Rosedale Community Church Part of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion
Annual Report for April 2022 – March 2023, presented at the AGM on 13[th] June 2023
Rosedale Community Church (Rosedale) became a charity on 19[th] October 2016. This is the sixth annual report.
Aims and Objectives
Rosedale’s mission statement has been:
Rosedale Community Church, is a Christ centred community dedicated to impacting Cheshunt, our nation and beyond with the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
But even after all these years most people could not recall the entire sentence and so we have simplified it to the summary phrase of being: a Christ-Centred Community
We are committed to:
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providing Christian education and spiritual support to the congregation and the community.
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providing pastoral care to the congregation and the community.
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providing a venue for community groups.
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supporting charities and mission both in the UK and overseas as we are able.
Christian Education and Spiritual Support
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Over the past year Rosedale has met weekly for public worship and the preaching of the scripture. There is a weekly Sunday School for primary school children and youth work for teenagers.
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Bible studies and prayer meetings take place regularly on Zoom and in person.
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Other one-off events or short courses have also been provided.
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We provided a very popular Easter Nativity Workshop.
Pastoral Care
Sheila Woods is our named lead for pastoral care although the duties are shared among the members. This has included home and hospital visits, assisting with meals, prayer and informal counsel.
We have a couple of congregational members who are still isolating in their homes and so we remain in contact with them., mostly by phone or Zoom.
Community Engagement
In April 2020 The Broxbourne Coronavirus Community Partnership was formed with Rosedale Community Church as one of the initial members. We continue to engage with them and be part of the recovery for our local area.
Although several community groups returned to once again use our hall, several of them have since cancelled their hall hire due to lack of funding. We currently host:
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The One YMCA Family Centre.
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Senior Fitness Class run by Stevenage Football Club.
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Hearts for Herts Food Pantry and craft café.
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Slow Cooker course
In addition, we provide the following groups open to all in the community:
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Young at Heart - for seniors.
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Parent & Toddler group.
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Walks for Wellbeing
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Warm Welcome Space
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Bethany Burrage has been invited to share in the assemblies and lessons for two local primary schools. Andrews Lane nursery attended the church for their Christingle service.
Charity and Mission Support
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At Christmas we provided eight food hampers to individuals in need.
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In September we sent 60 shoe bags, containing gifts and essentials, to Sierra Leone.
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We continue to be a partner church with Open Doors and support children through Compassion .
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We collect grocery items to donate those in need either directly or through the local Food Bank.
Financial donations have been given to the following charities:
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The Connexion Mission Fund
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Sierra Leone Mission
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Compassion UK
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Open Doors
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Tearfund
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Jews for Jesus
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Mission Aviation Fellowship
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Message Trust
Esther and Bethany Burrage are members of the of the Sierra Leone Mission Committee.
Strategy
In order to fulfil our goal to be a Christ-Centred Community providing spiritual help and support to our congregational members we focus on three areas:
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Encouraging encounter with the Lord through prayer.
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Encouraging growth in discipleship through training and teaching.
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Encouraging growth in our witness through outreach and evangelism.
The prayer line continues to be a valued resource and participation which has increased this past year. In January we held a week of prayer and fasting. In the Autumn of 2022 and early Spring 2023 we offered two short courses entitled ‘Questions of Faith’ to help those who desire to know more about the Christian faith. As part of our Warm Welcome we also offer a weekly Communion to those who wish to participate. Outreach and evangelism has mainly taken the form of one-to-one conversations during our community activities.
Church Family
Our congregation continues to grow slowly through the addition of new attendees and families. Although it is rare for all our members to be in church at the same time, on special occasions, such as Christmas and Easter, we are usually full with little room left for visitors. This is likely to be an issue we will need to address in the next year or two.
Last July we were delighted to be able to hold a baptism service. We were sad to say goodbye for now to dear Rose Barton who died just before her 100[th] birthday.
Ecumenical Relationships
Rosedale is part of the local Churches Together group.
During the year we joined Wormley Free Church for our Good Friday service, a summer picnic and our Harvest Celebration. We have also developed strong links with Life Church, Cuffley, and worked together for their Speakers Corner course. Bethany is also a member of the Enfield Minister’s Breakfast .
Bethany Burrage is a member of the Board of Trustees of Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexions providing a valuable link with our covering denomination. In that role she is also a Governor of the Cheshunt Foundation .
