OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2024-12-31-accounts

Greenstead with Colchester St Anne PCC

Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Parochial Church Council for the year ended 31st December 2024

Charity Registration Number: 1206571

(from 17[th] January 2024)

Team Vicar/Pioneer Minister:

The Revd Sue Howlett

1 Blackwater Avenue

Colchester CO4 3UY

Bankers:

Barclays Bank Plc High Street Branch Colchester

Independent Examiner:

Mrs Anna Sallis

1

Aims and Purposes

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of Greenstead with St Anne’s has the responsibility of cooperating with the Team Vicar, Revd Sue Howlett, in promoting the ecclesiastical parish, the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical. The PCC is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of St Andrew’s Church, St Matthew’s Church and St Anne’s Church.

Objectives and Activities

The PCC is committed to enabling as many people as possible to worship at our churches and to become part of our parish community at Greenstead with St Anne’s. The PCC maintains an overview of worship throughout the parish and makes suggestions on how our services can involve the many groups that live within our parish. Our services and worship put faith into practice through prayer and scripture, music and sacrament.

When planning our activities for the year, we have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, and particularly the supplementary guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. We all have a strong commitment to try to enable ordinary people to live out their faith as part of our parish community through:

To facilitate this work, we recognise the importance of maintaining the fabric of our three church buildings within the parish.

Achievements and Performance

A summary of the different activities across 2024 and across the parish is given on page 3; more details are given in the sections below.

Worship and Prayer

The PCC is keen to offer a range of services during the week and over the course of the year that our community find both beneficial and spiritually fulfilling. For example, we have continued to provide Thursday Morning Prayer and Friday Early Night Prayer on Facebook,

2

Worship and Prayer

Spiritual Development

Schools’ Ministry

Community Support

3

services of Holy Communion each Sunday and Evening Prayer after the Open Church afternoon (Wednesdays). We also continue to have a more relaxed service each Sunday at St Anne’s which is suitable for young families, and we have introduced Holy Communion to this service on the first Sunday of each month. Aside from the regular service of Holy Communion, we continue to have a more informal Eucharist Service at St Andrew’s every month called Praise Today. All our acts of worship follow the Church of England Lectionary and offer the full story of our Salvation over the year. Furthermore, we have a monthly Open Table Network Holy Communion Service at St Matthew’s which reaches out to the LGBTQI+ community. We continued with a monthly Messy Church Service at St Matthew’s, which catered for those families outside our ‘usual’ worshipping community, but as numbers were small, in the autumn we decided to end these. However, in November we started a new monthly Mega Kids, based at St Anne’s, and is aimed at Primary School aged children. It is early days for this new venture, though those who attend are very positive about it. Our worship provision is reviewed by the Ministry Team on a regular basis to ensure that the services are meeting the needs of the parish and bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ ‘afresh to each generation’.

We remain part of the Inclusive Church network, and this underpins our desire to ensure that all are welcome to attend our outreach events and regular Church services.

We have maintained our practice of live streaming (when possible) our main Sunday service from St Andrew’s and as mentioned above, two other acts of worship during the week. We took the decision to continue with this provision after the end of Covid-19 restrictions, and we continue to see local residents who would not generally feel able to worship with us in person, joining our services online. Despite this, we are also encouraged to see that we continue to see numerical growth at our ‘in person’ services too. However, many of our new worshippers are International Students, Asylum Seekers or those seeking a new life in our country from oversees and sadly, due to the economic climate, not all those who join us are able to remain in our parish for a long time. Many have to move on to find employment elsewhere.

As well as our regular services, we enable our community to celebrate and thank God at the milestones of the journey through life. Through baptism we thank God for the gift of life, in marriage, public vows are exchanged with God’s blessing and through funeral services friends and family express their grief and give thanks for the life which is now complete in this world and to commend the person into God's keeping. Across 2024, we celebrated 12 baptisms and 3 weddings, and we held 14 funerals (either in church or at the crematorium).

We also offer opportunities for the worshipping community to grow in their faith through online discipleship courses. These have been well attended with an average of 12 people joining for each course offered.

