## **LONDON ZEN GROUP** ## **Report of Trustees for the year ending 31 December 2022** ## **OUR AIMS** It is our aim to advance the Sōtō Zen Buddhism religion in London for the benefit of the public through the holding of - regular classes and guided sessions of zazen medita�on, - ceremonies for sick or bereaved individuals, - open lectures and workshops on Buddhist ethics and doctrines, - and other open communal ac�vi�es related to Zen prac�ces and culture. ## **REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS** ## **Easing of COVID restric�ons** In parallel with the easing of COVID restric�ons in the first half of 2022, LZG also gradually eased its restric�ons on a�endance in person at our dojo (prac�ce space) at 486 Caledonian Road. Requirements to wear masks in the dojo were dropped in May. The requirement for visitors to be double vaccinated or recently tested was removed in October. LZG’s Zoom channel for online par�cipa�on at events remained open for those who struggled to come to the dojo in person. ## **Schedule and Ac�vi�es** LZG maintained a daily schedule of zazen medita�on with the excep�on of Saturdays, en�rely staffed by its volunteers. Members of the public were welcome to join our daily morning sessions from Monday to Friday from 7.00 to 8.00 AM in person at our dojo or via our Zoom channel. Regular evening sessions of zazen have been held on Thursdays, Wednesdays (un�l September) and Mondays (from September) from 7.30 to 8.45 PM. Drop-in introduc�ons to the prac�ce of zazen-medita�on were offered on Wednesday (un�l September), Monday (from September onwards) and Thursday evening sessions. On Sunday mornings LZG offered a slightly extended period of zazen from 9.00 to 10.30 AM, followed by an extended ceremony, communal cleaning of the dojo space ( _samu_ ) and socializing. LZG con�nued its successful study group ac�vity on Wednesday evenings (un�l September) and Monday evenings (from September onwards) following the regular evening zazen sessions on these days. Par�cipants are discussing texts from the Buddhist and Zen tradi�ons under the guidance of one of LZG’s ordained priests. From June 2022 onwards LZG offered public talks on Zen-Buddhist doctrine and philosophy on Friday evenings from 6.30 to 8.00 PM. The talks are preceded by a short session of zazen and followed by socializing. Guided workshops for sewing Zen-Buddhist robes - _kesas_ and _rakusus_ - were offered on Tuesday evenings for those seeking to be formally ordained as Bodhisa�vas or priests into the Sōtō Zen community. 1 LZG also offered Japanese calligraphy classes on selected Wednesday evenings at its premises. LZG also held a half-day of zazen prac�ce on the morning of December 10th to commemorate the Buddha’s awakening. ## **A�endance** LZG started to track its offerings and a�endance formally in June 2022. From June to December 2022, LZG, hosted **256** events and mee�ngs with a total of **1,274** a�endees. This included: - 196 regular zazen medita�on sessions, - 49 sessions of zazen combined with studies, talks and discussions, - 9 sewing events, - 2 calligraphy sessions. A detailed sta�s�cal summary of ac�vi�es is a�ached to this report. ## **OUR FINANCES** As a small, non-company charity, we prepare our annual accounts in the receipts and payments format according to the Charity Commission CC16a standard. LZG received £12,676 worth of dona�ons for the financial period of 1st January to 31st December 2022. LZG is en�rely financed through voluntary dona�ons and had no other sources of income. During the same �me, LZG made payments of £10,955 in order to run the opera�on of its venue (dojo). As a result, LZG realized net receipts of £1,721. LZG’s funds increased to £30,111 by the end of the year. ## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT** LZG is governed by its board of trustees who are at the same �me the caretakers of the group. Trustees meet several �mes per year and manage the current opera�ons as well as events and plans for the future. ## **TRUSTEES** New trustees are co opted by the body of exis�ng trustees. New trustees will typically be long-standing members of the community who are also responsible to run regular sessions of zazen. John Blythe was appointed as new trustee on 27th May 2022 for a period of three years. ## **Trustees of LZG in 2022** - Rev Alana Berrington - Treasurer - Rev Edgar Koeb - Secretary - John Blythe (since 27th May 2022) 2 - Rev Mar�n Landolt - Rev Ryan Roberts - William (Bill) Lamdin - Chair ## **SIGNATURES** Rev Edgar Koeb 7 October 2023 Rev. Alana Berrington 9 October 2023 3 ## **London Zen Group - Attendance Report - June to December 2023** ## **LZG - Number of Events - June to December 2022** ||**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Year-Month**
2022-06|zazen
24|zazen+study
4|zazen+talk
3|sewing
0|calligraphy
0|Grand Total
31| |2022-07
2022-08
2022-09|28
22
30|4
3
3|3
2
4|0
1
1|0
0
0|35
28
38| |2022-10|30|4|4|3|0|41| |2022-11|30|4|4|4|1|43| |2022-12|32|3|4|0|1|40| |**Grand Total**|**196**|**25**|**24**|**9**|**2**|**256**| **----- Start of picture text -----**
50
40
30 calligraphy
sewing
20
zazen+talk
10 zazen+study
0 zazen
2022-06 2022-07 2022-08 2022-09 2022-10 2022-11 2022-12
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **LZG - Event Attendance - June to December 2022** ||**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**|**Activity Types**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Year-Month**
2022-06|zazen
124|zazen+study
27|zazen+talk
13|sewing
0|calligraphy
0|Grand Total
