2022-12-31-accounts

Annual Report of the Trustees for the year 2022

to be presented to the Annual General Meeting on 18th July 2022 at 4pm at High Leigh Conference Centre

Office address:

2 The Orchard, Dowell Close, Taunton TA2 6BN

Website: www.modernchurch.org.uk Email: [e-mail] Registered charity no: 281573

ABOUT MODERN CHURCH

Faith in the World

We understand that

• genuine faith is committed to the search for truth, wherever it comes from

• it is possible to think and talk about God in ways that make sense in our time and culture

We encourage

• open discussion: freedom to explore ideas, ask questions and change our minds without fear of disapproval

• critical scholarship: keeping up to date with good research, examining the

implications of new insights and discoveries

• willingness to change: so that what we believe now can be expressed in the things our churches do and say.

We expect our theology to be

• public: talking the language of ordinary people, not that of a religious club

• relevant: engaging with what is going on in society, informing our faith and how we live

• respectful: willing to learn from others, within and outside Christianity, since we accept that we don't have all the answers.

Public benefit

As a charitable organisation we consider that our objects have the following public benefits:

• we have a duty within our present-day society to present Christianity in a way which can be understood by ordinary people

• we encourage all church people, both ordained and lay, to play a full part in the governance and activities of their churches and foster greater engagement with the mission of the churches to support the poor, sick and needy in society

• by engaging in research and study we can help our fellow Christians come to a deeper understanding of their faith and how it has developed

• our approach to theology will encourage people of all faiths to better understand one another thus promoting constructive relations between the faiths.

Report from the Chair of Trustees

In his last report to the Modern Church AGM last year, our outgoing Chair of Trustees, Alan Race indicated that a number of issues to do with our core activities and structures would need to be reviewed over the next few years. These included our membership model, patterns of engagement and participation in our core activities, relations with other groups, our publications and web and social media presence. This year has seen the beginnings of that process, at least in terms of the early stages of planning and consultation.

Some of this review process has been prompted by a change of personnel, and we have welcomed Alison Webster as our new General Secretary and Nic Tall as administrator, both of whom bring immense expertise and valuable networking skills. Joe Priestley continues to provide superb support as Communications Officer, especially through our website (and ever-growing blog) and social media, in what is becoming an ever more pivotal role.

Along with those changes, however, we had already become aware of other factors. We realized that, like many organizations, our re-emergence post-COVID would inevitably bring changes to the way we operated. We have experienced the benefits of a move from in-person to online events (in terms of accessibility, cost, carbon footprint) while learning again to appreciate the value of face-to-face meetings. It is likely that this ‘hybrid’ or mixed mode across different offerings (and the associated blend of electronic and paper communication) will eventually be our ‘new normal’.

In September 2022, the Trustees agreed to establish a review of MC’s vision for the future and charged the Executive group of Alison, Nic, Joe, Diane Kutar (our new Treasurer) and myself with identifying key priorities. These include understanding the changing context in Church and society, reviewing how prospective members and supporters engage with MC, how we communicate, and how we make best use of the resources – human, financial, intellectual – available to us.

At its March meeting, Council discussed these in some detail, suggesting a number of key recommendations:

1. Exploring diverse models of membership and involvement across our various offerings. Management of membership will begin its migration from Liverpool University Press this autumn,

enabling us to be more flexible and responsive to those wishing to participate in Modern Church activities.

1. Adopting a more co-ordinated approach to our programme of events and publications , with a commitment to both online and in-person events. Regular online lectures, together with inperson meetings, will continue to supplement our annual summer conference and enable us to explore and respond to more current issues of concern.

2. Focusing on members’ theological and spiritual journeys , with a renewed emphasis on providing resources to support people at all stages of faith. This might include educational and study resources, introductions to Christian basics, as well as retreats and study days.

3. Strengthening our links with other progressive Christian organizations , especially around key campaigns.

4. Promoting our public profile as a home for reasoned, accessible theological reflection on matters of global significance.

While we will primarily be concerned with practical and operational aspects in this review process, our core values have never been far from our minds, as we have deliberated over how to keep faith with MC’s historic aims and objects in a changing context. A commitment to free enquiry, openness to the insights of science and culture as well as being grounded in the wisdom of Christian tradition, an inclusive and broadbased approach to all our activities, continue to be central. But as we move forward, we will be asking how to fulfil and maintain these principles in ways that are fully sustainable: financially, environmentally and organizationally.