There are 94 on the parish electoral roll, and it remains the case, that a number of our worshipping community do not live in the parish. We continue to work hard at

4

encouraging new people joining our worshipping community to join the electoral roll. The average weekly attendance counted during October 2024, was 87 , but this number increased at our major festival services and all our Christmas services were well attended.

Deanery Synod

Three members of the PCC sit on the deanery synod and a member of our Ministry Team is secretary for the Synod. This provides the PCC with an important link between the parish and the wider structures of the church, and the Team Vicar is also part of the Deanery Synod Standing Committee.

Buildings and Grounds

There are three church buildings in the parish, and each serve very different demographic areas. Two of the buildings (St Matthew’s and St Anne’s) are hired out to a local pre-school in the week, in term time, and the same two buildings are home to different Uniform Groups. St Andrew’s is a historical Grade 11 listed building and is the main parish church. At present, we use each building for different styles of worship and outreach activities but the cost of maintaining them and adapting them for missional events is becoming harder to achieve.

In August 2024, St Andrew’s Church had a Quinquennial Inspection, and though there were a small number of things to address, overall, the building is in good condition. We were particularly pleased to see report highlighting that “the maintenance of the interior and exterior of the church is of a high standard and a credit to the PCC”.

During the year we have been looking at ways to make our buildings more accessible and following on from our Feasibility Study, we have been delighted with the reordered area at the back of St Andrew’s to allow better wheelchair access. The vestry has also been improved to offer more space for storage and better space in general. We are still in negotiations with the Diocese over the future of St Matthew’s Church and we are working hard to discern whether the benefits outweigh the loss of this building to our finances going forwards.

We have also worked hard on a Faculty application to widen the entrance path and lower the step into St Andrew’s as well as add a glass interior door-all of which will improve access and reduce the barriers to coming into the church.

Similarly, in keeping with our Inclusive Church ethos, we have been working hard to develop better access into the garden at St Anne’s. The plan is to put in a new door, a patio and ramp access to the garden, so that wheelchairs and buggies can get down to the garden from the church building, rather than the current arrangement of having to go through the

5

vestry and down some stairs. The plans have been drawn up, and the Buildings Team are putting together funding bids to help finance this exciting project.

We continue to work towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030 in line with the Church of England’s goal to achieve the same. As such we have focussed thus far on St Andrew’s and since we have been awarded the A Rocha Bronze Award (July 2023), a new lay led team is working towards the Silver Award for St Andrew’s and Bronze for St Anne’s. We now have recycling bins at St Anne’s and St Andrew’s, LED lights at St Anne’s and St Andrew’s, and mostly LED lights at St Matthew’s. We are always looking at how all are buildings can be upgraded so we can improve our carbon footprint.

The PCC continue to rely on outside help to maintain our building and the cleaning company that we use have done sterling work over the past year. We continue to be delighted with the weekly churchyard maintenance work and with the annual hedge and tree management, the churchyard looks better than it has done for many years. We continue to develop the wildlife area, and the churchyard reaches the criteria for the A Rocha Gold award. We are also blessed in having a husband-and-wife team who manage the churchyard plan, making sure that each grave space is carefully, and accurately documented and historical errors are either rectified, or made note of. This has been pivotal in maintaining good relationships with families who tend the graves of loved ones.

We are always looking and seeking God’s will for our church communities and reflecting on what we do and whether it is relevant, sustainable and life bringing to those we are called to serve. We are blessed with a team of volunteers who help with the task of ensuring that the church buildings are in good repair and that the worship continues without interruption.

Pastoral Care

We have a small, trained pastoral team, but a lot of pastoral care goes on in the ‘background’ with members of the worshipping community looking out for others who they know to be in need. We have a Pastoral Assistant who keeps in touch with many people by phone and always feeds back any concerns to the Ministry Team. Home Communion is offered to those who are housebound by the Ministry Team and a small number of laity.

A lot of care and offers of support are available after every Sunday service, and via our Open Church, Breakfast Clubs and Stay and Play. Other agencies come into our outreach events so that they can offer local support to families and local residents. Our churches thus become places of ‘signposting’ to other places of support where necessary.

