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2024-03-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period Trustees' Annual Report for the period Trustees' Annual Report for the period Trustees' Annual Report for the period Trustees' Annual Report for the period
From Period start date To Period end date
1 April 2023 31 March 2024

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan Other names charity is known by None Registered charity number (if any) 1181382 Charity's principal address Priory Street Cardigan Ceredigion SA43 1BU

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8		 Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for
whole year		 Name of person (or
body) entitled to
appoint trustee (if any)
Malcolm Andrew
Cunningham
Stanley John Kirby
Peter Sanders Treasurer
David Stevenson
Paul Clarke
Rachel Brewer 24/9/23–31/3/24
Catherine Thomas 24/9/23–31/3/24
Anthony Brown Minister 30/10/23–31/3/24
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name Dates actedif notfor whole year
NONE

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Type of adviser Name Address Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information) NONE

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Constitution

Trustee selection methods

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

By election by members following consideration and recommendation by existing trustees.

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

Risk Management A Risk Register exists for all major risks and is reviewed by the Trustees at least annually.

The charity has a number of separate documents covering risk including:

Financial risks are managed by the preparation of budgets and regular review of expenditure and income by the trustees. Budgets and financial performance against budget are also reported to the Members at least twice annually.

Income has not recovered from the impact of the Covid pandemic and with the appointment of a new Minister a large deficit would have been incurred, but for the receipt of a substantial legacy. Giving has increased during Financial Year 2024/25 so far, enabling the church to continue delivering its wide range of activities. The charity holds all the usual insurances: motor, public and employee liability, buildings, and contents insurance.

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the
charity set out in its governing
document
Summary of 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 principal purpose of the Church is the advancement of the
Christian faith according to the principles of the Baptist denomination.
The Church may also advance education and carry out other
charitable purposes in the United Kingdom and/or other parts of the
world.
The advancement of our faith includes caring for those within the
Church and also in the wider community locally and globally.
The Charity Trustees are aware of the commission’s public benefit
guidance and ‘have regard’ to it when making decisions in relation to
the main activities to which the guidance is relevant. Main activities are
summarised below.
The charity is a Christian church that has been serving God and our
community in Cardigan for over 140 years. Our mission is to help
people encounter Jesus in a way that changes them forever. We do
this in two ways: by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ (the
Gospel) and by helping and caring for people in our local community
and elsewhere in the world. Our work towards this is summarised
below:
Weekly worship
The weekly Sunday service is held in person and is live streamed and
published on YouTube.
A pre-service prayer meeting in the Church is held in-person.
Other formal study, worship and fellowship meetings included:
Monday night prayer and Friday morning prayer meetings are held at
Mount Zion.
House Groups:
A number of small groups met in Members homes (House Groups):
A number of groups met in the Church, too:
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A Bible study group
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A women’s meeting
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Thursday Coffee mornings
Youth Clubs (community work):
The Mount Zion Youth Centre holds regular Friday meetings, which
have fully resumed. Our youth attended the CCIW Youth Camp in
August 2023, and it is anticipated that a CCIW youth camp will occur in
August 2024.
Our additional community work:
The following activities took place including:
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Operating a bookshop
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Gifts to other charitable organisations including to charities which
help people in need overseas and to assist with a local Food Bank

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section C Objectives and activities

Education and Training:

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section C Objectives and activities

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

Section C Objectives and activities Section C Objectives and activities
Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
Youmay chooseto include
further statements, where
relevant, about:
• policy on grant making;
• policy programme related
investment;
• contribution made by
volunteers.		 This section of our report provides some additional detail about money
we have given to other organisations and the important contribution of
volunteers to our charity.
Gifts
Our financial giving was able to continue during the pandemic and the
charity made donations to a number of other charities during the year,
with total amount of giving of £8335 (see Section D below for a
detailed breakdown) £600 was also given from the Care Fund to two
individuals suffering financial hardship.
Volunteers
Volunteers are key to the successful operation of the charity although
the amount of volunteer work was greatly curtailed by the pandemic.
Key tasks / activities and the numbers involved (in brackets) include:
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Treasurer, Book-keeper, Gift Aid & Payroll Administrator (2)
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Church Secretary (1)
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Stewarding for Sunday services (10)
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Sarnau Community Church (10)
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Kitchen Supervisor and Servers (12)
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Media / Sound Supervisor & Team (9)
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House Group Leaders (4)
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Missions Co-ordinator & Team (3)
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Alpha courses (6+)
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Music Group Leader and Musicians (10)
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Kids Club (4+)
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Youth Director and Youth team (8)
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Junior Church teachers and Creche (6)
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Bookshop Volunteers (7)
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Care Team (12)
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Care Homes Ministry (6)
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Coffee Morning Organiser / helpers (8)
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Ukrainian Family Support (5)
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Flower Rota & Craft Club (1)
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Website Manager and Administrator (1)
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Media production and management (1)
The organisation and activity for Sunday Worship requires a large
number of volunteers (many of whom cover multiple activities), and
approximately 70 have been active.

