## **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period**
**From 1 January 2023 To 31 December 2023**
**Charity name: Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of East Greenwich**
**Charity registration number: 1175274**
## **Objectives and Activities**
|**Objectives and Activities**|||
|---|---|---|
||||
||SORP reference||
|Summary of the purposes of the
charity as set out in its governing
document|Para 1.17|Promoting in the Parish the whole
mission of the Church pastoral,
evangelistic, social and ecumenical.|
|Summary of the main activities in
relation to those purposes for the
public benefit, in particular, the
activities, projects or services
identified in the accounts.|Para 1.17 and 1.19|
Regular public worship open to all.
The provision of sacred space for personal
prayer and contemplation.
Pastoral work, including visiting the sick and the
bereaved.
Teaching of Christianity through sermons,
courses and small groups
Taking of religious assemblies in schools.
The provision of a youth club with a Christian
ethos.
Promotion of Christianity through the staging of
events and meetings, and the distribution of
literature.
Promoting the whole mission of the Church
through provision of activities for senior citizens,
parents and toddlers and other special need
groups.
Supporting other charities|
|Statement confirming whether the
trustees have had regard to the
guidance issued by the Charity
Commission on public benefit|Para 1.18|The Trustees confirm this.|
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## **Achievements and Performance**
||||
|---|---|---|
||SORP reference||
|Summary of the main
achievements of the charity,
identifying the difference the
charity’s work has made to the
circumstances of its beneficiaries
and any wider benefits to society
as a whole.|Para 1.20|The Parish continues to run three vibrant and
inclusive churches, offering in person worship (as
well as online streaming of services to increase
accessibility).
Beyond Sunday services, the Parish hosts youth
work, midweek connect groups, and uses the church
buildings to support local initiatives such as the
Greenwich Foodbank.
St George’s hosted a weekly community café as well
as a monthly soup lunch.
Across the Parish, Christmas saw a variety of carol
concerts in pubs, parks, and community centres.
These services are the only contact with church for
many members of the community. Furthermore, the
Christmas Journey engaged over 200 children with
the Christmas story.
The engagement with local children and young
people was not just for Christmas, with the clergy
team regularly attending assemblies at the local
primary and secondary schools.
Please see the reports of the churches below for
further details of the work performed across the
Parish during 2023.|
## **Financial Review**
|**inancial Review**|||
|---|---|---|
|Review of the charity’s financial
position at the end of the period|||
||Para 1.21|General reserves increased from £181k to £207k
during the financial year. The churches are operating
at broadly a breakeven level, and the increase was
largely from the timing of Giftaid receipts. There are
currently sufficient reserves to meet on going
obligations, although in the medium term, there are
expected to be significant building improvement
works required. Funding these will require a
significant fund-raising effort.
|
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||||
|---|---|---|
|Statement explaining the policy for
holding reserves stating why they
are held|Para 1.22|Reserves Policy requires reserves of 3 months bills
covering the whole Parish are held within the
Churches. The reserves held considerable exceed
this.|
|Amount of reserves held|Para 1.22|£207k of general reserves and £65k of restricted and
designated funds – please see financial results
below.|
|Reasons for holding zero reserves|Para 1.22|N/A|
|Details of fund materially in deficit|Para 1.24|The current funds and reserves are not in deficit.
However, St George’s Church needs significant
repairs over the next 10 years. There is not sufficient
money held to do this work. Sub committees
continue to look at options for achieving this.|
|Explanation of any uncertainties
about the charity continuing as a
going concern|Para 1.23|No significant uncertainties regarding the going
concern status.|
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## **Structure, Governance and Management**
|**tructure, Governance and**|**Management**||
|---|---|---|
||||
|Description of charity’s trusts:||The Parish is governed by the Parochial Church
Council (PCC).|
|Type of governing document
(trust deed, royal charter)|Para 1.25|The Parochial Church Council (Powers) Measures
1956 as amended and the Church Representation
Rules (contained in schedule 3 to the Synodical
Government Measures 1969 as amended).|
|How is the charity constituted?
