The Community of Hopeweavers Annual Report 2024
The Community of Hopeweavers
Charity number 1191614
12 Willis Rd Swathling, Southampton SO16 2NTn
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 2025
Philippa Mills – Guardian
Jennifer Lambert – Guardian
Rev Kia Pakenham - Guardian
Paul Leppitt – Secretary
Paul Lambert – Treasurer
Sue Halliday
Ann Spooner
Helen Mitchell
Helen Hewitt
Lynette Colman
Trustees serving during report period (2024), no longer serving.
Gill Leppitt
Angela Collins
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 2024 until 31 December 2024.
Purpose
We offer sanctuary spaces and opportunities for individuals and groups who seek silence and stillness by:
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creating space away from our everyday lives for refreshing in peace and quiet.
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places where we can dream dreams and receive from God in stillness and calm.
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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 although some leaders have found that Facebook has been becoming increasingly unreliable as a platform. Some people have had to step back from their regular times of leading and. as ever, it would be helpful to have a few more people who are willing to lead regularly or to help cover when regular leaders are away, The pre-recorded version of Morning and Night Prayer available on Facebook for the fallow months of April and August have been appreciated.
This year Members have begun leading Friday evening Breaking of Bread on Zoom. The numbers attending has been quite low but it has been much valued by those who are able to be there.
Quiet Days and Soul Days
Online Soul Day Mornings have continued and we have several non-members who sign up for these regularly as well as some Members. The numbers attending fluctuate and there are often some last-minute bookings. Although it’s preferable to know numbers in advance there have been times when a participant has been extremely grateful to be able to book a last-minute place.
Quiet Days and Hopeweavers@Home came to an end during the year. We are very grateful to the Members who opened their home and for leading and hosting these faithfully over the years.
In person events have included:
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Quiet Days at St Luke’s Southsea and St John’s Hedge End
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Hopeweaver@home at Summers Road
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Portsmouth Diocese retreat for new LLMs
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The first of a series of Quiet days in Bath
Sanctuary space at the Tardis
For the first part of the year, we continued to offer booked Sanctuary Space at Tardis to individuals, and pairs of people. The space and hospitality offered was very much appreciated. At the present time this offering of space is paused.
ARCIE (Anglican Religious Communities in England)
A Member sits on the ARCIE committee, representing Hopeweavers and being a voice for acknowledged communities is that forum. She has joined the small committee planning the next in-person conference which will be in September 2025.
Gathering of Promises 2024
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 4 and 9 members in each and 6 groups with triplets/pairs. Two of the groups meet in person, 1 does some online and some in person, 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 third Summer Celebration.
June 2024 saw our third in-person summer gathering for the whole Community. 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 discussion around what people value about the Community, what they’d like to see the Community doing in the next year, and what they thought God may be saying to us as a Community. This discussion produced rich and precious contributions from members, which were fed back during Midday Prayer.
We were still focussing on the Isaiah verse that God had given us last year – ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved’. We had two areas set up in the hall, one focussing on ‘Returning’ and the other on ‘Rest’. Members brought along items or creative work to place in these areas and were encouraged to view what everyone else had placed there too. The ‘Rest’ area had cushions and blankets in it and we were delighted by the appearance of a cat who curled up on the cushions and promptly fell asleep! It was the perfect illustration of rest!
After lunch we enjoyed creative and contemplative activities including making bunting, creating pom-pom dandelions, going on an ‘awareness walk’, spending time in the Rest or Returning zones, and just catching up with one another. So many Hopeweavers pulled together to make the event possible: serving drinks and refreshments, helping to set up the hall, leading the creative activities, making cake to share, curating and setting up the pop-up exhibition, preparing the paperwork for the AGM etc. It was a wonderful event for Members and their families.
Monthly Members’ Newsletter
The Members’ Newsletter continues to be an important anchor for 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; we also really appreciate her thoughtful introductions to the newsletters and the beautiful images she shares. The newsletter continues to be distributed to Members, Enquirers, our Bishop Visitor and our Warden. This year Helen has also used some content from our newsletters to send out to ‘Friends’ of the Community too.
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 in this way. We plan to continue these into the future.
Hopeweavers at Hilfield
In August 2024 we were privileged to be able to stay at Hilfield Friary together as a community for 12 nights. 25 Members, friends and family booked to stay in Bernard House over the 12 nights. 3 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 and taking beautiful walks in the stunning surroundings.
Finances
The charity began with funds of £20,784.
During the year we received total income of £7059, with £2293 of donations from those attending events, £1990 from those attending Hilfield and £2776 from other donations.
The expenditure for the period was £8972, with £2600 of that as administration stipend, £1430 on venue hire costs, £1990 on the Hilfield event, £421 on materials for the events at Bath a new venue and the remainder of £2531 on operational and office costs.
The most significant item to note is that although predicted for a while, this is the first year that we have an end of year deficit of £1,913. In part, this is because the gift aid for the year has not been collected, which has been collected this year, which would provide about £600.
Funds at the end of the period was £18,871 of which £7417 is allocated for projects which reach out to people in circumstances who may otherwise never access sanctuary spaces.
Notes:
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The financial statements have been prepared on a cash basis.
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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 2024 until | Statement of Financial Activities for the period 1 Jan 2024 until | Statement of Financial Activities for the period 1 Jan 2024 until | Statement of Financial Activities for the period 1 Jan 2024 until | 31 Dec 2024 | 31 Dec 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income and Expenditure | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | ||
| Funds | Funds | ||||
| Statement of Financial Activities for the period 1 Jan 2024 until 31 Dec 2024 Income and Expenditure Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total |
Statement of Financial Activities for the period 1 Jan 2024 until 31 Dec 2024 Income and Expenditure Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total |
Statement of Financial Activities for the period 1 Jan 2024 until 31 Dec 2024 Income and Expenditure Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total |
Statement of Financial Activities for the period 1 Jan 2024 until 31 Dec 2024 Income and Expenditure Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income and Expenditure | Unrestricted Funds |
Restricted Funds |
Total |
| Incoming Resources | |||
| Event donations | 2,293 | 2,293 | |
| Donations andgifts | 2,776 | - | 2,776 |
| Hilfield | 1,990 | 1,990 | |
| Total Incoming resources | 7059 | - |
7,059 |
| Resources Expended | |||
| Office expenses and IT | 515 | 0 | 515 |
| Printing, post & stationary | 119 | 0 | 119 |
| Subscriptions | 135 | 135 | |
| Art materials(events) | 421 | 0 | 421 |
| Insurance | 299 | 0 | 299 |
| Venues | 1,430 | 0 | 1,430 |
| Hilfield event | 1,990 | 0 | 1,990 |
| Admin stipend | 2,600 | 0 | 2,600 |
| Other costs | 1,463 | 0 | 1,463 |
| Total Resources Expended | 8,972 | 0 | 8,972 |
| Net Movement in Funds | -1,913 | 0 | -1,913 |
| Fund Balances carried forward at 31 December 2024 |
18,871 | 0 | 18,871 |
This financial statement was approved by the Trustees on 15 September 2025 and signed on behalf of the trustees by
Paul Lambert, Treasurer