6

Mission and Outreach (including Schools Ministry)

We continue to hold a variety of Outreach events from St Andrew’s Church and our weekly ‘Open Church’ continues to be a very successful way of reaching out into the local community. We are looking for ways of building on the relationships that we have made through this provision especially for those who are bereaved and the young people who drop in on the way home from school. We have managed to hold our usual Holiday Breakfast Clubs at St Anne’s which are not as well attended as they once were, so we are looking into what else we can do to help families on the estate. We still see a number of baptisms and new church members resulting from many of our outreach programmes.

Volunteers from our church community support the St Andrew’s Stay and Play for preschool children and their carers. This is a wonderful way of reaching out into the community and we offer as much support as we can to that, the only such provision on the estate. We have also seen the launch of a Community Café at St Anne’s which is developing into a lovely welcoming hub for that much ignored community.

We have continued to maintain good relationships with all six primary schools in our parish. We hold weekly assemblies in our Church of England Primary School, and we have been working with them to reimagine the school’s Christian Vision. We continue to celebrate all the major Christian festivals for all the schools either at St Andrew’s or in school. We have been successful in obtaining funding for a Children and Family Worker, and we are ready to advertise for this post. We will continue to offer an annual Prayer Space for the year 6 children to help them with their transition to Secondary School. We continue to buy a book for our Church of England school Year 6 pupils at Parsons Heath school called ‘It’s your Move’ written by Scripture Union to help them with their transition to senior school. This year the clergy team were invited into schools to teach about being a Christian, to talk about Christmas and what that means to the Church and other Christian topics.

We have an annual prayer walk organised by our local CYO (Christian Youth Outreach) where we walk around all the schools in our parish, praying for each one in turn. We ask each school to send us particular concerns/joys to pray for and these we incorporate into this time, and this has been taken up by some schools.

Members of the ministry team are governors in three of our schools and our Associate Priest is a Trustees of the Diocese of Chelmsford Vine Schools Trust. Furthermore, members of the Ministry team have also represented the community on various committees and boards, such as the Community Supermarket, the Heart of Greenstead, and the local Information Network Team which helps the church to appreciate what is happening in the wider parish and ensure that what we offer is relevant and contextual in as many ways as possible. We have been very humbled by the financial support that we have received from local ward Councillors and local housing agencies.

7

Ecumenical Relationships

We have a good relationship with the Roman Catholic Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre and members from that community always support our Christmas services and we are grateful for help from them at our Open Church. More recently, we have fostered new links with St John Payne Roman Catholic Church, and this resulted in creating a choir from both St Andrew’s and St John Payne to sing Christmas Carols at the Greenstead Community Christmas Fayre.

We also have good support from a local African Pentecostal Church, and we work on outreach events with them as well as other community wide projects. We are part of the Community Chaplaincy Team alongside another Pentecostal church.

We have good relationship with many students of other faiths, who come to worship with us at St Andrew’s on a Sunday as they recognise the importance of a place of worship and their need to find a faith community while they are so far from home. We also refer many of our students to the Anglican Chaplain at the University of Essex so that they have care and support during the week as well as on Sunday.

Financial Review

This section presents the accounts of the PCC for the year 2024, together with the key information regarding the Reserves Policy.

Reserves Policy

It is PCC policy to try to maintain balances, which equate to approximately six months' expenditure to cover emergency situations. A balance of £44,497.88 (2023: £63,603.41) was held at the year-end in unrestricted funds.

Restricted funds had £21,021.93 (2023: £67,702.64) in cash and deposits. A further balance of £165,481.53 is held by the Diocese and represents funds received from the sale of St Edmund's Church for the purpose of future buildings expansion and maintenance. This is invested with CCLA in the Central Board Investment Fund Units.

