2022-06-30-accounts

Wormley Free Church Annual Report

(Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion) Office: Huntingdon Lodge, High Road, Broxbourne, Herts. EN10 6AA Registered Charity No. 1194850

Trustees Annual Report to June 2022

Until 2021, Wormley Free Church was a constituent part of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion charity, reference 232674. On 18th June 2021 the church was separately registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), with the charity number 1194850. This report including financial statements covers the year from June 2021 - June 2022, the first full year of the charity.

Aims and Objectives

As laid out in the Wormley Free Church CIO Constitution, the objects of the CIO for the public benefit are to advance the Christian faith in accordance with the Statement of Beliefs appearing in the Schedule hereto in Wormley, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and in such other parts of the United Kingdom or the world as the charity trustees may from time to time think fit.

We seek to fulfil these objectives through communicating the Christian faith in relevant ways to our local communities, enabling as many as possible to worship with the church and to become part of our community, and seeking to serve the needs of local people. We seek to enable people to live out their faith through:

• ●Offering collective worship

• ●Education regarding the Christian faith

• ●Providing pastoral support

• ●Conducting missionary and outreach work

• ●Working with all ages including the elderly and young people

To facilitate this work we employ a minister, Rev. Benjamin Quant, and maintain the fabric of the church building and manse, and hire the local Community Centre for our Sunday service. We employ Mrs Amanda Newman for 2 hours each week to clean the Church.

Collective Worship

After 70 online services over the pandemic, the church resumed in-person Sunday morning services in June 2021, following the relevant Government advice

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and instructions, in Wormley Community Centre. We sought to ensure our services were accessible to all ages and backgrounds, and welcomed visitors as well as regular members.

Our services were held at Wormley Community Centre rather than our own church building as this has more space for providing activities for young people. We provided a creché for toddlers and ‘Sunday Club’ for primary school aged children. On the first Sunday of the month and on special days in the church calendar we held all-age services. We aspire to restart a youth group when we have the numbers required for it. Although we have a paid minister, we encourage active participation within our services, and have a range of people in our preaching and service leading team, of different nationalities, ages, backgrounds and genders.

We also used the Community Centre as it is in the heart of Wormley and more visible than our own premises, and so better suited to serving our local community.

We continued to provide a live-stream and archive of our services on YouTube and our website. This made them accessible for those unable to attend in person. Through use of slido.com, those watching online could interact with us during the services. This has supported those who are unable to attend through illness, through being away, or living outside our local area, particularly those who have moved away and who wish to maintain a relationship with us. It also provided a means for those looking for a church to find out about us.

Education

Alongside the teaching that took place in Sunday services, we provided a midweek Bible study group. This has continued to take place online as we have found that this better suits the busy lives of our members and makes it available to others outside the area. We also provided a daily Bible Note by email (Monday - Friday), often based on the previous Sunday services’ theme. Alongside this, we also provide a weekly email newsletter providing information about our faith and pointing to interesting articles and pieces of news on the internet, alongside publicising events and activities coming up.

We also supported our minister as he came towards the end of his Doctorate of Ministry (DMin) at Spurgeon’s College.

Pastoral Support

Pastoral support was offered to our membership through the leadership team through visits, phone calls, emails, and prayer as desired/appropriate, as well as mutual support being encouraged amongst our members. We continued to be committed to offering prayer support through weekly prayer meetings, praying for the needs of the church and the world, and a prayer request WhatsApp group.

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Pastoral support was also made available to those beyond our membership, to those who attend our regular activities and the wider community. This included opportunities to talk and be prayed for, as well as the provision of funeral services, weddings and dedication / thanksgiving services for children.

Mission & Outreach

As a church, sharing our faith through showing and communicating God’s love is a core feature of our life. We encouraged and supported our members in doing so in their daily lives as the ‘dispersed church’. Alongside this we offered organised activities as the ‘gathered church’. These included:

• ●The Drop-In: A weekly lunch and chance to meet others, open to all but primarily for local elderly people, especially those living on their own. There is no charge for this, instead there is a small suggested donation (£2) to enable the group to be sustainable but not prohibit attendance.