There is much to celebrate about our vision for the Church and the world and I look forward to working with members, Council, Trustees and staff in our next steps to realize it.

Professor Elaine Graham FBA, Chair of Trustees

Report from the General Secretary

My first priority on taking up post in September 2022 was ‘familiarisation and orientation’ – with the organisation, our personnel, and our partners. I therefore prioritised one-to-one meetings to explore the inner workings of Modern Believing, the Forum, Trustees – and partners such as Student Christian Movement, Progressive Christianity Network, Society for the Study of Theology, and Inclusive Church. I also spoke with new Trustees and Council members, and older ones too! Attending the Forum and the Public Square Group were also important experiences.

It was decided early on that an important challenge as we think about a future strategy for Modern Church is communication between staff and officers. It has therefore been a pleasure to establish regular meetings between myself and Joe Priestley (communications) and Nic Tall (administrator), and to get to know one another. In addition Elaine Graham (MC Chair) and I have facilitated two away-days in London for the ‘Executive Team’ (i.e. the two of us, Nic, Joe and Diane Kutar, Treasurer) to think through the strategic direction of Modern Church in order to facilitate the thinking of Trustees’ and Council, and also to begin to sketch out and then oversee a coherent framework for work themes and content in the future. Two additional meetings have also taken place online. This is an emergent team that is a pleasure to be part of, and brings together considerable and complementary skills, experiences and knowledge of the organisation.

There has been a considerable amount of ‘picking up threads’ over the first few months, including:

• The Modern Church Blog – Joe and I both thought it necessary to commission frequent contributions from a wider range of writers – both established and new, and we have had considerable success in this. A new writer, Amy Rhodes reflected on contemplative prayer from a neuro-divergent perspective; Naomi Lawson Jacobs on ‘Disability and God’s. Elaine Graham and I picked up two Public Square Group themes (the role of Royal Commissions in public policy-making, and participatory democracy respectively). Bishop David Walker added to this with his focus on housing policy, and Joanna Collicutt made an important intervention on the future of social care. Several blogs have focused on our conference theme for 2023: Anthony Reddie on racial diversity in the Tory cabinet, and what it really signals; Andrea Sheard on navigating racial discourse in the Church of England as a mixed-race person; Hasna Khatun on decolonising theological training and education, and Al Barrett and myself on critically rethinking Whiteness. Lorraine Cavanagh has continued to make a valued contribution, reflecting on bullying in

church contexts, and my own contributions have also covered ‘The Queue’ that formed to view the Queen’s lying in state, and the performance of Matt Hancock on ‘I’m a Celebrity’. A case of ‘the sublime to the ridiculous’ if ever there was one. We have explored the currency and meaning of the term ‘Liberal Theology’ with Beth Keith and Eddie Green, and Inderjit Bhogal has responded to the ‘hostile environment’ for those seeking asylum through his blog on the Sanctuary movement and the church’s place in it. Jonathan Clatworthy reflected on various economic themes, and reflected on Ian McGilchrist’s thinking about the brain, and Rosalind Lund responded to the news that Christianity is now a ‘minority religion’ in the UK. A key change is that our editorial policy is now to be more proactive in commissioning blogs, and also to ensure that the Chair of Modern Church approves them before publication.

• Modern Believing – discussions with Taylor and Francis took place to explore whether we should change our publishers, but we have taken the decision to stay with Liverpool University Press as a notfor-profit enterprise. We have improved our communications with them, and are planning regular meetings in the future, not least to devise a marketing strategy once we have brought our membership in-house.

• MC Conferences 2023 and 2024 – it has been a pleasure to be part of the planning for these two conferences. Both explore key themes which have produced and will produce much fertile theologising during 2023 and 2024.

• MC’s various interventions around Living in Love and Faith , which have been impressively strategic and multi-faceted. We published the edition of Modern Believing that focuses on LLF, and sent free copies to those bishops that requested it (11), having let all the bishops know in advance that it is coming out (and advised them on how to access the lectures online).

• We Published a blog by Bishop Jonathan Clark (designed to come out soon after the publication of the Bishops’ papers for General Synod, but brought forward because of the leak to the press of the outcome of their deliberations).

