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← Watch (Women And The Church)

2025-06-30-accounts

WATCH (Women and the Church) CIO

CIO Accounts and Trustees Report

30 June 2025

Registered Charity number 1171267

WATCH CIO Accounts & Trustee Report to June 30, 2025

WATCH (Women and the Church) CIO

Trustees Report for the year ended 30 June 2025

The Trustees have pleasure in presenting their report, together with the accounts for the year ended 30 June 2025.

Registered address

14 Ashford Close

Fordingbridge

Hampshire

SP6 1DH

Trustees

The Trustees during the year were as follows:

Martine Oborne (Chair) Kristin Breuss (Vice Chair) Jennifer Thomas (Vice Chair) Peggy Jackson (Treasurer) Georgia Ashwell Yvonne Clarke Mike Firbank Sue Hammersley

Mary Kells Helen King - resigned 22 May 2025 Naomi Nixon - resigned 16 June 2025 Jane Oldham

Cathy Rhodes – coopted 21 October 2024; resigned 30 June 2025 Lizzie Taylor - coopted 21 October 2024

The appointment of additional trustees is considered on a regular basis. There is a 1/3 annual rotation. In addition to the above listed trustees, Claire Creese is the WATCH Secretary and an Officer of the CIO.

Objectives and Activities

The objects of the charity for the public benefit are the promotion of gender equality and diversity within the Church of England as experienced by both lay and ordained people. This is sought through

The Charity was registered with the Charity Commission on 24 January 2017 with the registered number 1171267

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WATCH CIO Accounts & Trustee Report to June 30, 2025

WATCH (Women and the Church) CIO

Trustees Report for the year ended 30 June 2025

  1. The trustees have continued to be active through the year in each of the following areas of work, identified in the Strategic Action Plan adopted in 2023:

  2. To raise awareness of ongoing discrimination and sexism and to support and promote the well-being of women in the Church

  3. To respond to appointments and actions that impact on the flourishing of women in the Church

  4. To monitor the outworking of the Five Guiding Principles (5GPs) and 2014 House of Bishops Declaration

  5. To work for transparency about limits that some churches place on women’s ministry

  6. To broaden our membership, both lay and ordained

  7. To improve communications

  8. To develop liturgy, theology and general language of the Church

In pursuance of these:

  1. The trustees have clarified their belief that it is time to find a generous way to bring to and end the arrangements set out in the Five Guiding Principles and House of Bishops Declaration of 2014. Under the heading of the “Not Equal Yet” campaign, they have continued to investigate possible strategies, by which this can be achieved, for the sake of the wellbeing of women in the church, and to restore the unity of the Church of England.

  2. Opportunity was taken in October 2024 to precede the AGM with two public presentations, in furtherance of the Not Equal Yet campaign: Dr Sharon Jagger presented her research into the harmful effect of gendered power, abuse and non-transparency in the Church; and Revd Preb. Dr Sarah Schofield related the Five Guiding Principles to wider issues of institutional discrimination.

  3. A second Not Equal Yet Conference was held, online and at St John’s Church Waterloo, on 29[th] March 2025, with keynote speakers: Rt Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Bishop of Croydon, the Revd Dr Liz Shercliff and the Revd Dr Leah Robinson.

  4. Following the Conference, the first of a series of diocesan ‘roadshows’ was held, for women in Southwark Diocese, to discover their experience in practice of the operation of the Five Guiding Principles, and discuss ways to address common concerns. The trustees aim to replicate this in the current year, with further ‘roadshows’ in other dioceses.

  5. In July 2024, WATCH co-hosted with Student Christian Movement a General Synod fringe event, furthering the Honest Church project, aimed at improving transparency in churches and organisations across the church. And throughout the year, WATCH has continued to be in conversation with other inclusive organisations, including NADAWM (National Association of Diocesan Advisers on Women’s Ministry) ~~.~~

  6. During the year, the Trustees undertook a major review of WATCH’s communications policy and presentation strategy. A new website was commissioned, and a new social media strategy put in place, to enable WATCH to reach a wider audience, and respond effectively to

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WATCH CIO Accounts & Trustee Report to June 30, 2025

relevant issues arising in the church. As part of this a new mailing list was launched for nonWATCH members, which currently has just under 100 subscribers.

  1. Liturgy Online, a new initiative in 2023 to promote inclusive language worship, has continued to attract an appreciative following throughout this year. A Liturgy-Writing Workshop in September 2024 was followed up by a further four Liturgy Online sessions on the theme of Wisdom during the different liturgical seasons.

