www.theologysociety.org.uk
Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023
Annual Report
1. OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
Summary of Objectives
‘The Society is established for the advancement of education, specifically to promote excellence in the study of Christian theology, in the UK and internationally. The Society aims to support all those engaged in theology, across the full range of approaches and church traditions; to facilitate and shape theological thought, conversation and community; to identify and discuss important themes, questions and dialogues which call for theological engagement; to explore the nature of, and to foster, theological integrity, responsibility and vocation; and to promote understanding of, and engagement with, theological work across a wide range of contexts including the academy and the churches.’
- www.theologysociety.org.uk/about us/constitution/
Summary of Public Beneft
The Executive Committee keeps the Society’s activities under review to ensure that they continue to reflect its aims. In carrying out this review, it makes reference to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and in particular to its supplementary public guidance on the advancement of education for the public benefit. The Society is in the process of making technical amendments to the Constitution in order to ensure it meets the requirements of the Charity Commission as it moves to charity status.
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Additional Activities
The Society has continued to work and reflect on its efforts and practices towards Theology, Race, and inclusion. This has involved taking on board feedback from the 2023 conference, where the GMH reception was not scheduled as a result of an administrative oversight. The Committee has also responded to comments expressing calls for better representation of GMH scholars among plenary speakers; the 2024 conference will feature contributions from Lauren Winner and Carlton Turner, among others. Dialogues continue to take place with the Theology and Race Subcommittee.
Other significant work this past year has included an extraordinary general meeting, conducted via Zoom, to agree a Society policy on the making of statements on matters of social and ecclesial importance which might be regarded either to impact on its work or about which it could be considered to have particular perspectives worth articulating.
The Society has also sought to improve upon its own safeguarding policies, and to formulate and agree a new Professional Conduct Policy for all members. It continues to be a condition of attending the Conference that all members agree to this policy.
2. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE
Members and Subscriptions
The total membership of the Society increased from 505 to 527. Student membership was around 141 and there were around 50 international members.
To extend the financial support that the Society is able to make available to students and other conference participants on lower incomes, all members continue to be warmly encouraged to raise their subscription payment to £10 per £10,000 of income.
An additional £2626 was received this way, which was transferred directly to the Bursary Fund.
Postgraduate Conference
As a postgraduate conference did not take place in 2022, a conference is now planned for 2023 (September 4[th] - 6[th] ) at New College, The University of Edinburgh,
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on the theme of Hope. Invited speakers include James Eglinton, Katherine Hockey and Selina Stone. Postgraduate students attending will be invited to give paper presentations in any discipline related to theology. Prof Rachel Muers, Chair of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, will give a formal welcome.
Gunton/Webster Prize (sponsored jointly by The International Journal of Systematic Theology and The Society for the Study of Theology)
The 2022 Prize was on the theme of ‘The Communion of Saints’, and the winning essay was written by Abraham Wu, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University, with the title: ‘Augustinian Memory and the Communion of Saints’. This essay will feature in a forthcoming issue of IJST. The Society’s contribution to the Prize is the award of a sponsored place at its Annual Conference at Warwick University.
The 2023 Prize will be awarded to an essay on the theme of ‘Theologies of Peace’.
3. STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
The Society for the Study of Theology is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). It is constituted by the Constitution adopted by the Annual General Meeting of the Society on the 9[th] April 2019. The Constitution can be found on the SST website.
As a CIO, the Society for the Study of Theology is eligible for VAT exemption on some goods and services it provides (e.g. conferences and advertising). Accounts are prepared in accordance with English and Welsh charity law.
Executive Committee members, who act as the Society’s trustees, are elected by the AGM in accordance with section 7.6 of the Society’s Constitution, available at - https://www.theologysociety.org.uk/about us/constitution/
The Committee meets at least twice annually, immediately before and immediately after the annual conference. In recent years, a third meeting in the summer has been added to the meeting schedule for the Committee. By tradition, the AGM is consulted on the conference theme two years in advance.
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4. REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Correspondence
Dr Scott Midson Secretary, Society for the Study of Theology S1.1 Samuel Alexander building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Email: scott.midson@manchester.ac.uk
2023 Executive Committee and Trustees
| Prof David Clough | President | 2022 - 24 |
|---|---|---|
| Prof Robert Beckford | Vice-President | 2023 - 24 |
| Dr Scott Midson | Secretary | 2023 - 26 |
| Rev’d Dr Andrew Shamel |
Treasurer | 2022 - 25 |
| Mr Alexander Douglas | Assistant Secretary | 2023 - 26 |
| Dr CL Nash | GMH Representative | 2023 - 26 |
| Revd Shavaun Shodeinde |
GMH Representative | 2023 - 26 |
| Dr Nina Kurlberg | Safeguarding Ofcer | 2021 - 24 |
| Dr Selina Stone | Elected Member | 2023 - 26 |
| Dr Calida Chu | Elected Member | 2021 - 24 |
| Rev’d Rachel Noel | Elected Member | 2023 - 26 |
| Ms Nicola Whyte | Elected Member | 2022 - 25 |
| Ms Florence O’Taylor | Elected Member | 2022 - 25 |
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5. FINANCIAL REVIEW
Bursary Fund
Awards were made to 48 eligible bursary applicants, waiving or reducing their conference costs by either £100 or £200. The total amount of bursaries awarded was £5300, of which £5200 were redeemed. Bursaries were funded by increased subscriptions and donations from Members and from Society reserves.
