Registered Charity Number 1171395
Christ Church Cambourne
Trustees Annual Report and Accounts
for the year ended 31[st] March 2025
Registered Charity Number 1171395
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
Contents
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|Legal Details of the Charity..................................................................................................... 3|
|Managing Trustees’ Report for the Year Ending 31|[st]|March 2025......................................... 4|
|Charity Structure, Governance and Management.......................................................... 4|
|Objectives and Activities for the Public Benefit.............................................................. 4|
|Achievements.................................................................................................................. 5|
|Financial Review………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12|
|Financial Statements.………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13|
|Independent Examiner’s Review…………………………………………………………………………………………15|
|Declaration..............................................................................................................................17|
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
Legal Details of the Charity
Charity Name: Christ Church Cambourne Charity Number: 1171395 Administrative Address: 8 Playcross Close Great Cambourne Cambridge CB23 5AF Principal Activity Address: Hardwick and Cambourne Community Primary School Sheepfold Lane Great Cambourne Cambridge CB23 6FR Charity Website: www.christchurchcambourne.org.uk Managing Trustees: Matthew Baalham, 22 Sterling Way, Upper Cambourne, CB23 6AR Richard Brown, 8 Playcross Close Great Cambourne, CB23 5AF Benjamin Twiss, 24 School Lane, Lower Cambourne, CB23 5DQ Principal Banker: Nat West Bank Community Banking Centre PO Box 575 Rotherham S63 3FJ Independent Examiner: Claire Kermode, 13 The Crofts, Little Paxton, St Neots PE19 6PG
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
Managing Trustees’ Report for the Year ending 31[st] March 2025
Charity Structure, Governance and Management
The church is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with a constitution that was adopted on 20th January 2017. Registration with the Charity Commission was confirmed on 30th January 2017. The church became fully independent from its parent church, St Neots Evangelical Church, on 6th April 2017.
The managing trustees are responsible for the management of the affairs of the church and consist of the elders, including the full-time pastor, together with any others who may be appointed to ensure there is always a minimum of three trustees. New elders are appointed according to Christ Church Cambourne’s Statement of Current Practice. Proposals for new elders are made by the existing elders to a business meeting of the church members. After a period of time for prayer, reflection and feedback, if the church should deem it appropriate, an appointment will be made. Where complete unity of members cannot be reached, the existing elders have the responsibility of deciding how to proceed and whether to appoint or not.
It is anticipated that any new elders appointed will become a trustee. New trustees will be appointed by the passing of a resolution at a formal business meeting of the managing trustees. The managing trustees who have held office during the period from 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025 are set out on page 3.
Elders’ business meetings are usually held on a bi-weekly basis on Monday evenings with additional regular meetings on Zoom during the day to systematically pray for each church member.
Objectives and Activities for the Public Benefit
The objectives of the church are:
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the advancement of the Christian faith in accordance with the Basis of Faith, primarily, but not exclusively, within Cambourne and the surrounding neighbourhood; and
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such other charitable purposes as shall, in the opinion of the charity trustees, put into practice the Christian faith in accordance with the Basis of Faith, including but not limited to: the prevention and relief of need, hardship and sickness; the advancement of education; and the provision of community facilities (provided that the advancement of such purposes must be undertaken in a manner that is consistent with the Doctrinal Distinctives and Ethical Statements as may be adopted and amended by the church from time to time).
Since January 2019, the church has been fully affiliated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches.
As a church we exist to glorify God by
- Loving Jesus
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
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Loving one another
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Loving our community
When planning the activities of the church for the year, the trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion.
Achievements
Loving Jesus, Loving One Another and Loving the Community
Principally, we demonstrate our love for Jesus, one another and the community as we proclaim the gospel and invite people from across the community to know him. This is summed up in a key verse for us - ‘Him [Christ] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.’ We have continued to welcome regular visitors to our meetings and by God’s grace our membership reflects many different nationalities just like Cambourne at large.
Sunday Services held at Hardwick and Cambourne Primary School
We have stayed meeting each week at Hardwick and Cambourne Primary School for the duration of the year.
Our meetings followed the general pattern of previous years with singing, prayers, Bible reading and the preaching of God’s word which included systematic, expository and practical Bible teaching mostly from Ephesians, Haggai, Genesis (Abraham) and a series in ‘women who met Jesus’ from the Gospels. The Lord’s Supper was normally organised every month, though more recently the pattern became twice a month. The first Sunday of the month is designed to be for ‘all ages’. This means children stay with the adults for the whole meeting and the preaching is to be more deliberately accessible for them. On other Sundays, it has been the norm that primary-aged children separate from the adults and attend ‘Sunday Groups’ during the latter part of the meeting. Those of secondary school age also began separating from the adults for their own group on the third Sunday of each month.
Refreshments are provided at the end of the meeting. Once a month there has also been a bringand-share lunch.
Attendance and Membership
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
The number of people attending Sunday morning meetings has gradually increased with new visitors joining us and 4 new members. Typically, we had around 70-80 adults and children attending each week. One person was baptised during a specially arranged service on the premises of Cambourne Church, Jeavons Lane. This was due to the school not permitting a baptismal pool to be used on the site. By the end of March 2025, the membership was 40 people.
