2024-12-31-accounts - The Parochial Church Council Of The Ecclesiastical Parish Of Colgate And Roffey

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Trustees Annual Report and Financial Report of The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Colgate and Roffey Registered Charity no. 1186553

For the year ended 31st December 2024

The Parish Church of All Saints, Roffey All Saints Church, Crawley Road, Roffey RH12 4HF

The Parish Church of St Saviour’s, Colgate St Saviour’s Church, Forest Road, Colgate RH12 4SZ

Website: www.allsaintsroffey.org.uk Incumbent: The Revd Fr. Russell J Stagg ssc Roffey Vicarage, 1 Forest Oaks, Horsham RH13 6RX Independent Innocent Udia Examiner: 48 Churchill Way, Broadridge Heath RH12 3TZ Bankers: CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill, West Malling, ME19 4JQ

Trustees Annual Report for 2024

The Parish of Colgate and Roffey (Registered Charity no.

The Parish of Colgate and Roffey Trustees Annual Report for 2024 (Registered Charity no. 1186553)

Our aims and purposes as a charity

The Parochial Church Council, hereafter referred to as the PCC has the responsibility of cooperating with the incumbent, the Revd Russell Stagg, in:

The promotion of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the doctrines and practices of the Church of England
Promoting in the parish the whole mission of the church, pastoral, social, evangelistic and, ecumenical
Getting to know Jesus better and make Him better known;
Practical support and care for people in the parish, from the youngest to the eldest, irrespective of level of need or ability to pay
Providing financial support those in need and to other organisations with similar objectives.
Maintaining the churches of St Saviour’s Colgate and the attached churchyard and All Saints Roffey and the associated Parish Room and grounds
Working with Colgate Memorial Hall Trustees in the overseeing of the Hall.

What we planned to do to achieve our charitable objectives

When planning our activities for the year, our incumbent and the PCC have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance on ‘charities for the advancement of religion’.

The council has complied with the duty under section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016, fully recognising its duty to have due regard to House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

For this year we discussed and planned the following objectives and activities to fulfil our aims:

Enabling as many people as possible to worship at our churches
Enabling as many people as possible to become part of our parish community
Teaching, baptising and nurturing new and existing believers
Maintaining an overview of worship throughout the parish
Putting faith into practice, through prayer, scripture, music, and sacrament
Offering worship and prayer, learning about the Gospel, in small groups such as Lent Courses and Bible study
Assisting people from all walks of life to develop their knowledge of, and trust in, Jesus
Provision of pastoral care for people living in the parish
Providing assistance to the poor and needy of the parish

Trustees Annual Report for 2024

The Parish of Colgate and Roffey (Registered Charity no. 1186553)

Reaching out to the unchurched through the provision of the fundraising and social events including fêtes
Maintaining the fabric of the church building as a historic centre and focus of life in the local community.

What we achieved and how we affected beneficiaries’ lives

Attendance at worship

Our churches welcome visitors from within as well as outside the parish boundary. It is our great pleasure to welcome people from all walks of life to take part in the life and worship of the church. We contend that voluntary attendance to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, is a major demonstration of the public benefit of our activities.

The average regular weekly attendance, counted during October was 65 adults and 12 children, with the number increasing on festival days such as Christmas, Easter and Harvest Festival.

Christmas is a very special time of celebration where many sections of the community come together to join in the services including 5 of our local primary schools using our churches for their carol services.

Evangelism, outreach and activities

It was with great delight we enable our community to celebrate and thank God at milestones of their journey through life. Through baptism we thank God for the gift of life, in marriage public vows are exchanged with God’s blessing and through funeral services, family and friends express their grief and give thanks for the life which is now complete in this world and commend the person into God’s keeping. Last year in the parish we have celebrated 2 weddings, and held 5 funerals in our churches.

In August we held a free Barbecue and fun afternoon for the community which was attended by a number of people from within the church family and beyond. In December, we held our Christmas Fair which was opened by our Church School’s choir singing.

During the month of November, we held special services during which we offered prayer and gave thanks for the lives of loved ones who have died. On Remembrance Sunday, we held the annual act of remembrance at the war memorials in both churches and were joined by members of the community and representatives of North Horsham Parish Council and Colgate Parish Council respectively.

