Heritage Sermons
Charity Number: 1195136 Company Number: CE025621
’ - Trustees Annual Report of Activity 2024
Introduction
Since its foundation in July 2021 the structure and constitution of Heritage Sermons has been unchanged with the same five trustees operating throughout. All of the trustees required re-election by the other trustees during the year. All expressed a willingness to continue and all were unanimously re-elected at their November online meeting. Enquiries are being made with a view to increasing the number of trustees with relevant skills, to spread the administrative and technical burden.
The charity’s objective and purpose is the advancement of the Christian faith for the benefit of the public by the preservation and dissemination of sermons by deceased ministers, which were either preached in chapels which have historically been associated with the Gospel Standard Magazine or which were preached by ministers who were members of such churches. The sections below describe the digitising and publishing of new material and the level of downloads from the website in 2024, providing the evidence that the Charity’s objectives are being achieved.
The status of some sermons regarding meeting the publication criteria can be difficult to determine, due to a lack of supporting information, such as when a sermon was preached. A cautious approach can be (and has been) adopted due to the volume of material available and a need to expend limited time wisely. Steps are being taken to seek approval from living ministers that are members of churches affiliated to the Gospel Standard Magazine for their sermons to be published following their decease.
The Trustees record their thanks to Almighty God for maintaining this venture since its inception to the end of 2024.
Digitising and Publishing
During 2024 374 new digitised sermons were registered, of which 315 were published on the Heritage Sermons website. A further 24 sermons were republished following quality enhancements being made. Altogether 339 new or remastered sermons were published on the HeritageSermons.org website, a slight reduction on 353 published in 2023. The trustees are thankful to Muriel Hanks , Daniel Broome and Susan and Matt Burgess for their assistance in digitising sermons. A total of 2678 sermons have now been published. Approximately 2500 catalogued sermons await digitisation and/or publication. Tapes holding at least another 1000 sermons are in our possession waiting to be catalogued. There has been no advertising for new material or for help with digitising during the year. We are grateful to Muriel Hanks who continues to catalogue substantial quantities of tapes in addition to digitisation.
Sermons were published for the first time for the following Ministers: J. Bentley, A Charman, J.E. Field, J. Kemp, R Mercer and B.A. Ramsbottom, making a total of 134 ministers represented. For the following ministers, their cohort of sermons was increased substantially: L.S.B. Hyde from 76 to 163, J.K. Stehouwer from 8 to 46, K. Matrunola from 19 to 39, N. Roe from 13 to 26, R.J. Bradstock from 3 to 11 and E.J. Knight from 3 to 11.
Sermons preached at the following chapels were available for the first time: Ashwell, Birkenhead, Handcross, Kirkland (Garstang), Ossett and South Chard, making a total of 90 different chapels represented by the end of the year.
All newly published sermons have a quality descriptor and most have a brief summary of the subject matter as the title.
Downloads
The veracity of download counts from the website host is uncertain. Occasional very high daily download counts indicates that harvesting is taking place for unknown use. These counts have been removed from the total, which is intended to be as close as possible to sermons that are being listened to. After removing the daily download spikes there remained around 8,000 downloads in 2024. This indicates a substantial increase in downloads as compared with 2022 and 2023 when there were under 6,000 in each year. If correct then this is a great encouragement.
Website
Progress has been made in the design of a new website and the underpinning database, using TruthVine as our service providers. During the year we continued with the Yet Another Sermon Host. Removal of some of the frustrating limitations present currently, e.g. not being able to identify the most recently published sermons, is being addressed.
Sales and Marketing
Design of a logo is being addressed in tandem with creating the new website. There has been no marketing activity during the year. Sales do not form part of the Heritage Sermons business model.
Financial Review
The charity finances are stable: grants and donations approximately equating to expenditure. No bank charges were incurred and there were insufficient surplus funds to invest given anticipated expenditure, hence no interest was received.
The trustees believe they can humbly record that: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”
Prepared by Malcolm Lee on behalf of the Trustees 20[th] January 2025.
Approved unanimously at a Trustee meeting March 2025.
Heritage Sermons
Charit number: 1195136 y Com an number: CE025621 p y
Balance Sheet for 1/1/2024 to 31/12/2024
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Income Expenditure
Opening balance: HSBC 4,691.40 Microsoft OneDrive 3/24 - 2/25 59.99
Donations 40.00 TruthVine consultancy 3,360.00
Providence Charity Grant 3,440.00 Closing balance: Lloyds Bank 4,751.41
Total 8,171.40 Total 8,171.40
Total funds at year end 4,751.41
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Herita e Sermons Charity number: 1195136 Company number: CE025621 Balance Sheet for I 2024 to 31 12 2024 Income Opening balance= HS8C Donations Providence Charity Grant Total Expenditure Microsoft OneDrive 3124- 2125 Truthvine consultancy Closing balance= Lloyds Bank Total 4,691.40 59.99 3,360.00 4,751.41 3,440. 8.171.40 Total funds at year end 4.151.41 Prepared by: Malcolm Lee Signed: 20-Jan-2025 Checked by: Stephen Moore Signed: 25-Jan-2025