(e.g unincorporated association,
CIO)|Para 1.25|Unincorporated association.|
|Trustee selection methods
including details of any
constitutional provisions e.g.
election to post or name of any
person or body entitled to appoint
one or more trustees|Para 1.25|Trustees are elected by the Members of the Parish.
They serve for 3 years and vacancies are filled
annually at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting
(APCM).|
## **Reference and Administrative details**
|||
|---|---|
|Charity name|Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of East
Greenwich|
|Other name the charity uses|Parish of E Greenwich|
|Registered charity number|1175274|
|Charity’s principal address|Parish of E Greenwich
C/ The Forum
Trafalgar Road
SE10 9EQ|
|||
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**Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body)**
**entitled to appoint trustee (if**
**any)**|
|1|Susan Hall||||
|2|Joyce Stewart||||
|3|Rev Laura Faturoti|Team Vicar|||
|4|Grace Emmett||||
|5|Ruth Ohlsen|Churchwarden|||
|6|Amanda
MacGillivray||Term ended April 2023||
|7|Pamela Zigomo|Secretary|||
|8|Benyam Hagos||Term ended April 2023||
|9|Alexander
Homfray||||
|10|Rev Jane Petrie|Team Vicar|||
|11|Vanessa Stewart||||
|12|Thomas Emmett|Treasurer|||
|13|Folorin Akinbame||||
|14|Ebunoluwa
Faturoti|Churchwarden|||
|15|Rev Dominic
Hubbuck|Priest|||
|16|Patrick Kekula||||
|17|Sussan Ibiama||Term ended April 2023||
|18|Rev John Philpott-
Howard|Assistant Priest|||
|19|Janet Clipsham|Churchwarden
(until April 2023)|||
|20|Sydney Smith|Deanery|Resigned April 2023||
|21|Helen Frith|Churchwarden|||
|22|Julie Mason|Reader|||
|23|Michael Crawford|Churchwarden|||
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|||||
|---|---|---|---|
|Judith Eastaugh|Chair (until July
2023)|||
|Jo Lewins||Term started April 2023||
|Rob Hornby|Reader|Term started January
2023||
|Megan Husband||Term started April 2023||
|Anne Dairo||Term started April 2023||
|Angie Cookson||Term started April 2023||
|Tendai Ndanga||Term started April 2023||
|John Pout|Team Rector and
Chair of PCC|Term started July 2023||
– Corporate trustees names of the directors at the date the report was approved
**Director name** N/A
Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity
||||
|---|---|---|
|**Trustee name**|**Dates acted if not for whole year**||
|N/A|||
||||
||||
||||
||||
||||
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## **Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others**
|||
|---|---|
|Description of the assets held in
this capacity|N/A|
|Name and objects of the charity on
whose behalf the assets are held
and how this falls within the
custodian charity’s objects||
|Details of arrangements for safe
custody and segregation of such
assets from the charity’s own
assets||
## **Exemptions from disclosure**
Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details
**N/A**
## **Other optional information**
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## **Team Rector’s Report**
The Parish of East Greenwich incorporates Christ Church, St George’s Church and Holy Trinity Church.
The address for correspondence is Christ Church, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich, London, SE10 9EQ.
East Greenwich Parochial Church Council (‘the PCC’) co-operates with the Rector, the Reverend John Pout (also the incumbent of Christ Church) and the incumbents of St George’s, the Reverend Laura Faturoti and Holy Trinity, the Reverend Jane Petrie to promote in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church - pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. It also has varying maintenance responsibilities for the church buildings which differ in scope between the churches.
The PCC meets bi-monthly and has the flexibility to call special meetings when required. A Standing Committee made up of members of the PCC is available to meet in between PCC meetings, also on a bimonthly basis.
## **Aims**
_**Prayer**_ - that the Parish Churches make corporate and private prayer the central foundation on which all church activity is based.
_**Evangelism**_ - for the churches to be open, inclusive and welcoming fellowships, committed to making new disciples.
_**Worship**_ - to offer clear, audible, visible and inspiring services with a mixture of traditional and contemporary hymns and songs - attractive to all ages and stages.
_**Fellowship**_ - for church members to experience that they belong to an extended Christian family where they can grow in faith, deepen relationships and find support.
