## **42 Bell Street, Princes Risborough, Bucks HP27 0AD** ## **Charity Number 1200447** Trustees Annual Report for the year Jan 1[st] to December 31[st] 2024 Pastor Rev Vanessa Rye (Retired 31[st] August 2024) Administrator Nicola Hirst Treasurer Paul Gabbott Other Trustees: Sheila Gabbott, Luci Lishman, Cheryl Brownlie. From 26[th] May 2024: Adrian Whittred, George Leinweber ## Structure We are a small church fellowship of about 40 members. We belong to the Baptist Union of Great Britain and follow Baptist traditions as an independent Baptist Church. Guided by the Pastor and trustees of the church, decisions concerning the running of the church are made by the church members meeting which normally meets every other month. So together we seek to determine God’s will for the fellowship. Trustees are nominated from the membership and elected by the church members meeting. Members are admitted into membership on profession of faith, so are professing Christians. Purposes and Objectives Our mission statement reads as follows: ‘We are here to worship Jesus Christ and obey his teaching, to care for one another, and to share our good news with everyone.’ In line with this the main meeting of our week is our Sunday morning worship service which is open to all, and we love to see and welcome visitors. Our Pastor led most of our Sunday services until her retirement in August 2024. Following this services were led by a variety of invited speakers both from within and outside the church, so we continue to operate and worship as a church fellowship whilst we seek a new Pastor. This process can take some time, but a good start was made to prepare a church profile to advertise the vacancy within the Baptist family. Other meetings take place on a regular basis for bible study and prayer together with monthly lunchtime meeting specifically aimed at providing company for people wanting to eat and chat. We hold a weekly baby group for new parents offering support and advice and a space to chat over coffee and biscuits. At harvest thanksgiving we arranged an afternoon tea with a service of seasonal hymns and songs to follow. This proved very popular and a lot of people from outside the fellowship attended so we repeated it again at Christmas with a service of carols. We advertised this with posters and leaflets posted through neighbours’ doors and again this proved very popular. At Christmas we held a family Nativity afternoon with crafts and refreshments and a chance to dress up to retell the Christmas story. This was well attended and also provided links with a local school who brought along their choir. During the year we were visited by a local cub pack who were learning about different faiths. We organised a carousel of activities for them to explore the Church and learn a little about the Baptist faith. We continue to operate a pastoral care group so that we can continue to care for and look after one another. We continue to rent out our halls for use by our local community and we believe that this helps advertise our existence and give opportunities for people to get to know us. The income we receive is very helpful, so this is a win-win scenario, and we have a large car park which helps visitors enormously. In view of this we take care to look after our premises and make sure facilities are kept in good order. The upkeep of our premises, grounds and church Manse are overseen by a Premises team who meet every two months and are accountable to both the Trustees and Church Membership for reporting purposes and expenditure approvals. We spent a significant sum refurbishing the kitchen, details given below, which helps both us and those renting the premises. We also take great care of our graveyard and grounds which provide a very peaceful sanctuary in the middle of town and benefits those seeking their ancestry or those just looking for a peaceful seat for lunch. New signage on our buildings and a new logo for the church help to give a more up to date image. We are involved with churches together in Risborough, (CTR) offering our premises as needed for meetings and services. Prior to retirement our pastor led services at a local school to help share our good news with children who attended, and we also support Lighthouse, a children’s summer holiday programme run under the auspices of CTR, which helps to share the Christian good news with children. We take Safeguarding seriously and follow safeguarding procedures recommended by the Baptist Union. We confirm that in all our decisions we have taken the commission’s public benefit guidance into account. ## Financial Review Two main factors influenced our finances during the past year, the first was that we spent a significant sum refurbishing our top hall kitchen bringing it to a proper standard for use by the church and other organisations, and the other was that our pastor retired at the end of August so from that point on we were not paying a monthly stipend. Overall we ended the year with a deficit of £7,481 which was met from our reserves. The deficit would have been offset by a gift aid reclaim of £8,643 which we expected to receive before the year end but was actually paid in January, so does not show in our past year’s figures. ## Income Our income comes from two main sources; donations from church members, mainly gift aided, received regularly and at gift days totalling £42,644, together with rental income of £22,702 mainly from people and organisations hiring our halls. We received £12,183 in donations and grants, of which £7,600 was given for Macedonia Vision Africa a charity we support. This was passed on complete with gift aid where requested. We recovered £8,609 in gift aid during the year. Our total income was £89,288. ## Expenditure Our main expense normally is ministry. This year it was less than normal at £31,631 because our pastor retired. Administration which includes the cost of broadband, subscriptions and licenses, and the photocopier came to £5,703. We gave £20,749 in charitable donations including donations passed on to MVA. We spent £38,683 on upkeep of church premises. The main costs under this heading are energy £4,489, grounds maintenance £4,113, insurance £3,844, repairs and renewals £7,854, and the cost of the kitchen refurbishment £18,213. To help fund the kitchen £15,141 was paid for from our building fund. Our total expenditure was £96,769. ## Financial Position Overall, we finished the year with our finances in a secure position. Cash reserves at year end totalled £50,029. Our agreed reserve policy means we keep £30,000 (currently £31,595) with the Baptist Union Corporation (BUC) in high interest accounts. This is to cater for unforeseen difficulties. Other accounts were as follows: Current account £9,840, Building Fund account £3,616, BUC 7 day account £4,983. As always, we are grateful to God for faithful and generous giving from the fellowship which allows the church to continue to meet and fulfil its purposes. ||**Princes Risborough Baptist Church**|**Princes Risborough Baptist Church**|**Princes Risborough Baptist Church**||||**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**For the period**
**from**|**01/01/2024**|**To**||**31/12/2024**||| ||||||||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||| |**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**3,550**
**6,426**
**1,550**
**-**
**22,702**
**40,589**

**74,817**

**74,817**
**291**
**904**
**192**
**145**
**1,046**
**988**
**849**
**-**
**876**
**413**
**260**
**5,287**
**310**
**24,620**
**1,064**
**90**
**10,683**
**23,544**
**71,562**
**71,562**
**3,255**
**42,017**
**45,272**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**1,233**
**8,633**
**2,184**
**-**
**366**
**-**
**2,055**
**14,471**
**14,471**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**10,066**
**15,141**
**25,207**
**25,207**
**- 10,736**
**15,493**
**4,757**|||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**1,233**
**12,183**
**8,610**
**1,550**
**366**
**22,702**
**42,644**
**89,288**
**89,288**
**291**
**904**
**192**
**145**
**1,046**
**988**
**849**
**-**
**876**
**413**
**260**
**5,287**
**310**
**24,620**
**1,064**
**90**
**20,749**
**38,685**
**96,769**
**96,769**
**- 7,481**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |BuildingFund Income|**-**||||||**1,606**| |Donations and Grants|**3,550**||||||**40,544**| |Income Tax Recovered|**6,426**||||||**11,545**| |Interest|**1,550**||||||**1,020**| |Raised For Other Causes|**-**||||||**467**| |Rent|**22,702**||||||**25,917**| |SundayOffering|**40,589**||||||**47,313**| ||||||||| ||||||||| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|
**74,817**||||||**128,412**| ||||||||| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| |~~**_Sub total_**~~|||||||| |**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||| ||||||||**128,412**| ||||||||| |
Bank Charges|**291**||||||**262**| |Church Office Phone and Broadband|**904**||||||**725**| |Conferences|**192**||||||**120**| |Office Supplies|**145**||||||**204**| |Photocopier|**1,046**||||||**1,213**| |Professional Fees|**988**||||||**1,956**| |Subscriptions and Licences|**849**||||||**828**| |Sundries|**-**||||||**62**| |Website|**876**||||||**243**| |WorshipMaterial|**413**||||||**199**| |Conference Costs|**260**||||||**1,019**| |Manse Expenses|**5,287**||||||**10,032**| |Mileage|**310**||||||**516**| |Pastors Salary|**24,620**||||||**34,247**| |Retirementgift and cateringcosts|**1,064**||||||**-**| |Pulpit Supplies|**90**||||||**135**| |Givingto Other Causes|**10,683**||||||**15,390**| |Church Premises Costs|**23,544**||||||**52,669**| |**_Sub total_ **|**71,562**||||||**119,820**| ||||||||| |**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||| ||||||||| ||||||||| |**_Sub total_**|||||||| |**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||| ||||||||**119,820**| ||||||||| ||**3,255**|**- 10,736**|||**- 7,481**||**8,592**| ||||||||| ||**42,017**|**15,493**|||**57,510**||**48,918**| ||**45,272**|**4,757**|||**50,029**||**57,510**| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 26/08/2025 1 ## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
Treasurer
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Bank and Cash**
**Details**
**Details**
Church Premises
Church Manse
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**45,272**
**4,757**
**45,272**
**4,757**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
Unrestricted
**-**
Unrestricted
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---| ||||**4,757**| ||||| ||||| ||||**4,757**| ||||OK| ||||**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Cost (optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Cost (optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Amount due**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| |||**Paul Gabbott**|| ||||| Date of approval 24/03/2025 CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 26/08/2025 2 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examinerfs Report Report to the trusto•sl members of Princes Risborough Baptisl Church On accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024 Charity no (if any) 11004-+7 Set out on pages Ireilleniber I I report to the trustee5 on my examination of the accounts of the above harity I'the Trust") for the year ended Responsibilities and As the ¢harrty trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance wrth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 1.the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounls carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination. I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llb) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confimi Ihat no material matters have come to my attention {olher than that disclosed below ') in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any malenal respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do nol accord with the accounting records Independent examiner's statsment I have no COn￿rn$ and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination lo which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in thg brackets if they do not apply. Signed: Date: lo Name: Paul K West FCA Relevant professional qualrfi¢ationls) or body (if any): ICAEW Address: no 2 Floor, 1 Churth Square, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. LU7 1AE IER October 2018