8

Greenstead with St Anne PCC

Statement of Assets and Liabilities (by code) As at: 31 December 2024

Class and nominal code General Designated Restricted Endowment Total Last year
Fixed assets - Investments
6430 : CBIFS 7156.67 units 1555S — — 165,481.53 — 165,481.53 161,778.67
Total — — 165,481.53 — 165,481.53 161,778.67
Current assets - Cash at bank and in hand
6501 : Barclays Current account 35,491.12 1,615.92 19,421.71 — 56,528.75 66,562.82
(3262)
6505 : Barclays deposit (3218) 12,404.76 — 2,355.87 336.46 15,097.09 66,749.91
6506 : Barclays Deposit (0008) — — — — — 164.74
(Hewitts Charity
6507 : Barclays Amazing Youth — — — — — 157.89
(3442)
Total 47,895.88 1,615.92 21,777.58 336.46 71,625.84 133,635.36
Liabilities - Agency accounts
6699 : Agency collections — — 755.65 — 755.65 353.65
Total — — 755.65 — 755.65 353.65
Net total assets 47,895.88 1,615.92 186,503.46 336.46 236,351.72 295,060.38
Represented by
Unrestricted - General 47,895.88 — — — 47,895.88 63,603.41
Designated - Breakfast — 1,790.81 — — 1,790.81 1,511.95
Designated - OpenTable — 46.46 — — 46.46 298.97
Designated - Openchurch — (221.35) — — (221.35) —
Restricted - Andrews — — 4,303.06 — 4,303.06 4,298.26
Restricted - Annes — — 8,530.20 — 8,530.20 —
Restricted - Bereavemen — — — — — 432.86
Restricted - CYard — — 640.00 — 640.00 640.00
Restricted - Cafe — — 784.91 — 784.91 —
Restricted - Community — — 50.00 — 50.00 70.00
Restricted - Flowers — — 197.77 — 197.77 (89.76)
Restricted - Garden — — 1,169.10 — 1,169.10 1,169.10
Restricted - MMP — — 215.00 — 215.00 215.00
Restricted - MessyPOP — — 436.79 — 436.79 412.34
Restricted - Organ — — 515.34 — 515.34 498.16
Restricted - Porch — — 205.91 — 205.91 —

31 March 2025 Page 1



Class and nominal code
General
Designated
Restricted
Endowment
Total
Last year
Restricted - StEdmund
—
—
165,481.53
—
165,481.53
161,778.67
Restricted - StayandPla
—
—
2,133.32
—
2,133.32
1,194.15
Restricted - Vanderstee
—
—
1,840.53
—
1,840.53
58,704.64
Restricted - Youth
—
—
—
—
—
157.89
Endowment - Hewitt
—
—
—
336.46
336.46
164.74
Total
47,895.88
1,615.92
186,503.46
336.46
236,351.72
295,060.38

