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2023-12-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period from 1[st] January 2023 to 31[st] December 2023 Charity name: CAREY BAPTIST CHURCH HEMEL HEMPSTEAD Charity registration number: 1188844 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE CHARITY COMMISSION

INTRODUCTION

Carey Baptist Church existed as a charity for over 40 years since the amalgamation of Boxmoor and Marlowes Baptist Churches, as an unincorporated association affiliated to the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which permitted us to act independently according to guidelines provided by BUGB.

This is the third Annual report by the CIO to the Charity Commission and the inspected accounts cover the period 1[st] January to 31[st] December 2023.

AIM

The Church aims "TO KNOW JESUS BETTER AND TO MAKE HIM BETTER KNOWN" It does this by being open to all members of the local community joining the activities on the Church premises in Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1LD, elsewhere in the town and online.

Our Mission Statements are: -

Nurture faith - provide scripture-led, Christ-centred ministry for all members and generations of the church family, supporting growth in our faith and encouraging one another to live as Jesus would, in peaceful relation to God, to our community and to the whole of creation.

Outreach - identify opportunities within Hemel to reach out and build relationships with young adults (2545), showing the message of Jesus is relevant to them today, through prayer and action, including prayer and action in response to our global environmental emergency.

Children & Young People - share knowledge of the love of Jesus and bring them to know Jesus personally, helping them to feel valued within God's family and the church family at Carey and encouraging them to play their part in God's purposes for all creation.

OBJECTIVES

Our objectives are: -

ACTIVITIES

Evangelical/Pastoral

Covid-19 is now seen as no more of a threat than influenza, social interaction is now normal. Carey now has in-person services followed by tea and coffee, as well as other Church activities, but continues to share these via Zoom for those who are either less mobile, needing to isolate temporarily, medically at risk, or even away from the area. We have continued to use Zoom to provide spiritual support and teaching through virtual prayer meetings, Bible Studies, Lent Studies and coffee mornings. Joan Bruce continues weekly prayer meetings in person at her home.

The opportunity continues for individuals to share prayers for healing and help with a prayer team after communion and other services.

Our monthly Hymn Café has been widely appreciated by people within and beyond our church. Robert Hoare has continued to support this on the piano. He continues to play the organ on special occasions such as Good Friday and the Church Anniversary. He also supported our Carol Service on the organ. The Music Group normally supports services, but we continued to enjoy visits by Andrew Cheale and Andrew Pennycook to play the organ. In June members of the North Hants Organ Association visited and played our organ, which has the basic structure of a Baroque organ.

Carey runs a Children, Youth and Family church to share knowledge of the love of Jesus and to lead young people into a growing relationship with Him. During the year, younger children were able to move to a play area with a parent from the normal service if they needed a change of scene.

Mentioned in the last report, a welcome opportunity for us has been that part of remaining funds arising from the closure of Trinity Baptist Church in Chesham were offered to Carey for financing a Children’s, Youth and Family Worker. Following agreeing the Job Description, advertising the post and interviews, Carey member Tamzin Phillips has been in post since September 2022. Part has involved the leading and co-ordinating Carey’s work with 0-16yr olds on a Sunday morning, and the Baby and Toddlers Group on Fridays. The success of the latter has been such that it has grown from around three families to over twenty. Fortunately, among the families have been parents who were also Carers and could help; also using other rooms has provided space also to share faith with parents. We were happy to extend her contract in September.

The annual Belmont Road and Carey Camp was held in 2023 in the week of 12[th] August at West Runton, Norfolk. We again thank the Camp Officers, Warren, Rhiannon, and Martin, and all the staff for all the hard work that has gone into organising Camp. Rev Tim Keightley was chaplain. Tamzin Phillips was also present. Rev Colin Cartwright had planned to attend but had been unable to do so. Three boys from our congregation, with some gifts from members of both money and equipment like sleeping bags, were able to attend and were enthusiastic about the experience, and are looking forward to next year. In October, Warren Pyke and other Camp officers led the service with 'Reflections on Super-powered Camp’.

We again arranged a day visit in July to Stanton House, a retreat centre near Oxford.

We had no Baptisms, but had Dedications: in July for four members of the same family: Caleb, Joshua, Joel & Eva, and in September Zahari Hue Clarke.

In keeping with our mission statement objective of sharing the good news of the Christian message with our community, although the December weather prevented us singing Christmas Carols outside, in May we ran an 'I Love Hemel’ Festival at Carey, which also involved a number of organisations using our premises.

