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 M. Shaghaghi
Mr O. Flannagan, formerly one of the Trustees remains the Treasurer, and is invited to committee meetings on an ad hoc basis, reporting and advising on finance matters.
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.
> 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.
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 I. Cade Chairman Mr G.J. Barker Secretary Mr D. Paul Mr O. Flannagan (from 03/12/2024, taking over from 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 Thurs 19:30 Informal Bible discussion group, currently running once 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 Thursday 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 the Zoom platform. In addition, we are increasingly integrating Farsi-language 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). (The running costs of a minivan with a tailgate lift, previously owned by the Charity, became unsustainable due to its age, and this was donated to one of our disabled members in 2024). The major outgoings of the charity relate to the running and maintenance of Hamilton Hall. Our other major outgoings relate to our preaching and publicity activities and supporting our rapidly increasing Iranian membership.
We continue to provide basic necessities (clothing and toiletry items) to new members of our Farsi Bible discussion group who are in need, financed through our welfare collection. During the year, generous donations from CARA, the Christadelphian Aid for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (https://cara.fund/; Charity number: 1199446) have been used to provide training and equipment to two of our Iranian contacts, in order to increase their employability in the UK if their refugee status is confirmed. 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.
As our financial situation has stabilised, following a sharp rise in expenditure over the last few 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 were able to budget for a small surplus in our general fund over the financial year. We have again run a large (planned) deficit in our property fund, due to significant maintenance costs for the main public spaces in Hamilton Hall. We have agreed a deficit budget for our property fund budget for the 2025-26 financial year, but the deficit is
considerably smaller than in previous years as maintenance work on the Ecclesial flat is now complete, as is much of the essential maintenance on Hamilton Hall. The flat is now occupied, with rental income going to our property fund, the fund balance is large enough to support the planned expenditure. We are again budgeting for a small surplus for our general fund. Our overall financial situation therefore continues to be satisfactory for the immediate future, although it is expected to take us a further 10 years to rebuild our balance of our property fund to the level it was at before the recent maintenance work. 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 Iain Cade
Secretary, Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia
Chairman of the Property Trustees, Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia
## **Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia (Registered Charity No: 263844)**
## **General Fund**
|**Year ending**|**30/09/2025**||
|---|---|---|
|**Starting Fund Balance**|**£17,995.79**||
|**30/09/2024**|||
||||
|**RECEIPTS**|||
|Gift Aid Donations||£7,950.00|
|Other Members Donations||£816.50|
|Tax rebate received||£2,204.79|
|Miscellaneous (incl. interest)||£0.00|
|Grants and External Funding||£5,708.75|
|**Total**||**£16,680.04**|
||||
|**PAYMENTS**|||
|Hall rental||£1,200.00|
|Ecclesial Operating expenses||£2,648.83|
|Preaching and Public outreach
activities||£3,574.23|
|Welfare||£1,912.23|
|Miscellaneous||£48.94|
|**Total**||**£9,384.23**|
||||
|_Deficit_**/ Surplus**over the year|**£7,295.81**||
||||
|**Ending Fund Balance**|**£25,291.60**||
|**30/09/2025**|||
## **Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia (Registered Charity No: 263844)**
## **Property Fund (Hamilton Hall)**
|**Year ending**|**30/09/2025**||
|---|---|---|
|**Starting Fund Balance**|**£76,727.74**||
|**30/09/2024**|||
||||
|**RECEIPTS**|||
|Gift Aid Donations||£0.00|
|Other Members Donations||£0.00|
|Tax rebate received||£0.00|
|Rental income from Ecclesial flat||£17,355.36|
|Miscellaneous (incl. interest)||£3,051.10|
|**Total**||**£20,406.46**|
||||
|**PAYMENTS**|||
|All utility services and|||
|insurance (incl. gas, electricity,||£8,838.79|
|water etc)|||
|Cleaning costs, general repairs
and all property maintenance||£25,386.47|
|Miscellaneous||£2,583.00|
|**Total**||**£36,808.26**|
||||
|_Deficit_**/ Surplus**over the year|**-£16,401.80**||
||||
|**Ending Fund Balance**|**£60,325.94**||
|**30/09/2025**|||
## **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 2025.
## **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:
1. Accounting records were not kept in respect of Forest Hill Christadelphian Ecclesia as required by section 130 of the Act; or
2. 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