Bursaries were also awarded through the SST-BIAPT BAME bursary fund, established to increase access to the conference for BAME scholars. Funded jointly by £500 from The Susanna Wesley Foundation and SST, this scheme awards a number of bursaries, based on need of between £100 and £200. Bursary recipients who were members of the scheme’s named partner institutions had the option of applying for an additional grant from those institutions.
6. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
| A. | A. | RECEIPTS AND | RECEIPTS AND | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAYMENTS | |||||||
| 30-Jun-23 | 30-Jun-22 | ||||||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||||
| General Fund | |||||||
| – Unrestricted | |||||||
| fund | |||||||
| Receipts | |||||||
| Membership | |||||||
| receipts | |||||||
| Subscriptions and Donations |
£7323.00 | £8634.00 | |||||
| Transfer to Bursary Fund |
-£5500.00 | -£6296.00 | |||||
| Use of e-mail lists |
£506.57 | £2329.57 | £1047.93 | £3385.93 | |||
| Conference | |||||||
| receipts |
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| Conference fees | £26833.40 | £26833.40 | £18170.00 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation and meals |
£31116.60 | £30688.00 | ||||
| Publisher stands | ||||||
| and attendance | £650.00 | £670.00 | ||||
| fees | ||||||
| Reception sponsorship |
£0.00 | £500.00 | ||||
| Accidental Payment |
£1500.00 | £60100.00 | -- | £50028.00 | ||
| Bank interest | £57.00 | £3.32 | ||||
| Total Receipts |
£62486.57 | £53417.25 | ||||
| Payments | ||||||
| Administrative | ||||||
| payments | ||||||
| Website | £2594.13 | £354.01 | ||||
| Billing | £3.29 | — | ||||
| Committee | £1816.17 | £218.20 | ||||
| expenses | ||||||
| Secretary honorarium |
£1250.00 | £1250.00 | ||||
| Treasurer honorarium |
£1250.00 | £2500.00 | ||||
| Assistant | ||||||
| Secretary honorarium |
£0.00 | £6913.59 | £1250.00 | 5572.21 | ||
| Conference | ||||||
| payments | ||||||
| Committee travel |
£105.30 | £1167.95 | ||||
| Conference centre |
£47667.04 | £50819.99 | ||||
| Event insurance | £81.00 | £81.00 |
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| Plenary travel |
speaker | speaker | speaker | £313.07 | £313.07 | £442.62 | £442.62 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clerical | support | £1440.00 | £2988.00 | |||||||
| Ofce costs | £251.14 | £394.38 | ||||||||
| Conference refunds |
£512.00 | £1968.00 | ||||||||
| Transfer from bursary fund -£5500.00 |
-£6296.00 | |||||||||
| Zoom licenses | ||||||||||
| for online | 116.31 | £44985.86 | -- | £51565.94 | ||||||
| conference | ||||||||||
| Postgraduate conference |
£0.00 | £0.00 | ||||||||
| TRS-UK | ||||||||||
| donation/asso ciation fee |
£250.00 | 0 | ||||||||
| Banking | and | |||||||||
| payment facilities |
£2894.68 | 603.80 | ||||||||
| Total Payments |
£55044.13 | £57741.95 | ||||||||
| Excess | of | |||||||||
| Receipts over | £7442.44 | -£4324.70 | ||||||||
| Payments | ||||||||||
| Bank accounts | ||||||||||
| at start | of | £23151.45 | £27476.15 | |||||||
| period | ||||||||||
| Bank accounts at end of period |
£30593.89 | £23151.45 | ||||||||
| year to | year to | |||||||||
| 30-Jun-23 | 30-Jun-22 | |||||||||
| £ | £ | £ | £ |
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| Bursary Fund | Bursary Fund | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — Restricted | |||||||
| fund | |||||||
| Receipts | |||||||
| Donations | £2626.00 | £460.00 | |||||
| Transfer from Subscriptions |
£2874.00 | £5500.00 | £5836.00 | £6296.00 | |||
| Payments | |||||||
| Transfer from bursary fund |
£5500.00 | £6296.00 | |||||
| Excess of | |||||||
| Payments | £0.00 | £0.00 | |||||
| over Receipts | |||||||
| Bank accounts | |||||||
| at start of | £5000.00 | £5000.00 | |||||
| period | |||||||
| Bank accounts at end of period |
£5000.00 | £5000.00 | |||||
| B. | STATEMENT OF | ASSETS AT THE END OF THE | |||||
| PERIOD | |||||||
| £ | £ | ||||||
| Community | |||||||
| Directplus | £25438.65 | £18053.21 | |||||
| Account | |||||||
| Select Instant Access Account |
£10155.24 | £10098.24 | |||||
| Total bank accounts |
£35593.89 | £28151.45 |
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DECLARATION
The Annual Report has been prepared in accordance with the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 under the Charities Act 2011. It was approved by the Executive Committee by e-mail consultation and was signed on its behalf by the President and the Treasurer .
Prof David Clough President
Dr Andrew Shamel Treasurer
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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS
This report is on the financial statements of the Society for the period ended 30th June 2022, which are set out on pages 5 to 7.
The trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. They consider that an audit is not required for this period under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and that an independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility: to examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act; to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act); and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the trustees have not met the requirements to ensure that: proper accounting records are kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and accounts are prepared which agree with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act; or to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Mr Giles Dobson, MRICS
15 April 2023 Almancil House, Church Road, Carlton, Newmarket, CB8 9JZ
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