2024-12-31-accounts

Annual Report of the Trustees for the year 2024

to be presented to the Annual General Meeting on

18[th] October 2025 at 4.00 pm

At the St George’s Centre, Leeds

Office address :

97 Court View, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, GL10 3PJ

Website : www.modernchurch.org.uk

Email : [e-mail]

Registered charity no : 281573

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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.

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Report from the Chair of Trustees

Since I became Chair of Trustees in July 2021 Modern Church has been involved in a thorough review of its activities. Some of this arose as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we realised that traditional patterns of face-to-face meeting had been superseded by online methods of communication.

While we have welcomed opportunities to return to in-person gatherings – most notably at our annual conference and AGM and some Council sessions – we have found, like many similar organisations, that virtual meetings have enabled us to make our events both more accessible and ambitious. By our AGM in July 2024, although we had returned to High Leigh conference centre, our forward planning was beginning to reflect this more ‘hybrid’ approach to all our activities.

Over the past year, our programme has reflected this diversity of approaches.

We hold regular online meetings (including the reinstatement of our regular Forum discussions for members) and webinars (often in collaboration with partner organisations, including Church Times and SCM Press). Our Public Square Group has combined in-person meetings with online debates. We also offer a choice of ways to read our written output, either through web-based blogs and internet and hard copy access to Modern Believing as well as regular mailings of Signs of the Times .

We hope this mix of outputs enables us to reach the widest audience possible. Our recruitment figures suggest that alongside our long-term supporters we are also steadily attracting new members, many of whom may never have discovered Modern Church without these new modes of outreach. In the process, we continue to meet the objectives we set for ourselves in 2022: to diversify our membership, to be more co-ordinated and responsive in our offerings, to support members wherever they are on their faith journeys, offering considered and informed comment on public issues and to work collaboratively on contemporary issues with other progressive Christian organisations.

As ever, I am grateful to our staff and officers – Alison Webster, Nic Tall, Castor Bending and Diane Kutar; Adrian Thatcher and Victoria Turner ( Modern Believing ) and Anthony Woolard ( Signs of the Times ) and to all those, past and present, who have served as Trustees or Council members. I am confident that we can continue to uphold our enduring commitment to open and inclusive Christianity while finding new ways of engaging with our changing and troubled world.

Professor Elaine Graham FBA Chair of Trustees

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Modern Church General Secretary’s Report 2024

Introduction

In 2024, Modern Church continued its mission to promote progressive Christian theology through a series of events, publications, and collaborative efforts. Our activities aimed to foster inclusive dialogue, address contemporary challenges, and provide platforms for diverse theological perspectives.

Annual Conference

Our annual conference in this year was the final one to adopt a 3-day, fully catered, residential format at High Leigh Conference Centre. Previous experiences of disruption due to the Covid pandemic and extreme weather events have led us to plan for a different approach from 2025. However, the event was hugely successful and creative. Organised in partnership with the ecumenical Mission Theology Apologetics Group, the theme was ‘Finding the Sacred in the 21[st] Century’. Participants were resourced to explore a vast range of contemporary forms of spirituality, with a diverse collection of speakers, through a programme held together by Prof John Drane and Dr Anne Richards.

General Election Activity

Contributing to theology in the public square has been a key commitment for Modern Church, so we embraced the 2024 General Election with enthusiasm. We contributed to the churches’ and Citizens UK’s voter registration campaign, and raised key election issues through two political theology webinars, jointly organised with the Church Times. (contributors included Jonathan Cox, Graeme Smith, Jenny Leith, Shermara Fletcher, Bishop Mike Royal and Tim Norwood. The chair was Elaine Graham)

In addition, we ran a special series of blogs on justice themes during May and June 2024 with contributors such as Martin Palmer on the climate crisis, Stef Benstead on disabled rights, Inderjit Bhogal on immigration, Bishop David Walker on housing and homelessness, and myself on the need to mobilise voters.

Other Blogs

Our interventions on urgent political issues were by no means confined to our pre-election material. Through the year we published on the racist riots (Raj Patel), the unfolding crisis in Palestine (Marika Rose), the role of Christianity in the rise of the far right (Helen Paynter), world poverty (Sabina Alkire), the rise of Artificial Intelligence (Tim Norwood), Assisted Dying (James Woodward), the ecological crisis (Neil Whitehouse).

