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registered Charity 1168154 Company Number CE007824 Established as a Church Community 20[th] November 2011. Registered as a Charity 11[th] July 2016

Annual Report 2022

For the period between 1[st] January 2022 and 31[st] December 2022

Welcome from our Pastoral Leaders

Croeso! Welcome! We are so grateful to all the folks who have been a part of the journey of the Gathering over the last ten years, and to you now, for taking the time to read this report which celebrates all that has been achieved by the Gathering in 2022.

The Gathering began in November 2011, gathering together a small group of people who longed for the church to be accepting of all, and who were looking for a safe space to worship God regardless of our sexuality or gender identity. We met for the first time at City United Reformed Church in Cardiff and have met every Sunday evening since, growing in numbers and in influence within the LGBTQI+ community in South Wales and beyond.

As an LGBTQI+ focused and inclusive church, we are known for being a key partner in LGBTQI+ projects and have assisted other churches in their desire to become inclusive spaces of LGBTQI+ people. Our growing online presence offers YouTube videos and podcasts with talks on being LGBTQI+ and Christian and our website has become a resource for LGBTQI+ Christians and church leaders.

The Gathering has four volunteer Pastoral Leaders from various Christian backgrounds and denominations. They lead the weekly acts of worship and are available to the congregation and others to provide pastoral support. We also have a Church Link Worker, who is responsible for making links between the wider church and the Gathering and supporting church leaders in making their churches more inclusive, as well as a further group of trustees who support the work of the gathering in many ways. An LGBTQI+ Community Link Worker was appointed in September 2022 for one year and more on their work below.

We thank you for being a part of our journey, and for your support in reading this annual report.

Revd Delyth Liddell Pastoral Leader and Chair of Trustees

L-R: Dr Nici Lintern-Gittens, Samuel Johnston, Revd. Delyth Liddell, G Tanswell.

The Gathering - Cardiff. Annual Report 2022 www.thegatheringcardiff.org

Who are our trustees?

Our trustees at the beginning of the financial year (1[st] January 2022) were (in order of date of appointment) :

*RG’s identity has been omitted from this report following granting of a dispensation by the Charity Commission.

Iain Scott resigned as a Pastoral Leader and Trustee effective 1[st] April 2022.

Following consultation, it was agreed that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, our existing elected trustees hadn’t had an opportunity to contribute as much as they would have liked to the growth of our organisation, and so it was agreed that all current elected trustees would exceptionally be offered an additional 3-year term should they choose to take that up. Of the 2 remaining trustees whose term would have ended in 2022, both opted to remain a trustee, and therefore their term of office was extended until 2025. Following an election at our Annual Church Meeting, Becky Bennett-Wilding was elected as a trustee from 16[th] October 2022 for a 3-year term.

Samuel Johnson was also elected to the role of Deputy Chair of the Trustees.

As at 31[st] December 2022 our trustees are (in order of date of appointment) :

The Gathering - Cardiff. Annual Report 2022 www.thegatheringcardiff.org

Our charitable objects

The objects of The Gathering - Cardiff are for the public benefit in South Wales, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, ability, age, faith or ethnicity, with a particular focus on the LGBT+ community by providing a secure and safe environment for them to advance the Christian faith in accordance with our statement of faith; and the promotion of equality and diversity by:

(Nothing in our constitution shall authorise an application of the property of The Gathering for the purposes which are not charitable in accordance with Section 7 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and Section 2 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008.)

Our Statement of Faith

The Gathering - Cardiff. Annual Report 2022 www.thegatheringcardiff.org

Lets get some admin out of the way…

Attendance

During 2022, The Gathering – Cardiff continued to offer weekly worship in-person and with options for online attendance and interaction.

Each of our Sunday evening services were attended by an average of 18 people, meaning that we provided the opportunity for people to worship and explore their faith for a total of 104 hours for 965 attendees during 2022. This is excluding the work that was done in the Faith Tent or in our inclusive Bible Studies.

Social Media Engagement

Through our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, we reached over 4,500 users per month during 2022.

Banking

As of 31[st] December 2022, The Gathering – Cardiff held cash assets with:

Organisational Accountability

As of 31[st] December 2022, The Gathering - Cardiff hold the following professional registrations:

Charity Commission of England and Wales: 1168154 Information Commissioners Office: ZB410053 Christian Copyright Licencing International: 651680 (Copyright Licence) 187116 (Streaming Licence) His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs: EW50100

The Gathering - Cardiff. Annual Report 2022 www.thegatheringcardiff.org

What did we do during 2022?