• ●Parent & Toddlers: We ran a weekly toddler group on Wednesday mornings for local parents/grandparents/carers and their children. This is a long established group with a widely regarded reputation, involving play, refreshments and ‘song-time’. Again, no charge is made, but there is a suggested donation of £1 per adult and child. We also experimented with a monthly ‘toddler service’ (a simple worship service appropriate for children and carers who attend Toddlers).

• ●Broxbourne Foodbank: The church hosted, coordinated and helped staff the primary distribution point for Broxbourne Foodbank (Charity No. 1157199), of which our minister is a trustee.

• ●Alpha: We ran the Alpha course online for those that are interested in exploring the Christian faith. This is a ten week course exploring the significance of Jesus, the Bible and the Christian life / Church.

We ran seasonal services and activities at Harvest, Christmas and Easter to attract and communicate the Christian faith to those who are not Christians or do not usually attend church.

All Age Activity

We sought to include, support and reach out to all ages. To this end we offered:

• ●Children’s Activities in our Services: See ‘Collective Worship’ above.

• ●The Drop In: See ‘Mission & Outreach’ above.

• ●Schools Work: Our minister regularly conducts assemblies in Wormley and Broxbourne Primary Schools, takes part in lessons, and plays an active part in the school community. He also conducted Christmas and Harvest Services for the Foundation Stage, and Christingle Services for the main school at Wormley. He also talked to children at Longlands Primary School

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about how and why we worship, and talked to pupils at Woodside Primary School about Christmas and Easter.

Other Organisations

Where appropriate to our aims and objectives, we have worked with and supported other organisations, including financially as permitted by our aims and objectives. Over the course of the year this included:

• ●The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion: The church is part of The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion (charity no. 232674), and our church building and manse belong to them. One of our leadership team is the chair of trustees for The Connexion, and our minister is another trustee. We send representatives to their annual Conference and contribute financially to its central funds on a regular basis.

• ●The Sierra Leone Mission (SLM): The SLM is the overseas mission branch of The Connexion, which encourages and supports churches and schools in Sierra Leone, West Africa. One of our members is a committee member for the SLM. We seek to inform our congregation of the work of the SLM, put together alongside other Connexional churches, shoebags full of Christmas gifts for children in Sierra Leone, and support the SLM financially on a regular basis.

• ●Churches Together in Hoddesdon, Broxbourne & Wormley (CTHBW): We are an active member of CTHBW, participating in a number of the activities they run and support (such as distributing starter packs for homeless people who are housed by the council, the Foodbank, joint church services, seasonal outreach, ministers’ lunches and prayer meetings). As permitted by our objectives, we pay an annual subscription fee.

• ●The Evangelical Alliance: We are members of the Evangelical Alliance, UK (charity no. 212325), and pay an annual subscription fee.

• ●The Wormley & Turnford Big Local (WTBL): WTBL are a local project run by The Big Local charity (no. 1145916) who have the objective of building and developing our local community. They run the Wormley Community Centre where we meet. In light of our close aims and objectives, and the fact that they run the Community Centre that we hire for our services, we sought to develop a good working relationship with them, and seek ways in which we could work together that were mutually beneficial. This culminated with our participating in and helping organise their Platinum Jubilee Celebrations for Queen Elizabeth on June 2nd 2022. We plan to continue this relationship.

• ●Young Life International, Hoddesdon: Young Life (YL) is a local parachurch youth work, which works with church and non-church youth. We have sought to support their work as part of our outreach objective, and as a resource for our own youth, aware that we have not offered youth work of our own. We have supported YL financially.

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Hall Hire

We make our church premises available for ‘hall hire’ as a source of revenue and as a way of supporting local community events and activities in line with our objectives. Over the Covid Lockdowns, this ceased, the only activity continuing in the church being the Foodbank. With the end of lockdown, it was made available again, and was used by one weekly group (Saracens Cheerleading class), periodically by Women Aglow, and ad hoc childrens’ parties and other events. We anticipate that this will increase now that the ongoing impact of the pandemic has decreased. A local Cocaine Anonymous group has also recently started to use the premises.