_**Teaching**_ - that the Bible is central to all that we do and that the Gospel is known, loved and taught so that everyone will be inspired to grow in their faith and discipleship.
_**Service**_ - that all are encouraged and enabled to play their part in offering service to the church and the wider community.
It has been a great first six months in the role as your Rector, and Vicar of Christ Church, discovering the richness and diversity of our Parish, the mission opportunities that it presents and the strength of the foundations of faith that have been built over many years.
Our three churches are very different and distinctive yet, just like the wider church in the nation, those differences enable us to offer variety of styles of worship and traditions yet each with Jesus essentially at the centre. Events such as the Christmas Journey, Christmas Eve on the Peninsula and the recent International Evening demonstrate how we can work, worship and celebrate together as a Parish and in so doing, be united in our faith and witness.
I am very grateful for our talented and energetic team of Clergy and our immensely supportive and committed wider team including our retired clergy, Ebun as our Youth Worker, Emma as our Administrator, our Readers, Wardens, Treasurers and many others who give of their time, and energy in support of the work here.
In November, your PCC spent a day focusing on what we should make our Mission priorities going into 2024 and beyond. There were 4 themes that emerged from those discussions: **Growing, Serving, Praying & Sharing.**
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This of course is just the start - what do these mean in action, how are they expressed in our church life and what other things should we do to support these priorities? Over the coming months these will be explored by the DCCs to inform our active priorities, together as a parish and individually within the churches.
It is a given that we would like to see church growth, I firmly believe that growth comes as a result of being faithful to what we have been called, and so as we continue to grow in prayer, serving and sharing so we will find that God adds to our number, with people being attracted not just by the activities that we have to offer but much more so by the tangible presence of God, alive in our communities of faith.
My hope is that these four mission priorities may be lived out in different ways across our three churches, based on our gifting, tradition, resources and context.
With regard to my role as the Vicar of Christ Church, it has been a delight getting to know the church family and finding such a committed, supportive and energetic group. It has also been my privilege to receive a great deal of support and encouragement, particularly from Michael and Ruth, who serve our church so well, with such commitment, diligence and love and from so many others too.
Clearly, as with most churches, Covid reduced our numbers and a lengthy interregnum has compounded that effect, perhaps most particularly at Christ Church. I would encourage everyone to reach out to those who used to come so faithfully but are no longer with us, to consider returning as we seek to build one another up in the faith and be a strong, faithful and vibrant worshipping community.
We have amazing opportunities in such a large and growing community to accomplish a great deal, both as Christ Church, but also particularly in supporting our sister church, Holy Trinity, supporting Jane’s pioneering work in that developing community on the Peninsula.
My prayer is that we will attract new people who will commit to our churches as their ‘faith family’, both those who are already mature in faith and are prepared to be actively involved as well as those who are seeking and who will find faith with us. It is clear that at the moment we rely on a core of people, who work very hard and faithfully but new initiatives will require additional resources to ensure they are sustainable and fruitful.
My medium and long-term aim for the wider parish is that we grow further into three thriving church communities, representative of the parish populations in all age, gender, ethnic and social backgrounds, growing through reputation and invitation and be growing, praying, sharing and serving church families which give glory to God - which is our primary calling.
I hope that we will achieve this by:
Ensuring our services of worship speak across age and culture boundaries in their content - through lively, inspiring worship and biblical, life-related teaching with language and music styles readily accessible to the seeker and those with little or no church experience.
Deepening the faith and fellowship of the three churches, encouraging us to be increasingly outward facing and developing opportunities for fellowship and prayer through Connect Groups and regular invitational opportunities.
Encouraging a proactive attitude among the congregations to share our faith naturally and with confidence.
Support this with teaching programmes which are designed to equip and inspire church members to live out our faith on a daily basis and demonstrate the gospel of Christ.
Engaging proactively with the our schools and developing those links to attract parents and families.
_John Pout_
_Team Rector and Chair of PCC_
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## **Treasurer’s Report 2023**
The financial year for 2023 was a stable year for the overall charity results. There was in total a small surplus of £26.5k, which has increased the general reserve to £207k.
