Solent Evangelical Church
Report and Accounts Year ended 28 February 2022
1 Lamb's Passage, London EC1Y 8AB www.stewardship.org.uk
Solent Evangelical Church
LEGAL & ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2022
| ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE | ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE | 365A Forton Road |
|---|---|---|
| Gosport | ||
| PO12 3HF | ||
| GOVERNING DOCUMENT | CIO Constitution Registered 18 December 2018 | |
| CHARITY REGISTRATION NUMBER | 1181249 | |
| TRUSTEES RESPONSIBLE | FOR | David Hugh Stanford (Pastor) |
| MANAGING THE CHARITY | Ronald Philip Bygrave | |
| Paul David Williams | ||
| BANKERS | Santander Business Banking | |
| Bridle Road | ||
| Bootle | ||
| Merseyside | ||
| L30 4GB | ||
| INSURERS | Ansvar Insurance | |
| Ansvar House | ||
| St Leonards Road | ||
| Eastbourne | ||
| BN21 3UR | ||
| Fellowship of Independent Evangelical | ||
| AFFILIATIONS | Churches (FIEC) | |
| Solent Gospel Partnership (SGP) | ||
| INDEPENDENT EXAMINER | Lourens du Plessis ACA CA(SA) | |
| Stewardship | ||
| 1 Lamb's Passage | ||
| LONDON | ||
| EC1Y 8AB | ||
| INDEX | ||
| Page 1 | Legal & Administrative Details | |
| Pages 2-6 | Trustees' Report | |
| Page 7 | Independent Examiner's Report | |
| Page 8 | Receipts and Payments Account | |
| Page 9 | Statement of Assets & Liabilities | |
| Page 10 | Notes | to the Accounts |
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Solent Evangelical Church
Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statement
Reporting Period: 1 March 2021 to 28 February 2022
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Governance
The managing trustees of the charity are the elders, who are appointed by members in accordance with the Church Handbook. The current elders are listed above. Ron Bygrave and Paul Williams were re-elected for a 5 year term at a Church Members Meeting held on 6 November 2019. David Stanford as an employed elder / pastor is not appointed for a fixed term of office but his appointment as elder (managing trustee) would terminate with his employment were that to cease according to the proper processes.
Deacons are also appointed in support of the elders and to take responsibility for various roles in the life of the church. Paul Bassett and Roger White were both reappointed by members approval as deacons for 1 year terms from 29 January 2020, and these terms were extended for a further year at the end of January 2021. Roger White resigned as a deacon on 26 November 2021. Paul Bassett is due to be reappointed later in 2022, and is continuing in the role in the meantime.
Charity Objectives
As set out in our Constitution, the objectives of Solent Evangelical Church are:
The advancement of the Christian faith in accordance with the Basis of Faith primarily but not exclusively within Gosport and the surrounding neighbourhood; and such other charitable purposes as shall, in the opinion of the charity trustees, put into practice the Christian faith in accordance with the Basis of Faith.
Activities in fulfilment of the Objectives
The church is committed to helping any who we can to come to know and follow Jesus and leading people to faith in Jesus is core to the advancement of the Christian faith. This is of huge benefit to those who come to trust in God in this way, and we believe it is therefore a great public benefit to give people the opportunity to hear about the Christian faith.
The year beginning 1 March 2021 started in the midst of continued government interventions due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The restrictions significantly reduced in July 2021 which freed church to begin opening up to something more like normal. The lessons learned from the previous year of interventions enabled us to continue church activities, albeit rather differently, throughout the period.
For the period from 1 March to 19 July our regular church activities consisted of the following:
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Weekly Sunday morning services held at the church with social distancing measures in place, as well as various restrictions as detailed in government guidance for places of worship. These restrictions included the wearing of masks, and not allowing congregational singing.
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In order to facilitate social distancing we continued to have a free booking system in place to ensure our numbers did not exceed the maximum we could contain with social distancing in place.
