2021-12-31-accounts

The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Matthew, Ealing Common North Common Rd, London, W5 2QA Registered Charity Number 1180166

Trustees Report for the year ended 31 December 2021

Trustees (as at 31 December 2021): Michael Barter, Lucie Kirkpatrick, James Blake, Sandra Phillips, Ian Pearce, Peter Edwards, Claire Onono, Claire Oberman.

Overview of St Matthews

St Matthews, Ealing Common is a late Gothic Victorian Church. It is an active parish community with a committed, diverse and growing congregation. Worship takes places in the church Friday-Sunday every week. A local Christian fellowship also uses the building for worship over the course of the typical weekend.

In addition to worship, St Matthews church is also used as a venue for social outreach, hosting a night shelter in its hall and vestry that provides food, accommodation and support during the winter months for Ealing’s vulnerable street homeless community.

St Matthews is also used regularly throughout the year as a meeting space for faith gatherings, community action groups, musical concerts and public meetings. The adjacent church hall is home to a Montessori Nursery School on weekdays, and is hired out in the evening by a number of different groups.

We recruit trustees from the congregation of St Matthews often where their skills are aligned to the role they take on our PCC. There has been 1 retirement from the PCC over the last year with Mathieu Rosey moving to Switzerland.

Review of the year

Church services had resumed briefly during 2020 Christmas week, before we voluntarily closed yet again for the third time in a year, in the first week of January 7th 2021, at the request of Ealing Council, and then the third national lockdown began shortly after that.

One “light in the darkness” of this time was that we began to stream church services via zoom in the NY, which was very well received by parishioners, with many logging on. Richard Thomas showed enthusiasm and dedication to getting this up and running during this time, and made brilliant efforts at getting the choir back in and singing for England.

We finally reopened our doors for public worship on Good Friday, April 2nd. A very poignant moment in the church’s year to do so.

We had a very heartening number of parishioners returning on Easter Sunday, and we have been running ever since, with the return of our marvellous St Matthew’s choir and twice weekly public worship.

Archdeacons Visitation. Within weeks of reopening, we had a visit from the new Archdeacon of Willesden, the Ven. Catherine Pickford, replacing Duncan, who many of you will know. As you may or may not know, archdeacons visit each and every parish in their care on a three yearly cycle, to go through all the paperwork.

It’s the church’s equivalent of OFSTED, and the PCC (especially Peter, Mathieu, Lucie, and Sarah our administrator) worked hard in pulling together all the paperwork relating to finances, buildings, safeguarding and all the rest, so soon after the end of lockdown. It was a lot to get together, but it was done with grace and positivity. We had generally very positive feedback from the archdeacon when she visited.

That visitation was April 29[th] and just a few weeks later we held our APCM on May 23rd.

A month after that APCM we said goodbye to our churchwarden Mr Mathieu Rosey, who moved overseas for a new adventure with his family.

After a quiet summer lull, the church gradually began to come back to life as the new school year began in September. We were finally able to start holding family worship services again, after over 18 months of being unable to do so. A “Blessing of the Book Bags” service was held, to mark the start of the new School year, where it was a joy to see so many families returning in person to the church.

In October , we were able to bring back our ‘ Animal Blessing Day ” for the first time in 2 years. It was bigger and better than ever, with over 100 people on a Sunday morning. We also had a “Pets Win Prizes” competition after the service, organised by Emilie Thysse, which was a huge hit with parishioners (and animals!) great and small. We also had 3 baptisms during October, welcoming new families into the life of the church.

This was followed in November by a Confirmation service, where 4 children from St Matthew’s were confirmed in a special service at St Paul’s Cathedral. Huge thanks and congratulations to Josiah, Theo, Edward and Tommy!

Also during November, we held a well attended Remembrance Day Service, before moving into the season of Advent and Christmas in November and December . Christmas services were not as well attended as other events mentioned here, for a variety of reasons. (We were not the only church locally to experience this phenomenon.)

