Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir CIO Annual Report for 2025
The UK economy continues to underperform: 2025 saw measly growth of 1.4%, only slightly higher than 2024’s 1.1%, and in 2026 we’ll be lucky to be above zero. The consequence for discretionary businesses like media/entertainment, live/recorded music in particular, remains clear. The heady days of ten years ago seem long gone: penny-pinched clients are the order of the day. The business slowed dramatically in 2024 after the clearing of the “Pandemic Backlog”, and not much has improved since then.
Considering all this, Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir continues to flourish. Performance & Recording fees, for example, were up over 30% on 2024 having risen over 40% in 2024, in spite of the fact that we continued to be more selective about gigs we accepted.
Three highlights in 2025 were: the premiere in October of “The Rivers Of Repair” written by our co-founders Tracey Jane Campbell and myself along with John Dower of the Heirs Of Slavery and featuring Bishop Rosemarie Mallett, Tracey herself, SSGC and the Heirs Choir, the release in November of the gospel album recorded with the LSO under the baton of Dr André Thomas (fabulous arrangements, spot-on sound, LSO amazing as always), and our Christmas concert at St Pancras’s Church in December, in which we proved that we could cover all costs for an event ticketed and organised entirely by ourselves at the last minute!
“Soul at Saint James Version 1” came to the end of its life in 2025. We decided that as long as we remained outside it would be unable to be anything other than a gig mainly for passers-by rather than a gathering for a regular community wanting spirituality through music. The two events in 2025 which were forced by weather to go inside St James’s Piccadilly were highly successful, and this has encouraged us to launch “S@SJ V2” in 2026. Many key elements will remain: no non-musical ministry but a place for anyone from any background to feel welcome and comfortable, top quality performance and production. But it will be more obviously spiritual, more participative, and less of a concert/gig performance.
Gospel Evensong at St Martin’s, 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, continues successfully and acoustic challenges have finally been met. It has yet to happen in another church, but what did happen in 2025 was that the format was used for Prayer During The Day at the London Diocesan Synod at Church House, and was very encouraging, in that almost all five hundred clergy attending sang lustily.
Our prison work for the chaplaincies of most of Greater London’s HMPs (Wandsworth, Pentonville, Wormwood Scrubs, Brixton, Downview, plus Rochester), which consists of regular small performances at morning services and full choir performances on special occasions, was as busy as in 2024, with seventeen such gigs once again. But here too we are rethinking our approach and planning in 2026 to sing at the same number of services but in fewer prisons, to focus our ministry and deepen our relationships.
There were other performances of note too: the commemoration of Black History Month at St Mary’s Kilburn with a series of workshops and a plenary service; Joe Stilgoe’s fund raiser for Orpheus at the Alexandra Palace; the Wintershall Passion Play in Trafalgar Square on Good Friday; the annual “Gospel Explosion” with Dr André Thomas and the
LSO at the Barbican; the prestigious Regent’s Park Music Festival; the wonderful Big Church Day Out; and several performances for charities in (mainly) church settings; gospel workshops in churches and community settings; and many others besides.
Our principal Choir Director Clarence Hunte continues to work 1/2 days per week for SSGC, and we have further professionalised by hiring the freelance services of social media specialists Kaia Bint Savage and Magdalena Supeł, the latter being one of our sopranos. The fall in PR expenses seen in 2025 will be reversed in the current year, in which they are projected to exceed £10,000.
Our finances remain stable, underwritten by donations from myself and my family, which are made to ensure that there are always cash reserves of at least £2000 in SSGC’s bank account. In 2025 those donations of just over £30,000 essentially paid for S@SJ, for rehearsals and for SSGC management and promotion, and for the subsidy element in other charity events which we decide to support at a loss (eg the Wintershall Passion Play, prison ministry). In 2026 and going forward, however, it is likely that we will further step up expenditure on promotion and management as we raise SSGC’s artistic profile and widen its impact, all in pursuit of its charitable purposes and mission. This will need new external funding, and we will be pursuing this too going forward.
Miko Giedroyc, Board Member and Founder Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir June 26[th] , 2026
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 Choir Director, Events Manager, its Comms Managers and myself, who are answerable to the Executive Committee. This is in turn answerable to all members, through informal channels, and through an Annual Choir - Meeting, and to the five-member Board. See https://soulsanctuarygospel.com/about the-soul-sanctuary-gospel-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 Period start date Period end date To from January 1st 2025 December 31st 2025
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 |
11,770 | - | - | 11,770 | 12,165 | ||||
| Donations byMGDG/DUAJ & FamilyTrusts | 19,000 | - | - | 19,000 | 8,000 | ||||
| Performance & RecordingFees | 56,225 | - | - | 56,225 | 42,614 | ||||
| CD Sales | - | - | - | - | 22 | ||||
| Gift Aid & Tax Reclaim | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Other | 200 | - | - | 200 | 100 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 87,195 | - | - | 87,195 | 62,901 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||||||
| 62,901 | |||||||||
SatSJ Live Events |
4,820 | 5,195 | |||||||
| Rehearsals &Associated Costs | 5,917 | 6,349 | |||||||
| All Other Performers' Fees | 57,804 | 50,961 | |||||||
| PR/Comms/Social Media | 3,627 | 5,628 | |||||||
| Other Bought-In Services | 685 | 516 | |||||||
| Other(incl central mgmt) | 10,803 | 6,339 | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| **Sub total ** | 83,656 | 74,988 | |||||||
| 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 |
|||||||||
| 74,988 | |||||||||
| 3,539 | - 12,087 | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| 2,574 | 14,661 | ||||||||
| 6,113 | 2,574 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) Categories B1 Cash funds |
1 Barclays Bank Current Account Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 6,113 - - 6,113 OK |
29/06/2026 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 B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature Details Details Details Details |
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) |
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| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
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| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
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| Date of approval | |||
| MichalGDGiedroyc | June26th 2026 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
29/06/2026
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 2025.
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
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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 26th June 2026