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Building & Garden Refurbishment
It has now been two years since the Borough of Broxbourne Council refurbished the building. However there are still outstanding issues that have not been resolved. We continue to request a completion of the work.
The Community Garden has been very well received. It was officially opened as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations on 3[rd] June 2022 when a tree was planted in her Majesty’s Honour and almost 100 people attended our garden party. Since then the Gardening Club has continued the wonderful work of caring for the garden. It provides a lovely haven for our neighbourhood and there are many children and adults who enjoy wandering around the features. Several times during year the volunteers have taken trips out together to visit other gardens.
Financial Concerns
Following the ending of lockdown restrictions, we were expecting that many of our community groups would return to pre-pandemic levels. Unfortunately, that did not occur and the following economic slowdown appears to have impacted charities and groups further. Rental income has been considerably lower than anticipated and this has caused significant hardship, including the fact that we had to reduce Bethany’s hours to part-time from December 2022-March 2023.
We are being given assistance by the Connexion to pay the hall rent for 2023-2024 but we are actively looking at what we can do to increase our income.
However, we praise God that our church congregation have been incredibly generous and we were able to access grants from:
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The Connexion to support Joel Allaby.
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The Hertfordshire Community Foundation for our Warm Welcome.
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Churches Together for our Warm Welcome.
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The Locality Budget for our Community Garden, Youth Camp and Young at Heart Christmas dinner.
Employment Issues
Bethany Burrage (was Green) is our permanent employee.
Joel Allaby was our paid part-time Leadership Intern until January 2023 when he moved to a placement at Bolney Chapel.
Yvette Bliss has been employed this year as our building manager for four hours per week. In July 2022 Dorrett Taylor began employment as our cleaner for two hours per week.
Structure, governance and management
Rosedale Community Church (CIO) members are the leadership team of the church and elected by those in fellowship.
Leadership Intern Joel Allaby was a valued part of our leadership team until January 2023. Likewise, we were thrilled that Becky Green, was part of our team until September 2022 when she left for University.
Sheila Woods has been a key leader at Rosedale for the past 20+ years. She is now in the process of retiring from our leadership team. We are delighted that Barbara Duker has joined us.
The leadership team currently includes:
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Simon Climer (Chair of the Trustees, Employee Administrator)
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Sheila Woods (Trustee and Pastoral Care leader)
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Bethany Burrage (Pastor, Trustee, Safeguarding Co-ordinator, Health & Safety Co-ordinator, Treasurer & Book Keeping)
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Titi Adenuga
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Dorrett Taylor
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Lynn Sobczak (Minutes Secretary)
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Barbara Duker
The following policies have been reviewed to ensure that they are up to date and fit for purpose:
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GDPR
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Safeguarding
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Health and Safety
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Volunteers
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Financial procedures
Health and Safety
Health and Safety remains a priority and all the weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual checks continue to be completed. The topic is regularly included in our Trustees and Members meetings.
General Data Protection Regulations
In compliance with the GDPR we maintain good practise and follow our policy with regard to the signed agreements from all our members regarding the use of their personal data. Our newsletters are delivered by e-mail through MailChimp which permits the receiver to ‘unsubscribe’ as they choose.
Safeguarding
Rosedale is covered by the Connexions membership to the advisory service ThirtyOne:Eight and receives regular updates and news. All policies and procedures have been reviewed and updated where required. Safeguarding Training has been provided to our volunteers either through a Zoom webinar, in-person training or the equivalent training from their own organisations. There has not been any safeguarding concerns this year.
The members of Rosedale (CIO) have met regularly over the past year either in person or via Zoom and minutes have been taken.
The trustees hold meetings as necessary, and in accordance with our constitution also make decisions by e- mail and phone. We would like to appoint at least one, possibly two, new trustees.