Christ Church made the majority of the surplus for the year (£20.6k) and this was largely attributable to the timing of Giftaid payments, rather than an increase in overall receipts. To ensure that the financial position of the church is strengthened further, a subcommittee investigated options for giving, and the Parish Giving Scheme has been launched in the church during the start of 2024. The hope is that this will enable people to give more easily to the work of the church.
In St George’s, 2023 saw a deficit of £1.8k due to the continued high levels of utilities, and in particular heating the church building. The medium term plan is to make significant improvements to the church building, but funding this will be a significant challenge and options continue to be investigated to ensure the long term sustainability of the building.
Holy Trinity broke even for the year, with a surplus of £0.1k and the Prayer Space made a surplus of £7.6k for the year. As noted in the prior year, it is the charity’s policy to hold reserves primarily in the churches and not the central Parish bank account, and the general reserve of the central parish bank account was breakeven for the year.
The challenges facing the churches remain unaltered from the prior year. Christ Church has seen a reduction in regular giving, and it is hoped the Parish Giving Scheme and other initiatives will help to maintain the long term security of the church. St George’s faces the high costs of heating an old church building, and continues to look for how to fund the long term building work which will be required over the next 10 years.
The treasurer team would like to reiterate that whilst these combined pressures are difficult, the team of treasurers (one from each church in addition to the parish treasurer) will work alongside the trustees to ensure the continued financial viability of the parish. There remain healthy reserves within the charity, and sub committees have been formed to identify opportunities for increasing income and for funding specific projects. Therefore, whilst there are challenges ahead, the parish remains in a strong position to overcome them.
_Tom Emmett Treasurer_
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## **Reports from the churches of the parish**
## **Christ Church 2023**
2023 has been a year, which, like the previous year has seen a lot of changes and, has been a very positive and uplifting year in the life of Christ Church.
Although we started the year in an “interregnum”, we were actively recruiting for a new Team Rector and Vicar for Christ Church and having advertised the post in January, we shortlisted, interviewed in February and appointed, and have been blessed to welcome Rev John Pout (formerly of Christ Church & St Paul’s, Paignton).
John was inducted at Christ Church East Greenwich in a special service on 22[nd] June where we invited members of the Parish, the Forum, as well as local dignitaries and John’s family and friends from Paignton. After the service we held a celebration supper where everyone was able to relax, talk with John and his family and eat and drink well!.
Between January and June we continued to be well supported by our Parish and Diocesan clergy, but they must have been relieved when John was able to hit the ground running in June and relieve them of the additional workload.
Our regular in person Sunday morning services continued to be streamed live via Facebook and You Tube, for the benefit of housebound and overseas congregants and guests, and we continued our evening Sunday monthly Taizé provision (during BST), and our midweek communion services, with a monthly lunch being provided.after the service.
Our in person attendance at services has not yet returned to pre-lockdown numbers, and some of our congregation moved out of London this year. However, we have gradually been building again, with new families and members joining. Overall, the church community has continued to thrive through live and online services, Children & Young People’s work and Connect groups, which have remained a mixture of in-person, but often in “hybrid” format as online attendance has proved more convenient for some attendees.
Our commitment to inclusion and racial justice continues, with a special service held for Black History month in the autumn. Greenwich Sign church has been continuing to meet occasionally in Christ Church on Sunday afternoons.
## _**Visibility**_
Christ Church has continued to focus on high level visibility through regular website updates and being active on social media - Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. There has also been a focus on regular contact with all the members of the church family through electronic ‘Mail chimp’ messages, and John has introduced a written “seasonal programme” outlining times of regular services, events and any special events planned.
Our involvement in the local and wider community has remained strong, and we have maintained our financial support commitments to USPG in Tanzania, Power the Fight, Greenwich Debt Centre, as well as continuing to host Greenwich Food Bank and EGLAC (for which both of these Christ Church continues to provide volunteer support).
As usual, we participated in Marathon Sunday in April and held a tea and coffee stall outside the church where we offered free drinks and biscuits to passers-by and spectators, and accepted donations for the Greenwich Winter Night Shelter; while our regular steel band set up outside the church and provided live
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music to add to the festive atmosphere. Our Jamaican street food and juice stalls also participated. Church members wore Christ Church T-shirts as an effective way of maintaining visibility at an outdoor event.