We set up a lecture by Prof Helen King for 26[th] January (a contributor to our 2022 conference, and member of all the key General Synod bodies engaging with LLF and the future), and publicised it through social media and the Jonathan Clark blog. This provided a timely opportunity for ‘progressives’ to be fully briefed on the most effective and strategic ways forward for LGBTIQ+ Christians and their allies – whether on General Synod, or ‘in the pew’.

The effectiveness of these interventions was much aided by Nic Tall’s closeness to the action, and Joe Priestley’s customary skill with social media, and provides a good model for the future in how we plan a ‘multi-pincer approach’ to key ecclesiastical and theological developments.

Online Lectures: The lecture by Iain McGilchrist was already set up for 2022, and was immensely successful. This has led us to adopt a policy of having such events regularly.

Strategic Development of the Organisation: this has developed hugely, and has been a team effort: executive team, Trustees and Council, leading us into 2023 and beyond.

Alison Webster, General Secretary

Modern Believing Annual Report 2022

1. The Publisher

The quinquennial contract with our publisher, Liverpool University Press [LUP], expires at the end of 2023. The Editorial Team investigated the possibility of moving to an alternative publisher. It agreed that the adoption of a new draft contract with LUP was in the best interest of the journal, and represented best value for money. The proposal to continue with LUP for the quinquennium 2024-8 was unanimously adopted by the Trustees. The journal will continue to be available both in print and online.

2. Content in 2022

63.1, ‘Theology and the Climate Emergency’, presented 4 talks given at the 2021 Modern Church conference, held online due to the covid crisis. Michael Brierley, Reviews Editor, edited the entire edition, 63.2, ‘God’s Relation to the World: Discovering Panentheism’. Interest in Christian spirituality led to the topic of ‘Prayer’, 63.3. The edition included several meditative poems and was edited by a Trustee, Miranda Threlfall-Holmes. 64.4, ‘The Holy Spirit’, framed a discussion of the Spirit within ecotheology and religious pluralism. Many of the authors were very well known. Some were emerging theologians. I continue to be surprised and pleased by the flow of kind and positive responses to my requests for specific contributions to the various themes of the different editions. Contributors

receive no remuneration for their work, so the journal relies entirely on their good will.

3. Ethnicity and Gender

No statistics ae kept on ethnicity. However a continuing effort is made to identify non-Caucasian authors.

Two editions achieved gender parity, m/f 2:2. 1 almost achieved it, 2:3; 1 specialist and multi-authored edition had a m/f ratio of 7/2. [In January 2023 the m/f ratio was 2:4, so overall parity is within sight.]

4. Readership

4.1 Journal subscribers. Listed below are the numbers for subscribers , i.e., recipients of the print edition. Figures are taken from the annual report from LUP.

from LUP.
Member type	201 8	201 9	202 0	202 1	202 2
Concessionarymembers	88	69	72	82	78
Individual members	188	147	122	141	137
Joint members	9	7	8	8	7
Joint members (both concession)	10	8	7	7	6
Joint members (one concession)	2	1	1	1	1
Student members	20	12	5	5	7
Total members	326	252	223	244	236

In addition 47 institutions subscribe (2022), a decline from 71 in 2018. However, institutions may make the journal available to readers from their subscriptions to ATLA, so the figure of 47 may not represent a loss of readers.

4.2 ATLA users. ATLA (American Theological Libraries Association) reports the ‘hits’ for the year September 2021 – August 2022 as follows:

Month	MC Hits	MB Hits	Total Hits
Sep-21	449	1636	2085
Oct-21	722	2224	2946
Nov-21	638	1956	2594
Dec-21	573	1482	2055
Jan-22	339	1411	1750
Feb-22	535	1814	2349

Mar-22	540	2158	2698
Apr-22	607	2091	2698
May-22	409	1290	1699
Jun-22	296	978	1274
Jul-22	269	1075	1344
Aug-22	199	550	749
FY22 Total	5576	1866 5	24241

4.3 LUP website

LUP has a new Atypon website. Students and staff of institutions subscribing to LUP have access to Modern Believing. The top 5 Institutions downloading MB content from LUP were

• 1 University of Leeds

• 2 Southern Methodist University

• 3 University of Glasgow

• 4 University of St Andrews

• 5 Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford

5. Reviews

The Reviews Editor, Michael Brierley, has edited 140 reviews spread over the 4 issues in 2022, always matching an appropriate reviewer to a particular book. Since each edition became thematic, Michael has arranged the production of reviews so that the bulk of them support the edition’s theme. This is a welcome innovation, begun in 2021 and continued in 2022, adding breadth and depth to the issue’s topic. As usual his work has been invaluable. Emerging theologians have been identified and encouraged to write for the journal. Over half the reviewers in 2022 were reviewing in the journal for the first time.

