Forest Hill Christadelphians Hamilton Hall South Road Forest Hill London SE23 2UF
ForestHillChristadelphians@gmail.com Phone: Gareth Barker (Secretary) 020 8058 3445
Annual Report of the Trustees of Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia (Registered Charity No: 263844)
Year Ending 30[th] Sept 2024
Secretary
Gareth J Barker, 108J Auckland Hill, London, SE27 9QQ
Treasurer
Oliver P Flannagen, 2 Chestnut Drive, Staunton, GL193QE
Organisation
Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia[1] is a registered charity (Registered Charity No: 263844) meeting at Hamilton Hall, South Road, Forest Hill, London SE23 2UF and was established on 6[th] July 1919.
The current Managing Committee are:
Mr G.J. Barker - Secretary Mr I. Cade Mr O. Flanagan
Mr D. Paul, Chair of the Property Trustees until 04/12/2023, was invited to committee meetings on an ad hoc basis, reporting and advising on property matters. Since 04/12/2023 Mr I. Cade has been chair of the Property Trustees and has therefore been able to report directly to the Management Committee.
1 The term Ecclesia is derived from the Greek, and is used by Christadelphians to describe the whole group of baptised believers based at a particular location; the meaning is similar to the word congregation used by many other churches, but as Christadelphian worship involves lay preachers rather than a paid priesthood, the term ecclesia includes all those who are members of the church, regardless of role.
Hamilton Hall was purchased under a Trust Deed dated 24[th] Feb 1947 out of monies provided by the Management Committee of Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia and subscribed by members of the Ecclesia.
The Trustees of Hamilton Hall (referred to in minutes of the Ecclesia as the “Property Trustees” to distinguish them from the Trustees of the Charity) are:
Mr D. Paul Chairman until 04/12/2023; remains a member Mr I. Cade Chairman from 04/12/2023; previously a member Mr G.J. Barker Secretary Mr T. Smith Mrs M. Barrett
The Management Committee and Property Trustees have discussed issues regularly throughout the year (in person, through online meetings, and by email); their decisions have been reported to and ratified by Business Meetings open to all Ecclesial members.
Objectives
The objective of the Charity is to promote the Christadelphian Faith. The charity aims to publicly present the Christian Gospel, relating it to current affairs, and demonstrating its benefits to everyone. We do so in a variety of ways.
The Trustees are mindful of the charity's public benefit obligations. Nearly all of the Ecclesia's activities are provided free of charge to both members and nonmembers.
Activities
The Ecclesia holds regular meetings to promote its objective, as follows:
Sunday 10:00 Communion service (Mixed English and Farsi, with automatically generated text-based Farsi translation) Sunday 11:45 Farsi Language Bible study Sunday 11:45 Bible Hour service to which members of the public are invited by means of our website, posters, mailed literature and other means, the purpose being to share with them the Christian Gospel Weds or Thurs Informal Bible discussion group, currently running once 19:30 every two weeks, where we welcome members of the public to join us reviewing matters of a topical Biblical nature and discuss their relevance to current world affairs.
We also hold other “ad hoc” meetings as appropriate. Our Sunday services are streamed online, in a hybrid model that allows members of the Ecclesia and members of the public to join us either in person or online. Our Wednesday meetings, also open to both Ecclesial members and members of the public, are currently online only.
In addition to the English-language Sunday services which we have held for many years, we have continued to run the face-to-face Farsi language Bible
study classes which we introduced in July 2021. These are aimed at promoting our faith to interested members of the Iranian community in the London area, and during the year have led to a number of new Iranian members formally becoming members of the Ecclesia, through baptism into our faith. In order to accommodate our new members and allow them to participate as fully as possible in our services, we are now providing text based automated Farsi translations of our Communion services, using the facilities provided by Microsoft Translate and Zoom Meetings. In addition, we are increasingly integrating Farsilanguage elements into out “Breaking of Bread” (communion) services. Our English language Bible Hour service (historically our main service aimed specifically at members of the public) now runs in parallel with a Farsi language Bible Study class, led by one of our Farsi speaking members.
We continue to maintain an informative website
www.foresthillchristadelphians.org
(currently in English only), providing details of our meetings, a summary of our beliefs, offers of literature and other information of a topical nature.
Finances
Our activities are financed by the voluntary contributions of our members, none of whom receive any form of financial remuneration for their services. Charges to, or collections from, members of the public are never made for any of our activities or literature.