One of the first events after John joined us was the Forum summer fair in June where we held a big plant stall out in the garden and a clothes and bric- a- brac sale in the church building, and welcomed visitors with free tea, coffee and biscuits – all donations went to the Greenwich Winter Night Shelter and we raised over £350 .
Our usual Trafalgar Day Memorial Service went ahead this year, as did our parish wide Carols Singing in the East Greenwich Pleasaunce, and our usual celebratory Christmas events such as Carols by Candlelight and the Christmas journey, which attracted around 200 children this year. During the Greenwich Forum Christmas Fair, Christ Church maintained a lively presence with a clothes and bric-a brac stall a plant stall, free tea, coffee and some Forum stallholders who had asked to be hosted in the church.
## _**Growing Our Spiritual Lives Together**_
Connect Groups continued meet both in person, and via Zoom to Connect with God and connect with one another, however as attendance had become patchy, in November we introduced a “revamp” whereby we decided to add a focus on community involvement and prayer by re-forming the group composition according to group member’ addresses – this has also allowed us to establish a group on the Greenwich Peninsula. The “reformation” of the groups has also allowed each group to hold two experienced leaders who can share leadership duties and cover for each other in case of holidays/sickness etc.
## _**Children and Young People**_
Children and Young People’s work has continued in person throughout 2023. Ebun Faturoti has continued his great work as the Parish Wide Youth Leader and in addition to his ongoing commitment to regular young people’s events, he has started the “Kick Academy” - an evening football club focusing on coaching and spiritual development for children and teens.
The Huddle continues to meet regularly on Friday nights in the Church, and twice a month during Sunday morning services where once a month they participate in “sermon surgery” - an analysis and critique of the morning’s sermon.
Pam Zigomo continues to lead Sunday Huddle, Sue Hall and Bev Irving Junior Church and Cath Hubbuck leads Sparrows.
## _**Loving Service to the Community**_
The East Greenwich Legal Advice Clinic continues to run from Christ Church on a fortnightly basis , with volunteer support provided by CCEG members and other members of the community. The level of demand remains high.
Christ Church has continued to host the ‘East Greenwich’ welcome centre for the Greenwich Food Bank with venue coordinator, Stephen Wallace and CC EG provides volunteer support
The Greenwich Winter Night Shelter is flourishing in the refurbished premises in Eltham, with Christ Church providing some of the volunteer staff. A day centre provision offering access to showers, laundry and IT facilities and lunch has continued to be extremely popular.
## _**Care for Creation**_
Christ Church received the Eco Church Silver Award in November 2019, and we are continuing our commitment to Care for creation, with the intention of maintaining our Silver Award, and appointing a Care for Creation “Champion” to spearhead the drive for a Gold Award. We have continued to work hard to
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make our church garden a haven of peace for people and wildlife, and have a dedicated and devoted garden team, comprising members of the congregation and local community.
_Ruth Ohlsen and Michael Crawford Churchwardens_
## **St George’s 2023**
This year has been a good year at St George’s Westcombe Park.
In April at APCM, Ebun Faturoti took over as churchwarden replacing Janet Clipsham who stood down after a number of years in the role. We thank her for her service and continue to thank her for what she brings to the church.
Tuesdays at the Vicarage was born in 2023. Beginning as a group meeting for a Lent course hosted at the Vicar’s House, the decision was made to continue meeting on a weekly basis after completion, deciding as we grew to know each other a bit more what the next steps for the group would be.
From there, we have studied two books, Women Remembered by Joan Taylor and Helen Bond and Parables by Paula Gooder, we have also introduced a monthly Sermon Surgery week in line with the same week our youth do the same in church. We also have regular social weeks as well.
We have enjoyed a number of different socials as a church over the course of the year as well including trips to Charles Darwin House, Christmas Tree Farm and Sissinghurst National Trust property. Also closer to home we have hosted a quiz in aid of Christian Aid, a Family Friendly Concert by the Mozartini Duo, a King’s Coronation Afternoon Tea which was a parish event hosted at St Georges, whilst also having a Picnic at Mycenae House and attending the Pantomime at Greenwich Theatre over the Christmas period. The Community Lecture Series returned in October, with a lecture on Climate Action. A second will take place in March 2024 with the parishes own Rob Hornby speaking on Artificial Intelligence and whether it is taking over.