  2. A subcommittee of trustees reviewed WATCH’s current spending commitments, and on their recommendation, a number of financial adjustments were made, to help realign WATCH’s spending with its future sustainable income. Further details are found in the Treasurer’s report.

  3. Martine Oborne (Chair of WATCH) and Yvonne Clarke (WATCH trustee) continued to serve on the Transformations Steering Group (TSG) which reports to the College of Bishops, and on the Transformations Research and Implementation Group (TRIG), a sub group of TSG, until these were suspended pending a restructuring of the work of both these groups.

Report on Membership:

During the year the work of membership administration was moved from being a separate role, to be incorporated, with book-keeping, into the role of Treasurer. This has brought savings benefits in terms of both time and money.

75 new members joined WATCH in the year to 30[th] June 2025. We were notified sadly of the deaths of 11 members, whose names included some of the earliest and most stalwart of our members; and 22 members terminated their membership. The total of current subscribing members at 30[th] June 2025 stood at 643.

Financial Report - Treasurer

I have pleasure in presenting the Treasurer’s report for the year ended 30 June 2025, together with a Report from the Independent Examiner.

Income during this year was boosted by two non-recurring items: (a) a legacy gift of £5,000 by Canon Robert Cotton, from the estate of his mother, the Revd Margaret Cotton, one of the first women to be priested in 1994 and a stalwart supporter of WATCH; and (b) the recovery of four past years of Gift Aid tax on members’ subscriptions paid other than through the Charities Aid Foundation.

The Not Equal Yet Conference in March 2025 was able once again to attract a generous sponsorship, £10,000, which enabled it to generate a surplus of £3,291. This will be carried forward to support the continuing activity around the Not Equal Yet campaign.

The trustees have made significant efforts during this year to rebalance WATCH’s expenditure commitments, to ensure that committed expenses in future is adequately covered by regular income. Cost reductions were made, particularly to administration and committee expenses, and a decision to pause for this year the publication of Outlook magazine in hard copy. As a result, we

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WATCH CIO Accounts & Trustee Report to June 30, 2025

now have secure finances, and are able to plan for the future, drawing chiefly on appropriate designated reserves.

There were no research projects in progress this year, which would have needed to draw on our two available funds: the Hodel-Jones Legacy and the balance from funds restricted to Transformations/TRIG related research. Trustees remain open to allocating grants from these funds to any research proposals, which meet the eligibility criteria.

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CONT’D OVER

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WATCH CIO Accounts & Trustee Report to June 30, 2025

WATCH (Women and the Church) CIO Registered Charity No: 1171267

Receipts and Payments Account: 1[st] July 2024 to 30[th] June 2025

2024-2025 2023-2024
£ £
Receipts
Subscriptions 21,510 21,675
Donations and other income 1,644 0
Additional(non CAF)Gift Aid Tax recovered 3,655 0
Bank interest received 662 816
Events - Not Equal Yet Conference Income 12,848 13,728
Legacy 5,000 0
Other Grants/Sponsorship 0 0
45,319 36,219
Payments
Events - Not Equal Yet Conference expenditure 9,557 11,052
Other Events(General Synod & Greenbelt) 521 2,471
Website & Communications 3,754 892
Outlook Print & Distribution 2,340 4,805
Research Projects 270 3,162
AGM 2,320 1,337
Committee expenses 2,029 5,186
Administration expenses 9,231 14,850
Bank Charges 164 159
30,186 43,912
Surplus/(Deficit)of Receipts over Payments 15,133 (7,693)
Funds brought forward 37,073 44,766
Funds carried forward 52,206 37,073

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WATCH CIO Accounts & Trustee Report to June 30, 2025

WATCH (Women and the Church) CIO Registered Charity No: 1171267

Statement of Assets at 30[th] June 2025

Cash at Bank 52,206 37,073
represented by:
Fund balances
General Fund 31,076 19,232
Hodel Jones Legacy (designated fund) 6,391 6,392
Research Fund(restricted) 8,773 8,773
Not Equal Yet Conference(£121 restricted;£5845 design n
5,966		 2,676
52,206 37,073
Signed on behalf of the Trustees
…............................. ...........................................
Martine Oborne(Chair) PeggyJackson(Treasurer)
Date ….8 September,2025....................................

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WATCH CIO Accounts & Trustee Report to June 30, 2025

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