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All the services were livestreamed using the set up we had established in the previous year.
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The management of the meetings in this way took considerable weekly volunteer effort to maintain, and numerous technical difficulties had to be handled in this time to keep things operating as smoothly as possible. This would not have been possible without the dedication and long term commitment of a number of key church members and regular attenders.
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Also over this part of the year we also held online (Zoom) “Bible Together” Bible study and prayer meetings on the Bible books of Acts and Leviticus. This also included a programme of
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personal Bible reading which those who attended online each week were encouraged to undertake. These studies were an important connection in a time of distance and reduced sense of community, and attracted participants from wider than the church family.
Following the lifting of restrictions on 19 July, normal Sunday meetings were able to resume – with some minor restrictions in place, but largely back to pre-pandemic format – including the resumption of congregational singing and the cessation of the booking system. This was hugely welcome and improved things greatly. From this point attendance in person at services steadily increased over the next few months. Although there have been occasions where a number of people have been absent (especially during the winter months that followed), numbers on Sunday mornings have been back to fairly close to pre-pandemic numbers.
Following the restart of the autumn term we began discussions on restarting pre-pandemic activities. The priority was our Thursday morning coffee shop, Coffee Pot. This restarted on 11 November, with a new improved set up, although only running every other week in term time only. However, it was great to see a renewal of contact with friends from outside the church and local people attending. This continued through the rest of the reporting period.
Over Christmas we held “Café Carols” – a visitor focussed Christmas service with carols, and these saw a number of non-Church people in attendance. Following this in the New Year (2022) we ran a course for people interested in finding out more about Christianity – called Hope Explored. Visitors to the Café Carols had been invited to take part in this.
From September 2021, we also ran a number of youth events for the church young people in secondary / 6th form age group. This included both social events and Bible teaching events held on Sunday evenings and some Saturdays.
During this period a number of people both in the church and known to us suffered ill health and received support both practical and spiritual. We also provided practical support to a family moving into a new home.
In September / October the church toilet area was completely gutted and rebuilt to include a wheelchair access toilet and two self contained unisex toilets. This was done by an outside company. This meant a considerable disruption to the church building over a six week period, and the opportunity was taken by volunteer members to renovate and redecorate the rear lounge area adjacent to the toilet area. Along with the new kitchen completed in March 2020, this means the facilities at the church building are much improved, and we believe that although the combined cost of these works was significant, it was overdue, and has been worth the investment to support our ongoing work as a church in the community.
There are a number of areas of activity which we have not yet restarted as a church, which over the following period will be assessed and restarted as we are able to, and according to whether or not we think these activities support the mission of the church effectively and enable us to achieve our objectives. These include, small groups, Sunday evening Hub evenings, Sunday school, continued youth work. We have found that across the board people do not have the same capacity yet for volunteer work that is vital in an organisation such as ours. Furthermore, the loss of momentum created by the halt in activity because of pandemic restrictions is proving hard to overcome.
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The positive side of this, is that we are able to assess freshly what activities we consider to be effective and can restart what we do choose to start in new ways to ensure they more suitable for the purpose they are intended for. This is something much harder to do when existing activities are in place.
We have also continued to financially support external organisations who share our ethos and goals.
Achievements and Performance
The continued preaching of the message of Jesus has provided a source of strength and hope for the members of the church and for many others during this time.
The return of normal congregational activities has been a real help, and a time of rebuilding relationships and rethinking our lives together and for the community has been valuable.
A number of individuals have faced life difficulties during this time and have received significant support both practical and moral from the church which has significantly helped them in those difficulties.
The trustees have considered the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit and believe that we have fulfilled our objectives in this regard.
Financial Policies
It is our general policy to hold reserves in place equal to at least the normal running costs of the church for a three month period. This is to act as a buffer in the event of significant reduction in charity income, and to ensure that we can fulfil our financial obligations in that event.