Community Café continues during the week in the church building. A registered Place of Welcome and Warm Space, we have had visits both from the Diocese and from Places of Welcome across the year to check in and praise our progress. Free tea/coffee and toast continue to be offered to all who come to the door, we have all ages, from babies to older generations coming together to enjoy each other’s company. Even people sheltering from biblical rainstorms have come to enjoy the space.
Café church has continued to run on the first Sunday of each month. This had seen steady growth as we continue to keep the service fresh without falling into a rut of doing the same format each month. It is especially good that we find families attending this particular service as opposed to one of the more regular services during the month. This is the type of demographic that we hoped to attract when Café Church was launched, those on the fringes but looking for something a little less formal. We have looked at many things across the year, many subjects including the environment. This included creating a brand new Bug Hotel from scratch in the grounds of the church.
We even had our Crib Service in the style of a Café Church this Advent season which was well attended and enjoyed by all who came.
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At Christmas time, we shared Carols as a parish at the Pleasuance, at the Royal Standard pub and at Mycenae House which were all great community events as well as the more regular services like Carol Service and Midnight Communion.
The building continues to be a source of issue for us. Problems with the roof continue and we do have considerable leaks when there is heavy rain. Plans are being formulated to actively try and solve these problems going into 2024 and beyond.
_Helen Frith and Ebun Faturoti Churchwardens_
## **Holy Trinity 2023**
2023 was a fun year at Holy Trinity, and marked our second full year of Sunday services, continuing our pattern of a monthly all-age service and a monthly Communion amongst our weekly services. We saw quite a few new faces, including several new families, which has meant that we have ranged in age as a congregation from age zero to 70s. It’s been lovely seeing the ways in which community has developed in the adventure of travelling together - and it was a joy to have our first Holy Trinity baptism of the last few years in the second week of 2024. It’s also been great to welcome visiting preachers and service leaders, including the parish clergy, Aike Kennett-Brown, Julie Mason, Rob Hornby and Anne Dairo.
It’s also been great to meet together on a Wednesday evening for Bible study and prayer, and on Thursday mornings at the Prayer Space (drop in between 8 and 9) for informal prayer and coffee.
We’ve been grateful for the support of the wider parish throughout the year, but especially at key times like Easter and Christmas - we had a fun craft morning on Good Friday, held at St Mary Magdalene School, giving out hot cross buns as well as taking people through the journey of Easter. At Christmas we joined forces with the wider parish on Christmas Eve morning, though due to high winds the planned gazebos in Oval Square were replaced by a pop-up all-age service and craft in the school chapel, and then carol singing sans gazebo in the Square.
We’ve carried on our monthly Messy Church goes Wild, which has been a whole-parish enterprise but particularly focused on the northern bit of the parish - it’s been up and down numbers-wise, sometimes in direct relation to the weather, but a lot of joy overall. Our Christmas one in particular was very special, gathering round the fire and celebrating God with us, at Christmas and in creation. A special mention also goes to the fun we had growing wheat and then taking it through the various stages to make flour and then bread (Sainsbury’s need not fear our competition just yet…). This has also sat alongside wider involvement in St Mary Magdalene School, leading collective worship and popping into school for various other things.
More broadly I’ve been involved in various things at a local level, particularly the Greenwich Millennium Village Residents’ Association and (constructive involvement, I hope) in various controversies around the local district heating system. These have been a good way to meet people in the local area and support the community. Our planned stall at the GMVRA summer fete in June was abandoned due to extremely high winds (as were various other aspects of the fete, not least the bouncy castles!), but there were lots of opportunities to meet people. In the Prayer and Community Spaces there’s been a lot going on, and it’s been good to be involved in the community that way too.
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Grateful to God for the different ways we’ve grown this year, and huge thanks to all who’ve been involved in Holy Trinity in many different ways - Louise Knight for her continued work as Treasurer, the parish team, preachers and musicians, for all the help and support the year. Excited to see what 2024 holds.