The only non-monetary assets held by the charity are the ownership of the Ecclesial meeting room (Hamilton Hall), and a minivan with a tailgate lift, used by one of our disabled members. Two major sets of outgoings relate to the running and maintenance of this van, and of Hamilton Hall. Our other major outgoings relate to our preaching and publicity activities and, as noted below, activities supporting our rapidly increasing Iranian membership.
A continued initiative this year has been the provision of basic necessities (clothing and toiletry items) to members of our Farsi Bible discussion group who are in need. This has been financed through our existing welfare collections, along with a generous donation from CARA, the Christadelphian Aid for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (https://cara.fund/; Charity number: 1199446). The Christadelphian ALS (the preaching arm of the Christadelphians (Charity number: 248979)), whose work is described at
- https://www.thechristadelphians.org.uk/about us/, have continued to provide funding to help cover the travel costs of those attending the Farsi language Bible discussion group.
In light of anticipated increased expenditure relative to previous years (largely related to costs associated with our rapidly increasing Iranian membership, with most of our new members not yet having leave to remain in the UK, and thus being unable to work and to directly contribute to ongoing running costs of the charity) we budgeted for a planned deficit in our general fund over the financial year. A one-off donation from the former Thornton Heath Christadelphian Ecclesia (which closed during the 2021) has allowed us to maintain an
appropriate balance in our general fund, despite this deficit. We have again run a large (planned) deficit in our property fund, due to significant maintenance costs for both the main public spaces in Hamilton Hall and the flat which is incorporated into the building. We have agreed a further deficit for our property fund budget for the 2024-25 financial year, but plan a near balanced budget for our general fund; in both cases the fund balances are large enough to support the planned expenditure, and our overall financial situation therefore continues to be satisfactory for the immediate future, although it is expected to take us 5- 10 years to rebuild our balances to their previous years. Updates on these matters are provided to Ecclesial members at the biannual meetings.
The accounts of the charity are subject to annual inspection by an independent examiner in accordance with prevailing legislation. A summary of the accounts of the charity, and a copy of the independent examiners report, are appended to this report.
Gareth J Barker Derek Paul; Iain Cade
Secretary, Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia
Chairman of the Property Trustees, Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia
(D. Paul – Chair until 04/12/2023 I. Cade – Chair from 04/12/2023)
Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia (Registered Charity No: 263844)
General Fund
| Year ending | 30/09/2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Fund Balance | £21,648.64 | |
| 30/09/2023 | ||
| RECEIPTS | ||
| Gift Aid Donations | £7,630.00 | |
| Other Members Donations | £7,157.79 | |
| Tax rebate received | £1,148.85 | |
| Miscellaneous (incl. interest) | £0.00 | |
| Grants and External Funding | £5,266.77 | |
| Total | £21,203.41 | |
| PAYMENTS | ||
| Hall rental | £2,400.00 | |
| Ecclesial Operating expenses | £14,409.90 | |
| Preaching and Public outreach activities |
£6,665.03 | |
| Welfare | £1,382.83 | |
| Miscellaneous | -£1.50 | |
| Total | £24,856.26 | |
| Deficit/ Surplusover the year | -£3,652.85 | |
| Ending Fund Balance | £17,995.79 | |
| 30/09/2024 |
Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia (Registered Charity No: 263844)
Property Fund (Hamilton Hall)
| Year ending | 30/09/2024 |
|---|---|
| Starting Fund Balance | £111,353.94 |
| 30/09/2023 | |
| RECEIPTS | |
| Gift Aid Donations | £0.00 |
| Other Members Donations | £0.00 |
| Tax rebate received | £0.00 |
| Rental income from Ecclesia and Caretaker’s flat |
£16,461.89 |
| Miscellaneous (incl. interest) | £3,941.10 |
| Total | £20,402.99 |
| PAYMENTS | |
| All utility services and | |
| insurance (incl. gas, electricity, | £10,307.48 |
| water etc) | |
| Cleaning costs, general repairs and all property maintenance |
£24,876.01 |
| Miscellaneous | £19,845.70 |
| Total | £55,029.19 |
| Deficit/ Surplusover the year | -£34,626.20 |
| Ending Fund Balance | £76,727.74 |
| 30/09/2024 |
Independent Examiners Report to the trustees of Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia for the year ended 30[th] September 2024.
Responsibilities and Basis of Report
As the charity trustees of Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all 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 giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
Accounting records were not kept in respect of Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
The accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Helena Willey, CIPFA 31 St Andrews Road,
Henley on Thames
RG9 1HY