We spent the year in hybrid worship, attempting to balance the needs of those who could only meet online and those who were back in person. This we did using Zoom and our Mevo cameras which showed what was happening in the room. The sound quality was not the best and we experienced many technological glitches, especially with the worship songs, but we persevered because we felt that it was important to keep the links with the online community.

Accessibility has always been at the forefront of our thinking and, when the upper room of the City URC became inaccessible due to the building’s lift being out of action, we moved the worship into the church sanctuary. While this changed the location of the worship, the style and format remained the same. With an open, relaxed feel to the worship, people who attend can feel at home to engage with as little or as much of the service as they choose. They are invited to sit or stand for the worship hymns, to sing or not to sing, to listen to the discussions or to take part fully. Online, the Zoom breakout rooms had the same feel, with folks being welcome to take part in the discussion or simply listen. Many of those attending The Gathering will have had experiences of going to churches where they were ‘made’ to sing or do things that they were not necessarily comfortable with, and indeed may have caused trauma, so enabling people to engage with the worship on their terms is particularly important to us.

Our weekly services covered topics such as, ‘How can we see God more clearly in our lives?’ and other topics that centred around discipleship, reflections on The Church of England’s Lambeth Conference of 2022 which discussed human sexuality, and following the church year including Lent, Easter, Advent and Christmas. We held a Good Friday walk, reflecting on the stations of the cross, to Llandaff Cathedral and we took part in carol singing in the city centre at Christmas. We also reflected on key events going on the world around us, including praying for Ukraine as the war broke out there in February 2022 and upon the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. We held a service, as we do every year, for Transgender Day of Remembrance in November. One of the highlights of the worship during the year was the baptism of one of our members, who had come to a place of wanting to make a commitment to God through his attendance at The Gathering. We were also privileged to welcome Brandan Robertson as a guest speaker, online from Washington DC. Brandan is a renowned Christian LGBTQI speaker and author and a great friend of The Gathering.

The support of the members from The Gathering has always been crucial to the work that we do, and the opportunity to finally be able to claim Gift Aid on donations has meant that we have been able to use further financial resources. We invested in ChurchSuite, an app that helps enormously with our administration, enabling us to keep in touch with our members, organise rotas for all that people offer to do (eg supporting with the technology and leading worship), note our attendance figures and channel any donations.

Early in 2022, we launched our podcast series, ‘The Gathering at 10 years’ reflecting on our ten years of existence and speaking to different members of The Gathering about their faith and journey as an LGBTQ+ Christian. Then, towards the end of the year, we ran another series ‘Queer and Christian,’ which focused on issues such as homophobia and transphobia, conversion therapy, church-based discrimination and HIV stigmatisation with a guest appearance from Rev Jide Macauley.

Pride season was on us before we knew it, and with representation at Pride Cymru in Cardiff, Pride in the Port in Newport and Barry Pride we were pleased to be able to support each of them. The Faith Tent at PrideCymru was back after the pandemic and we filled it with Messy Pride activities for children and used posters with QR codes linking to the videos of our members talking about being LGBTQI+ and Christian. The conversations that we had with Pride-goers were fantastic, as they were at both Barry Pride and Pride in the Port where we had stalls, and we were able to show people that you can indeed be LGBTQI+ and Christian, and that they are loved and valued.

The Gathering - Cardiff. Annual Report 2022 www.thegatheringcardiff.org

In April, we said goodbye and thank you to one of our Pastoral Leaders, Iain Scott, who had been with us from the beginning, and in September, we were delighted to appoint our full-time member of staff, an LGBTQI+ Community Link Worker, Georgia Day. This position was a one year project, in partnership with, and with funding provided by, The Methodist Church. Georgia quickly got to work, organising socials for The Gathering community, reaching out to the LGBTQI+ community, and pitching an idea for a community film to Iris Prize which began a partnership with Iris to write, film and produce a film about the challenges of being LGBTQI+ and Christian. This film will be filmed and edited in 2023 and will hopefully be ready for a premiere in November 2023.

Looking forward to 2023

Georgia, our LGBTQI+ Community Link worker, is already working hard on developing a Queer Theology 101 course for those who want to delve deeper into the theology of being LGBTQI+ and Christian, and is in the process of writing the developing the script for the Iris film, due to be filmed and produced in 2023. The work of the podcasts, socials, and general worshipping life of The Gathering continues, as does our involvement with Prides in South Wales. We are excited about what we can achieve this year with a full-time member of staff and are looking forward to 2023.