Carey actively supports both local and global charities through donations and dedication of Communion offerings. We also support the BMS World Mission and Baptist Union Home Mission via Central Baptist association. We continue to partner with mission workers in Bangladesh. Our World Development and Relief Fund (nominally 1% of our income) in 2023 was divided between Christian Aid for the Turkish and Syrian earthquake, and later in the year for the Moroccan earthquake and the Libyan floods via the Disaster Emergency Committee and the International Red Cross.

In January Carey hosted a Ukrainian Christmas Celebration. Our thanks to Irena and Andrey for suggesting this. The evening included visiting parties of Ukrainians and their friends from Holy Trinity Leverstock Green, St Johns Boxmoor, Bovingdon Baptist Church and Hemel Quakers. We were also blessed by the visit of friends of Andrey and Irena, Dmytro and his wife, Lida and their three children. Dmytro gave testimony and shared the Lord's Prayer and the blessing in Ukrainian.

The offering that was collected helped some of the thousands of people trying to survive the winter in the liberated territories of Ukraine.

In February, Colin Cartwright & Owen Cooper did an indoor virtual 24-hour bike ride from Hemel to Edinburgh at Liberty Tea Rooms to raise money to break the cycle of poverty and isolation in our community (over £7000 was raised).

Helping those in need is a demonstration of our faith. To this end, individuals’ donations and offerings at Communion Services supported Operation Agri (Transforming Farms in Tanzania), Christians Against Poverty, Bibles for Schools, among others. At Christmas we collected donations for Christian Aid and Spurgeon’s Child Care.

Throughout the year we accepted donations of food and for other needs on DENS’ list. The gifts at the Harvest Festival Service were directed to these more than to flowers and produce.

In August, Colin Cartwright announced a plan to start a series of evenings on Church Membership, having had three people expressing interest. Unfortunately other circumstances meant that these did not start until 2024; but we thank God that this is moving forward.

Social and Community

Throughout the week the church buildings are used by church sponsored groups including Baby & Toddler Group, Carey Ladies’ Group met for lunches either at Carey or occasionally elsewhere. We continue to hold some after-service lunches. David Blunden leads a Table Tennis group mainly of congregation members. The community service provided by Heather Club, which gives support to people living with memory loss and dementia, continues. This started as a church-led endeavour, but is now an independent operation. We now also have AlAnon weekly sessions.

Other weekly users include:- National Federation of Occupational Pensioners (NFOP), and Hemel Wargamers. Dancing classes continue, as well as a U3A dancing group, Yoga and Tai Chi. Dacorum Historical Society, and a Quilters group meet monthly. Towards the end of the year ‘Living Well’ started counselling sessions.

We thank Judy Seth for managing our lettings over many years; she will have retired at the end of March, handing over to Aquila Leeniyagoda.

We collected items for DENS at Harvest and for the local Food Bank throughout the year, totalling 91Kg of food.

Donations and grants have funded the purchase of a defibrillator, which has now been installed. Also a donation allowed the replacement of our failed heating boilers.

We again recorded Herts Historic Churches Bike and Hike participants in September, providing them with refreshment and a chance to see the church building. Their sponsorship is shared between participating churches, including ours.

Ecumenical

Carey is a member of Churches Together in Hemel Hempstead, which holds two forums per annum, engage in occasional events and have a public Easter Service of Witness, which follows our own Quiet Service on Good Friday.

Among local organisations that visited our services to tell of their work or gave an address were: Mike Wallis of Dacorum Street Pastors in January, Youth Across Hemel in March. In June, Dr Carolyn Kirk (formerly of Beechen Grove BC, Watford) led a service, with input from our BMS Mission Partners in Bangladesh, Peter and Louise Lynch. This was followed by a fellowship picnic in the Church Lounge as the weather prevented holding it in Gadebridge park. Our Church Anniversary Covenant & Communion Service in October was led by Rev Lisa Kerry, Team Leader of the Regional Team for our Central Baptist Association. She also dedicated a plaque celebrating the lives of Ray & Win Clarke. Andrew Masters of Discovery Schools ministry visited in November.

Other visiting preachers have included Harold Liberty of Walsworth Road, Hitchin in February, Bob Little from St Albans in April, and Rev David Ronco from Hoddesdon in June. In July we had Rev Graham Clarke from Wheathampstead, and Tony Graham, from Hitchin. Dr Carolyn Kirk visited again in August, and at the end of October, Paul Tucker, from Kings Langley. Some services have been led by our members, notably Chamindra Leeniyagoda. We thank them all for the variety of worship that they offered.