Our blogs also explored issues of ecclesiastical and theological importance: Anne Richards on spiritual abuse; Stephen Parsons on the future of safeguarding in the church; Adrian Thatcher on the persistence of homophobia; Simon Cross on ‘decline’ in the church; Angela Sheard on why the church needs an ‘anti-growth coalition’; Adrian Thatcher on the theological failings of the Makin Report; Miranda Threlfall-Homes on how the church can and does change doctrine; Martine Oborne on the lack of women’s equality in the Church of England; Niamh Hardman on the value of the Greenbelt Festival, and Joe Priestley on the work of Nick Cave.

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We have averaged two blogs per month, with a diverse set of contributors.

Members’ Forum

A priority identified in 2023/4 was the need to revivify the Modern Church Forum as a place for safe and open discussion of theological and spiritual issues. The latter part of 2024 saw the first two of these (co-facilitated by Elaine Graham, Lorraine Cavanagh and myself), setting a pattern of meeting every other month, with themes generated from our other activities.

Other Events

2024 was the 40[th] Anniversary of the groundbreaking TV series ‘The Sea of Faith’, written and presented by Don Cupitt. The Chair of Modern Church, together with Prof Graeme Smith, were responsible for a major research project on its impact, with two conferences held in 2024 (one in Cambridge, and one at Gladstone’s Library), to which Modern Church made a contribution. There was also a special edition of Modern Believing.

We began the year with a fascinating panel conversation on ‘Caribbean Contextual theology’, with Carlton Turner, Evie Vernon and Stephen Jennings. In May we welcomed Jane Shaw to give an online lecture on ‘Mysticism and its Possibilities’, and in October we hosted a panel on ‘The Church, the Far Right, and the Claim to Christianity’ (with Helen Paynter, Maria Power and Raj Patta). As Kim Leadbeater’s Private Member’s Bill made its way through parliament, we hosted another joint webinar with the Church Times, this time on ‘Can a Good Death be Assisted’? Panelists were James Woodward, Joanna Collicutt, Cassius Francis and Katie Tupling, and Elaine Graham was in the Chair. Finally, as the year closed, we discussed the power of the Mammon System with theologian and critic of neoliberal capitalism, Bruce Rogers-Vaughn.

Conclusion

The year 2024 was marked by a commitment to fostering inclusive and progressive theological discourse. Through collaborative events, insightful publications, and active digital engagement, Modern Church continued to serve as a platform for diverse theological perspectives, addressing contemporary challenges and promoting a more inclusive vision of Christianity.

Alison Webster General Secretary

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Modern Believing Annual Report 2024

Journal Content

There were 22 articles and 110 reviews in volume 65 in the usual 4 editions:

65.1 ‘Deconstructing Racism in the Church’ was derived from presentations at the 2023 annual Modern Church conference of the same name.

65.2 ‘Theology and Poetry’ contained 5 outstanding articles, including one from Rowan Williams.

65.3 ‘The Sea of Faith’, edited by Elaine Graham and Graeme Smith, presented articles on the occasion of the 40[th] anniversary of the BBC TV programme of that name, expressing both appreciation and criticism.

65.4 ‘The Expanding Horizons of Interreligious Theology’, edited by Alan Race, took up some of the challenges associated with religious plurality.

Subscriptions

A welcome increase in subscriptions over 2023 has been recorded (figures taken from the LUP 2024 journal report):

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Institutio nal Subscripti ons	58	48	47	45	43
Modern Church Members	223	244	236	218	247
Total	281	292	283	263	290

(LUP calculates the number of subscribers on an annual basis. MC calculates the number of subscribers on a monthly basis. Office records confirm the increase (February 194 : May 215 ; August 226 ; November 229 ).

Administration of Membership

Total membership of Modern Church in September 2024 stood at 246, the highest since 2019, with 225 subscribing to Modern Believing.

From 2024, Modern Church took membership processing back in-house, providing LUP with membership details so as to fulfil the distribution of copies to society members. Meanwhile, online access is provided via the Modern Church website, - https://modernchurch.org.uk/journal portal . The new arrangements have made joining easier and have led to an increase in the number of our readers.

Readership

On the LUP website there were 21,370 unique page views in 2024, an increase of over 7% (19,971 in 2023).