31 March 2025 Page 2

Greenstead with St Anne PCC

Receipts and Payments Account

For the period from 01 January 2024 to 31 December 2024

Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowment Total Prior year
funds funds funds funds funds total funds
Receipts
Donations and legacies 39,434.30 1,706.14 22,012.36 — 63,152.80 57,487.39
Income from charitable activities 38,899.00 — — — 38,899.00 34,673.16
Other trading activities 174.50 — — — 174.50 419.10
Investments 4,744.10 — 252.42 13.83 5,010.35 5,049.58
Total receipts 83,251.90 1,706.14 22,264.78 13.83 107,236.65 97,629.23
Payments
Raising funds 109.28 — — — 109.28 290.84
Expenditure on charitable activities 99,283.01 1,901.14 68,354.74 — 169,538.89 85,081.91
Total payments 99,392.29 1,901.14 68,354.74 — 169,648.17 85,372.75
Excess of receipts over payments before transfer (16,140.39) (195.00) (46,089.96) 13.83 (62,411.52) 12,256.48
Transfers
Gross transfers between funds - in 4,412.66 — 3,979.80 157.89 8,550.35 100.00
Gross transfers between funds - out (3,979.80) — (4,570.55) — (8,550.35) (100.00)
Excess of receipts over payments before other gains (15,707.53) (195.00) (46,680.71) 171.72 (62,411.52) 12,256.48
Net movement in funds (15,707.53) (195.00) (42,977.85) 171.72 (58,708.66) 26,168.33
Reconciliation of funds
All assets at 01 January 2024 63,603.41 1,810.92 229,481.31 164.74 295,060.38 268,892.05
All assets at 31 December 2024 47,895.88 1,615.92 186,503.46 336.46 236,351.72 295,060.38
Represented by
Unrestricted
General fund 47,895.88 — — — 47,895.88 63,603.41
Designated
Breakfast Clubs — 1,790.81 — — 1,790.81 1,511.95
Open Church — (221.35) — — (221.35) —
Open Table (LGBTI+) — 46.46 — — 46.46 298.97
Restricted
Amazing Youth Group — — — — — 157.89
Bereavement Group — — — — — 432.86
Churchyard & Trees — — 640.00 — 640.00 640.00
Community Garden — — 1,169.10 — 1,169.10 1,169.10
Community Support — — 50.00 — 50.00 70.00
Flower Fund — — 197.77 — 197.77 (89.76)
Messy Church & Pop Box — — 436.79 — 436.79 412.34
Mission & Ministry Partnership — — 215.00 — 215.00 215.00
Organ Fund — — 515.34 — 515.34 498.16
Porch Pantry — — 205.91 — 205.91 —
Sale of St Edmunds Church — — 165,481.53 — 165,481.53 161,778.67
St Andrews Restoration — — 4,303.06 — 4,303.06 4,298.26
St Andrews Stay & Play — — 2,133.32 — 2,133.32 1,194.15
St Annes Community Cafe — — 784.91 — 784.91 —
St Annes Restoration Fund — — 8,530.20 — 8,530.20 —

31 March 2025 Page 1

Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowment Total Prior year
funds funds funds funds funds total funds
Vandersteen (St Andrews Vestry) — — 1,840.53 — 1,840.53 58,704.64
Endowment
Hewitts Charity — — — 336.46 336.46 164.74

31 March 2025 Page 2

Greenstead with St Anne PCC

Analysis of receipts and payments Selected period: 01 January 2024 to 31 December 2024

Unrestricted
Designated
Restricted
Endowment
Total
This year
Last year
Receipts
Donations and legacies
0101 - Gift Aid - Bank
21,511.80
—
—
—
21,511.80
20,024.07
0110 - Gift Aid - Envelopes
2,601.80
—
—
—
2,601.80
3,124.70
0201 - Other planned giving
3,960.00
—
—
—
3,960.00
4,170.00
0301 - Loose plate collections
2,477.36
—
—
—
2,477.36
2,915.12
0302 - Contactless donations
1,064.75
—
—
—
1,064.75
660.72
0303 - Church @ 10 Contactless
309.46
—
—
—
309.46
—
0304 - Community Cafe Contactless
—
—
127.20
—
127.20
—
0550 - Donations appeals etc
868.54
87.55
1,071.51
—
2,027.60
2,886.49
0551 - Open Church
—
323.29
—
—
323.29
341.54
0553 - Open Table church
—
48.30
—
—
48.30
—
0554 - Tuesday at 2
—
—
—
—
—
4.50
0601 - Tax recoverable on Gift Aid
5,598.29
—
—
—
5,598.29
5,879.18
08A1 - Non-recurring one-off grants
365.30
1,247.00
20,813.65
—
22,425.95
17,259.07
0901 - Other funds generated
677.00
—
—
—
677.00
222.00
63,152.80
39,434.30
1,706.14
22,012.36
—
57,487.39
Donations and legacies Totals
Income from charitable activities
0552 - Stay & Play - donations
—
—
—
—
—
23.95
1101 - Fees for weddings and funerals
2,742.00
—
—
—
2,742.00
2,865.78
1230 - Hall rents - St Matthews
18,288.00
—
—
—
18,288.00
16,319.85
1240 - Hall rents St Anne's
17,869.00
—
—
—
17,869.00
15,463.58
38,899.00
38,899.00
—
—
—
34,673.16
Income from charitable activities
Totals
Other trading activities
0910 - General fundraising
174.50
—
—
—
174.50
419.10
174.50
174.50
—
—
—
419.10
Other trading activities Totals
Investments
1001 - Dividends
4,490.80
—
—
—
4,490.80
4,422.11
1020 - Bank and building society
interest
253.30
—
252.42
13.83
519.55
627.47
5,010.35
4,744.10
—
252.42
13.83
5,049.58
Investments Totals
83,251.90
1,706.14
22,264.78
13.83
97,629.23
Receipts Grand totals
107,236.65		 Unrestricted
Designated
Restricted
Endowment
Total
This year
Last year
21,511.80
—
—
—
21,511.80
20,024.07
2,601.80
—
—
—
2,601.80
3,124.70
3,960.00
—
—
—
3,960.00
4,170.00
2,477.36
—
—
—
2,477.36
2,915.12
1,064.75
—
—
—
1,064.75
660.72
309.46
—
—
—
309.46
—
—
—
127.20
—
127.20
—
868.54
87.55
1,071.51
—
2,027.60
2,886.49
—
323.29
—
—
323.29
341.54
—
48.30
—
—
48.30
—
—
—
—
—
—
4.50
5,598.29
—
—
—
5,598.29
5,879.18
365.30
1,247.00
20,813.65
—
22,425.95
17,259.07
677.00
—
—
—
677.00
222.00
174.50
174.50
—
—
—
419.10
4,490.80
—
—
—
4,490.80
4,422.11
253.30
—
252.42
13.83
519.55
627.47
5,010.35
4,744.10
—
252.42
13.83
5,049.58
83,251.90
1,706.14
22,264.78
13.83
97,629.23
107,236.65
Payments
Raising funds
1730 - Costs of fetes & other events
Raising funds Totals		 109.28
—
—
—
109.28
290.84
109.28
109.28
—
—
—
290.84