6. Current Tasks in 2023

Reviews Edito r

Michael Brierley is standing down at the end of 2023, by which time he will have edited reviews for 60 issues, and edited over a million words in over 1,500 reviews. He will be sorely missed. The appointment of a reviews editor is under urgent consideration.

Editorial Board and Team

The Board provides academic and general advice to the Editor. The Team is responsible to the Trustees for the day to day running of the journal. Since all Team meetings are conducted online, it will be easier to incorporate members external to the organization. This will be done in 2023.

The New Quinquennium

The current editorial policy will be continued, viz.,

i) to cease to rely on uncommissioned, peer-reviewed articles for the non-conference editions;

ii) to invite articles from established scholars in accordance with themes for each edition, decided by the Editor; and

iii) to provide a sharper focus for the journal, based on the need a) to update our readers with developments in the different branches of Theology, and b) to provide a progressive alternative to ‘theology-lite’ conservative assumptions and positions.

However, the themes from April 2025 on are undecided . The Editor is consulting widely with Board and Team members regarding themes and suitable authors (well established and emerging), paying regard to gender and ethnicity, topical and emerging theological themes, and the broad interests of the journal’s readers.

Growing the Readership

As membership management becomes in-house, knowledge and control of the membership becomes easier. Follow-up of lapsed members, direct contact with authors, reviewers, affiliates, and potential subscribers, offering membership packages becomes possible.

A majority of new members may be expected to opt for reading the journal online through the LUP website. Trustees may need to take online only readership into account when reviewing their subscription policy.

Membership Report

2022 was the ninth full year for which the subscriptions to Modern Church were managed by Liverpool University Press (LUP) and operating on a calendar year subscription. Longer term Modern Church is looking to take the management of its membership back in house which will allow closer contact with members and a more integrated member experience alongside the rest of the organisations activities. The Affiliate membership scheme has continued, although retention of affiliates once the annual subscription is up for renewal has been low.

Subscription Type	20 20	2021	2022
Individual Membership	19 9	194	200
Joint Memberships	16	14	13
LifeMembership	8	8	7
Total Memberships	22 3	216	220
Afliates		45	33
TOTAL Memberships & Afliates	22 3	261	253

Nic Tall, Modern Church Administrator

Signs of the Times

2022 was a “transition” year in many ways for most of us. We emerged blinking into the sunlight of a world recovering from the worst of Covid restrictions – to be plunged into a re-emergence of open warfare at the heart of Europe. We celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee – and then her funeral. Our national political scene did not “transition” so much as veered, some would say, from one tragic farce to another. Our Church, rather similarly, wrestled with its perennial problems, not least through Living in Love and Faith. But the year was definitely transitional for Modern Church, with a new Chair, a new General Secretary, and the beginnings of a return to face-to-face meetings.

Much of all this was reflected in Signs of the Times. And our quarterly newsletter may be undergoing a transition of its own.

It has not always been easy to attract contributors. There have been editions over the past few years which have been written largely by the Editor (a very bad habit – but space must be filled!) or consisted predominantly of book reviews. Perhaps this has been due to the growing importance of the Modern Church social-media presence and blog which offer opportunities for much more flexible and timely interventions into our debates. However, the past year or so has seen offers of contributions to Signs increasing notably in both numbers and quality.

There are a number of reasons for this. The transition within Modern Church, to which I have referred, has, I believe, re-energised many of our members. The setting up of the Public Square Group, under Richard Truss who saw his own niece (very briefly!) at the centre of our national political life, may indirectly be linked with this new surge of energy, and seems likely to be a continued source of copy for Signs. On a much sadder note

of “transition”, we are seeing many of our elder members passing from our midst, and the obituary of Jean Mayland was one of the major items which we featured in 2022. But, quite simply, across the board there is more to write about, worthy to be included in a printed publication of record which I believe remains of value to a movement like ours even in these online-dominated times. Our truly memorable (though itself, alas, still online-only) 2022 Annual Conference, related to the themes of Living in Love and Faith, was a good example of that, and the McGilchrist lecture on right-brain and left-brain thinking was another event which gave rise to much response.

