Arlington Baptist Church Trustees Report 2023
Aims and Purposes
Arlington Baptist Church Trustees have the responsibility of promoting, with the incumbent Part Time Non-Accredited Minister, Sharon Petchey, the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical.
The Trustees are also specifically responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of Arlington Baptist Church Chapel. The Green, Arlington, Bibury, Cirencester, GL7 5NE and also The New Manse, Arlington, Bibury, Cirencester, GL7 5ND
Objectives and Activities
The Trustees are committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at our church and to continue its work as part of the community of Bibury and the surrounding villages. The Trustees maintain an overview of worship throughout the parish and make suggestions on how our services, worship and outreach can involve the many groups that live and work within the parish and surrounding community. Our services and worship put faith into practice through prayer and scripture, music and sacrament.
When planning our activities, the incumbent and the Trustees have considered the Charities Commissions guidance on public benefit and, in particular, the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. In particular, we try to enable ordinary people to live out their faith as part of the parish community through:
Worship and prayer, learning about the Gospel, and developing their knowledge and trust in Jesus.
Provision of pastoral care for people living in the parish.
OutreachVirginia, USA work to members of our community and the surrounding areas and supporting other charities by raising funds for local and national groups.
To facilitate this work, we have maintained and improved the fabric of Arlington Baptist Church building. And continue to do so.
Achievements and Performance
Worship and Prayer
We have held Christian worship services weekly with Pastoral Care on offer to all residents and the wider community. We maintained intercessory prayer and support to our church family. We partnered with St Mary's Church in Bibury under the umbrella of Churches Together to hold regular prayer meetings to pray for the community. We work in partnership with Cirencester Baptist Church to collaborate with them on service content and bible study subjects to help grow in our knowledge of Christ.
As well as our regular services and bible studies, we have enabled our community to celebrate and give thanks to God at the milestones of their journey through life. Through baptism we thank God for the gift of life, in marriage public vows are exchanged with God’s blessing and through funeral services friends and family express their grief and give thanks for the life which is now complete in this world and to commend the person into God’s keeping.
The Chapel
Our kitchen remains compliant with Health & Safety Legislation for public use, allowing us to continue using the Old School Rooms for public functions and we continue to hold monthly Community Lunches with transport available to all and a meal delivery service available to enable social inclusion for the elderly and those living in rural homes.
Pastoral Care
Some members of our community have suffered with loneliness or ill health or bereavement during the year, and our Minister has made contact with them and visited them to offer support and prayers.
We occasionally opened up in the winter to provide a warm space and coffee and a chat.
We opened up the Chapel most days to the public, to enable tourists and visitors to benefit from our Chapel, to pray and we created a prayer tree for people to leave prayer requests for us to pray for them in our services.
Evangelism
We hosted, catered for and helped to organise, in partnership with The Village Hall Committee, a Coronation Supper to celebrate the Kings Coronation, and to outreach to the community. We also took the opportunity to welcome key community figures from Arlington in Virginia, USA, which has historical links with Arlington in Bibury.
Helping those in need is a demonstration of our faith. The Trustees have raised money for Daily Bread, Cirencester Food Bank, Christian Aid and Samaritans Purse, Spurgeons and Tearfund donated food/groceries to Cirencester Food Bank.
We have continued to work on our website to reach more in the community, and to keep our parishioners and community and potential visitors informed of important factors affecting our church and information on church events. We also have statements on our website encouraging visitors to develop in their knowledge and trust in Jesus. We have links to local events and other websites and promote other churches within our community and the surrounding areas.
Ecumenical Relationships
The church works together with Cirencester Baptist Church to try to encourage and evangelise to people within the parish and surrounding communities. We also work closely with our local Anglican Church so that we mutually promote each other’s events to further The Kingdom of God. We have also been building on this through collaboration with Churches Together Events.
Financial Review
Total receipts for unrestricted funds were £15924.93. Restricted donations of £2376.32 were received of which £1000.00 was investment income allocated to the designated fund set up to renovate the chapel, and £1020.30 was paid to The Friends of Bibury, for their share of the donations for the Coronation Supper. The remainder was money raised for other charities and detailed in the Financial Statements. The freehold house at The New Manse, Arlington, Bibury continues to be let, which provided a gross income of £10.950.00
Hire of our hall to local groups raised £45.00
The net result for the year was a deficit of receipts over payments of £4951.39 on unrestricted funds
Reserves Policy
It is The Trustees policy to maintain a balance on unrestricted funds (if possible), which equates to at least 3 months' unrestricted payments, equivalent to £3981.23, to cover emergency situations that may arise from time to time. The balance of £6249.63 held on unrestricted funds, after designations, at the year-end did match this target.
Volunteers
We would like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard to make our church the community it is. In particular we want to mention our Minister, Mrs. Petchey who does many hours of unpaid work to further our plan to make our church more vibrant and livelier, and to provide further outreach to our parish and surrounding areas. Miss Sparks who has helped us to understand the church’s accounts and finances, Mrs Debra Stringer for her hard work cooking our monthly community lunches, and all the Trustees for their valuable contribution to our ministry and for keeping the church running.
Structure, governance and management
The method of appointment of the Trustees is set out in our Church Constitution. At Arlington Baptist Church the current Trustees consists of the incumbent (our Minister), and three others elected by those members of our congregation who are on our Electoral Roll as Church members.
The Trustees are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to the parish including deciding on how the funds of the Trustees are to be spent.
The Trustees met 4 times during the year with an average level of attendance of 95%. The Members met 4 times during the year with an average level of attendance of 80%.
Administration Information
Arlington Baptist Church is situated at The Green, Arlington, Bibury, Cirencester, GL7 5NE. It is a member of the Baptist Union. The correspondence address is the same. The church is registered with the Charities Commision during this year as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with a Registration Number 1192458
Trustees who have served until the date this report was approved are:
Ex Officio Members
Incumbent: Sharon Petchey Chair Trustee: Zena Sparks Treasurer & Designated Safeguarding Officer, Trustee: Jean Stringer Health & Safety Officer Trustee: Debbie Stringer Registrar
Approved by the Trustees on 23[rd] October 2024
signed on their behalf by Sharon Petchey (Chair) 23/10/24
2022
| Receipts Manse Rent Income Grants Recieved TAG Fitness General Collections etc Interest Received from BU Bank Interest Received Other Income Total Receipts |
2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,950.00 | **4,763.35 ** | |||
| 0.00 0.00 3,887.29 0.00 0.00 3,463.96 |
0.00 0.00 0.00 10,123.18 5,100.00 34,221.59 |
0.00 1,256.90 415.00 515.00 1,399.70 0.00 |
0.00 31,759.87 1,018.08 95.00 0.00 8,197.06 |
|
| 123.00 1,376.32 |
595.50 0.00 |
|||
| 0.00 564.60 |
45.00 5,100.00 |
|||
| 10,204.93 0.00 995.33 0.00 358.50 5,500.00 |
1,913.45 395.93 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 |
|||
| 543.36 | 5,400.00 | |||
| 18,301.25 | 54,208.12 | 23,252.64 | 54,519.89 | |
| Deficit for the year | ||||
| Opening Bank etc Balances Treasurers Current Account Business Instant Access Account New CIO Treasurers Account Trust Fund Account (Held by BU) Property Sale Account (Held by BU) |
||||
| 18,301.25 | 54,208.12 | 23,252.64 | 54,519.89 | |
| 20.11 | 20.11 | |||
| 4.23 | 4.23 | |||
| 10,177.08 | 6,225.29 | |||
| 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| 10,201.42 | 6,249.63 | |||