# **The Orthodox Christian Community of St Constantine the Great, York** ## **Trustees Annual Report** **for the period** **1[st] January 2024 – 31[st] December 2024** **Charity number 1201173** ## **Structure Governance & Management** Names of Trustees that served during the year: Rev Michael Alexander – Chair Christopher Bennigsen – Secretary Stephen Nendick – Treasurer (until February 2024) Melissa Bryan - Treasurer (from February 2024) Natalia Dowding Rev David Hoskin ## Safeguarding Officer – Peter Comley The Orthodox Christian Community of St Constantine the Great, York (St Constantine’s) is a CIO with a Foundation Constitution and its trustees are appointed by members. The trustees meet quarterly and in between those meetings the Church Council meets to deal with operational discussions and decisions. The Council consists of all Trustees plus six elected members. We take safeguarding very seriously and our Safeguarding Officer ensures that all Trustees and relevant congregation members are DBS checked and are up to date with their safeguarding training. The Trustees are notified of any safeguarding concerns and any relevant outcomes. ## **Objectives** The objectives of St Constantine’s are to promote the Orthodox Christian faith; to advance Orthodox Christian education; to sustain the well-being of the Orthodox Christian community in York and the surrounding area; to assist in the relief of poverty locally, nationally and internationally; to support other charitable objectives as the trustees may from time to time decide. ## **Activities and Achievements** Church Services Sunday services consisting of Parish Matins and the Divine Liturgy were held usually on Sunday mornings. The exceptions to this from Sunday 23[rd] June to Sunday 6[th] October when Fr. Michael Alexander underwent heart surgery, followed by convalescence. During this period Sunday worship continued but was led by the Fr. Dn. David Hoskin and the Sub-Deacons and Readers. Occasional visits were made by priests from neighbouring parishes on some Saturday mornings during this period to offer Divine Liturgy with communion for those who were in need. From 13[th] October to 15[th] December the Divine Liturgy was served on alternate Sundays, with Fr. Michal’s return to partial parish duties. The regular Sunday cycle began again from 22[nd] December. The Sub-Deacons and Readers also continued the regular monthly evening services during this period. The annual feasts of the Church were also observed, either by the priest , when available, or by the junior clergy. Despite this, the weekly average attendance on Sundays held steady at 41 people (32 adults and 9 children). Attendance at the monthly evening service also stayed steady at 10-15 people Our registered membership at the end of 2024 was 122 adults and 33 children. ## Education and Development Classes for those seeking membership of the church (catechumens) continued, overseen by the two Readers. Two adults and two children were baptized during the year. Parish pilgrimages were somewhat curtailed this year because of the parish priest’s hospitalization . However some members did manage to join parishioners from the Antiochian parish in Scunthorpe on their annual pilgrimage to Hibaldstow. Thanks to the efforts of the Readers our programme of talks and discussion groups continued during the year. ## Children’s Activities The children again performed a Nativity Play on Christmas Eve which was enjoyed by all. The development in our provision of activities for children on Sunday also grew in 2024, with a very energetic Sunday School led by Mrs Katherine Melissa Bryan and Mrs Naomi Bennigsen. ## Charitable Activities We had a number of collections for the York Homeless Charity, Carecent, during the Year; with donations in food and cash. We have given financial support to some parishioners who have been experiencing temporary hardship during this period, in accordance with the constitution of the Parish Trust. ## **Financial Review** We do not receive any external funds. We rely on donations from our congregation. Our total income for 2024 was £23,735, which is an increase of £9,177 from 2023. The biggest driver for this increase was the £4,897 we were able to claim in Gift Aid. Even though Planned giving and collections at services were only £1,000 more combined, the switch from cash collections to planned giving allowed for the large Gift Aid claim. We also had over £2,000 of other donations from weddings and funerals. Expenditure was £11,285, which was £2,629 more than 2023. Our Parish Share to the Diocese increased in line with the additional income received in 2024. Our mission giving and donations increased by £1,506. This left us with a surplus of £12,450 at the end of the year. The 2025 calendar which Fr Dn Christopher produced sold 143 copies this year which was double the previous year. Most of that increase was sales to the other parishes in the diocese. We made a profit of over £900, of which half was given away. ## **Reserves Policy** Our reserves policy equates to £8,000. At the end of 2024, our cash reserve was £34,563, with £25,000 being designated for our Building Fund. ## **Declaration** The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees Michael Alexander, Chair Melissa Bryan, Treasurer 07/05/2025 07/05/2025 ||**THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY OF**|**THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY OF**|**THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY OF**|**No (if any)**
**1201173**|**No (if any)**
**1201173**|**No (if any)**
**1201173**|**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**ST CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, YORK**||||||| ||**For the period**
**from**|Period start date
1/1/2024|**To**||Period end date
31/12/2024||| ||||||||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||| |**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**A1 Receipts**||**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |Planned Giving|**-**