164| |2022-07|140|22|11|0|0|173| |2022-08|92|22|6|2|0|122| |2022-09|148|29|18|4|0|199| |2022-10|142|42|13|6|0|203| |2022-11|142|41|17|19|5|224| |2022-12|142|26|19|0|2|189| |**Grand Total**|**930**|**209**|**97**|**31**|**7**|**1274**| **----- Start of picture text -----**
250
200
150 calligraphy
sewing
100 zazen+talk
50 zazen+study
zazen
0
2022-06 2022-07 2022-08 2022-09 2022-10 2022-11 2022-12
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **LZG - Event Attendance by Type - June to December 2022** |**Event Type**|**Attendance**|zazen
zazen+study
zazen+talk
sewing
calligraphy|zazen
zazen+study
zazen+talk
sewing
calligraphy| |---|---|---|---| |zazen|930||| |zazen+study|209||| |zazen+talk|97||| |sewing|31||| |calligraphy|7||| |**Grand Total**|**1274**||| ## **LZG - Event Attendance by Channel - June to December 2022** **----- Start of picture text -----**
Attendence
In Person 1017
In Person
Online 257
Online
20.2 % online
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **LZG - Number of Introductions - June to December 2022** |**Year-Month**|**Introductions**|0
5
10
15
20|0
5
10
15
20|| |---|---|---|---|---| ||||0
5
10
15
20|2022-06
2022-07
2022-08
2022-09
2022-10
2022-11
2022-12| |2022-06|8|||| |2022-07|7|||| |2022-08|2|||| |2022-09
2022-10|9
16|||| |2022-11|11|||| |2022-12|6|||| |**Grand Total**|**59**|||| |||||| ||**London Zen Group - CIO**|**London Zen Group - CIO**|**London Zen Group - CIO**|**London Zen Group - CIO**|**London Zen Group - CIO**|**1194847**|**1194847**|**1194847**|**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**For the period**
**from**||1-Jan-22||**To**||31-Dec-22||| ||||||||||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||||| |**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**A1 Receipts**
**to the nearest £**|||**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |Donations - online|**5,266**||**-**||**-**||**5,266**||**-**| |Donations - direct deposits|**6,106**||**-**||**-**||**6,106**||**-**| |Donations - cash|**1,169**||**-**||**-**||**1,169**||**-**| |3rd party user groups|**125**||**-**||**-**||**125**||**-**| |Book sales|**10**||**-**||**-**||**10**||**-**| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**12,676**
**_Sub total_**
_(Gross income for AR)_|**12,676**||**-**||**-**||**12,676**||**-**| ||||||||||| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||||| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**12,676**
**A3 Payments**
**-**
**_Sub total_**
**_Total receipts_**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||||||| ||**12,676**||**-**||**-**||**12,676**||**-**| ||||||||||| |Rent|**9,000**||**-**||**-**||**9,000**||**-**| |Gas and Electric|**761**||**-**||**-**||**761**||**-**| |Internet|**417**||**-**||**-**||**417**||**-**| |Council Tax|**333**||**-**||**-**||**333**||**-**| |Boutique|**42**||**-**||**-**||**42**||**-**| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 14/10/2023 1 |Godo expenses|**27**||**-**|**-**||**-**|**-**||**27**||**-**|**-**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Supplies|**130**||**-**|||**-**|||**130**||**-**|| |Zoom|**127**||**-**|||**-**|||**127**||**-**|| |Miscellaneous expenses|**118**||**-**|||**-**|||**118**||**-**|| |**_Sub total_**|**10,955**||**-**|||**-**|||**10,955**||**-**|| |||||||||||||| |**A4 Asset and investment**||||||||||||| |**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||||| ||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**|||| ||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**|||| |**_Sub total_**|**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**|||| |||||||||||||| |**_Total payments_**|**10,955**|||**-**|||**-**||**10,955**|||**-**| |||||||||||||| |**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**|**1,721**||**-**|||**-**|||**1,721**||**-**|| |**A5 Transfers between funds**|**-**||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**|| |**A6 Cash funds last year end**|**28,390**||**-**|||**-**|||**28,390**||**-**|| |**_Cash funds this year end_**|**30,111**||**-**|||**-**|||**30,111**||**-**|| |||||||||||||| |**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the**|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the**|**end of the period**|**end of the period**|**end of the period**|**end of the period**||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted funds**||**Endowment**| |**Categories**|**Details**||**funds**||||**funds**| ||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**| |**B1 Cash funds**|Cooperative account 652 142 99||**30,111**||**-**||**-**| ||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||**_Total cash funds_**||**30,111**||**-**||**-**| ||(agree balances with receipts and payments||||||| ||account(s))||OK||OK||OK| ||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted funds**||**Endowment**| ||||**funds**||||**funds**| ||**Details**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 14/10/2023 2 |**B2 Other monetary assets**|||**-**||**-**||**-**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||**Details**||**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |**B3 Investment assets**|||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||**Details**||**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |**B4 Assets retained for the**|||||**-**||**-**| |**charity’s own use**|||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||**Fund to which**||**Amount due**||**When due**| ||**Details**||**liability relates**||**(optional)**||**(optional)**| CCXX R3 accounts (SS) 14/10/2023 3 |**B5 Liabilities**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf
of all the trustees||||| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||Date of approval| |||Rev Edgar Koeb||7/10/2023| |||Rev Alana Berrington||**9/10/2023**| CCXX R4 accounts (SS) 14/10/2023 4