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There were 1,813 full text downloads, an increase of over 12% (1,610) in 2023.

Top Institutions. The table below shows the top five institutions which downloaded the greatest number of articles in 2023 and 2024.

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2024
Modern Church Modern Church
Bodleian Library KU Leuven Bibliotheken
Graduate Theological Bodleian Library
Union
University of St Andrews University of Birmingham
University of Exeter Queens Foundation
----- End of picture text -----

Top Countries. The table below shows the top five countries that visited the journal homepage in 2023 and 2024.

----- Start of picture text -----
2023 2024
United States Singapore
Singapore United States
United Kingdom Israel
India United Kingdom
Poland Germany
----- End of picture text -----

Top Articles

----- Start of picture text -----
Rank Title Author Volume Total
Requests
1 Gauntlet at the Sanjee Perera 65.1 147
Lychgate: How and
Why is the Church
of England Racist?
2 The Future of Susannah 62.1 132
Sexuality Debates Cornwall
in the Church
3 Sex, Gender and Christopher C. 62.1 95
Human Identity: H. Cook
Science and
Theology
4 Book Reviews 65.2 42
5 Book Reviews 62.1 41
6 Editorial: The Sea Elaine Graham, 65.3 38
of Faith Graeme Smith
7 Performing Faith Alison Webster 62.1 36
Differently
8 The Sea of Faith in Mark D. 65.3 35
Context Chapman
----- End of picture text -----*

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9	Theology and the Public Square: Mapping the Field	Elaine Graham	61.1	34
10	The Sea of Faith 40 Years On	Elaine Graham, Graeme Smith	65.3	31

(62.1 was the online free to read issue in 2024)

Analysis

• An increase of 7.5% in regular subscribers through MC membership

• Growing online readership through the LUP website

• The UK’s position (4[th] ) in top countries indicating growing international reach

• The continuing popularity of race, and sex and gender, as topics for download.

Miscellanous

Punctuality. Copy was received by LUP for each edition, in accordance with the agreed schedule, and all 4 editions were distributed early.

‘Spotlight’. ATLA published an article about the journal, ‘Spotlight on Modern Believing’ (using copy provided by the Editor and Officers of MB). It provided an exciting opportunity to commend the journal to an international readership.

AI. The Trustees agreed that our publisher, Liverpool University Press, be authorized to submit journal content to companies training Large Language Models.

ORCiD. The Press has joined ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), and encourages all authors to claim (free of charge) their ORCID unique persistent identifier (PID).

Translation. One of our articles, M. Lawler and T. Salzman’s, ‘Usury and Homosexual Behaviour: Parallel Theological Tracks?’, 54.3 (2013) was translated into Czech, and appeared in the Czech theological journal Salve: a review for theology and spirituality . Gender Imbalance. I regret the 15m / 7f imbalance among article authors. Also the clear majority of authors is ethnically white. Consultation with members of the Editorial Board and Editorial Team may be necessary to mitigate imbalances over time.

Finally,

Thanks to

• Victoria Turner, Reviews Editor, for providing copy on time and activating a new range of reviewer contacts;

• all the authors (for their willingness to write gratis for the journal, their support for the journal and its aims; and the excellent quality of their work);

• the journal staff of Liverpool University Press for their help, promptness, efficiency and professionalism in producing the journal;

• the Editorial Team for their counsel and advice;

• the continuing and new members of the Editorial Board for their role in guaranteeing the journal’s academic integrity;

• and the Trustees for their interest in and support for the journal.

Adrian Thatcher Managing Editor

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Modern Church Membership Report

In late 2023 Modern Church overhauled its membership system, taking everything in house after a period of management by LUP. The former annual payment system, either by direct debit or one off payment, was discontinued for new members and replaced by a monthly direct debit system. The previous distinction between full members and affiliate members was also discontinued, with all making regular financial contributions to Modern Church being treated as a member, whether they subscribed to the journal or not.

While there were concerns that a change to the membership system would lead to some members dropping off, these concerns did not materialise. An apparent drop off in members at the end of 2023 was largely due to some members who joined with a one off payment needing to be chased up and transferred onto the new system. Through the early months of 2024 most were signed up again, and a steady flow of new members continued to nudge up the overall membership figures. By the end of the year overall membership numbers had increased to 243, the highest level of full membership seen since 2019.