Also in December, we raised funds for our traditional YMCA Christmas appeal organised by Claire Dutfield and Debbie Edwards.

Prayers and thanks are given, for the life and ministry of Rev Peter Watkins, priest of this parish for 48 years, who died on 3rd April 2022.

IN conclusion, after a couple of frustrating and painful years, life and community and movement are gradually returning to the life of St Matthew’s.

The immediate PCC goals for the next 12 months were identified as; recruiting further hirers, and exploring ways of minimising rising energy costs. Longer term goals were identified as trying to address ways we can use the church and its

buildings in new and creative ways for hiring, fundraising and mission & outreach opportunities.

Musical director Richard Thomas and the St Matthew’s choir enriched the worshipping life of St Matthew’s, along with all the volunteers, including the flower arrangers, money counters, cleaners, the gardeners, without whom St Matthews simply could function.

Buildings

There has been a delay in DAC ratification of Sarah Khan due to someone leaving at diocese not passing it on. Hopefully she will be ratified soon so that we can get the quinquennial inspection which was due in March 2020 done (further detail of this was discussed at the 2021 APCM and is minuted in the 2020 trustees report).

A heritage committee has recently been set up to look into displaying church assets, the stain glass windows and WW1 remembrance screen. Richard Moseley has agreed to produce a guide booklet and we need to recruit volunteers to help with tours when open. Once up and running we will apply for funding and to fix the rear guttering of the church – a continuation of the work completed a few years ago (estimated cost of £80-100k).

The church will be 150 years old in September and we are hoping to run a series of open church events to publicise and launch the heritage tours on the back of our birthday. There will need to be a tidy up and clear out of the church before September. Yvonne Fletcher commented on combining this with the Ealing Civic society’s walks and the planting of a Jubilee Tree near the church. There is also the London Open House Festival which runs at same time.

There have been a number of works completed this year including the removal of pigeons from the choir vestry loft and new grate fitted to prevent bird access. Extensive work to the gutters and downpipes to stop the overflow in heavy rain appears to have worked as recently checked in heavy storm. Roof work done by Barry Kiernan and Sons involved the replacement of over one hundred roof tiles. WE may need to consider more regular roof inspections to monitor any issues once or twice a year.

A work in progress is the inclusion of a new security gate to be installed on the west passage with pin entry. It will be roughly 1.8m high and a faculty has been applied for - we are expecting no objections as it is the same but higher than original.

Finance

Overall we had a good year with a return to profitability of £20,000 before organ fund movements after a very tough year in 2020 with losses of £31,000.

In 2021 we had total incoming resources of £101,000 which was mainly through a combination of voluntary giving of £55,000 and receipts from church activities of £46,000. We also had £310 of activities for generating funds and £19 of investment income.

This is £27,000 higher than in 2020 when church and hall lettings were significantly impacted due to the pandemic. There was an improvement in

lettings of £9,000 but they still remained below pre-pandemic levels and collections in church remained low with restrictions ongoing in 2021. £18,000 of the improvement was due to donations to the organ fund which are restricted.

We had total resources expended of £75,000 resulting in a net positive movement in funds i.e. profit of £26,000. In 2020 we had higher resources expended of £105,000 resulting in a loss of £31,000. The lower resources expended this year were predominantly due to a reduction in our Parish Share by £31,000 to £15,000 but there are other factors which will be discussed in note 4.

Moving to the balance sheet, which is a record of our assets and liabilities at the end of the year, we had fixed assets of £220,000 which is the church hall. Our current assets were cash of £76,000 and debtors of £10,000. Cash was £23,000 higher than 2020 representing profits in the year and donations to the restricted organ fund. Our current liabilities were accruals of £3,000. Overall net assets were £303,000 which is an increase of £26,000 from the end of 2020 at £277,000.

From Note 2 it is possible to see the breakdown in restricted funds – these are funds held that can only be used for specific purposes. £1,500 is held for improvement works for the church and there is a £6,605 fund for significant repair works to the organ. There were very generous donations to the fund in the year of £17,650 of which £11,700 had been spent by the end of the year.