This figure is currently estimated to be £12,000. At the end of this period we held £35,435 in reserve which is well above the reserve policy level. £20,000 of this reserve is informally earmarked as a buffer fund for the part time employment of an administrator, but even with this taken into account, the reserves held above this are £15,435. So by any measure we are adhering to our reserves policy.
Financial Summary
The income levels in this period are very similar to the previous year. This year’s income figure is £42,674 as compared to previous year £62.683, but the previous year figure included a special gift of £20,000 which when removed leaves income levels virtually identical between last year and this.
Outgoings stand at £61,826 as compared to £49,077 in the previous year. This increase can be accounted for by the expenses for the toilet rebuild (£15,011), kitchen refurb final (£649) and lounge refurb (£2,134) – all planned expenses which we intended to make from the reserves held. Note that the comparison to the previous year may not be a totally helpful comparison as that
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year also had out of the ordinary expenses so will itself have been high compared to “normal” expenses.
However, a better measure perhaps, the level of total reserves in this period has dropped from £53,357 to £34,205, a difference of £19,152. This largely tallies with the total of the above projects, which totals £17,794. Other expenses have slightly dipped into the reserves held, but within reasonable bounds.
With this year and the previous year also being a times of change both externally and internally, it is difficult to accurately gauge the financial state of the church in comparison with past.
With new hopes and plans for the future of the church which will inevitably draw on our financial resources, and with increased difficulties externally from the pressures on the wider economy, our church finances could take a hit in the coming years. But the effect of this is hard to judge, and as things stand we have reasonable leeway to maintain our mission in the immediate future.
Responsibilities of trustees
Charity law requires us as Trustees to prepare financial statements for each accounting year which record the receipts and payments of the charity for the year.
We are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable us to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011.
We also have a responsibility to safeguard the assets of the charity and to take reasonable steps to prevent fraud or any other irregularities.
Approval
This report was approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:
David Stanford
David Stanford Date: 6 October 2022
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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT
TO THE TRUSTEES OF
Solent Evangelical Church
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Solent Evangelical Church ('the charity') for the year ended 28 February 2022 on pages 8 to 10 following.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the charity’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 2011 Act.
Independent examiner’s 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:
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accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with the accounting records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Lourens du Plessis
Lourens du Plessis ACA CA(SA)
Stewardship 1 Lamb's Passage LONDON EC1Y 8AB
Date: 6 October 2022
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Solent Evangelical Church
RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2022
| Notes Income receipts Donations Gift aid receipts Income from letting of facilities Interest received Total receipts Payments 2 Total payments Transfers between funds 4 Net movement in funds Cash funds as at last year end Cash funds at this year end A Net of receipts / (payments) before Grants paid in relation to charitable activities undertaken by others Payments in relation to charitable activities undertaken directly Purchase of fixed assets |
General Designated Funds Funds £ £ 36,074 377 5,696 - 525 - 2 - 42,297 377 43,710 15,916 2,200 - 45,910 15,916 - - - - 45,910 15,916 (3,614) (15,539) - - (3,614) (15,539) 25,008 28,349 21,395 12,810 Unrestricted Funds |
Restricted Funds £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
2022 £ 36,451 5,696 525 2 42,674 59,626 2,200 61,826 - - 61,826 (19,152) - (19,152) 53,357 34,205 |
2021 £ |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Funds £ 36,074 5,696 525 2 42,297 43,710 2,200 45,910 - - 45,910 (3,614) - (3,614) 25,008 21,395 |
|||||
| 55,738 6,222 640 83 |
|||||
| 62,683 | |||||
| 45,808 1,870 |
|||||
| 47,678 | |||||
| 1,399 | |||||
| 1,399 | |||||
| 49,077 | |||||
| 13,606 - |
|||||
| 13,606 39,751 |
|||||
| 53,357 |
The notes on page 10 form part of these accounts.
