## The Community of Hopeweavers
Annual Report 2020-2021
## The Community of Hopeweavers
Charity number 1191614
Tardis, Beacon Road, West End, Southampton S030 3BS
We are an Acknowledged Anglican Religious Community; a dispersed fellowship of friends who seek God together through stillness, silence and creativity. The community became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation CIO on 2 October 2020.
The Trustees are members of the community and elect Guardians who chair the organisation.
https://hopeweavers.orq.uk/
Trustees at September 2022
Philippa Mills — Guardian (Chair)
Jennifer Lambert — Guardian
Gillian Leppitt — Guardian
Paul Leppitt — Secretary
Paul Lambert — Treasurer
Angela Whitmore
Geoffrey Poulton
Sue Halliday
Ann Spooner
Rev Kia Pakenham
Angela Collins
Trustees serving during report period
Jackie Cooper
Jane Castle
Jeff Williams
The trustees of the charity The Community of Hopeweavers have pleasure in presenting their first Annual Report together with the financial statements, for the period from becoming a charity on 2 October 2020 until the year ending 31 December 2021.
## Purpose
We offer sanctuary spaces and opportunities for individuals and groups who seek silence and stillness by:
creating space away from our everyday lives for refreshing in peace and quiet; places where we can dream dreams and receive from God in stillness and calm; encouraging and valuing creativity as a way of responding to God
## Activities
Morning Prayer and Night Prayer have continued online through the members' Facebook group. There is the facility for people who are Friends of the Community but are neither Members nor Enquirers to join on Zoom. There have been a few changes to the list of those leading and it has been a joy to welcome new leaders.
## Quiet Days and Soul Days
When it became clear that it would be a long time until we could offer in-person Quiet Days and Soul Days we decided to try offering online Sanctuary Space using Zoom. These have been well-received and many have been surprised at how the Holy Spirit is at work even in these dispersed gatherings. It seems that even though we can't be in one physical space, the intentionality of having each set aside the time draws the group together. Online Quiet Mornings and Soul Day Mornings have continued and we have a number of non-members who sign up for these regularly as well as some Members. In person events are planned to recommence in 2022. During the period we held 22 events to which 151 people had booked, just under 7 people per event, excluding the event leader(s).
## Members
One of the main developments in the area of Membership was the creating of the document, 'Marks of Membership', which draws together and sets out the four main commitments a Member makes when joining the Community. Much of this material came from the feedback from groups at the AGM last year, and it has been so helpful to be able to record what it is that makes a Hopeweaver a Hopeweaver! This also helped us to rethink and reshape the process of being an Enquirer. We now have up to date documents for Enquirers and also for Guides outlining clearly the process and expectations for both parties. We were so blessed to have 5 Enquirers last year who have stepped forward into Membership at the Gathering of Promises in January 2021.
Another highlight for Members over the past year has been our monthly Zoom 'Catch up sessions'. These have been wonderful spaces for Members to get to know one another better and to share current craft or art projects they're working on or great books they've read around the themes of contemplation and spirituality.
Our Members' Groups soon learnt to meet together online rather than in person, and although seeing one another on a screen is certainly not as satisfying as meeting physically it has been a real encouragement to many of us during this time of much less social interaction. There were
also some benefits of meeting this way; namely that those who would have found it impossible to meet in person due to location or transport issues were suddenly able to play a full part in their Members' Groups.
Building on this we decided to re-look at all the groups and re-jig where necessary to group people together who would prefer to meet online going forward anyway. At the same time, we offered an option, for those who wanted, to form a pair or triplet instead of belonging to a Members' group. The hope is that these changes will enable all Members to more easily fulfil their commitment of meeting in a small group regularly.
## Finances
The charity began with funds transferred from the existing Community into the new CIO of E17756.
During the period from 2 October 2020 to Dec 2021 we received total income of C6,475, with E1209 of donations from those attending events and E5266 from other donations. The expenditure for the period was E3603, with E2800 of that as administration stipend, E274 on insurance, and the remainder of E529 on operational and office costs.
Funds at the end of the period was E20,628 of which E7417 is designated for projects which reach out to people in circumstances who may otherwise never access sanctuary spaces.
## Notes:
- The financial statements have been prepared on a cash basis.
- Restricted funds, there were no donations in the period where the donor has imposed specific conditions on the use of the funds and which should be segregated from other funds.
Statement of Financial Activities for the period 2 Oct 2020 until 31 Dec 2021
|Income
and
Expenditure|Income
and
Expenditure|Unrestricted|Restricted|Total|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Funds|Funds||
|Incoming
Resources|||||
|Event
donations||1,209||1,209|
|Donations
and
gifts||5,266||5,266|
|Transfer
of
Community
funds||17,756||17,756|
|Total
Incoming
resources||24,231||24,231|
|Resources
Expended|||||
|Office
expenses
and
IT||120|o|120|
|Printing,
post
&
stationary||74||74|
|Art
materials||56||56|
|Insurance||274||274|
|Maintenance||182||182|
|Admin
stipend||2800|o|2,800|
|Other
costs||96||96|
|Total
Resources
Expended||3602|o|3602|
|Net
Movement
in
Funds||20,629|O|20,629|
|Fund
Balances
carried|
forward|20,629||20,629|
|at
31
December
2021|||||
This financial statement was approved by the Trustees on 15 September 2022 and signed on behalf of the trustees by
Paul Lambert, Treasurer