During the year, as a result of its editor Hilary Donovan’s indisposition, Carey’s monthly magazine ‘Grapevine’ has no longer been published except for a final review edition at the end of the year. We have been publishing ‘News of the Fellowship’ instead in conjunction with Belmont Road Baptist Church and Church of the Resurrection Grovehill, and expanded our weekly newsletter, edited by Rosemary Hall, which is emailed to members and available at services.

Worship

Sunday morning worship has continued generally in the main Sanctuary, with a monthly Communion service. Having begun to put weekly sound recordings and transcripts of sermons on the Church website during Covid, this continued, as did provision of a Zoom connection to live services. Especially when one of our two heating boilers failed, most winter-time services were held in the Memorial Hall. The different ‘feel’ of the Memorial Hall has suited more informal service styles, such as ‘Christingle mingle’ café church worship on 10[th] December.

We continued to make available and post printed copies of the Sunday talks and the weekly newsletter for those who are not able to access modern technology. Although recordings of services continue, we also publish on our website the texts of Colin’s sermons and talks.

These hybrid media of worship ensured our objective of providing spiritual and practical support to those both within and beyond the church.

Our Music Group supports services by playing modern songs and traditional hymns on keyboard, piano or organ as appropriate, together with flute and guitar. We have a number of members able to lead the singing, especially when introducing new music to the congregation. On those Sundays when our Minister is elsewhere, visiting preachers’ different preaching styles can be appreciated and their choice of music accommodated.

For New Year, when finding a preacher has been a challenge, we held a ‘Songs of Praise’ Service in the Memorial Hall with New Year and Epiphany themed hymns/carols/songs, prayers, and readings, with refreshments available.

ACHIEVEMENTS & PERFORMANCE

Our CIO had a membership in January 2023 ( Latest estimate needed ) of 67 people, while being in regular contact with 124 adults, 4 secondary school age young people and 26 children through its weekly activities . Typical attendance at the main service of worship (including those via Zoom): 58 adults, 4 secondary school age; 4 younger children. We had some deaths of older members and friends, including Brian Jones and Colin Lyons.

As part of his continuing ministerial development, our Minister Colin Cartwright has continued to research the life of William Carey.

Eco friendly.

In keeping with a vital aspect of within our new Mission Statements, Creation care, Carey has a Bronze Eco Church Award. Our Green Team continues to work towards further reducing our carbon footprint and to achieve Silver. Recycling bins are now provided for a wider range of items, including old spectacles, pens, printer cartridges, postage stamps.

The Sanctuary heating with the new boilers’ timer and temperature settings runs at a low level overnight (around 10°C). A similar level applies during the day in other areas when nobody is using our premises. We have been raising the Sanctuary temperature for Sunday worship, but after Christmas through the winter we have been holding most services in the Memorial Hall.

We have continued to replace lighting with LED units. Most of our fluorescent strip lighting units have now been replaced, along with the emergency lighting units.

We strive to ensure that the building remains as energy efficient as possible. During the winter, the main church doors have been kept closed and the Sanctuary accessed via the side door. As part of a gift from Chesham Baptist Church of £20,000 for maintenance items, we have had a quotation to replace the windows in the Church Office, Dawson Room and Crèche which have leaky louvered ventilators.

Mission

Last year’s discussions on how the church could further develop aspects of our new Mission Statement, under the headings of Nurture, Outreach, and Children’s and Youth work were completed by a review of the opportunities in Nurture.

The continuing outcomes from these included the following which are now part of our church’s life.

Refurbishment/Redevelopment

We keep on top of the refurbishment of the church and rear buildings.

We now have internet within the church premises, providing coverage in the majority of the meeting rooms, another feature widening the potential room usage. A new digital projector with better illumination has improved legibility of songs and video on screen.

We continue to keep expenditure on the buildings at a minimum, while dealing with critical repairs. Finding craftspeople to do the work has been challenging. Our surveyor for our Quinquennial Report has suggested some potential companies. Fortunately, Trinity Baptist Church Chesham, in releasing funds at its closure, granted us £20,000 to support our maintenance work. This has been allocated to some of the work at the Manse, as well as scheduled larger repairs.

The number of organisations using our buildings has almost returned to pre-Covid levels. Increasing our income by more lettings is attractive, but more demanding of a modern approach to Health & Safety matters. We have had all of the electrical distribution boards updated following our 5-year survey. We are also following up on a review of our fire risks and emergency lighting, signs and exits.