Subscription Type	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Members	321	316	251	215	208	213	187	236
Life Members	9	9	8	8	8	7	7	7
Total Memberships	330	325	259	223	216	220	194	243

It should be noted in the figures above that the affiliate membership scheme which ran from 2021 to 2023 has not been included. Most affiliates were only members for a year and securing their renewal was a time consuming and often fruitless task. Under the new system those joining Modern Church but opting out of receiving the journal are retained through regular direct debit payments, ensuring a steady income without the administrative burden of chasing up to secure a renewal.

On a month by month basis so far in 2025 membership numbers have continued to steadily rise as follows:

	Jan- 25	Feb- 25	Mar- 25	Apr- 25	May- 25	Jun- 25	Jul- 25	Aug- 25	Sep- 25
Total Memberships	243	246	249	249	249	251	253	257	261

This sustained increase in membership indicates that allowing people to sign up directly as members, leading to direct contact between them and Modern Church from day one of subscription, is working. The renewed and diversified content, combining excellent regular publications with publicly available online content, is the underlying basis for attracting the increasing number of members.

Nic Tall Administrator

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Signs of the Times

The flow of material for our quarterly journal has continued at a pleasing rate, and there is some evidence that it is encouraging new and renewed membership of Modern Church. Many contributions have come from members of the Public Square Group, in response to the current state of our nation; but topics from the changing nature of secularism to environmental issues, and the Church’s fault-lines over missiology and sexuality, have figured also.

Along with our website, our blog, and an increasing diversity of online events, Signs has more than ever become our principal “shop window”. As well as being the principal material distributed as a benefit of membership, it can be made available to enquirers as well as those attending other events in which we are involved. If anyone 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. Our book reviews editor Terry Drummond is always looking for books to review and people to review them, and your suggestions to [e-mail] will be appreciated.

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

Anthony Woollard SoTT Editor

Treasurer’s Report

The accounts enclosed herewith have been approved by the trustees and signed off without amendment by the Independent Examiner.

Membership management has now fully transferred in-house. It can be seen that subscription income is down on 2023. This may be a timing of receipts issue as previously we would have received the majority from LUP in November, but we are now receiving spread out over the whole year and as such we will not really have an accurate representation until we have a full year of the new model.

LUP have confirmed they will be invoicing in the new year based on circa 245 members which is a definite increase in membership on recent years. It should be noted though that LUP only run on a calendar year basis, whilst we have members joining and leaving at any point. Therefore, 245 will be the total number of people who were a subscriber to Modern Believing at some point in 2024. We have had a small number of cancellations towards the end of 2024, with some people choosing to cancel their direct debits. We have 243 members of whom 223 receive Modern Believing. Of those 243, 8 are life members of

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whom six still receive the journal. We also have six who receive the journal at Modern Church's cost (three staff members, Victoria Turner as Reviews Editor, two Council members).

The 2024 figures do not include an invoice from LUP for the production of the journal. This is estimated at £7,350 (245@ £30 per head) which is a substantial increase on the 2023 costs.

If we adjust the deficit for this, we have a deficit of £30k which is £4k less than 2023.

We did come very close to breaking even on conference and with a £2k loss over all on residentials (conferences/council) this is a good outcome. If this is removed from the deficit (adjusted for LUP invoice) then we have a position where the deficit is principally the expenditure on Legacy projects of £25k as the agreed amount every year for five years. If we can eliminate the residential losses in the coming year then we would be breaking even on our operations aside from Legacy expenditure.

Whilst we have drawn down £30k from reserves, the share price of investments held has risen again resulting in a revaluation and the impact on reserves is therefore only £19k. This cannot continue for ever, obviously, but with a reserves balance of just over £463k I consider we are in a sound financial position going into 2025.