31 March 2025 Page 1

Total
Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowment This year Last year
Expenditure on charitable activities
1830 - Giving - relief and development — — — — — 60.00
agencies
1850 - Home mission 250.00 — — — 250.00 366.00
1870 - Secular charities 42.63 — — — 42.63 50.00
1871 - Community support payments — — 720.00 — 720.00 —
1901 - Parish Share 34,650.00 — — — 34,650.00 35,690.00
2102 - Working expenses of Pioneer 400.32 — — — 400.32 408.00
Minister
2103 - Curates expenses 395.52 — — — 395.52 2,141.91
2170 - Education 35.00 — — — 35.00 —
2201 - Parish training and mission 921.11 — — — 921.11 507.59
2202 - Messy Church & Pop-Box 45.72 — — — 45.72 185.20
2203 - Breakfast Clubs — 166.52 — — 166.52 377.74
2204 - Stay & Play Materials & — — 760.83 — 760.83 228.78
Equipment
2204A - Stay & Play room hire — — 600.00 — 600.00 1,325.00
2206 - Open Church expenses — 1,385.54 — — 1,385.54 640.96
2207 - Inclusive church (LGBT Church) — 319.98 — — 319.98 331.50
2208 - Tuesday at 2 — — — — — 504.50
2209 - Porch Pantry — — 644.09 — 644.09 —
2210 - St Annes Community Cafe — — 214.35 — 214.35 —
2301 - Church running - insurance 3,431.68 — — — 3,431.68 3,305.45
2310 - Telephone & Broadband 680.31 — — — 680.31 801.39
2320 - Organ / piano tuning 2,055.00 — — — 2,055.00 2,295.00
2330 - Church maintenance St Andrews 2,626.86 — 295.20 — 2,922.06 928.08
2331 - Church Maintenance St Anne's 22,670.98 — — — 22,670.98 3,199.62
2332 - Church Maintenance St 1,760.12 — — — 1,760.12 2,773.80
Matthews
2335 - Cleaning 6,182.43 — — — 6,182.43 5,627.20
2340 - Upkeep of services 1,726.89 — 87.47 — 1,814.36 2,264.63
2341 - Church @ 10 213.85 — — — 213.85 —
2350 - Upkeep of churchyard 7,168.00 — — — 7,168.00 5,130.00
2360 - Administration 2,491.40 29.10 — — 2,520.50 3,190.40
2361 - Bank Charges (Sum Up) — — — — — 5.51
2362 - Feasability Study fees — — — — — 2,646.00
2401 - Church running - electric 3,393.69 — — — 3,393.69 2,466.85
2410 - Church running - gas 6,923.00 — — — 6,923.00 5,531.00
2420 - Church running - water 1,152.00 — — — 1,152.00 338.00
2601 - Governance costs 66.50 — — — 66.50 200.00
examination/audit fee
2701 - Church major repairs - St — — 65,032.80 — 65,032.80 1,561.80
Andrews
Expenditure on charitable 99,283.01 1,901.14 68,354.74 — 169,538.89 85,081.91
activities Totals
Payments Grand totals 99,392.29 1,901.14 68,354.74 — 169,648.17 85,372.75

