2024-12-31-accounts - The St Sarkis Parish Council

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Dear Parishioners and Friends of St Sarkis Church,

First, I would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone at our 2025 AGM. Thank you for coming and thank you for your continuing support.

We have had a very exciting and successful year. It has been very pleasing to see more and more people become involved in the community life of our Church.

My report will cover the following points:

The Plan - What we set out to achieve
Relationship with the Armenian Church of St Sarkis Trust (St Sarkis Property Trust)
Plans for future activities.

The Parish Committee consists of Sami Minassian(Hon Vice Chair), Annie Kanikanian(Hon Sec), James Harland(Hon Treasurer), Sos Grigorian(Social Media), Zorik Gasparian(Consultant), Hasmig Topalian(Membership) and myself (Chairman). Unfortunately, Socie Boyajian resigned during the year due to personal reasons. I am grateful to all Committee Members for their wonderful support and encouragement to deliver the projects we identified at the start of 2024.

We continue to promote Gulbenkian Hall as a Community Hub so that it can be a place where parishioners have the opportunity to network, meet, chat and welcome newcomers. Over the past year we have organised many social events to attract and welcome people of all ages, especially the young. I would like to thank Annie Kanikanian, Sami Minasian and Hasmig Topalian for their invaluable work in this respect. Annie and Sami often go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the success of events.

Our other priority has been to establish an even stronger working relationship with the Armenian Church of St Sarkis Trust (St Sarkis Property Trust), the general managers of our Church buildings. It is their responsibility to oversee the maintenance and upkeep of the Church, Hall and Vicarage, as well as pay the salary of St Sarkis Clergy. They also used to provide funding for the choir.

1. The Plan - What we set out to achieve and progress to-date

Building on the interest shown by parishioners and Friends of St Sarkis, and based on the needs of the Parish, we set out to achieve the following over a 12 month period.

Replace all the vestments for the clergy, choir and deacons.
Delivered. 15 Choir, 6 Deacons and 1 Clergy vestments were precured from Armenia.
Organise a mini festival on Sunday 26 May 24 within Church grounds.
Delivered. A mini-festival was held as above.
Procure new sound system to supplement the existing one.
Delivered. We now have a new and powerful sound system.
Repair the hessian chairs of the church.
Delivered. Damaged chairs were repaired by volunteers over several Saturdays.
Improve our existing website and make it more user friendly and accessible.
Work in progress – updated equipment procured. The site was hacked.
Registration of St Sarkis Parish for Gift Aid.
Work in progress – update bank account.
Christmas and Easter Bazaars.
Delivered. Successful and very well attended for both events.
Establish a group of volunteers to help with Parish activities.
Ongoing – We have managed successfully to attracted a large number of young volunteers who attend and serve the church every Sunday and organise social events.

In addition to the above activities, we organised a long overdue ‘Thank You’ get-together event for the Choir and their guests in December.

2. Our relationship with the Armenian Church of St Sarkis Trust (St Sarkis Property Trust)

We are always eager to strengthen our relationship with the Trust so that together we can best serve our community and achieve so much more.

Until last year, all choir expenses were met by the Armenian Church St Sarkis Trust (St Sarkis Property Trust) but now all the choir expenses have been transferred to the Parish. The Trust has stated - this is as a result of changes concerning their general funding.

The choir expenses are approximately £13k per annual.

Our Parish income is made up of membership dues, Sunday collections, donations and funds raised by the Fellowship. Candle donations at present are collected by the Trust and we are in discussion with them about the possible transfer of these funds to the Parish to help cover the choir expenses.

3. Plans for the future

Building on the interest shown by parishioners and Friends of St Sarkis, and based on the needs of the Parish, we plan to hold the following activities over the next 12 months.

Organise a mini festival in September 2025 within Church grounds.
Organise a day trip to Canterbury Cathedral.
Improve membership dues collections.
On-line transmission of Church services.
Boost social media and website information dissemination.
Complete registration of St Sarkis Parish for Gift Aid.
Christmas and Easter Bazaars.
Attract and establish a group of volunteers to help with Parish activities.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone for their support of St Sarkis Church and community. Together each one of us can make a difference.

Father Shnork, we thank you for all the extra work you have carried out this year. It is so appreciated.

I would also like to thank James Harland for his invaluable and tireless work as Treasurer.

Annie Kanikanian, Sami Minasian, Hasmig Topalian, Socie Boyajian and Vera Harland have been responsible for many amazing fundraising successes this year. Your food preparation, cooking and organisational skills are outstanding and we thank you so much for all your hard work each week, in and outside Gulbenkian Hall. Special thanks to Hasmig Topalian for her success in collecting membership dues.

Thank you also, Zorik Gasparian, for your invaluable support, advice and videography, and Sos Grigorian for your excellent work on social media & promotion.

My thanks go also to our hard-working deacons, Tigran, Adam Khafadji, Mathew and Nairi Afrikyan who help keep our services running so smoothly. I would also like to thank Hovhannes Arakelyan, the

Choir Master, Zara Gevorgyan the organist, Hasmik Harutyunyan the soloist and all choir members. Your work is an inspiration to us all and much appreciated.

Our website stsarkislondon.org provides up-to-date information on the activities of the Church and upcoming events.

Finally, I would like once more to express my appreciation to everyone who supports St Sarkis Church, and also to all those of you who attend the Church and make donations. No doubt there will be some challenging times ahead but, I remain confident that, working together, we can find solutions to ensure a successful future for St Sarkis.

Bedros Aslanyan

Chair of St Sarkis Parish Council.

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