||**Trustees' Annual Report**|**Trustees' Annual Report**|**Trustees' Annual Report**|**Trustees' Annual Report**|**Trustees' Annual Report**|**for theperiod**|**for theperiod**|**for theperiod**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**From**|Period start date|||**To**|Period end date|||
|||01|Jan|2023||31|Dec|2023|
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity name** ST THOMAS JACOBITE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH LONDON
**Other names charity is known by** ST THOMAS JSOC LONDON
**Registered charity number (if any)** 1177726
**Charity's principal address** 2A Taunton road Harold hill, Romford **Post code RM3 7ST**
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
|1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (ifany)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Fr. Raju C Abraham
(Vicar)|Chair Person||General Body|
||POULOSE
KAKKASSERY|Secretary||General Body|
||BIJU JACOB|Treasurer||General Body|
||BASIL JOHN|Joint Secretary||General Body|
||PradeepCherian|||General Body|
||BinoyJacob|||General Body|
||Santosh Alexander|||General Body|
||CibyYohannan|||General Body|
||SujoyAbraham|||General Body|
||Mrs. Biji Siril|||General Body|
||E. V. Roy|||General Body|
||Shyam Simon|||General Body|
||Mrs Maria Biju|||General Body|
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
## **Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**
**Name Dates acted if not for whole year**
Page 1
## **Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser Name Address**
**NName of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
## **Section B Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Type of governing document
- (eg. trust deed, constitution)
How the charity is constituted
The Church's governing document is the Constitution that has been submitted to the Charity Commission.
CIO
- (eg. trust, association, company)
Trustee selection methods
Elected by General Body
- (eg. appointed by, elected by)
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
**St Thomas Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church** is a vital part of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church, under the leadership of Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, the Patriarch and Supreme Head of Antioch and all the East, seated on the Apostolic Throne of St Peter. Our Church also pledges allegiance to His Beatitude Aboon Mor Baselios Thomas I, the Catholicos of the East (Malankara), and his successors. The Patriarchal Vicar, appointed as the Metropolitan in charge of the UK, governs our Church's faith matters in consultation with the Patriarch.
The Vicar's appointment is made by the Patriarch through the Patriarchal Vicar. The Annual General Body elects the Church office bearers, including the Secretary, Joint Secretary, Treasurer, Internal Auditor, and other Managing Committee members/Trustees. The Managing Committee oversees and administers all the church's administrative and financial affairs, with elected members serving a tenure of two years.
The Managing Committee convenes at least once a month to deliberate and decide on the Church's daily operations, including approving new membership applications. A biannual general body meeting is held every six months. The Church's income and expenditure are budgeted at the beginning of the financial year and approved by the general body. All spending is regulated, ensuring adherence to the rules set out by the Trustees to prevent misuse of funds.
Accounts and procedures undergo internal auditing at least twice a year by an elected internal auditor during the Annual General Body Meeting (AGM). An independent examination or external scrutiny is also conducted by an independent examiner appointed by the Trustees.
Page 2
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
|**Summary of the objects of the**
**charity set out in its governing**
**document**
**Summary of the main activities**
**undertaken for the public**
**benefit in relation to these**
**objects (include within this**
**section the statutory**
**declaration that trustees have**
**had regard to the guidance**
**issued by the Charity**
**Commission on public benefit)**|The primary objective of the Church is to promote the Christian faith and spread
the Gospel. This includes:
Conducting the Holy Eucharist, Sacraments, and Services according to
the faith, traditions, and customs of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church.
Providing the Holy Sacrament to all faithful members.
Establishing charitable institutions for the welfare of Church members and
the broader community.
Supporting charitable institutions to assist the poor and needy in Greater
London and India.
Alleviating poverty and sickness.
Other charitable purposes benefiting the public and community
development.|
|---|---|
||The Holy Eucharist is celebrated every Sunday at St Thomas JSO Church,
Romford, London, RM3 7ST, with an average attendance of over 200 people. The
service begins at 09:30 with morning prayers, followed by the Holy Mass at 10:00.
Recognizing that the children are the foundation of future society and the Church,
significant emphasis is placed on their spiritual education. Sunday School is
conducted to instill Christian faith, church traditions, and positive moral and social
values. Over 80 children are registered and regularly attend online Sunday School
classes, following a structured curriculum provided by MJSSC in Kerala, India, in
coordination with MJSSA UK.