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

This section contains a summary of our achievements/activities in the relevant period. The areas covered are:

Worship Services:

Our normal Sunday service meets in person for worship, and we also live-stream the services. Our YouTube channel is: - https://www.youtube.com/@mountzionchurch cardigan3187 During the year 56 services were live streamed services and published online. The average number of views was approximately 100 per service, with 361 watching the Baptismal service.

Youth Work:

Our youth meetings are open to all youth aged 11 and above.

Youth Centre:

The Youth Centre, in the Lower Vestry, at Capel Tabernacl in Cardigan town centre, provides a large space similar in size to the sanctuary of our Priory Street church building. In this space, apart from Youth focused Christian teaching, we offer table tennis, pool, and other age-suitable activities.

Numbers similar to last year of youth attending, between 15-24, and supported by a youth team of about 8 (normally, there were about 5 or 6 each session). Discussion theme ‘Living Stories, Living Stones’ was utilised throughout the year where youth leaders and a few Church members shared how God has impacted their lives; also 3 of our young leaders shared too. These sessions were interspersed with a series from apologist Sean McDowell called Explore and another called Speak. CCIW (Christian Camps in Wales): The summer camp at Tywyn was held in 2023, with 28 youth and volunteers going, and attendance is planned for 2024. The Church provided a subsidy totalling £2160 towards the cost for attendance. Kids Club: Primary Age Children (8-12 children and open to all) We have had a blessed year at Kids Club. Numbers are low - around 8 - 10 for a typical session, but the children and their parents are fully committed. Kids Club is for primary aged children and takes place after school on Wednesdays during term time - games, crafts, and Bible stories. We have also run events for the families: a Christmas dinner, Easter afternoon tea and summer BBQ. We have a core team of four helpers, and we call on some of the church youth and young people to help if needed.

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section D Achievements and performance

Junior Church & Creche: an age-appropriate teaching for children and youth during the sermon at Sunday morning services. The primary school age class usually has around 5 children - more in the school holidays when we have visiting children. The children enjoy Bible stories and then craft activity. We have a rota of three teachers. Creche is available in the upper vestry for pre-school children and their parents/carers while the sermon is on. We have a rota of 6 volunteers to welcome and look after the families in creche. Youth Work Team: The Youth Director is responsible for the oversight of Youth activities, supported by a volunteer group of about 8-9. We foresee the appointment of a Youth Pastor in the next period, to provide mentoring and support to youth. Gifts – Financial aid and Support for Other Charities: The Church provided financial and other support to other charities as part of our aim to care form and help those in need in our local area and elsewhere – to show love to those in need around the world. Mount Zion Church continue to support the five Missions Partners on our Missions Giving Schedule: Blythswood Care, BMS World Mission, Good News for Everyone! and Tŷ Cariad (Uganda). We also support Blythswood Care with the annual Shoebox Appeal. In addition, the Church gave financial support for the work of Boureima Diallo in Burkina Faso at the Jam Tan Centre and through the Fulani Network extending the reach of the Gospel. During the period April 2023 – March 2024 the following amounts from the annual dedicated budget for Missions remained unchanged at: £900 to Blythswood Care £1200 to BMS World Mission £1800 to Fulani Ministries £1200 to Good News for Everyone! £2100 to Tŷ Cariad from the Church and £200 from Sarnau Church £935 to Team Challenge against Addiction In November 2023 approximately 60 Christmas Shoe boxes, together with extra knitwear supplied by faithful friends, were collected from Mt Zion. The destination of the boxes was Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and all the gifts were a true message of God’s love to every person who received a Christmas gift box. In Autumn 2024 we intend providing further information, raising awareness of who our Mission Partners are, and explaining how the Church supports them, will be developed. Updated information will begin to appear on the Missions notice board in the Vestry, and we will be inviting the Partners to provide information suitable for presentation in our morning service. Women Together: A group of 15-20 women meet every third Wednesday of the month, for a Bible study and a time of fellowship. ‘ ’ They have been studying the theme of gratitude .