Note 3 is a breakdown of Incoming Resources. The first major category is voluntary Income of £55,000 and was made up of: Planned giving through both the Parish Giving Scheme of £23,000 and regular giving by bank transfer of £6,000 both in line with 2020. Collections and other giving remain low at £1,000 with pandemic restrictions continuing in 2021. Gift Aid recovered of £8,000 was a little higher than 2020. The last category of ‘all other giving & voluntary income’ of £17,136 was mainly the organ fund plus a few small ad hoc donations. Receipts from activities for generating funds were £310 for the pet show and wreath making events. Receipts from church activities were largely from letting of the church hall of £37,000 and use of the church of £9,000. Church hall receipts are back to the 2019 level with the nursery open for the whole year and a boost from their expanded hours offset the loss of other hirers which we continue to build back up. Use of church is in line with 2020 as hiring was still impacted by covid restrictions.

In Note 4 resources expended are summarised into three major categories (Cost of Generating Funds is minimal). The first is ‘Church Activities’ of £33,000 which is overall £31,000 less than 2019. The largest cost is the Diocesan Parish Share of £15,000 which was reduced by £31,000 on 2020. Salaries, wages and honoraria were £16,000 and clergy and staff expenses were £2,000 both inline with 2020. The next major category is ‘Church expenses’ of £42,000 up by £4,000 on 2020 however this includes £12,000 spend from the restricted organ fund, excluding this other expenses were down £8,000. Church running expenses of £29,000 were £8,000 higher than 2020 but again actually £4,000 lower excluding the organ. This was due to lower general maintenance for the organ, cleaning costs and church maintenance. Church utility costs were £7,000 and in line with 2020. Hall running expenses of £4,000 were £1,000 less than 2020. Hall utility costs were £3,000 which is £3,000 less than 2020 with a significant rebate for overpaid VAT on gas applied in the year and slightly lower

usage. There was no ‘Major capital expenditure’ in the year compared to £3,000 in 2020.

Note 7 is the breakdown of where our cash is held in various accounts. The current account has increased by £19,000. The reserve account increased by £4,000 to £12,000 due to a donation for the organ fund. The other accounts are in line with 2020.

Note 8 sets out the debtors of £10,000 and is mainly the insurance prepayment of £4000 and £4,000 of hall rental debtors (the majority of which have been paid since year end). The balance is gift aid and vicarage gas.

Note 11 sets out the accruals of £3000 which are running expenses and money owed to the vicar for expenses.

We see our unrestricted reserves at £68,000 which have been partially replenished from 2020 but are not back to 2019 levels of around £90,000. The PCC voted to designate £25,000 towards the cost of fixing the church gutters (as referred to in the buildings report). The remaining £43,000 is retained in anticipation of other potential repairs to our church building – as an historic building we anticipate significant future expenditure could be needed to maintain the integrity of the building. Two significant risk factors we must always keep in mind is the potential to lose our largest hirer (c£30k per year) and the potential replacement of the church heating system (c£30k).

Looking ahead we have been enjoying more stability as covid is currently not technically restricting hiring or church attendance. However – the big issue for the church is very specifically going to be energy bills. On average we spend £9000 on utilities for the church and £4000 on the hall. Our gas contracts are in place until around the end 2022/start of 2023 but on current pricing we’d estimate prices will double bringing an extra £13,000 of cost to the church. We have set up a smaller PCC group to look at where we can save energy and have been in touch with the Diocese specialist to completely review our buildings to find opportunities to save energy both to reduce cost and become more environmentally friendly.

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Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of St Matthew’s Parochial Church Council

I report on the accounts of the church for the year ended 31 December 2021.

Respective responsibilities of Trustees and Examiner

The church’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The church’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act (the 2011 Act) 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 Commissioners (under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act); and

• To state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of Independent Examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a 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 you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements

2. to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; and

3. to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act have not been met; or

4. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Catherine Bedwin 4[th] March 2022

21 Lyncroft Gardens, London W13 9PU