Choral Evensong Trust Trustees' Annual Report for the year 2025
As in previous years, our core function was to maintain and update the website www.choralevensong.org, enabling anyone to look up where and when choral evensong services would be happening near any location in Britain or Ireland. Then with one or two clicks, in many cases it is possible to go to the music list and see exactly what will be sung in each service. This website is particularly useful in London, Oxford and Cambridge, each of which has a special page, because of multiple evensongs on every day of the week. As well as all Anglican cathedrals, this website lists choral evensong services in more than 600 parish churches, and also covers choral vespers in Roman Catholic cathedrals and monasteries.
The Trust also maintains social media on Facebook and Instagram, and these give a continual stream of updates relating to choral evensong the website and social media were principally managed by Tim Popple, who was employed as a part time website and social media co-ordinator throughout the year.
Patronal Festivals
In 2025, the Choral Evensong Trust launched a new initiative to promote choral evensong in parish churches and in particular in connection with a revival of the church’s patronal festival. Almost every Anglican church has a dedication, usually to a saint, such as St John the Baptist, St Mary Magdalene and the Blessed Virgin Mary, or to an aspect of God, as in Holy Trinity churches, or of Christ, as in Holy Redeemer churches and Christ churches. Each of these dedications has a particular feast day during the year, such as Trinity Sunday, St Mary Magdalene’s day on July 22[nd] and St Michael and All . Angels on September 29[th]
In pre-Reformation England each parish celebrated its saint’s day or feast of title (as in the case of churches dedicated to Holy Trinity or to Christ) and in countries like Italy and Spain these feast days are still celebrated in towns and villages in a way that involves most of the community with processions special services and feasting.
To assist the revival of patronal festivals in the UK, the trust offered grants to parish churches at two levels. The full patronal festival grant of £500 was for churches without a choir of their own, to help cover the cost of a visiting choir, for example, from a local cathedral, and also to cover a reception after choral evensong. For churches with their own choir, there were patronal festivities grants of £250 to help towards the costs of the party after the service and other festivities, including bell ringing.
We advertised these grants at the end of 2024, and the closing date was February 2[nd] 2025. We were expecting only a small number of applications and advertised this project on a trial basis only in two dioceses, Bath and Well and Chichester and also through the Save the Parish newsletter. We received 87 applications of which 80 were eligible for the grant. We raised funds through private donations from trustees, their friends, families and wellwishers that were sufficient to cover grants towards 80 churches.
In practically every case these festivals were a great success with full churches, beautiful singing, and a joyful sense of community. They were written up in the Church Times: see the attached article. The Patronal Festival of the Year Award went to one of the last festivals in the year at St Nicholas Kittisford, the smallest village in Somerset, as described in another article in the Church Times, attached
On our website we had map of Britain and Ireland indicating where festivals were taking place, and a calendar of festivals we were sponsoring throughout HERE. the year. Reports from various churches are online
These grants were one-off and were given in the hope that churches would continue to celebrate these festivals in years to come, finding ways of funding them locally. This is indeed the intention of most parishes who received these grants, and some are also planning to institute regular choral evensong services because of the success of these festivals. In some cases, churches formed new choirs for this purpose, and these choirs want to continue to sing together.
The Trust is planning to aware similar grants to churches throughout the UK in 2026.
Trustees
For most of 2025 the Trustees of the Trust were, as before, Chairman:
Dr Ralph Allwood Trustees: Sir Jonathan Jones Dr Guy Hayward Dr Rupert Sheldrake
A new Trustee was appointed this year, Ms Sian Ferguson.
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Charity Name No (if any)
THE CHORAL EVENSONG TRUST 1190208
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period Period start date Period end date
To
from 01/01/2025 31/12/2025
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last year
funds funds funds
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Donations 44,450 - - 44,450 12,000
Gift Aid 2,793 - - 2,793 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for
AR) [ 47,243 ] - - 47,243 12,000
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 47,243 - - 47,243 12,000
A3 Payments
Fundraising costs - - - - -
Patronal Festival Grants 30,000 - - 30,000 -
Website costs 7,296 - - 7,296 4,293
Accountancy fees - - - - -
Bank Fees - - - - 72
Administration Costs 198 - - 198 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total [ 37,494 ] - - 37,494 4,365
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total payments 37,494 - - 37,494 4,365
Net of receipts/(payments) 9,749 - - 9,749 7,635
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 11,371 - - 11,371 3,736
Cash funds this year end 21,120 - - 21,120 11,371
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CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
17/02/2026
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds |
Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Cash at Bank Details Details Details Signature |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 21,120 - - - - - 21,120 - OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name Guy Hayward |
Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - - - - - When due (optional) Date of approval |
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
17/02/2026
2
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ THE CHORAL EVENSONG TRUST members of On accounts for the year 31 December 2025 Charity no 1190208 ended (if any) Set out on pages 1-2
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 / 12 / 2025 .
Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the 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 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 which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
-
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
.
Signed: Date: 17/2/2026 Name: GUY BARAGWANATH FCA Relevant professional FCA (ICAEW) qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: C&GB ASSOCIATES 37-39 WESTGATE, THIRSK, YO7 1QR
October 2018
IER
1
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
October 2018
IER
2