During the year our local Primary Schools have used our churches as part of their learning making use of our new children corner as a learning zone. The churches have been used for a variety of lessons including RE, Art and English.

Alyce Andrews our new headteacher to our Church School and Fr Russell signed a memorandum of understanding regarding how to best work together between the church and school.

The parish fully embraces Social Media, having a website, Facebook page, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram accounts.

Provision of pastoral care for people living in the parish

Pastoral care in the parish is lead by the Incumbent with the assistance of a trained ALM. They are responsible for visiting parishioners in their homes and in hospitals. He also visits our local retirement home where he celebrates Mass once a month.

Trustees Annual Report for 2024

The Parish of Colgate and Roffey (Registered Charity no.

Provision of tangible support to the poor and needy

As a parish we work with Horsham Matters, the charitable arm of Churches Together in Horsham which provides for the poor and needy in our community. The work includes collecting food and other items for the local food bank. This year our Harvest collections were donated to Crawley Open House, a local homeless charity and The Horsham Food Bank.

The Incumbent has a discretionary fund which he has used to provide grants to help parishioners towards the cost of utilities, school uniforms and other items at his discretion.

Provision of the church building for people to enjoy

It is important to us that our churches are available for private prayer not just to the church family but to the wider community. To this end our church building are open daily. This provides the community with an oasis of quietness where they can come and pray, light a candle or just spend time in quiet contemplation.

Our churches are also open for our local schools to use as both as places of worship and as an extra classroom. Over the past year all 8 primary schools in the parish have visited at least one of our churches. They have been used to enhance the teaching of English, Art, History, and RE lessons. In order to facilitate these visits we have created an education corner in All Saints Church.

Working with Volunteers

Volunteers are important in making our churches the lively and vibrant communities they are. In particular, we want to mention our churchwardens who have worked tirelessly on our behalf in maintaining our church building and ensuring they are open daily; Our Treasurer, for all the hard work he puts in managing our finances.

There are so many who work hard to keep our church functioning, but especial thanks must go to all those who make sure our church is open daily; to those who keep the church clean and tidy for our worship; our Sacristan; our Flower fairies who skilfully decorate our church week by week; our Servers and Eucharistic Ministers, Readers and Intercessors and Authorised Lay Minister, who all add to the beauty and dignity of our worship. Thanks must also go those who plan and arrange our fundraising events without whom our finances would not be so healthy, and to those who count and bank our money week by week, to our sides people who make sure everyone receives a warm welcome, those who provide refreshments after our service and to those who help with our young people at the 9am Mass and finally to all who serve on our PCC.

Trustees Annual Report for 2024

The Parish of Colgate and Roffey (Registered Charity no. 1186553)

Financial Review

Incoming and outgoing resources

The total receipts for the general unrestricted funds were £69,601 as are detailed in the Financial Report. The Parish benefited from a large legacy in 2024 of £10,000. Through our regular planned giving and other one off donations we recovered £5,285 in Gift Aid.

Total receipts for the restricted funds came to £8,212 of which £5,000 were donations towards the repairs of the Bell Tower windows at All Saints Church. The PCC received a grant from Colgate Parish Council of £1000 towards the upkeep of the Colgate Churchyard.

Sharing the ministry costs of the Diocese of Chichester

The largest expenditure of the PCC was the sum of £37,250 paid to the diocese for our share of all churches’ Parish Ministry Costs.

The total relates directly to the housing, support, stipend and pension costs of the clergy of this parish, training of new ordinands, a contribution to national church funds and, shared costs of the Christian family throughout the whole diocese, including assistance towards the upkeep of churches less able to manage than ourselves.

Following the announcement of Fr Russell’s departure in June last year and the start of the period of Interregnum in September, the PCC felt it necessary to reduce the Parish Share pledge for 2024 from £3,833.33 a month to £2,00o a month from June 2024.

Staff costs

The PCC pays a gardener who keeps the environs of the St Saviour’s church welcoming, colourful and tidy and 2 organists.