Diane Kutar Treasurer

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Receipts & Payments Accounts to 31 December 2024

		2024	2024	2023	2023
Receipts
Subscriptions	Subscriptions (Note 1)	11490		15037
	Subscriptions Affiliate	0		307
	Gift Aid	0		567
			11490		15885
Investment Income		12442		13239
			12442		13239
Conferences	Annual Conferences (Note 2)	12318		8328
	Council Residential	1130		1437
	Other Conferences	0		0
			13448		9764
Miscellaneous	Donations	765		20
	Publications (Note 3)	956		313
	Other	512		404
			2233		737
	Total Receipts		39613		39624
Payments
Legacy Project	General Secretary	17837		18620
(Note 5)	Projects (CT insert, MB launch, Sponsorships)	0		0
	General Secretary Expenses	657		404
			18495		19024
Publications	Modern Believing (Note 4)	236		4167
	SOTT (Legacy Project) (Note 6)	5527		6296
	Editors	3750		2500
	Other Publications	330		0
	Legacy Relaunch	0		0
			9843		12963
Communications	Communications Officer	6235		7308
	Advertising	25		0
	Website costs	1514		467
			7774		7753
Admin	Administrator	7358		7358
	Accounting Fees	480		570
	Trustees Room hire	689		539
	Admin expenses	2608		3112
	Miscellaneous	0		185
			11135
					11764
				`
Conferences	Annual Conference (Note 1)	12658		16945
	Council Residential	1447		4344
	Other	1340		982
			15445		22271
	Total Payments		62691		73775
Surplus/deficit			-23078		-34150

Bank and Investment Balances at 31 December 2023	Bank and Investment Balances at 31 December 2023	Bank and Investment Balances at 31 December 2023	2024	2024	2023	2023
FUNDS STATEMENT - Members' Funds
Opening Balances
Undesignated			175229		142476
Designated		Reserves	263429		263429
	(Note 5)	Legacy Projects	40364		66006
Restricted		Student bursary fund	821		821	472732
Surplus/deficit Cash Flow			-23078		-34150
Unrealised holdings gains/losses	(Note 7)		10625		41261	7111
Closing Funds			467390			479843
Represented by
Undesignated			179713		175229
Designated		Reserves	263429		263429
	(Note 5)	Legacy Projects	23428		40364
Restricted		Student bursary fund	821		821
Total Funds			467390			479843
Members' Assets
CAF Bank			19447		12457
Paypal			122		263
CCLA Deposit			1465		1391	14111
CCLA Shares - revaluation 31/12/2024	(Note 7)		446356	467390	465731	479843
Total				467390		479843

Notes

1 Subscriptions are now all managed inhouse and processed via GoCardless

2 Expenses: With the change in structure to conferences the conference figure is now all relating to 2024.

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

4 We have yet to be invoiced for the publication costs of Modern Believing in 2024

5 Legacy Projects - legacy expenditure in 2024 relates to the work and remuneration of the General Secretary and SOTT (see Note 6). Of the funds allocated to legacy projects just under £25k 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 but we have seen some savings this year. Included in this is ordering additional copies for events as they are a popular give-away.

7 We have once more benefited from an increase in our investment funds due to a revaluation in the share values. Whilst not as significant as previous years it has offset the deficit of £23k by circa £11k

Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Modern Church For the year ended 31st December 2024 Registered Charity no. 281573

Independent examiner’s statement

I report on the accounts of the Modern Church (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 December 2024, which are set out on the attached pages and show a cash deficit of £23,078, together with funds totalling £467,390 at the year end.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the Trust, 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 Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 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:

• accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or

• the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

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.

Jonathan H. Rudge MA FCA 3 Deerhurst Court Solihull B91 3BY 21[st] April 2025

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Modern Church Officers and Post-holders: 2024

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

Administrator: Nic Tall

Communications Officer: Castor Bending

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 Dr Richard Truss The Rt Revd Martin Wharton

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Modern Church Council Members 2024

Revd Dr Jeyan Anketell[1] Hugh Bryant Revd Helen Burnett Revd Dr Lorraine Cavanagh Revd Dr Yin-An Chen Very Revd Dr Jonathan Draper[1] Professor Elaine Graham Revd David Howard Dr Anne-Marie Kramer[1] Revd Diane Kutar[1] (Treasurer, elected annually) Rosalind Lund Revd Jidé Macaulay Revd Naomi Nixon Revd Stephen Parsons[1] Joe Priestley Revd Angela Sheard Professor Adrian Thatcher Revd Canon Dr Jan van der Lely[1] Revd Don Witts Anthony Woollard Revd Sonya Wratten

1 Term of office ends at the end of the 2025 AGM but can stand for re-election

In bold – current trustees

Also served on Council during 2024, but no longer on Council:

Revd Tom Keates Revd Canon Trevor Pitt Revd Canon Dr Alan Race Ven Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Professor John Vickerman

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