Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir CIO Annual Report for 2022
2022 was yet another challenging year for organisations in ministry and music, as the Covid Pandemic continued to affect both performers and audiences, especially in prisons. Nevertheless, in 2022, we did as many gigs under the SSGC name as we did in 2019, thus twice the number in 2021 and four times the number in 2020. We devoutly hope that in 2023, the present trend of “business back to normal” continues.
The three significant milestones in the year were: the first full year of our flagship monthly outdoor event at St James’s Piccadilly, Soul at Saint James, the launch of Gospel Evensong at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and the resumption and expansion of prison ministry.
The essential elements of Soul at Saint James – gospel/soul music and spoken word, an outdoor “festival” atmosphere, free (with optional donation), street food and drink, no spoken ministry but a place for anyone from any background to feel welcome and comfortable, important and relevant themes, top quality performance and production, an opening workshop to get everyone singing – are all unchanged. Musically we are very happy: 2022 was a year in which our sound came together dramatically. Going forward, the promotion of the event remains a challenge and little ground was made on this in 2022 for various reasons. Audiences did not grow on 2021, though they did not fall either, and remain very weather dependent. Online promotion has been ramped up in 2023 so far. We also need to deepen links with partner charities and widen the pool of them. Finally, in conjunction with our hosts St James’s Church on Piccadilly, we need to invest in infrastructure and this too is now happening (a proper stage, professional banners, lighting, etc.). The key objective for 2023 is bigger audiences.
Gospel Evensong at St Martin’s is merely one strand of our cooperation with that musical powerhouse, and is very ambitious artistically: a full setting of the traditional Anglican evensong liturgy with original settings (by our band leader Peter Yarde Martin) of Preces, Responses, the Lord’s Prayer, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis. Our third such evensong, in October, was broadcast in full on Radio 3 and we, and our hosts, were very proud of it. Otherwise at St Martin’s we are looking forward to doing more concerts and finally premiering the third part of our Christmas Trilogy, which Frank Cottrell Boyce has agreed to write.
Our prison work in HMP Wandsworth and HMP Pentonville consists of regular small performances at the latter at morning services and full choir performances at both. Prison work is extremely restricted at present by staff shortages. We are trying to do more of it, and continue to look for alternative channels (eg using prison radio/TV).
There were other performances of note too: an outdoor performance for Grenfell’s Fifth Anniversary in front of the Prince and Princess of Wales; two concerts at Cadogan Hall with our friends Choir with No Name (the first of which prompted the amazing Joe Stilgoe to declare that we were “the best gospel choir he’d ever heard”); the commemoration of Black History Month at St Mary’s Kilburn with a series of workshops and a plenary service; an amazing recording session for US musical project “Take Me To The River”, which will result in the third in their series about music in great cities of the world; the premiere of the second part of our Christmas Trilogy, “Mary’s Nativity”, written by one of our singers Erica Hesketh; the performance of our “History of Gospel”, joint written with US gospel expert Bob Marovich, at St James’s, St Martin’s and then the
Passau Arts Festival in Germany; gospel workshops in churches and community settings; and many others besides.
Our finances remain stable, underwritten by donations from one of our board members and his wife, which are made to ensure that there are always cash reserves of at least £2000 in SSGC’s bank account. Those donations essentially pay for S@SJ and for promotion, which together will amount to £20k or more in 2023 and going forward. At some point this year or next, it is expected that St James’s will have raised money for S@SJ. Meanwhile SSGC still wishes to broaden its funding base so as no longer to be reliant on these donors in the medium term.
Miko Giedroyc, Board Member and General Manager Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir April 24[th] , 2023
Appendix: for our registration number, address, trustee names and charitable purposes, see https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charitydetails/5112712/charity-overview. For our mission and a summary of activities, see https://soulsanctuarygospel.com/about-the-soul-sanctuary-gospel-choir/. The choir’s day to day activities are managed by its General Manager, its Events Manager and its Comms Manager, who are answerable to the Executive Committee (which consists of both Choir Directors, Band Leader and General Manager). This is in turn answerable to all members, through informal channels, and through an Annual Choir Meeting, and to the six-member Board. See https://soulsanctuarygospel.com/about-the-soul-sanctuarygospel-choir/people/. The recruitment of trustees is in full compliance with Charities Commission recommendations. Our Modus Operandi, including our policies on Safeguarding, the management of conflicts of interest and Health & Safety, is written up in full in our Handbook which is available to all members.
Charity Name No (if any) Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir CIO 1176630
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
| For the period from |
Period start date January1st2022 |
To | Period end date December 31st 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
Section A Receipts and payments
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Donations by90PoWM Trust |
- | - | - | - | 7,500 | ||||
| Donations byMGDG & DAUJ | 11,500 | - | - | 11,500 | - | ||||
| Performance & RecordingFees | 26,824 | - | - | 26,824 | 19,757 | ||||
| CD Sales | 10 | - | - | 10 | 100 | ||||
| Gift Aid Reclaim | - | - | - | - | 8,388 | ||||
| Other | 1,137 | - | - | 1,137 | 246 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 39,471 | - | - | 39,471 | 35,991 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||||||
| 35,991 | |||||||||
SatSJ Live Outdoor Events |
12,166 | 7,143 | |||||||
| All Other Performers' Fees | 27,595 | 11,104 | |||||||
| PR/Comms/Social Media | 2,735 | 5,540 | |||||||
| Other Bought-In Services | 322 | 404 | |||||||
| Other | 32 | 16 | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| **Sub total ** | 42,850 | 24,207 | |||||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | |||||||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
|||||||||
| 24,207 | |||||||||
| - 3,379 | 11,784 | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| 15,216 | 3,432 | ||||||||
| 11,837 | 15,216 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) Categories B1 Cash funds |
1 Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Barclays Bank Current Account |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 11,837 - - 11,837 OK |
15/05/2023 Restricted funds Endowment funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - OK OK |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - |
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Details Details Details Details Signature |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name MichalGDGiedroyc |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval | |||
| MichalGDGiedroyc | 24th April 2023 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
15/05/2023
2
Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir Trust
I report to the trustees on my examination of the account s of the Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir Trust (the Trust) for the year ended 31[st] December 2022.
Responsibilities and basis of the report
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act
Independent examiners statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act, or
-
The accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed Name Edward David Griffiths Professional Body Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy Membership No 00006890 Address 11 Northwick Park Road, Harrow, HA1 2NY Date 12th May 2023