The Youth Association actively engages as altar boys, choir singers, and group
leaders. Their goal is to learn and practice the Lord's teachings, grow in faith, and
develop strong moral values and social conscience. They also organize various
cultural, community, and charity activities.
A Women's Forum is actively involved in the Church, focusing on spiritual growth
through prayers, devotional worship, and Bible study sessions.
Four fellowship units, based on the geographical spread of members' residences,
hold regular prayer meetings monthly. These meetings provide opportunities for
families to gather, interact, worship together, and strengthen fellowship.
Traditional Christmas Carol services involve groups, including ladies, children, the
Vicar, and Santa Claus, visiting members' residences to sing and proclaim the
glorious news of the Saviour's birth and the hope it brings.
Regular attendance at Holy services is believed to purify the soul, provide a finer
perspective on life, and bring out the best in individuals, prompting them to
consider the needs of others as equally important as their own.
Helping the poor and the needy forms an important part of our Worship to God.
We also believe that helping the poor is one of the ways of contributing towards
building a better world. A portion of our income is spent each year to provide
financial assistance to sick patients, disabled and the poor. To further our mission
of supporting the community, we organize a charity food distribution program,
benefiting 30-40 families. This initiative takes place every 4th and 5th Sunday at
the Church, providing essential nourishment to those in need.
Grants are given to the eligible applicants, only after proper verification of the
genuineness and their existing financial status and this is discussed in detail in
the committee meetings of the Trustees. lt is also here that the amount to be
given is decided and this is sent directly to the beneficiary with no third parties
involved.|
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
Page 3
You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
- policy on grant making;
- policy programme related investment;
- Contribution made by volunteers.
## Section D Achievements and performance
Page 4
## Section D Achievements and performance
## **Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year**
Our Church is registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with effect from 27th Mar 2018. Our new Charity Registration Number is 1177726.
St Thomas Day: On 3[rd] and 4[th] , our Church celebrated the feast day of St Thomas which was blessed by a Perunnal message from HG Mathew Mor Antheemos, Gospel retreat by Rev. Fr. Joshy Vettikattil and Rev. Fr. Philip Thomas. The special Holy Mass was conducted with Rev Fr Jebin Iype as main Celebrant and Vicar: Fr Raju C Abraham and Rev.Fr. Philip Thomas.
Youth Association: With the theme Spiritual nourishment and personality development, many activities such as Food for community charity food distributions, meet and greet, Youth retreat and Holy Mass in English are successfully undertaken this year.
## **Other community and charity activities undertaken during the year 2019:**
- **Charity Food Pantry; community charity food distribution and deliveries in Romford community on every 4[th] Sundays.**
- **Garden of Love veg. Green garden project and tree planting within the church compound.**
- **Regularly support by providing food items to needy neighbourhood area, Abercrombie house and local sheltered homes at Harold hill.**
Page 5
## **Section E Financial review**
The Church reserves are held to fund its current and future activities.
**Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves**
**Details of any funds materially** There are no funds in deficit. **in deficit**
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
The principal source of income is voluntary donations and monthly subscription fees from our members.
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
The major expenditure is the mortgage being paid to Charity Bank for repaying the loan.
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
The Church is run by volunteers who are not entitled to any remuneration, except the Vicar's allowances being paid to the Priest for pastoral services.
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
Other expenses are in proportion to the needs of the congregation.
- investment policy and objectives including any The Church does not have sufficient funds currently to invest in long term
- ethical investment policy investments. Funds available are held as cash in a mainstream bank,
- adopted.
## **Section F Other optional information**
Public Benefit:
The Trustees have considered the guidance produced by the Charity Commission on the provision of the l public benefit and they confirm that the public benefit has been provided by:
- 1) Promoting the whole mission of the church through activities for individuals, parents and toddlers.
- 2) Providing regular Christian Worship open to all.
- 3) Teaching Christianity through sermons, courses and small groups.
- 4) Instituting Christian values in children.
- 5) Extending the charity works of the Church to other communities around us.
- 6) Voluntary and Charity activities to relieve poverty and sickness in Greater London and India.
