2023-12-31-accounts

The Community of Hopeweavers Annual Report 2023

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 2024

Philippa Mills – Guardian (Chair)

Jennifer Lambert – Guardian

Paul Leppitt – Secretary

Paul Lambert – Treasurer

Sue Halliday

Ann Spooner

Rev Kia Pakenham - Guardian

Angela Collins

Helen Mitchell

Helen Hewitt

Lynette Colman

Trustees serving during report period, no longer serving.

Gillian Leppitt – Guardian

Geoff Poulton

Ang Whitmore

The trustees of the charity The Community of Hopeweavers have pleasure in presenting their third Annual Report together with the financial statements, for the period of the calendar year of 1 January 2023 until 31 December 2023.

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. 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. This year at the request of some members, there was a recorded version of Morning and Night Prayer available for the fallow months of April and August.

Quiet Days and Soul Days

Online Soul Day mornings have continued and we have a number of non-members who sign up regularly for these. The numbers attending fluctuate and there are often last-minute bookings on eventbrite.

In person events have included:

• Quiet Days and Hopeweaver@home at Summers Road

• Portsmouth Diocese retreat for new LLMs

• St John’s Hedge End used for Quiet Days

• St Luke’s Southsea has been booked for 2024.

Sanctuary space at the Tardis

Sanctuary Space has been offered to individuals and groups of two people who may book time and enjoy the space and hospitality offered. Those attending much appreciate their visits.

ARCIE (Anglican Religious Communities in England)

Philippa continues as a member of the ARCIE committee, representing Hopeweaver and being a voice for Acknowledged Communities in that forum.

Gathering of Promises 2023

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 ‘Come and See, Taste and See’. During the service the motet, ‘Oh taste and see how gracious the Lord is’ by Vaughan Williams was played whilst participants enjoyed fairtrade chocolate that had been posted out to everyone beforehand. It was special to know that everyone was hearing and tasting the same thing and contemplating the goodness of God at the same time, even though we were in different physical locations. The

Episcopal Visitor, Bishop Jo Bailey-Wells, spoke to us on this theme. At the event the Community said goodbye to 1 Member and welcomed 3 new Members. There are 46 Members, 2 official Enquirers, and 1 ‘pre-Enquirer’, who intends to become a full Enquirer after ordination in July.

Members Groups

This year there were 6 Members Groups with between 5 and 9 members in each and 5 groups with triplets/pairs. Two groups meet in person, 1 mixes online and in person meetings, with the other 3 meeting solely online. Attendance has been better this year, with just a few individuals still struggling to engage with these groups or a triplet/pair.

The second Summer Celebration.

June 2023 saw our second in-person summer gathering for the whole Community. This was a wonderful time of re-connecting and 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 silence.

The meeting reflected thoughts and feelings emerging from the time of silence and shared words of encouragement and scripture. The phrase from Isaiah 30:15 ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and in trust shall be your strength’ was agreed to be important.

A number of creative and contemplative activities took place in the afternoon, including making bunting, creating a colourful mosaic of a Hopeweaver cross, going on an ‘awareness walk’, looking around the beautiful pop-up exhibition of creative work and our ‘worship table’.

Monthly Members’ Newsletter

The Members’ Newsletter continues to be an important anchor in our Community life, providing a platform for sharing stories of how various members offer sanctuary space as well as advertising dates of Hopeweaver events to members. Helen Hewitt continues to draw all this together and edit the newsletter, and we are extremely grateful to her. The newsletter is distributed to Members, Enquirers, our Bishop Visitor and our Warden.

Online Engagement

Members have continued to value being able to connect with one another online. The regular Zoom chats are well attended and some significant conversations and connections have been made and will continue.

Hopeweavers at Hilfield

In August 2023 we were privileged to be able to stay at Hilfield Friary together as a Community for 12 nights. 22 Members, friends and family booked to stay in Bernard House over the 12 nights. 5 of these guests were children. 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.

Finances

The charity began with funds of £20,465.

During the year we received total income of £5924, with £2103 of donations from those attending events and £3841 from other donations. The expenditure for the period was £5605, with £2000 of that as administration stipend, £1329 on venue hire costs, £299 on insurance, and the remainder of £1977 on operational and office costs.

Funds at the end of the period was £20784 of which £7417 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 2023 until 31 Dec 2023

Income and Expenditure	Unrestricted Funds	Restricted Funds	Total
Incoming Resources
Event donations	2103		2103
Donations andgifts	3821	-	3821
Total Incoming resources	5924	-	5924
Resources Expended
Office expenses and IT	407	0	407
Printing, post & stationary	65	0	65
Subscriptions	195		195
Art materials	82	0	82
Insurance	299	0	299
Venues	1329	0	1329
Admin stipend	2000	0	2000
Other costs	1228	0	1228
Total Resources Expended	5605	0	5605
Net Movement in Funds	319	0	319
Fund Balances carried forward at 31 December 2023	20784	0	20784

This financial statement was approved by the Trustees on 15 September 2024 and signed on behalf of the trustees by

Paul Lambert, Treasurer