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Solent Evangelical Church
STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2022
| Notes A Cash funds Cash at bank with immediate access Petty cash B Other monetary assets Gift aid due to charity C Liabilities Falling due within one year Fee for Independent Examination Accrued expenses Total |
General Designated funds funds £ £ 21,395 12,698 - 112 21,395 12,810 6,045 - 6,045 - 840 - - - 840 - 840 - Unrestricted Funds |
Restricted funds £ - - - - - - - - - |
2022 £ 34,093 112 34,205 6,045 6,045 840 - 840 840 |
2021 £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53,357 - |
||||
| 53,357 | ||||
| 5,907 | ||||
| 5,907 | ||||
| 840 534 |
||||
| 1,374 | ||||
| 1,374 |
D Assets retained for charity's own use
| Freehold of church building Computers and IT Furniture |
Cost £ - 2,599 5,000 7,599 |
Current value £ |
|---|---|---|
| 280,702 932 - |
||
| 281,634 |
The trustees have used insurance values for the church building as the trustees are unable to reliably estimate current values; insurance values may differ materially from current values.
E Guarantees and secured debts
The charity has not given any guarantees and has not provided its assets as security for any liabilities.
The accounts were approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:
David Stanford
David Stanford
Date: 6 October 2022
The notes on page 10 form part of these accounts.
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Solent Evangelical Church
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 28 FEBRUARY 2022
1 Accounting policies
The accounts have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis and comprise a statement that shows the charity's receipts and payments, a statement that summarises the charity's assets and liabilities and related notes. The accountancy profession have determined that only accounts prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards present a 'true and fair' view and, as these receipts and payments accounts have not (and cannot) be prepared in accordance with accounting standards, these accounts do not present (and are not intended to present) a 'true and fair' view of the charity's financial activities and state of affairs.
General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity. Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the trustees for particular purposes. Restricted funds are donations which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors; they include donations received from appeals for specific activities or projects.
| 2 Payments in relation to charitable activities undertaken directly Employment costs (see note 3) Ministry expenses Coffee Pot expenses IT equipment Refurbishment costs Small equipment Building maintenance & repair Utilities Insurance Legal & Professional fees Office & IT costs Other costs Contribution to FIEC |
Unrestricted Fun General funds £ 33,940 1,489 - - 2,134 220 286 1,316 1,242 960 1,340 65 720 43,710 |
ds Designated funds £ - - 255 - 15,660 - - - - - - - - 15,916 |
Restricted Funds £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Total 2022 £ 33,940 1,489 255 - 17,794 220 286 1,316 1,242 960 1,340 65 720 59,626 |
Total 2021 £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32,768 2,103 - 1,957 3,717 145 142 1,424 1,197 129 1,446 - 780 |
|||||
| 45,808 |
3 Transactions with related parties
David Stanford served as church leader and was paid £32,992 inclusive of pension (2021: £32,768) for serving in that capacity, not for serving as a trustee; these payments are permitted by the charity's governing document.
Rhiannon Stanford who is related to David Stanford, received £300 (2021: £nil) towards her support at Bible College.
4 Movement of funds
| 29 General funds Designated funds Betchworth special projects Local Evangelical Legacy Snapdragons Coffee Pot Total funds |
Balance at February 2021 £ 25,008 11,026 16,645 258 420 28,349 53,357 |
Receipts £ 42,297 - - - 377 377 42,674 |
Payments £ (45,910) (650) (15,011) - (255) (15,915) (61,825) |
Transfers 2 £ - - - - - - - |
Balance at 8 February 2022 £ 21,395 10,377 1,634 258 542 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,810 | |||||
| 34,205 |
Betchworth special projects fund is set aside for the kitchen refurbishment and possible employment costs in the future. Local Evangelical Legacy is set aside for livestream facility and development of unisex toilets Snapdragons fund represents money held for the toddler group Coffee Pot fund represents money held for this activity.
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