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