To make known the love of Jesus Christ by word and deed
Contact: MINISTER TREASURER SECRETARY Vacant Mrs Julia LePoidevin Mrs Anne Thompson
Hearsall Baptist Church
Churches Together in Earlsdon
www.hearsallbaptist.org
and Chapelfields
Queensland Avenue, Coventry. CV5 8FE. 2025 Trustee Report for Hearsall Baptist Church Charity No. 1188555
Administrative Information:-
Queensland Avenue, Chapelfields, Coventry, CV5 8FE. Registered with the Charity Commission on the 16[th] March 2020. We adopted the Governing Document provided to the Baptist Union by their solicitors, on the 2[nd] of October 2019 at a church member’s meeting.
Minister:- Reverend David Sutcliffe, (only paid member of staff), left in September 2023.
Elected Trustees:- Nick Leonard and Eric Bremner.
Ex-Officio members Anne Thompson (secretary) and Julia LePoidevin (treasurer)
Since selling our buildings in April 2024, we have formed a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP), with Holyhead URC Church and this is now called Sherbourne Community Church. In order to fulfil this partnership and have sharing agreements for the Baptist Manse and the URC building in which we worship, we have to become un-incorporated again. A resolution to do this was taken on the 2[nd] June 2024. An election of trustees for the unincorporated organisation was held on Sunday 27[th] July 2025. We are waiting for the Baptist Union Solicitors, Anthony Collins to proceed with this and then produce paperwork to get the trustees of the CIO and unincorporated organisation to sign.
Aim and Purposes
The Church Trustees, have the responsibility of promoting worship, the mission of the church, the practical aspects of managing the buildings and activities taking place on our premises, and as such have six main duties:-
A Ensuring our charity is carrying out its purpose for public benefit.
B Complying with the charity’s governing documents and the law.
C Acting in our charity’s best interests.
D Managing the charity’s resources responsibly.
E Acting with reasonable care and skill.
Registered Charity 1188555 operating as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
F Ensuring our charity is accountable.
The Trustees are nominated by the church members and voted for at church meetings, by all members who have at least six months standing. Church members can only stand for election after they have been members for at least 12 months. The trustees serve for a minimum of three years, then can be re-elected for another three year period, but after that must stand down for at least a year.
There are various specialisms within the group at present, and one of the trustees is also the safeguarding trustee. The Trustees meet several times a year.
At present we have 21 previously Baptist members, but they are considered as members of the LEP, along with the previous members of the URC Church. The elders of the URC Church and previous Hearsall Trustees are automatically trustees of the LEP. Our congregation is more on the upper age group side, with no young families.
The Baptist Union offer resources and advice for all the various facets of the functions we are responsible for and issue guidelines to us and have solicitors which are recommended by them.
The Baptist Union hold the deeds for the church property and have invested the money from the sale of the Hearsall Church buildings and the Heart of England Baptist Association hold the deeds for the Manse, which is a separate property a few streets from the church. We have invested in redecorating the manse in preparation for renting it out to provide some income for the church as we are not calling a new Minister at this time. All certificates and checks were done in preparation for this and we now have some tenants, with the proviso that if we need the manse for a Minister we can get them to vacate it. The trustees are also responsible for the upkeep of this terraced property.
Ecumenical Relationships
The LEP is a member of Churches together in Earlsdon and Chapelfields (CTEC). There are five churches in this group, two Anglican, one Methodist and one Roman Catholic and ourselves.
The Ministers of these churches attend meetings with the CTEC committee. There are joint initiatives which have been undertaken, such as providing finance for a Christians against Poverty worker who provides finance and debt advice to people. Another one is the Good Neighbours Project, which started with CTEC and is now under the auspices of Hope Coventry, who pay the wages of the workers and they provide legal help and support. This has spread to other areas and Coventry City Council have financed the workers in some of the areas. The churches provide premises for certain events such as afternoon teas and socials. Volunteers visit elderly and lonely housebound folk for company.
There are also joint services run with all the churches taking turns and also Lent Lunches and a joint meal for fellowship during the week of prayer for Christian Unity in January. The proceeds from the Lent lunches are split between Cafod and Christian Aid. Most months there is also a prayer breakfast, hosted by each church in turn. The Charity supported by CTEC last year was called Coventry Haven, a charity
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which supports women who suffer from domestic abuse and violence. This year the charity is Friends of the Holy Land.
Public Benefit
The community rooms adjoining to the church are used by many community groups, these include, Al - Anon and Alcoholics Anonymous, Youth Organisations such as Rainbows, Brownies, Rangers and Girls Brigade also meet here. Various other community events may be held here throughout the year.
Other groups which are considered as part of the church outreach are a Song and Storytime Group for pre-school children and a lunch club for older people.