Ways you can contribute to our work

We are always glad of any support that people can offer us, whether that be through prayer, fellowship, joining in with us on a Sunday evening, or giving financially to help to fund our work. Here are a few methods that you can contribute to our work financially.

You can make one-off or regular donations by Credit/Debit Card or Direct Debit using our MyChurchSuite platform.

We have a PayPal account which can receive payments by sending the payment to mail@thegatheringcardiff.org

Or we are partnered with PayPal Giving Fund who also claim Gift Aid through their donations. https://www.paypal.com/gb/ fundraiser/charity/3233746

We are registered on the Facebook Donate platform, and so anyone can begin a fundraiser there to raise money for The Gathering – Cardiff.

We are registered with the Charities Aid Foundation where you can donate online or using a CAF Voucher.

The Gathering - Cardiff. Annual Report 2022 www.thegatheringcardiff.org

The Gathering Cardiff
Charity Name		 The Gathering Cardiff
Charity Name		 The Gathering Cardiff
Charity Name		 The Gathering Cardiff
Charity Name		 The Gathering Cardiff
Charity Name		 1168154
No (if any)		 1168154
No (if any)		 1168154
No (if any)		 CC16a
For the period
from		 01.01.22
Period start date		 To 31.12.22
Period end date
Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts Unrestricted
funds
to the nearest £
2,744
1,804
261
-
15
55
-
97		 Restricted
funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Endowment
funds
to the nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-		 Total funds
to the nearest £
2,744
1,804
261
-
15
55
-
97
245
5,221
-
-
-		 Last year
to the nearest £
Direct Giving 2,744 - - 2,744 2,402
Donation 1,804 - - 1,804 100
Clothing (Paypal) 261 - - 261 -
Facebook - - - - 270
Gift Aid 15 - - 15
Amazon Smile Donations 55 - - 55 82
Grant(Arnold Clarke) - - - - 1,000
Donations(Paypal) 97 - - 97 -
Paypal startingbalance for 2022 245 - - 245 -
Sub total(Gross income for
AR)
5,221		 - - 5,221 3,854
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
None -
-
 -
~~Sub total~~ - -
Total receipts
A3 Payments
5,221 3,854
38
101
856
35
-
-
416
198
802
317
677
21
5
3,467
125
-
125
3,592
1,630
-
10,970
Website Fees 38 -
PAYE Software Fees 101 101
Salary 856 2,470
General GatheringExpenses 35 50
GatheringOnline Conference - 2,100
StreamingLicences - 117
LGBT+ Worker Equipment and Expenses 416 -
Churchsuite 198 -
Clothing 802 -
Pin Badges 317 -
Pride 677 -
Clothing (Paypal) 21 -
Paypal fees 5 -
**Sub total ** 3,467 4,838
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)

Wifi Router and Data SIM Card		 125 - - 125 -
Pod Cast Microphone - - - - 86
**Sub total ** 125 - - 125 86
Total payments
Net of receipts/(payments)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash funds this year end
4,924
1,630 1,630 - 1,070
- - -
10,443 10,970 11,675
12,073 12,600 10,605

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

29/08/2023

1

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use
B1 Cash funds
B2 Other monetary assets
B5 Liabilities
B3 Investment assets		 TV
Laptop
None
Cables
Mevo Live Camera (and accessories)
Wifi Router
Details
Signature
Sound System
Projector Stand
Bank Balance(Barclays)
Paypal Balance
Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
None
Details
Details
None
Details
Leaflet Holders
Computer Monitor
Pod Cast Microphone
TV Stand
Laptop
Projector		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
to nearest £
11,496
527
577
-
-
-
12,073
527
OK
OK
Unrestricted
f
d
Restricted
f
d
to nearest £
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
Unrestricted
£38.00
Unrestricted
£20.00
Unrestricted
£190.00
Unrestricted
£125.00
Unrestricted
£400.00
Unrestricted
£230.00
Unrestricted
£269.00
Unrestricted
£95.00
Unrestricted
£126.00
Restricted
£572.00
Restricted
£85.97
Unrestricted
£125.00
Unrestricted
£0.00
Fund to which
~~liability relates~~
Amount due
~~(optional)~~
-
-
-
Print Name
Nici Lintern-Gittens
Gareth Tanswell		 Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Endowment
f
d
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
£0.00
£0.00
£106.00
£73.99
£0.00
£121.99
£137.60
£37.96
£62.40
£467.56
£69.78
£125.00
£0.00
When due
~~(optional)~~
Date of
approval
Nici Lintern-Gittens 29-Aug-23
Gareth Tanswell 29-Aug-23

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

29/08/2023

2