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Receipts and Payments Accounts Rosedale Community Church
Charity Number: 1169778
For the period from 01/04/2022 to 31/03/2023
Section A : Receipts and Payments
| Section A : Receipts and Payments | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts | Unrestricted Funds | Restricted Funds | Total Funds | Last Year |
| Offering& Donations | £3,538.00 | £145.00 | £3,683.00 | £4,069.00 |
| Gift Aid Offerings | £19,523.00 | £40.00 | £19,563.00 | £16,540.00 |
| Gift Aid Small Donations | £5,546.00 | £470.00 | £6,016.00 |
£2,803.00 |
| Grants | £8,182.00 | £8,182.00 |
£13,715.00 |
|
| Rent | £9,503.00 | £9,503.00 | £8,029.00 |
|
| SundryReceipts | £7,819.00 | £7,819.00 | £4,545.00 |
|
| Youngat Heart | £2,238.00 | £2,238.00 |
£1,730.00 |
|
| Parent & Toddler | £1,491.00 | £1,491.00 | £762.00 |
|
| Total Receipts | £45,929.00 | £12,566.00 | £58,495.00 |
£52,193.00 |
| Payments | Unrestricted Funds | Restricted Funds | Total Funds | Last Year |
| Minister & Manse | £23,102.00 | £23,102.00 | £27,065.00 |
|
| LeadershipIntern | £1,894.00 | £6,865.00 | £8,759.00 |
£5,770.00 |
| Hall RunningCosts | £16,071.00 | £16,071.00 | £14,463.00 |
|
| Church Overheads | £2,479.00 | £2,479.00 | £1,732.00 |
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| Mission | £2,810.00 | £624.00 | £3,434.00 | £3,447.00 |
| Garden | £2,718.00 | £2,718.00 | £177.00 |
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| Warm Welcome | £609.00 | £609.00 | £0.00 |
|
| Youngat Heart | £1,918.00 | £1,918.00 | £798.00 |
|
| Parent & Toddler | £730.00 | £730.00 | £292.00 |
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| Discipleship& Evangelism | £579.00 | £579.00 | £365.00 |
|
| Children & Youth | £125.00 | £125.00 | £164.00 |
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| LocalityBudget | £566.00 | £566.00 | £145.00 |
|
| Total Payments | £47,060.00 | £14,030.00 | £61,090.00 | £54,418.00 |
| Net of Receipts/(Payments) | -£1,131.00 | -£1,464.00 | -£2,595.00 | -£2,225.00 |
| Transfer between funds | £2,500.00 | £400.00 |
||
| Cash funds lastyear end | £9,244.00 | |||
| Cash funds thisyear end | £6,649.00 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at 31st March 2023
| Unrestricted Funds | Restricted Funds | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash Funds: | ||
| Cash | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Bank CommunityAccount | £3,831.00 | £2,818.00 |
| Bank Business Premium Account | £295.00 | |
| Total cash funds (agree balance with receipts & payments accounts) |
£4,126.00 | £2,818.00 |
| Other monetaryassets | ||
| Investment assets | ||
| Assets retained for church use | ||
| Liabilities | ||
| Date of approval Print Name Signed by one trustee on behalf of all th Signature |
e trustees | |
| Bethany Burrage | ||
| 03.11.23 |
The below form part of this statement
Notes to Financial Statements at 31st March 2022 Note 1: Account Policies:
The Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 on the Receipts and Payments basis. Note 2: Restricted Funds:
| Fund Name | Balance at 31/03/2021 | Receipts in year | Payments in year | Transfers Restricted to Unrestricted |
Balance at 31/3/2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Youngat Heart | £2,126.00 | £2,238.00 |
£1,918.00 |
£1,000.00 |
£1,446.00 |
| Mission(SLM Trip) | £113.00 | £31.00 |
£0.00 |
£144.00 | |
| Mission(other) | £0.00 | £624.00 |
£624.00 |
£0.00 | |
| LeadershipIntern | £1,270.00 | £5,595.00 |
£6,865.00 |
£0.00 | |
| LocalityGrant | £55.00 | £600.00 |
£567.00 |
£60.00 |
£28.00 |
| Garden | £2,823.00 | £338.00 |
£2,718.00 |
£443.00 | |
| Parent & Toddler | £296.00 | £1,491.00 | £730.00 | £600.00 | £457.00 |
| Grants for Warm Welcome | £500.00 | £200.00 | £300.00 | ||
| Hertfordshire CF | £1,250.00 | £410.00 | £840.00 | £0.00 | |
| Totals | £6,683.00 | £12,667.00 |
£14,032.00 |
£2,500.00 |
£2,818.00 |
| Agree Balance with Receipts and Payments Accounts - Yes |
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