Volunteers

The church fellowship cannot function without the assistance of volunteers. We encourage our members to play an active part in running and attending our activities, and we are grateful for their participation.

Financial Review

See Accounts below

Income

The total receipts on unrestricted funds were £44,157.88 and restricted funds of £7,142, giving a total income of £51,299.18 an increase of £4,803.68 in comparison to the total income of £46,495.50 in 2020-21.

Expenditure

Over the year we spent £43,763.97 from unrestricted funds and £3250.50 from restricted funds, giving a total expenditure of £47,284.47, an increase of £7011.02 when compared to the previous year’s total of £40,273.45.

Balance

Our closing balance was £25,025.54, an increase of £4014.71 on last year’s balance of £21010.83.

Reserves Policy

It is the church policy to maintain an unrestricted balance of 3 months unrestricted expenditure or £13500 whichever is greater to cover emergency situations that may arise from time to time. The balance of £12,555.23 is close to the target.

Administrative Information

The church is situated at High Road, Broxbourne, EN10 6EN. Its registered office is Huntingdon Lodge, High Road, Broxbourne, Herts. EN10 6AA.

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The church has been a registered CIO since 18th June 2021. The Trustees that have served during the year are:

• ●Mrs Jenny Vallely

• ●Mr Jonathan Asaffo

• ●Mrs Jennifer Dobson

We maintain a website: www.wormleyfreechurch.org.uk in order to publicise our activities and support our activities.

Statements

During the year there have been no serious incidents or loss of funds that would pose a

serious risk to the Charities beneficiaries, resources or reputation.

Declaration

I declare that this is a true report and in my capacity of Chair of Trustees I am authorised to

sign it on behalf of the Trustees.

Name: JENNIFER VALLELY

Signature: Date: 15/02/2023

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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A liidependent Exaffliiier s Report Report to the trusttt Wrrn Free thjrch On xcounts for the ￿ar June 2022 Charlty no (rf any) 1194850 8aThJ9 I rewrft to Ihe trustees my Ihe atxtsjnts of the atove charity (The Tr￿￿} for th& )Bar erMJ8d ￿[￿2022. Ad"). I r8tth in T8spwA d my exthnalK) d the Trust's •xyyJnts (rriJ (M under secticfft 145 of the 2011 Acl aThJ in (2rying CMA my examinatiw. I under secon 1495)Ibl of the Ad. examinerfs slatement to my atter￿(￿ in connect)n *ith Ihe ey2minat#)n whith gives me (ause to t￿1￿￿ Ihat in. any material tesFed: of the chanb.es Act: or a(￿jnts dKI c#Jnpty with ts awlicable wuirements corKwriry ts foFm aTht CLYrtenl of ac￿)unts set in Chanbes (Accwnts ar¥J Rew¥ts) Regulalic￿S ￿)8 other than any requirement that the a(xthnts gi4E a aTrJ fairf view whith is N)t a matter with examinaim lo atten11￿ should be drawn in this retyxi in SI￿d. 1410212023 Grah¥n &]iitts Rgl¢vanl Wofessi￿1 quall11￿{SI or body Irf any): Addre55:

CHARITY COMMISSION FUII ENGLANL) AND WALE5 1194 Recei ts and ments accounts CC16a For pul￿#

)th ￿r￿2 2022 Section A Receipts and payments lthrestricted Restritted Tot81 futuls Last yeat A1 Retei Vo 15 15 7n 510 rwln 125 ARJ 7.141 Js> ro X4 5x2 Y￿￿wEv￿ 17 17 51 311 317 Fwwj s￿ rool 473U 4oJn S￿• iotsi 41764 1520 47JU 40273 4ot5 63Z2 Cash lunds IIMS 12, 12.47 25,0 21,011

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period B1 Cash f￿dI 11555 11470 Detoil¥ tktail$ DÈl*"l$ BS Lialxlities io