31 March 2025 Page 2

Independent examiner’s report to the members of Greenstead with Colchester St Anne Parochial Church Council.

I report on the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (the Act).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Anna Sallis ACMA

Date: 16 March 2025

Structure, governance and management

The PCC of Greenstead with St Anne’s is a corporate body established by the Church of England. The PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Powers Measure. The PCC is a Registered Charity

The method of appointment of PCC members is set out in the Church Representation Rules. At Greenstead with St Anne’s the membership of the PCC consists of the Team Vicar, Associate Priest, Curate, churchwardens, the Licensed Lay Minister and members elected by those members of the congregation who are on the electoral roll of the church. All Church attendees are encouraged to register on the Electoral Roll and stand for election to the PCC.

The full PCC met six times during the year with an average level of attendance of 74% . The meetings were hybrid meetings, so as to allow engagement from those who are unable to get out easily - though the majority of the members attended in person. The PCC has continued to discuss how to serve the local communities and how to establish a good pattern of mission and ministry in these challenging times. This year three small teams were set up to address key topics: 1) Finance Team, 2) Buildings Team, and 3) Mission and Outreach Team. All members of the PCC were assigned to a team, and a very few are involved in more than one team. Having such teams has meant that the business at the PCC meetings is more focussed with each team being able to present short reports (recorded in the minutes) and present the key points, including any proposals, for discussion by the PCC members. Standing items on the agenda included Safeguarding, review of policies (on a rolling programme across the year), and regular reports from representatives on the Deanery and Diocesan Synods, Mission and Ministry Partnership Group, and Schools Ministry. As before, some decisions were taken by the Standing Committee, made up of Churchwardens, Clergy, Treasurer and Secretary; though if the work was of an urgent nature and the decision was then presented to the full PCC for ratification.

The PCC takes Safeguarding seriously, and careful records are maintained and reported to the PCC regarding the training of all PCC members, DBS, Safer Recruitment, and issues relating to GDPR. Policies relating to these issues have been prepared and are reviewed annually by the PCC.

Administratve informaton

The Parish of Greenstead with Colchester St Anne is situated on the northeast side of Colchester. It is part of the Diocese of Chelmsford within the Church of England. The correspondence address is St Matthew’s Church, Harwich Road, CO4 3HR.

16

The PCC ha5 been a registered charity with the Charity Commission from the I r January 2024. PCC Members who have served during the year beginning I" January 2024 until the date of this report are shown on the following page: Teom WicorlRoneer Minister Revd Sue Howlett (Chair) Revd Dr Philip Howlett Revd Sam Lees Associate Priest Curo Licensed Loy Minister Postoral Assistants Martin Roscoe Ruth Snowling Ros Banham Churchwordens Sue Boughtwood (until APGM) Marie Paget Ruth Snowling Ben Tomms (from APCM) Tery Grny Mel Bateman Treasurer Deanery Synod Representatives Sue Biffen Jo Miller (fr(Kn APCM) Carolyn Ball (until February 2024) Mary Dale Rob Muir Elerted Members Sandra Coulter Lyn Hewes Sue Boughtwood {fr¢yn APGM) Revd Dr Philip Howlett PCC Secretary (Artinyj Thi5 report was approved by the PCC on 9 April 2025 and signed on their behalf by the Revd Sue Howlett (PCC Chair). Signature: Date: 17 914-12D 25