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section D Achievements and performance

Homes for Ukraine The Church housed a Ukrainian family in its manse (the minister’s house) as part of the government Homes for Ukraine scheme, making use of a property which was empty while the church was without a minister. An extended family of five was housed and supported by the church until October 2023. The church received £4000 in Government Grant and spent £1330 on direct support and £3500 on housing costs. Warm Spaces /Shared Loaf: During the winter period 2023/24, we opened our church vestry to provide ‘warm space’ welcome and food/drink to both church and non-church community members, supported by volunteers. Our direct costs for Warm Spaces & Shared Loaf amounted to £253. We received a subsidy from the local Council Authority to support this provision of Warm Spaces. Summary of other activities and achievements: The achievements below are aligned to our objective of advancing the Christian faith: These reflect our goal of caring for those in and beyond our Church, and the wider community: Care Home Ministry: Volunteers from the regular congregation help both regular worshippers and local people visit a three local area Care Homes, combining worship with practical help and social visits. These visits restarted in June 2023. Bookshop The Church supports a local Christian Bookshop, which is managed and manned by volunteers, and which provides Christan bibles and other Christian resources to the local community. Sarnau Community Church: The Church supports a Community Church locally held once a month, with Worship, Teaching, and Fellowship, where between 30-40 people attend. Sarnau also contributed £200 towards the Ty Cariad Mission,(see above). Cardigan Agricultural Show: This annual event was held, and a number of volunteers assisted by manning the Marquee this year. The Show is aimed at the local community, and shows off the various agricultural activities and crafts in the area. We attend and represent the faith-based community in Cardigan.

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the The charity aims to hold unrestricted funds to cover 3 months’ charity’s policy on reserves expenditure. At the close of the financial year 2023/2024 unrestricted cash held was in excess of 3 months expenditure. Details of any funds No funds in deficit. materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include The Trustees review the financial position each month and actions are additional information, where taken to effectively manage its finances. This is an ongoing process, at relevant about: the end of the financial year unrestricted cash reserves were £61,800 • the charity’s principal offset by creditors of £17,000 Members and regular worshippers are sources of funds encouraged to give via the Gift Aid scheme and during 2023/2024 this (including any source of income was £55,440, (Previous year £60,711) This included tax recovery of £10,654 from Gift Aid covenants and £2,327 through the fundraising); Gift Aid Small Donation scheme.

The regular financial support of members and worshippers enabled the charity to employ not only a full-time minister (for part of the year) but also a part-time youth worker and other part-time staff to support its work in the community.

Section F Other optional information

This is the eighth full year of the church's separate registration as charity. (It previously operated under the umbrella of the Baptist Union of Wales).

We are mindful of the increasing governance requirements placed upon charities. During 2023/2024 we continued managing our Risks appropriately in accordance with current legislation.

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees Signature(s) S. J. Kirb M. A. Cunnin ham y g Full name(s) Stanley John Kirby Malcolm Andrew Cunningham Position (e.g. Secretary, Chair, Deacon / Acting Secretary Deacon etc) Date 21 October 2024

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Cardigan

FY 2023/24

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Section C Notes to the accounts (cont) Note 29 Additional Disclosures The following are significant matters which are not covered in other notes and need to be included to provide a proper understanding of the accounts. If there is insufficient room here, please add a separate sheet. The minister Mr Anthony Casson Brown occupies the manse the costs of which are met by the church. A rent for this type of property would be around £900 month.

CC17a (Excel)

13/01/2025

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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF MOUNT ZION BAPTIST CHURCH, CARDIGAN

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Mount Zion Baptist Church for the year ended 31 March 2024.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with 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 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:-

  1. accounting records were not kept in the respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or

  3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

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.

DM Davies

……………………… D M B DAVIES LIMITED

Accountants Broyan House Priory Street CARDIGAN Ceredigion SA43 1BZ

DATE 8[th] January 2025