Along with our website, then, Signs has become in an even more real sense our principal “shop window”. As well as being distributed to members and affiliates, it can be made available to enquirers as well as those attending other events in which we are involved. If any members would like extra copies to distribute to enquirers in their own church or neighbourhood, or at events which they attend, they should request these from our administrator ([e-mail]).

Articles by members (and indeed others) about contemporary issues likely to be of interest to our readership, are always welcome, though it may not always be possible to find space for them at once. More responses to those articles would also be of great value. The management of book reviews remains in the capable hands of Trevor Pitt, who is always looking for books to review and people to review them, and your suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks are due to him, and to the other members of the editorial team – our General Secretary, our Communications Officer, and Lorraine Cavanagh and Helen Burnett – and to our designer Richard Remington; but above all to our contributors.

Anthony Woollard, Editor – Signs of the Times

Report from the Communication Officer

2022 saw a return to a diverse range of contributors to Modern Church’s channels. Articles from James Woodward, Anthony Reddie and Alison Webster swelled the ranks of our regular contributors to ensure that we were fulfilling the objectives of Modern Church, primarily through our blog (www.modernchurch.org.uk/blog) and Twitter

(https://twitter.com/ModernChurchUK).

In 2022 the website:

• ●Received 53,860 views

• ●Was viewed by 23,859 unique viewers

●Published 75 new posts

The vast majority of viewers live in the UK (43,660) with a significant number in the US (4,293) and Australia (1,120). Alongside the blog, the website also functions to advertise Modern Church’s events. Details of our 2022 conference were viewed 1,671 times. Iain McGilchrist’s online lecture also received over 1,108 views.

All of this reflects a diversification of the Communication Officer’s role to encompass a whole host of digital adventures previously unthinkable before the Covid-19 pandemic. Significant time is now spent utilising digital skills to underpin a programme of online lectures, live streamed from Zoom to YouTube, and in ensuring the Modern Church conference has a significant online element. In 2022, thanks to the Climate Crisis, the whole programme was shifted online at short notice and delivered over Zoom. This required significant time investment, but did see the production of some excellent video resources on our website which will be a lasting legacy of the conference, complementing Modern Believing’s conference edition.

This goes some way to explaining a decline from the heady heights of 2021, which saw record viewership of our website. By comparison to 2022’s figures, 2021 saw nearly 70,000 views on Modern Church’s website, primarily to read Martyn Percy’s contributions, which drove up to 7,346 views per article. However, the arrival of a new General Secretary has seen a move towards seeking out new authors and contributors to the blog. None as yet have proven quite as magnetic as Martyn’s but the diversity of our bloggers, as well as the subject matter of commissioned articles, has allowed Modern Church to actively participate in a number of emerging conversation points or debates.

This brings me to our most prolific channel: Twitter. 2022 saw considerable growth in our following which, when coupled with commissioned blogs on a fast turnaround, led to up to 65,000 Twitter impressions a month (an impression is when a Tweet appears on a user’s timeline). Our Twitter following grew by around 250 through 2022. Armed with new blogs from big names, Modern Church was able to contribute to a range of debates raging online, providing a well-researched, thorough piece of authorship on a platform otherwise known for 140 characters of vitriol.

Joe Priestley, Communications Officer

Treasurer’s Report

At last we were able to recommence face to face meetings with Council in March. Unfortunately our Annual Conference once more had to revert to online unexpectedly, hit by the double travails of rail strikes and heatwave. The last minute change in plans with respect to conference resulted in a significant loss but the economic uncertainty nationally in the latter half of 2022 proved more damaging to our financial position with a large revaluation of our share account held with CCLA. A painful reminder that our investments can fall as well as increase in value.

