2022-12-31-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 2022

Trustees (as at 31 December 2022): Michael Barter, Lucie Kirkpatrick, James Blake, Sandra Phillips, Ian Pearce, 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 at other times to 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 Peter Edwards retiring as church warden. Claire Oberman took on the role temporarily at our May 2022 APCM to provide an excellent cover until a permanent replacement was found. James Blake was elected church warden in May 2023.

Review of the year

January 2022 saw the installation of the new Bishop of Willesden, Bishop Lusa Nsegna Nagoy. Bishop Lusa will be conducting a “walking tour” across the diocese of Willesden in 2023, visiting as many parish churches as he possibly can.

Also in January, we welcomed Mrs Iulia Georgescu as our new parish secretary (but not a formal trustee of the charity).

Also at the start of 2022, St Matthew’s began planning for a new season of support for the Ealing Winter Night Shelter, something so many people in this parish have engaged with so passionately and with such commitment since 2019.

Thanks once again to the energy and dedication of Mr Ian Pearce, our Outreach Coordinator, we were once again able to engage in face to face work with some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. (Our usual model - hosting guests overnight in the church hall- was changed at the last minute, as Ealing Council advised us not to operate this model in the current post pandemic climate.)

Instead, a team of dedicated volunteers cooked meals in their own homes which were then delivered to shelter guests staying in a bed and breakfast in Southall, every Saturday night,

throughout February & March . Thanks to all who took part in this important and much needed social project.

As the Night Shelter season came to an end, our Lent preparations began, stretching into April Easter celebrations. As with Christmas, numbers were noticeably lower at public worship during this time than in previous “normal” years, although this is likely due to many parishioners taking the time to visit loved ones for the first time in a post lockdown time.

In May we held our first wedding at St Matthew’s in more than 3 years, and the church year then ended just as it began, with sadly another churchwarden stepping down-Mr Peter Edwards. Sincere and grateful thanks to Peter for all his dedicated service to the common life of St Matthew’s Church. Thanks for the life and ministry of Rev Peter Watkins, priest of this parish for 48 years, who died on 3rd April 2022.

In June 22, we held a special service to mark the Platinum Anniversary of the reign of her Majesty Q Elizabeth, and in JULY we celebrated the end of the school year with a St Matthew’s families parish picnic on Ealing Common, in glorious, blazing sunshine! A great turnout, and a good time was had by all! Thanks to all the families that shared fellowship in this sunshine, and a very big thank you to Mrs Sandra Dibley for her excellent work in bringing this together (and to John for buying a bus load of ice creams!)

St Matthews takes the care and welfare of our children and families very seriously: our safeguarding policy & contact details are displayed on the front page of our website. Since our last APCM, Claire, our safeguarding officer, has attended online church safeguarding sessions run by the diocese of London team and the vicar is due to undertake further training.

September was a busy month-we started with our “Blessing of the Book Bags” service, to mark the start of the new School year. And participated, for the very first time, in the London “Open House” festival. This was an initiative of the St Matthew’s heritage committee. The church doors were opened, courtesy of our volunteers for refreshments and guided tours.

September also marked 150 YEARS OF ST MATTHEWS with choral Holy Communion, bunting, banners, fizz, and a special 150 year birthday cake (courtesy of Letitia!) and BBQ. Another big success and a very joyful occasion, despite the rain! Again, thanks to all parishioners, PCC members and volunteers that made this celebration such a delightful success.

Among these joys, there was also sadness, as we gathered together to give thanks for the life and service of Queen Elizabeth 2, at a special service to mark her passing.

In October , we remembered together the previous vicar of this parish, Revd Peter Watkins, with a special memorial service and we are in the process of getting a faculty to put up a plaque in memory of him. We also held our now regular ‘ Animal Blessing Service” , with over 85 people and their animals attending; including this time, 2 ponies from Ealing Riding School, which proved to be especially popular!

In November, we held a well attended Remembrance Day Service, before moving into the season of Advent and Christmas in November and December . Also in December , we raised funds for our annual YMCA Christmas appeal- thanks to both Mrs Claire Dutfield and Mrs Debbie Edwards for their excellent efforts in organising this, and thanks to all who contributed financially to it.

Let’s not forget that, “officially” on the books, you have one paid priest, and one part time parish administrator; that’s it! And yet just reflect on this rather epic list of thing we have done together, as one community in the name of God…actively running homelessness programmes, family picnics, barbecues, celebrations, open days etc etc…

They say “nothing is impossible” but nothing would be possible here at St Matthew’s without the enormous and continued commitment of volunteers to the common life of St Matthew’s.