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
Sunday Groups (Rockets)
The purpose of Rockets is to teach children about the Christian faith in age-appropriate ways during the Sunday morning sermon. During the 45 minutes session, they learn about a Bible story or Bible passage with age-appropriate activities, such as games, worksheets and craft activities, as well as songs and a memory verse of the term. Children sometimes have a take-home sheet with questions or a memory verse to share at home with their family. From April 2024-March 2025, we have studied Ephesians, Parables, Joseph, Moses, the Exodus, 10 Commandments, Christmas story, Easter in Luke, Journey to the Promised Land in Exodus & Numbers.
Rockets caters for the age range of 5-11 (primary school age). They meet as one large group and have a regular group of 12-15 children with 2 leaders (and a standby). All of our leaders are DBS checked, and we ensure we meet expected ratios as per our Safeguarding Policy.
Sunday Groups Creche Facility (Sparklers)
Sparklers caters for 0-4 year olds and allows them to benefit from age-appropriate teaching during the main talk of a Sunday service. It also provides them with a space to play and sing. Over the year, the children have used the Beginner's Bible to look at key stories from the Old Testament (e.g. Noah, David, Daniel and Jonah), the Christmas Story, and the Easter story.
Sparklers had, on average, 3-4 children who regularly attended during this period. Sparklers runs each week with 1 leader and 1 helper. All of our leaders are DBS checked, and we ensure we meet expected ratios as per our Safeguarding Policy.
CCC Teens
CCC Teens started to meet on the third Sunday of each month during the main preaching of the Sunday service. The idea behind starting the group was to acknowledge that going from regular children’s groups to sitting in the main teaching with adults can be a big jump for some children at 11. It was hoped that seeking to engage more deliberately with teenagers once a month in their own setting would help them to follow along with the sermon series and make them feel more welcome. CCC Teens is open to those aged 11-18. Typically, the group follows material based on the sermon taking place at the same time.
Growth Groups
Growth Groups meet each week in school term time with a focus on studying the Bible together, praying and encouraging one another. They also contribute to our church aims of meeting together informally beyond Sunday services. Three Growth Groups were operational, one in each of Lower, Great and Upper Cambourne. For the summer term a series based on each week’s Sunday sermon was followed. In the autumn and winter terms groups worked through a book called Bitesize
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
Theology which covered basic Christian doctrines and biblical concepts systematically. Some weeks were intentionally more social gatherings and at times which allowed for people to bring their children .
Leadership Course
As a way of fostering future leadership in the church, members were invited to attend a leadership course on a monthly basis starting in the autumn. The group met at the church manse for discussion around a book called Integrity by Jonathan Lamb. Around 9 people joined in.
Sunday Prayer Meetings
Meetings have been held in various member’s homes. The meetings started with a very short message based on the Psalms, followed by a prayer time. This was then often followed by food. During the year the start time of prayer meetings was altered from 5pm to 6pm so that people had the chance to eat first.
Week of Prayer
We commenced 2025 with a special week of prayer. Church members were encouraged to pray particularly for our evangelistic activity at various extra times during the week as well as during regular church meetings.
Women’s Ministry
The Ladies Group met on Fridays during the school term, meeting in a member’s home, to study the Bible and pray. From September this meeting was directed by the new women’s worker employed by the church. The ladies studied The Lord’s Prayer (summer term), 1 Thessalonians (autumn term), Habbakuk and Revelation 1-3 (winter term).
Additionally, the women met for breakfast or brunch three times during the year for prayer and to listen to Bible teaching or testimony.
For an evangelistic outreach, a watercolour evening was arranged on March 26 at the Cambourne Cricket Pavillion. Female members invited friends to come along to have a go at painting and the women’s worker gave an evangelistic message.
Men’s Ministry
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There have been ad hoc breakfast meetings for men held on Saturdays through the year. These have mostly been social with occasional devotional times planned.
Young People’s Group - Ignite
The Ignite group is designed for young people (ages 11-16) to explore the Christian faith more. The group also aims to allow the young people to feel integrated into the life of the church, getting to know their peers and our church members more. The group ran on a Friday evening, usually at Hardwick and Cambourne Primary School, and consisted of a combination of games and fun, Bible studies, discussion and prayer with drinks and snacks provided. Social events were also incorporated at appropriate times and members’ homes were still used on some weeks.
Leaders organised for members of Ignite to attend the Sorted youth conference in London and The Gathering youth evening in Cambridge. The whole group also had a weekend away in partnership with Beccles Baptist Church, Suffolk, using their building to meet and sleep in.
For the Bible studies, the group have been working through Mark’s Gospel.
An average of 10 young people have been attending Ignite each week. The group is a mixture of young people who profess faith and those who are still exploring the Christian faith for themselves. Ignite is open to young people to invite their friends along to.
Ignite always runs with two DBS-checked adults in attendance.