To make safer parking of cars and to reduce trip hazards, the loose paving to the side of the Memorial Hall has been removed and replaced with a plastic grid filled with shingle. This also gives better drainage and reduces water run-off against the buildings’ walls. We are grateful to Heather Club for contributing part of the cost. We have rebuilt the steps at the side, deepening the treads.

We continued to maintain the Manse for our Minister. Work has been put in hand to deal with water leaks in the lean-to section between the back door and the garage, as well as resealing the garage roof. We have renewed sealing and some glazed units of the double glazing. The Belmont Road manse in Newell Road is being let through an agent to tenants. Maintenance needs will be assessed on the front garden wall foundations, and kitchen refurbishment is a longer term likelihood.

FUTURE PLANS

It is intended that we continue with refurbishment and increasing the energy efficiency of the church in order to make it more comfortable and appealing to both the congregation and community.

We will look to increase the use of the sanctuary and other rooms by community groups. The availability of Internet facilities should be an attraction. We will publicise the facilities we offer on our website.

We are working to improve our large Memorial Hall, specifically to replace the heating system in time for its Centenary in 2025. Meanwhile we have scheduled sanding and sealing its floor, and repairs to the roof exterior following leaks.

These works will be financed by a combination of fund raising and grants for the larger projects.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

The inspected Statement of Financial Activities 2023 is published in a separate document containing the details of Income and Expenses, and the Balance Sheet. It is annexed to this one.

VOLUNTEERS

We would like to thank all our volunteers who work so hard to make our Church the lively and vibrant community it is.

STRUCTURE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Carey Baptist Church is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, and we adopted the Baptist Approved Governing Document as our Constitution.

The method of appointment for Trustees is set out in our Constitution. Each of the Trustees has been appointed by a vote of the membership at our Annual General Meeting. All those who attend our services are encouraged to become members of the Church.

The Trustees are responsible for making decisions on all matters of importance and general concern on behalf of the Church whilst ensuring that, where necessary, members’ votes are required to decide important issues.

The Trustees have met face to face and on Zoom 12 times during the 12-month period of this Report, with an average level of attendance above 80%. Six Church members’ meetings were held on Zoom and face to face during the same period.

All Trustees give their time freely with no remuneration being paid.

Administrative Information

The named Charity is Carey Baptist Church, Hemel Hempstead

Address: Marlowes, Heme! Hempstead, HPl lLD, which is the correspondence address. Charity Registration number 1188844.

The following members have served as elected Trustees through the reporting period:

Gill Blunden Hilary Donovan Raphael Femi-Ola Colin Hughes Aquila Leeniyagoda Bhagya Leeniyagoda Margaret Lye Kathleen Mcleod Obed Sardar Shirley Sebuliba

Reverend Colin Cartwright as Minister chairs the meeting

Approved by the Trustees on 3[rd] September 2024 Signed on their behalf by the following Trustees

Administrative Information

The named Charity is Carey Baptist Church, Hemel Hempstead Address: Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1LD, which is the correspondence address. Charity Registration number 1188844. The following members have served as elected Trustees through the reporting period: Gill Blunden

Hilary Donovan Raphael Femi-Ola Colin Hughes Aquila Leeniyagoda Bhagya Leeniyagoda Margaret Lye Kathleen McLeod Obed Sardar Shirley Sebuliba Reverend Colin Cartwright (as minister)

Approved by the Trustees on (date) and signed on their behalf by (Chairman).

Administrative Information

The named Charity is Carey Baptist Church, Hemel Hempstead

Address: Marlowes, Herne! Hempstead, HPl lLD, which is the correspondence address. Charity Registration number 1188844.

The following members have served as elected Trustees through the reporting period: Gill Blunden

Hilary Donovan Raphael Femi-Ola Colin Hughes Aquila Leeniyagoda

Bhagya Leeniyagoda Margaret Lye Kathleen Mcleod Obed Sardar

Shirley Sebuliba

Reverend Colin Cartwright as Minister chairs the meeting

Approved by the Trustees on 3[rd] September 2024 Signed on their behalf by the following Trustees

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report Report to the trustees Carey Baptist Church Hemel Hempstead On accounts for the year 31/12/2023 Charity no ended (if any) Set out on pages

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/12/2023.

Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the 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.

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.

Signed: Date: 09/09/2024 Name: ANNROSE OLIMA Relevant professional Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 39 Dowling Court Hemel Hempstead Herts HP3 9NF

Oct 2018

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