Buildings

Since the last report we formed a heritage committee to learn about our church’s history. In September last year we were able to be part of the Open House festival. It was a big success and we had lots of new visitors that would not normally have come to church. Also lots of very surprised locals that engaged and loved seeing inside the church and commented on how beautiful it is. Debbie Edwards , Claire Oberman , Mary Graham helped get the heritage committee up and running and were involved in the Open house in September 2022. Richard Mosely produced the heritage booklet for the open house and John Newton tracked down the research

As part of the heritage commitment Claire Oberman is aiming to open twice a month on Saturday mornings in summer 2023 for heritage tours with refreshments. We are due be part of the open house in Sept 2023 and could tie both of these openings with local walking tours and possibly the Ealing art trail.

The church has had SARAH KHAN enstated as our ARCHITECT. She is a partner at the highly rated ROGER MEARS ARCHITECTS and also a sits on the DIOCESAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE which rules on building work for London Churches. She is highly skilled in heritage and listed buildings and hopefully can use her expertise and experience to help us sympathetically bring the church up to date without spoiling its beauty. The overdue Quinquennial Inspection will take part in 2023.

The last year has seen a lot of work done to the fabric of the church. We had a major flood behind the church hall at the back of the vicarage garden originating from the water meter and it became a long drawn-out saga as we tried to ascertain who was responsible thereby wasting lots of time and water until it finally was resolved with negotiations ongoing about the bill. Augur drainage specialists came in December and cleared roots and relined some drains that had become blocked and caused us ongoing problems (all the work was under guarantee). We have had multiple leaks and roof and guttering problems in the church and plumbing works for sink and loo blockages and downpipe leaks. Pest control has been active with rats and mice found on the premises. The Knot weed specialists fulfilled their maintenance contract with us and we’ve repaired broken doors and mended the gate to the boiler room.

We have had problems with leaking gutters due to undersized lead and cracks in the gutters we are seeking help to see if these can be rectified within the six year guarantee from the work that was completed in sept 2017 — Sarah Khan is helping help get it moving and the contractor has visited the site recently. Hopefully this should be addressed in 2023.

Going forward she is also going to look at redesigning the rear gutters so that they can be renewed soon. We have allocated funds 25k to this and we need extra funding unto around 110k because of inflationary prices in recent years. Grants from Church Trust and Diocesan fund.

We commissioned an ESOS Energy Survey survey to look into what we need to do to hit the CofE environment commitment of net zero emissions by 2050. The main recommendations were to improve the insulation and draught proofing, replace heaters in church, secondary window glazing

on some of the windows ie not stained glass so not affect listing, update boiler and look to install solar heating on roof of the hall. A huge amount of work that will need to be costed and prioritised.

Finance

Overall we had a good year with a profitability of £17,000 before organ fund movements despite increasing our parish share contribution from £15,000 to £27,000. In light of the continued absence of covid we raised our offer for 2023 to £35,000.

In 2022 we had total incoming resources of £108,000 mainly through a combination of voluntary giving of £42,000 and receipts from church activities of £65,000. We also had £40 of activities for generating funds and £447 of investment income. Investment income is significantly higher this year with the increase in interest rates. This is £6,000 more income than in 2021 in total and £24,000 higher when excluding the organ fund. There was an improvement in lettings of £19,000 with no covid lockdowns in 2022 and this is now back to pre-pandemic levels. This improvement was offset by £14,000 lower voluntary donations due to lower organ fund contributions.

We had total resources expended of £105,000 resulting in a net positive movement in funds i.e. profit of £3,000. In 2021 we had lower resources expended of £75,000 resulting in a profit of £26,000. The higher resources expended this year were predominantly due to the increase in our Parish Share by £15,000 to £27,000 and £14,000 spent on organ works. There are a number of other factors which will be discussed later. Excluding the organ fund movements the church made a profit of £17,000.

Balance sheet - we had fixed assets of £220,000 which is the church hall. Our current assets were cash of £77,000 and debtors of £12,000. Cash was £1,000 higher than 2021. Our current liabilities were accruals of £3,000. Overall net assets were £306,000 which is an increase of £3,000 from the end of 2021 representing profit made in the year.