Community Outreach Events
The church ran an event in April called Easter Eggstravanganza , designed for local families to bring their children to. It was intended as a way of communicating to them the gospel and showing love to the local community. It was held at Hardwick and Cambourne Primary School and there were craft activities and games for the children and an age-appropriate talk explaining an aspect of the gospel. It was well attended by visitors who do not normally come to church meetings.
In July, we ran a ‘Holiday Club’ over three successive mornings. This was an opportunity to invite primary aged children from across Cambourne to learn about Jesus in a fun environment. There were Bible stories, games, crafts and other activities, all based on the theme of the Olympics and champions. Around 30-40 children attended with a team of helpers from the church. As part of this we held an additional evening event with food for the children to come to with their families. This was an opportunity for the parents to see what the children had been doing and for prizes to be awarded. This event was well attended.
The church also held an annual carol service at Hardwick and Cambourne Primary. This was another opportunity to specifically invite newcomers along to a church meeting, perhaps for the first time.
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
321 Evangelistic Course
We were able to run a short course (4 sessions) for those interested in exploring the Christian faith called 321 from Speak Life . It tried to deal with questions which sceptics or enquirers might ask and looking to answers found in Jesus Christ.
Church website
A new website for Christ Church Cambourne was formally launched in April 2024. The new website is a great improvement and is recognised as a key way that people first interact with our church before visiting.
Mission Partners
We continued to support mission partners in Greece both financially and through prayer. A mission partner is someone set aside for gospel work oversees. We took on an additional mission partner working in an undisclosed overseas location at the beginning of the year. The church were able to meet her while she was on furlow.
GDPR
In 2024 the trustees received one request concerning data held on an individual by the church. The trustees were able to fully comply with this, supplying the information in line with our GDPR obligations.
Safeguarding
The church administrator was appointed as a safeguarding lead in September 2024. Efforts have since been made to tighten up some of our procedures bringing them in line with our safeguarding policy which was adopted at the beginning of 2024. The policy is now reviewed annually in March. She shares the safeguarding role with another church member.
The safeguarding leads and two of the trustees attended specialist training sessions online run by Christian Safeguarding Services in December. These sessions were designed specifically for compliance in the church context.
All volunteers working with children had an in-house annual safeguarding update training delivered in July 2024.
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
Staff
For the duration of the year, the church employed Ben Twiss as pastor/elder on a full-time contractual basis. In September, the church also began to employ Fernanda Curtis and Iris Considine as a women’s worker and administrator respectively. Both were on a part-time contractual basis.
Ben was granted a sabbatical by the church for three months between the end of May and the end of August. During this time, his responsibilities were shared by the other elders. In addition, his Sunday preaching responsibilities were taken on by various visiting speakers, alongside the elders and another church member.
In September, Fernanda and Iris enrolled on the Training for East Anglia Ministry (TEAM) course, taught locally in Cambridge. This involved attending sessions one day each week in term time. Ben and Fernanda attended the FIEC Leaders Conference which was held in November in Blackpool. Ben also attended a Living Leadership pastoral refreshment conference with his wife in February 2025 and completed a module of study with Biblical Counselling UK.
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Registered Charity Number 1171395
Financial Review
The balance carried forward from 2023/24 was £46,083. This consisted of £19,384 unrestricted funds, £25,000 restricted funds relating to the FIEC grant funding given for a Women's Worker and £1,699 residual endowed cash funds retained for maintenance of the manse.
Receipts were generated solely from members regular freewill giving and one-off gifts from individuals. On these gifts, a gift aid amount of £3,044 was due to be claimed at the end of the year.
During the year, we appointed two new members of staff to fulfil an admin position and a Women’s Worker. Both members of staff began work in September 2024.
Grant payments for the year included voluntary member contributions to the FIEC of £1,260 and payments totalling £3,500 to Al and Rachel MacInnes, our mission partners working with SIM International in Athens, Greece. The church took on an additional Mission Partner in the year, making contributions totalling £2,750 to them between July 2024 and March 2025.
Throughout the year we continued to set apart 10% of our regular income to support missionary work elsewhere and at the end of the year we had a balance in our missionary fund, a designated fund within our unrestricted funds waiting to be allocated, of £4,191.
The final bank balance for the year was £37,442 including the £23,440 of restricted funds for the Women’s Worker, not used during the period, and residual cash funds of £274 held in the endowment fund for manse maintenance.
It is the aim of the trustees to adopt a reserves policy of maintaining reserves at a minimum level of three months of staff costs and we were enabled to consistently achieve this objective throughout the year. This figure was set at £13,400 for the 2024/25 year. Ben Twiss (staff elder/pastor) was employed by the church on a full-time basis and is also a trustee. The remuneration of the staff elder is reviewed by the trustees each year. In accordance with the church’s constitution, the staff elder does not attend the meetings at which the staff salary reviews take place. None of the other trustees received any remuneration from the church during the course of the year.
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Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the Trustees:
RICHARD BROWN
Elder and Trustee
19 December 2025
MATTHEW BAALHAM
Elder and Trustee
19 December 2025
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