**12,383-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
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**12,383-**||**-**
**7,078-**| |Collections at services|**-**
**1,563-**|**-**
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**1,563-**||**-**
**5,866-**| |Candles|**-**
**769-**|**-**
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**769-**||**-**
**662-**| |Other Donations|**-**
**2,042-**|**-**
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**2,042-**||**-**
**320-**| |Gift Aid recovered|**-**
**4,897-**|**-**
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**4,897-**||**-**
**--**| |Trading Income|**-**
**1,420-**|**-**
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**1,420-**||**-**
**150-**| |Investment Interest|**-**
**429-**|**-**
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**429-**||**-**
**230-**| |Specific Charity Donations||**-**
**232-**|**-**
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**232-**||**-**
**252-**| |**_Sub total_ -**
**23,503-**
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|**-**
**23,503-**|**-**
**232-**|**-**
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**23,735-**||**-**
**14,558-**| ||||||||| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||| ||**-**
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**--**||| ||**-**
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**--**| |**_Sub total_-**
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**_Total receipts_ -**
**23,503-**
**A3 Payments**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**| ||||||||| ||**-**
**23,503-**|**-**
**232-**|**-**
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**23,735-**||**-**
**14,558-**| ||||||||| |Parish Share|**-**
**2,390-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
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**2,390-**||**-**
**1,818-**| |Clergy Costs|**-**
**501-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
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**501-**||**-**
**243-**| |Premise Hire|**-**
**75-**|**-**
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**75-**||**-**
**110-**| |Mission Giving and Donations|**-**
**1,834-**|**-**
**232-**|**-**
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**2,066-**||**-**
**560-**| ||||||||| |Church running expenses|**-**
**2,938-**|**-**
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**2,938-**||**-**
**2,655-**| |Administrative|**-**
**1,812-**|**-**
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**1,812-**||**-**
**2,116-**| |Other Expenses|**-**
**901-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**||**-**
**901-**||**-**
**1,154-**| |Cost of Raising Funds|**-**
**602-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**||**-**
**602-**||**-**
**--**| |||**-**
**--**|**-**
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**--**| |**_Sub total_ -**
**11,053-**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|**-**
**11,053-**|**-**
**232-**|**-**
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**11,285-**||**-**
**8,656-**| ||||||||| |**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||| ||**-**
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**--**| |**_Sub total_ -**
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**_Total payments_ -**
**11,053-**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ -**
**12,450-**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**--**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**-**
**22,113-**
**_Cash funds this year end_ -**
**34,563-**|**-**
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**--**|**-**
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**--**||**-**
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**11,053-**|**-**
**232-**|**-**
**--**||**-**
**11,285-**||**-**
**8,656-**| ||||||||| ||**-**
**12,450-**|**-**
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**12,450-**||**-**
**5,902-**| ||**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**| ||**-**
**22,113-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
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**22,113-**||**-**
**16,211-**| ||**-**
**34,563-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
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**34,563-**||**-**
**22,113-**| ||||||||| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 14/09/2025 1 ## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|**Details**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|**Details**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||Bank current account|**-**
**11,342-**||**-**
**--**||| ||Deposit Account|**-**
**23,221-**||**-**
**--**||| |||**-**
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**--**| |**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of
all the trustees|**_Total cash funds_**
**-**
**34,563-**
**-**
**--**
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
OK
OK
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**Restricted funds**
**Details**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
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**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
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**liability relates**
**Amount due**
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Signature
Print Name
Michael Alexander
Melissa Bryan|**-**
**34,563-**||**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**| |||||||OK| |||||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |||||||**-**
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**--**| |||||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |||||||**-**
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**--**| |||||||**Current value**
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**--**| |||||||**When due**
**(optional)**| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||| |||||||Date of approval| |||Michael Alexander||||7/5/2025| |||Melissa Bryan||||7/5/2025| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 14/09/2025 2