_Jane Petrie Ordained Minister for Greenwich Peninsula_
## **Reports from the PCC**
## **Safeguarding**
Safeguarding is a vital element of our pastoral care towards each other. We have designated Safeguarding Officers in Sue Hall and Janet Clipsham, and we are very grateful to them for taking on that role and responsibility but safeguarding is something that we all have responsibility for.
It is essentially looking out for one another. Often we may think of children and the elderly when we think of Safeguarding but actually anyone in the church or visiting us could be in a vulnerable position for all sorts of reasons and it may not be obvious. Most incidents are as a result of someone taking advantage of another’s vulnerability in some way.
Sadly there are often reports of abuse in the church that often appear in the national media and we are naturally shocked and think it could never happen here but the reality is that it could and so there is no room for complacency or naiveté. We all should play our part such that church is a protected and safe place where people are able to be vulnerable without fear.
It is helpful to try to anticipate a situation before it becomes an incident and this is again something that we can all play a part in.
If you have concerns about any situation it is always good to raise it with Sue or Janet - it may turn out to be nothing, or it may be something and in raising it you may have done a great service to someone. It is important for all of us that we are lovingly vigilante and at the same time, that all feel safe and secure in our church fellowships.
## **Deanery Synod / Forum Report 2023**
We are fortunate to be part of an active Deanery which has a clear desire to be supportive and collaborative. Our parish is well represented, particularly with Rev Laura as Assistant Area Dean and Julie Mason as Secretary.
Recent sessions have considered Anti-Poverty initiatives among the churches, with a particular focus on Foodbanks and also Church Growth - what has been successful in the different churches across the deanery.
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# **Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
**Section A Independent Examiner’s Report**
> **Report to the trustees/** The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of East
> **members of** Greenwich
**On accounts for the year** 31 December 2023 **ended**
**Charity no** 1175274 **(if any)**
**Set out on pages** 18 -19
**----- Start of picture text -----**
(
**----- End of picture text -----**
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **31/12/2023**
**Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of **basis of report** the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
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## **Independent examiner's statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
> **Date:** 16 April 2024 **Signed: Name:** Philip M Landergan **Relevant professional** FCA (ICAEW 7643305) **qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** Landergan & Co Ltd 26 Burney Street London SE10 8EX
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Annual Accounts 2023
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Tn tFot tIre afy rx) extery*l $t)rts to tho u$0 of It¢se fur¥Js.
In 2023, £7,500 was trerred frorn a d8syrAl8d ftrd irto ttro gertsral furd.
Tlis wa$ rrEY in a dpw5it #tx0. but with rn re$lridK)rts lo its e.
Thè PCC tris mor*y within depo8rt xcrAJrts to earn a hgf*r retw
A5 part of th8 tr¥)Jget lor 2023, it was agreed by ItrB PCC to trar6fer tlis rrLYtsy to th8 gwal ld.
re was 8 furtfrer £970 trar¢ferred lAtI to Prayer Space
Ths mr**y was a grart proMd8d to sockql dths Prayer Space.
Ths 8rrvJLrt r8Lg18s to dths approved for fwdiThJ btsjkirg th8 Prayer Space ard l[¥j fuTrJs to pay for spgce.
FI. Il¢re was a £337 (thti¢)n twi0ty lekj as restre1 wli¢* was Sed to ger*ral f1.
In 2022, onty tra[ferWa5 £500 whKhttro PCC approwj to be paid to th8 East Greerwich Legal Athe cl.
PCC a reslri¢ted fuKI fty cash rwsed for EGLAC. arQ IFIS £50D was added lo tF0t.
TrB full armLrt in ttris restricted fuTrJ was pavj across to EGLAC 2023. arrnLrtirvJ to £2,447.
TFis payThrt is rerdj witFin restricted dor*tKYL4 in Ststem*ft of Receipts and Paymerts.
19
## **Declarations**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
**Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)** John Pout
**Position (eg** Chair and Team Rector **Secretary, Chair, etc**
**Date**
14 April 2024
20