Legacy

We began the year with just under £96k of the original amount which was set aside for special projects. During the course of the year we spent approximately £30,000 of our planned spending over a five year period on designated legacy projects including spending on SOTT, a Church Times insert, a sponsor ship project with the Church Times and the salary of our General Secretary. This leaves just over £66k of the legacy for continuing projects which have started or for new ones. Trustees and the new General Secretary continue to review the legacy and reserves policies to ensure that we can continue to work with other organizations and fellow travellers to bring the insights of Modern Church to a wider audience, as well as protecting the continued existence of the Society.

Signs of the Times

This continues to be sent to all members and affiliate members in its new design format. It is currently costing just under £6,000 pa as we identified a cheaper print supplier towards the end of the year so this may reduce further over 2023.

Modern Believing

Adrian Thatcher, a Trustee, is paid an annual honorarium of £2,500 as Editor as previously agreed by Trustees. The cost of printing and posting out of MB has gone down by approximately £1,000 – due to a continued reduction in membership numbers. Royalty income from sales to libraries is down slightly.

Subscriptions and Membership

Income from membership subscriptions is down again this year. Affiliate members are listed separately to enable comparisons to be drawn in future years, and this has risen slightly on last year, and work has been undertaken to ensure renewals are chased.

Conference

High Leigh conference centre inevitably had to charge for the extremely late cancellation of conference in 2022. This should have accrued a final invoice of just under £15k. However, they reduced this to £10.6k which was much appreciated.

Policies

Legacy Policy

MC has been very fortunate to receive a number of fairly substantial legacies from former members over the years for which Trustees are very grateful. We wish to encourage members to continue to remember the Society in their wills in this way to help ensure that the work continues for future generations of church people. In 2017 we received two significant legacies from former members of MC - £231,000 from Paddy Lewin and £5,000 from Joan Dorrell. In 2022 we received a further £1,028 from the estate of Paddy Lewin.

Reserves Policy

In light of the receipt of substantial legacy funds in 2017 and the decision to pay a salary to our General Secretary, it was agreed to modify our Reserves Policy for the time being. Thus the legacies received during 2017 have been considered as a project fund to pay for the General Secretary’s salary and expenses and to provide the necessary support for him to develop the work of MC over the five years of his contract. It was agreed at this time that the reserves held by MC prior to 2017 and which provided an annual income towards the day-to-day running expenses of MC of over £8,500 should continue to be held as designated reserves.

Data Protection Policy

Modern Church adheres to Government guidance on data protection. We pay an annual registration fee to the Information Commissioner. Our membership records are managed by Liverpool University Press who publish and distribute Modern Believing on our behalf. Affiliate member records are managed in-house.

Independent Examiner

I am grateful to Jonathan Rudge once again for agreeing to act as our Independent Examiner and his report is attached.

Diane Kutar, Treasurer

Modern Church	Modern Church
Receipts & Payments Accounts to 31		Dec 2022
		2022	2022	2021	2021
Receipts
Subscriptions	Subscriptions LUP	8165		9071
	Subscriptions Affiliate	785		695
	Gift Aid	446
			9396		9766
Investment Income		14057		14688
			14057		14688
Conferences	Annual Conferences (Note 2)	9598		1410
	Council Residential	164		0
	Other Conferences	215
			9977		1410
Miscellaneous	Donations (Note 4)	1164		295
	Publications (MB Royalties) (Note 3)	1034		1153
	Other	0		70
			2198		1519
	Total Receipts		35627		27383
Payments
Legacy Project	General Secretary	16746		17500
	Projects (CT insert, MB launch,
(Note 5)	Sponsorships)	6948		0
	General Secretary Expenses
	(incl. travel & postage)	1057		3750
			24750		21250
Publications	Modern Believing	3913		4809
	SOTT (Legacy Project) (Note 7)	5974		6949
	Editors	2500		2500
	Other Publications	0		690
	Legacy Relaunch	0		0
			12388		14948
Communications	Communications Officer	6481		6448
	Advertising	2503		1651
	Website costs	552
			9535		8099

Admin	Administrator		8043		8634
	Accounting Fees		441		420
	Trustees Room hire		248		0
	Admin expenses		1739		1193
	Miscellaneous		262		235
				10733		10482
		`
Conferences	Annual Conference (Note 1)		19295		1275
	Council Residential		1098		300
	Other		0
				20393		1575
	Total Payments			77799		56354
Surplus/deficit				-42173		-28971

Not es

• 1 Expenses: The Annual Conference 2022 had to change at very short notice to online delivery due to the rail strikes and extreme heat. This resulted in a significant loss due to the need to honour costs at the venue although a welcome discount was negotiated.