Trustee payments and expenses

The PCC also supported the clergy by paying Council Tax, Water and environmental charges for the Vicarage plus costs towards travel, hospitality, telephone, postage and broadband and office equipment. With the departure of Fr. Russell, the Parish incurred costs for the Vicarage up to the leaving date at the beginning of August.

Why we hold some money in reserve

It is PCC policy to maintain a balance on the general unrestricted funds which equates to approximately two months’ worth of unrestricted payments as contingency against unforeseen situations.

As well as holding the above general reserves, from time to time the PCC receives restricted legacies and grants for expenditure on restricted purposes, defined by the donor or grant making authority. We aim to expend such money as soon as possible after receiving it depending on the specific objectives of the donor, which are detailed in the accounts.

Trustees Annual Report for 2024 The Parish of Colgate and Roffey (Registered Charity no.

Management of risks and their mitigation

The PCC has an ongoing task of reviewing the major risks which impact on the work of the churches in the Parish. The usual electrical tests, fire extinguisher inspections and lightning conductor tests have been carried out.

The PCC consider that the principal risks and uncertainties are:

The uncertainty around the Interregnum period and the time it will take to fill the Parish priest vacancy, with the impact it has on the Parish finances.
The need to fund unexpected costs associated with the ongoing maintenance of the church buildings.
An unexpected fall in income, particularly given the dependence of the church on a limited number of regular donors.
The requirement to find volunteers with the appropriate skills, time and commitment to support the ministry of the congregation.
Reliance upon the Diocese to continue to provide financial support whilst we work towards paying our full Parish Share for clergy ministry.

The PCC seeks to manage these risks and uncertainties by regularly reviewing both finances and maintain our properties to a high standard and carries out the priority items of a quinquennial review in a timely manner.

Stewardship campaigns regularly take place to emphasis God’s generosity to the congregation and encourage the congregation to respond to that generosity in their giving through time, talents and money, as they are able.

Given the historic financial deficits, the PCC have been working with the Deanery to reduce temporarily the amount of the expected parish share, but to increase this as financial circumstances allow.

Trustees Annual Report for 2024 ~~The Parish of Colgate and Roffey~~ (Registered Charity no. 1186553)

Structure, governance and management of the charity

The Parochial Church Council ( PCC ) is registered with the Charity Commission as required by the Charities Act 2011. Its governing document is the Parochial Church Councils ( Powers ) Measure 1956.

During the year the following served as members of the Parochial Church Council:

Ex Officio members:
Incumbent:	The Reverend Father Russell Stagg SSC (Chairman) (until Sep-
	2024)
Associate Vicar:	The Reverend David Howland_(Associate Vicar)_
Churchwardens:	Mr Brian Double (All Saints)
	Miss Carol Barnes (All Saints)
	Mr Glenn Turner (St Saviour’s)
	Mrs Rosemary Lane (St Saviour’s)
Elected members:
	Mr Johny Armstrong
	Mrs Elsiedale Armstrong
	Mr Thomas Becker (Treasurer)
	Mrs Ruth Calvert (Vice-Chairman)
	Professor James Castle
	Mrs Julie Sturmer
	Mrs Sue Lee
	Mrs Wendy Double
	Mrs Sandy Garnham
	Mrs Julie Jones
	Mrs Suzannah Threlfall
	Mr Roger Ottley
	Mrs Elizabeth Rice
	Mr Randolph St Romaine
	Mr Paul Williams (PCC Secretary)
	Mr Jamie Williams
	Mr Michael Williams (Electoral Roll Officer)
Deanery Synod:	Paul Williams
	Jamie Williams
Safeguarding Officer:	Mrs Carol Barnes

Membership of the PCC is determined under the Church Representation Rules and consists of certain ex-officio members ( the incumbent/priest-in-charge, curate, lay readers licensed to officiate in the

church ), the churchwardens and members of the Deanery, Diocesan or General Synods and 16 members of the church who are elected at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting ( APCM ). Members are warmly encouraged to stand for election to the PCC and we try to ensure a balance of skills and experience where possible.

Trustees Annual Report for 2024 ~~The Parish of Colgate and Roffey~~ (Registered Charity no. 1186553)

This Trustees’ Annual Report was approved by the PCC and signed on their behalf by The Vice Chair Ruth Calvert

Date: 6th May 2025