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 negative £7,000 in the fund for significant repair works to the organ. A phase has been recently completed and an anonymous donor has covered the cost of the works so the organ fund is now positive again.

Incoming Resources . The first major category is voluntary Income of £42,000 and was made up of: Planned giving through both the Parish Giving Scheme of £23,000 and regular giving by bank transfer of £5,000 both in line with 2021. Collections have risen to £4000 compared to £1000 in 2021 with no pandemic restrictions in 2022 and people giving in church again. Gift Aid of £9,000 was in line with 2021. The last category of ‘all other giving & voluntary income’ of £3000 is almost entirely support provided by the diocese for the increase in energy costs. This was significantly lower than 2021 where we received some very significant donations to the organ fund.

Receipts from activities for generating funds was £40. Receipts from church activities of £65,000 were largely from letting of the church hall of £46,000 and use of the church of £18,000 – overall £18,000 higher than 2021.

Resources expended are summarised into three major categories (Cost of Generating Funds is minimal). The first is ‘Church Activities’ of £46,000 which is £12,000 more than 2021 due to increased Parish Share of £27,000. Salaries of £17,000 and expenses of £2,000 were largely unchanged.

The next major category is ‘Church expenses’ of £55,000 up by £13,000 on 2021. Church running expenses of £36,000 were £7,000 higher due to £3,000 higher organ spending including maintenance and improvement works, £2,500 higher gardening costs for substantial tree works and £1,500 general costs due to substantial roof works. Church utility costs were £8,000 and in line with 2021 with all our energy bills still in existing contracts. Hall running expenses of £6,000 were £2,000 more than 2021 due to extensive plumbing works. Hall utility costs were £6,000 which is £4,000 more than 2021 which is due to a number of factors: water was £400 higher due to a leak but we are investigating if it can be relaimed. Gas costs were £2000 higher but usage was inline. In 2021 we received a VAT rebate so the figure was artificially low. Electricity was £1,000 higher due to increased pricing with usage the same.

There was £4,000 of ‘Major capital expenditure’ in the year compared to nothing in 2021. This was for higher fences both on the gate to the hall and the side gate to vicarage which were installed for security reasons.

Breakdown of where our cash is held in various accounts with the total of £77,000 very little changed from 2021

Debtors of £12,000 and includes typical debtors of insurance prepayment of £4000 and £2,000 of hall rental debtors (the majority of which have been paid since year end), gift aid and vicarage gas. In addition there is a debtor of £4,000 due from Diocese for gas separation works to the vicarage and hall and £700 VAT rebate for organ costs both of which have been repaid since the year end.

Accruals of £3000 which are running expenses and money owed to the vicar for expenses.

We see our unrestricted reserves at £83,000 which are almost replenished from the pandemic but are not back to 2019 levels of around £90,000. £25,000 is designated towards the cost of fixing the church gutter. The remaining £58,000 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). We have also conducted an audit of the church’s energy set up and are actively looking at improvements.

Music report

ORGAN

The organ was built in 1884 by Auguste Gern. In 1912 it was enlarged and improved by Brindley & Foster (Housnlow). The instrument was electrified in the 1960s by Notermans. In 1998 it underwent a restoration by Berrnie Whitmill following a grant from the Lottery Heritage Fund.

Over the past 2-3 years it has undergone a further restoration involving cleaning all of the pipes, restoring or replacing many 100s of magnets, replacing the old manual stops with electronically aided stops and, more recently, the installation of a programmable electronic capture system which has revived the non-working finger and toe piston mechanisms. These improvements should futureproof the organ for 50-70 years.

Funding for this restoration has been donated by a small number of very generous parishioners so has actually cost the church very little. It is very humbling to the incumbent organist who can enjoy the fruits of all this work.

CHOIR

St Matthew’s is very fortunate indeed to have up to 16 volunteer singers turn up, week in week out, to sing in the choir. Their loyalty, commitment and musicianship is amazing and they form an important part of the congregation. It was wonderful to welcome back lots of former members when we assembled a special choir for Peter Watkins’ Memorial Service in October 2022. There were 40 in the choir on that day.

In a typical year the choir leads the congregation in singing about 175 hymns. They rehearse and perform up to 80 anthems. Other churches who might employ a professional quartet of singers would commonly spend up to £15,000 a year on their choral element. We are very lucky and long may it continue.

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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 2022.

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 4th March 2022 21 Lyncroft Gardens, London W13 9PU