• 2 Receipts: As a result of the changed delivery mechanism of the conference for 2022 a substantial amount of refunds were processed but many delegates refused refunds and some paid for online access only. £75 was received in donations to student bursaries.

• 3 Modern Church receives payments from LUP in relation to subscriptions from libraries and institutions, referred to as royalties

• 4 Donations: A residual amount from the Patrick Lewin estate was received during the year.

• 5 Legacy Projects - legacy expenditure in 2022 relates to the work and remuneration of the General Secretary and SOTT (see Note 6). The expenditure of £6498 related to the publication of a Church Times insert and a Church Time sponsorship deal. Of the funds allocated to legacy projects just over £66k remains.

• 6 Signs of the Times (SOTT) continues to show high costs since a re-design in 2019 and is considered as part of our Legacy Project. Some savings have been made by changing print supplier.

• 7 Investments - 2022 was a poor year for the stock market with substantial economic instability and the value of the CCLA shareholding took a significant hit. We also withdrew a total of £50,000 in value during the course of the year to pay for our Legacy projects.

• 8 There is a small positive discrepancy of £90 in the CAF bank balance - this is reflected in the difference between the closing balance in the 2021 balance sheet and the opening balances in the 2022 accounts.

Bank and Investment Balances at 31 December 2021

FUNDS STATEMENT - Members'	FUNDS STATEMENT - Members'
Funds			2022	2022	2021	2021
Opening Balances
Undesignated	(Note 8)		21757		14573
			3		1
Designated		Reserves	26342		26342
			9		9
	(Note 5)	Legacy Projects			12492
			96730		9
Restricted		Student bursary				53486
		fund	746	578478	776	5
Surplus/deficit Cash Flow			-42173		-28971
Unrealised holdings	(Note 7)			-
gains/losses			-63573	105746	72494	43523
Closing Funds						57838
				472732		8
Represented by
Undesignated			14247		21748
			6		3
Designated		Reserves	26342		26342
			9		9
	(Note 5)	Legacy Projects	66006		96730
Restricted		Student bursary
		fund	821		746
Total Funds						57838
				472732		8
Members' Assets
CAF Bank			25861		18892
Paypal			1053		122
CCLA Deposit			1348		1331	20345
CCLA Shares - revaluation	(Note		44447		55804	55804
at 31 Dec)	7)		0	472732	3	3
						57838
Total				472732		8

Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Modern Church For the year ended 31st December 2021 Registered Charity no. 281573

[REPORT AWAITED FROM THE INDEPENDENT EXAMINER]

Modern Church Officers and Post-holders: 2022

President and Chair of Council: Professor Elaine Graham

Vice Chair of Council Anthony Woollard

General Secretary: Alison Webster

Secretary: Revd Canon Dr Jan van der Lely

Treasurer: Revd Diane Kutar

Vice Presidents:

Prof Paul Badham The Revd Jonathan Clatworthy Prof Elaine Graham Rev Dr Nicholas Henderson Dr Peter Mills The Most Rev Barry Morgan The Very Rev Prof Martyn Percy The Rt Rev Dr John Saxbee The Rt Rev Brian Smith The Rt Revd Tim Stevens The Revd Canon Richard Truss The Rt Revd Martin Wharton

Modern Church Council Members during 2022

Revd Dr Jeyan Anketell Jean Barnett[1] Hugh Bryant[1] Revd Helen Burnett Revd Dr Lorraine Cavanagh Very Revd Dr Jonathan Draper Revd Canon David Driscoll Professor Elaine Graham Revd David Howard Revd David James[1] Revd Tom Keates[1] Dr Anne-Marie Kramer Revd Diane Kutar[1] (Treasurer, elected annually) Rosalind Lund Revd Stephen Parsons Revd Canon Trevor Pitt Revd Canon Dr Alan Race Professor Adrian Thatcher Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Revd Canon Dr Jan van der Lely Professor John Vickerman[1] Anthony Woollard Revd Sonya Wratten[1]

1 Term of office ends at the end of the 2023 AGM but can stand for re-election

In bold – current trustees