2022-12-31-accounts

The Community of Hopeweavers Annual Report 2022

The Community of Hopeweavers

Charity number 1191614

Tardis, Beacon Road, West End, Southampton SO30 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.org.uk/

Trustees at September 2023

Philippa Mills – Guardian (Chair)

Jennifer Lambert – Guardian

Gillian Leppitt – Guardian

Paul Leppitt – Secretary

Paul Lambert – Treasurer

Sue Halliday

Ann Spooner

Rev Kia Pakenham

Angela Collins

Helen Mitchell

Trustees serving during report period.

Angela Whitmore

Geoffrey Poulton

The trustees of the charity The Community of Hopeweavers have pleasure in presenting their second Annual Report together with the financial statements, for the period from becoming a charity on the year ending 31 December 2022.

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

Daily Office

Morning Prayer and Night Prayer have continued online through the members’ Facebook group. The facility for people who are Friends of the Community but are neither Members nor Enquirers to join on Zoom. The community has paused the online prayer in the fallow months of April and August.

Quiet Days and Soul Days

Online Quiet Days and Soul Days have continued using Zoom. We have non-members who sign up for these regularly as well as Members.

In person events resumed and have included:

• Quiet Days and Hopeweaver @ Home at Summers Road

• Romsey Deanery Chapter in October and March.

• Ampfield, Chilworth and North Baddesley in November

• St John’s Hedge End, with the Retreat Association Icon.

We continue to look for suitable venues to hold Quiet Days and Soul Days

During the period we held 17 events to which 96 people had booked, just under 6 people per event, excluding the event leader(s).

Sanctuary Space

Jac and Geoff have continued to offer booked Sanctuary Space at Tardis to individuals, and now to pairs of people. The space and hospitality offered by Jack and Geoff has been very much appreciated.

Members continue to offer Sanctuary Space in many different ways to neighbours, friends, colleagues and refugees and it has been a joy to read about this in the Newsletter.

Members

Gathering of Promises 2022

The vast majority of the Community joined online for this service in January, as did many friends and supporters. The theme of the service was trees, specifically ‘Jesus Christ the Apple Tree’ and our Episcopal Visitor, Bishop Jo Bailey-Wells, spoke to us on this theme. We said goodbye to 4 Members and welcomed 2 new Members. This year we have 44 Members, 1 Enquirer, and 3 ‘pre-Enquirers’, once of whom has just to send their completed form in to become a fully-fledged Enquirer!

Members Groups

These groups were ‘re-jigged’ for the new year as planned, taking into account Members’ preferences for what type of group they would like to commit to for the year. We currently have 7 Members’ Groups with between 4 and 7 members in each. We also have 5 triplets/pairs, which shows an increase in members wishing to be in these smaller groupings this year.

The first Summer Gathering/Celebration!

June 2022 saw our first in-person gathering for the whole Community in 29 months! This was a wonderful time of re-connecting or meeting other Hopeweavers in person for the first time. The AGM was held in the morning (on Zoom too to enable those who were unable to be there in person to participate) followed by a time of discussing and planning around various areas of the Hopeweavers ministry. After lunch we enjoyed a number of creative and playful activities including making bunting, creating a natural objects collage, looking around the beautiful pop-up exhibition of creative work and just catching up with one another.

Monthly Members’ Newsletter

A significant development in the life of the Community this year has been the new monthly Members’ Newsletter, which is lovingly and expertly edited and put together by Helen Hewitt. The newsletter contains articles written by various different Members so that the greatest number of voices are heard, and to help our dispersed Community get to know each other. Members’ creative work is often featured, as well as interviews with members, book/podcast recommendations, articles about how various Members hold Sanctuary Space for others in their daily lives, and of course information about upcoming Hopeweaver events. The newsletter is also distributed to our Bishop Visitor and our Warden to keep them up to date with what is going on in the Community. It takes a lot of hard work by Helen to curate but is appreciated so much by the whole Community.

Online Engagement

Members have continued to value being able to connect with one another online. The Zoom chats are well attended, and some significant conversations and connections have been made in this way. We plan to continue these into the future.

Hopeweavers at Hilfield

In August 2022 we were privileged to be able to stay at Hilfield Friary together as a community for 12 nights. 20 Members, friends and family stayed in Bernard House over the 12 nights. 6 of these people had never been to Hilfield before, and 4 of them were under 16 years old. Guests reported really enjoying their time at Hilfield. Highlights included: eating together and getting to know other Members, using the craft room and getting creative, joining in with aspects of the Hilfield Family Camp (who were there for the first weekend of our stay), beautiful walks in the stunning surroundings, the very sunny weather!

Finances

The charity began the year with £20,628 in funds.

The total income for the year was £5,516, with £812 of donations from those attending events and £4504 from other donations. The expenditure for the period was £5702, with £2400 of that as administration stipend, £556 on venue hire, £299 on insurance, and £1032 on donations to other causes. the remainder of £1151 was spent on operational and office costs.

The small deficit of £164 left funds at the end of the period of £20,464 of which £7256 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 1 Jan 2022 until 31 Dec 2022

Income and Expenditure	Unrestricted Funds	Restricted Funds	Total
Fund balance on 1 January 2022	20628	0	20628
Incoming Resources
Event donations	812		812
Donations andgifts	3706	-	3706
Gift Aid	998		998
Total Incoming resources	5516		5516
Resources Expended
Office expenses and IT	204	0	204
Printing, post & stationary	297	0	297
Art materials,candles	402	0	402
Insurance	299	0	299
Venues	556	0	556
Admin stipend	2400	0	2400
Other	491	0	139
Donations to other charities	1031	0	1032
Total Resources Expended	5680	0	5680
Net Movement in Funds	-164	0	-164
Fund Balances carried forward on 31 December 2022	20,464	0	20,464

This financial statement was approved by the Trustees on 15 September 2022 and signed on behalf of the trustees by

Paul Lambert, Treasurer