Mission and Evangelism
Helping those in need demonstrates our faith. We collect items for the food bank on the first Sunday of the month. At Christmas we managed to support Coventry City Mission in their gift giving appeal, by either collecting money for them to buy presents or people ordering them to go direct using an Amazon Wish List Facility.
The LEP is involved in the River Sherbourne Project with other churches and organisations such as Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. Now that the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust have gained their grant to open up our local river, the River Sherbourne, there are practical projects people can also be involved in and community activities held in some of the areas.
Church Services
All are welcome to attend our services and we like to think we are very inclusive and welcoming. Our average weekly attendance is about 40-50 normally. We normally have several parade services in the year when the youth organisations are encouraged to join us and join in. A very popular event is our harvest festival service, followed by coffee and cake and an auction of the fresh fruit and vegetables, with the funds going to an aid charity, such as Operation Agri or similar.
We were able to have a Christingle Service and a Carol service at Christmas.
One of our Bible Study home groups has continued to meet on Zoom and a new in person one has started once a month.
Hearsall was famous for a five-pointed star, which is lined with LED lights and placed at the top of the church tower every Christmas, and can be seen from quite a long distance away. With energy prices spiralling, we put this on a timer so it only comes on when it is dark. The new church that took over the buildings at Hearsall put the star up under the direction of the group from Hearsall and we hope they will continue to do so.
Financial Review
Hearsall Baptist Church is maintaining a bank account to cover income and expenditure that is occurring whilst the legal teams make the necessary
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change to close the bank account completely. During the year expenditure has been incurred in preparing the manse to let out all final bills to do with the sale of the church.
Income has come in from refunds due to the church from other bodies, final covenant income and rent from the manse.
Further details will be supplied with the audited accounts.
Sale of Hearsall and formation of Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP).
At the September 2023 Church meeting the members voted to explore in principle joining with Holyhead Road United Reformed Church to become a local ecumenical partnership (LEP) and to put the buildings up for sale on the open market.
On 6[th] March at Hearsall Member’s meeting the vote was carried 19 to 2 to formally form an LEP with Holyhead Road United Church. The name of the new Church will be Sherbourne Community Church.
Hearsall Buildings were put up for sale with Holt Commercial in January 2024 and on the 6[th] March the Church resolved to authorise the Deacons to sell Hearsall Baptist Church for no less than £750,000 at their discretion, having regard to advice from Ross Bendall at Holt Commercial.
Although only obliged to give one month’s notice, our room users had been given six months to vacate the building by 31st March 2024. Many of them have been accommodated at the new Church. This has been a difficult transition period. Our last service was on 31st March, Easter Sunday, followed by a buffet lunch. Many of our past congregation attended this. We deregistered Hearsall as a place of worship by signing a form 77, at Coventry Register Office on Friday 5th April. We think about half our congregation will attend the new church. Two of our Trustees have become part of the leadership team of the new Church.elation to section 117-121 of the Charities Act 2011.
On the 15[th] April 2024 the Deacons met to sign a resolution to accept the Valuation Report for the Charities Act. On the 25[th] April the incoming church and Hearsall Trustees signed the contract and contracts were exchanged on the 30[th] April. The Faith Group who bought the building are Genesis International Church who work under the name MARPE. They have decorated the building and are doing repairs and hope to be worshipping there from the 7[th] July. They then invited people from Hearsall to attend one of their services and have a look at the work they have done on the building. They had a grand opening ceremony and invited the Lord Mayor to open the buildings and the trustees of Hearsall were invited to attend.
We have been an LEP now for over a year and things are settling down and becoming one united church. We have been advertising for a Baptist Minister to work alongside the URC one, but have only received one register of interest and they decided not to go forward with their application.
The church has managed to find some Baptist Ministers and Pastors to lead services to balance out the URC input.
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The task now is to get Hearsall to become un-incorporated again so we can move forward on the sharing agreements on the manse and the buildings and get them completed and signed. The task of the treasurer is to try and get higher interest on the funds from the sale of Hearsall to help finance a Baptist Minister to help the URC one, who is having to take on extra responsibilities.
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Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Hearsall Baptist Church I report to the charitytrustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31st March 2025 which are set out on pages l and 2 Responsibilities and basls of report As the charws trustees you are responsible for the preparatlon ofthe accounts In accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 Ilhe ACVI. I report in respect of my examination of the Char(5 accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charty Commi5slon under section 14515llbl of the Act. Independent examlner's statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection wlth the examlnation 8Svlng me cause to believe that in any materlal respect: l. accountlng records were not kept In respert of the charity as required by sertion 130 of the Act; or 2. the accounts do nat accord with those records, I have no concerns and have come across no other matters In connectlon with the examinatlon to whlch attention should be drawn in thls report in orderto enable a proper understandingofthe accountsto be reached. Signed: M D Spafford FCA FCCA Luckmans Duckett Parker Llmlted 1110 Elliott Court Herald Avenue Coventry CV5 6UB 24 October 2025