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
## **Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)** Poulose Kakkassery
**Position (Secretary)** Secretary
Page 6
Date
13.10.2022
Page 7
||**Charity Name**
**ST THOMAS JACOBITE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH**|**Charity Name**
**ST THOMAS JACOBITE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH**|**Charity Name**
**ST THOMAS JACOBITE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH**|**Charity Name**
**ST THOMAS JACOBITE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH**|**No (if any)**
1177726|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**For the period**
**from**||Period start date
1/1/2023|**To**|Period end date
12/31/2023||
||||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||
|**to the nearest £**
**A1 Receipts**
SUBCRIPTIONS
**30,295**
OFFERINGS
**38,506**
DONATIONS
**53,498**
INTEREST
**1,957**
GIFT AID
**40,203**
**164,458**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_||||**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**30,295**
**38,506**
**53,498**
**1,957**
**40,203**
**164,458**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|SUBCRIPTIONS|**30,295**|||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**30,295**|**34,380**|
|OFFERINGS|**38,506**||||**38,506**|**24,926**|
|DONATIONS|**53,498**||||**53,498**|**29,820**|
|INTEREST|**1,957**||||**1,957**|**45**|
|GIFT AID|**40,203**||||**40,203**|**45,154**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**164,458**
||**-**||**164,458**|**134,325**|
|||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**164,458**
**720**
**14,250**
**33,690**
**1,129**
**13,293**
**7,985**
**2,680**
**30,584**
**2,572**
**-**
**198**
**107,101**
**-**
**-**
**107,101**
**57,358**
**-**
**244,500**
**301,858**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||**-**||
||||||**-**|**-**|
||||||**-**|**-**|
||||||||
|||||**-**|**164,458**|**134,325**|
||||||||
|||||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**720**|**720**|
||||||**14,250**|**15,800**|
||||||**33,690**|**31,946**|
||||||**1,129**|**1,960**|
||||||**13,293**|**5,414**|
||||||**7,985**|**5,485**|
||||||**2,680**|**1,050**|
||||||**30,584**|**23,492**|
||||||**2,572**|**1,579**|
||||||**-**|**3,123**|
||||||**198**|277.93|
||||||**107,101**|**90,847**|
||||||||
|||||**-**
**-**|**-**||
||||||**-**|**-**|
||||||||
|||||**-**|**107,101**|**90,847**|
||||||||
|**57,358**||**-**||**-**|**57,358**|**43,478**|
|**20,428**||**- 20,428**||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**224,072**||**20,428**||**-**
**-**|**244,500**|**201,022**|
|**301,858**||**-**|||**301,858**|**244,500**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees|**Details**
CURRENT
SAVING
PETTY CASH
BUILDING FUND
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
CHURCH BUILDING
**Details**
Signature
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
BANK LOAN ( THE CHARITY BANK LTD )|**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**118,629**
**-**
**183,229**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**301,858**
**-**
OK
OK
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
631,387
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
288,640
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Mr. Poulose Kakkassery
Mr. Biju Jacob
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
|||||
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
|||Mr. Poulose Kakkassery|7/18/2024|
|||Mr. Biju Jacob|7/18/2024|
(HARITY
(OMMISSIO
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Report to the trusteasl
members of
ST THOMAS JACOBITE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
On accounts for the year
ended
31st DECEMBER 2023
Charity no
(if any)
1177726
Set out on pages
Respectlve The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The
responsibilities of charity's Iruslees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section
trustees and oxaminer 144121 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Acll and that an independent
examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to..
examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act,
to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity
Commisslon lunder section 145{51(bl of the 2011 Act, and
to stale whether Pa'CUlar matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent My examination was carried out in a¢¢ordance with general Directions given by the
examiner's statement Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records
kept by the charity and 8 comparison of the accounts presented with those records.
It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts,
and seeking explanations from the Iruslees concerning any such mallers. The
procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an
audit, and consequently no opinion is given as lo whether the accounts present a
'Irue and fair, view and the report is limited to those mallers set out in the statement
below.
Independent In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention (other than
examiner's statement that disclosed below ')
which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in. any materi81 respect, the
requirements..
to keep accounting CordS in accordan with section 130 of the 2011 Act..
and
lo prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply
with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act
have not been mel '. or
2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper
understanding of the accounts to be reached.
P18888 delete the words in the brackets if they do not epply.
Signed".
Date:
1810712024
Name:
Sebastian Machukaltu Devasia
Relevant professional
qualification{s) or body
lif any):
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Address:
17 NEALS CORNER, BATH ROAD, HOUNSLOW
MIDDLESEX
TW3 3HJ
IER
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material problems.
Glve here brlef detalls of
any items that the
èxaminer wlshes to
disclose.
IER