2024-08-31-accounts - Inclusive Community Church

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Trustees’ Annual Report for 2024

Registered Charity 801108

Serving LGBT+ People and the wider community in Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, and Dorset since 1979

Inclusive Community Church promotes the gospel of Jesus Christ in Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, and Dorset, as well as neighbouring areas, proclaiming the good news of God’s inclusive love. For over four decades, we have been celebrating God’s love for all people, and in particular addressing the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender plus (LGBT+) community.

About Us

Inclusive Community Church is part of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) whose churches play a vital role worldwide in addressing the spiritual needs of LGBT+ folk and their friends.
While not all our members identify as LGBT+, Inclusive Community Church seeks to reach out to those who may feel disenfranchised by Christianity. We believe that all sexual orientations and gender identities are loved by God and should be welcomed completely into the Church.
Because of our commitment to inclusivity, we keenly support equal marriage. As a sign of God’s unconditional love, we have held wedding services for same-sex couples since our church’s foundation. We rejoice that our church was the first place of worship in the United Kingdom to legally conduct same-sex weddings when the law was changed in 2014.

Hannington Road • Bournemouth • BH7 6JT www.inclusive.church • 0300 123 7773

Rev Dwayne Morgan, Pastor • Registered Charity 801108

Both in our church building and online we offer a safe and welcoming Christian space for LGBT+ folk and their friends, some of whom may have experienced negative attitudes from other religious organisations. We are committed to maintaining our church as a safe space for all.
During the year, we have kept our policy and procedures under frequent review and updated for the protection of everyone involved in our church’s activities - having regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

Structure and Governance

Our church is a registered charity and an unincorporated association. It is governed by a constitution approved by the church members and last revised in 2009.
The charity is under the overall supervision of a Board of Trustees, composed of the Pastor (ex-officio Chair of the Board) and volunteers elected by, and from, the church membership. The Pastor is the charity’s only salaried employee, and is responsible for managing its day-to-day activities. The church land and buildings are vested in the Official Custodian for Charities.
Reverend Dwayne Morgan, Kevin Bales, Theresa Dickson, and Peter Dowrick served as the charity’s trustees in 2023-2024.

Activities and Achievements

Our activities enable us to provide public benefit by ministering to the spiritual wellbeing of LGBT+ folk, their friends, and anyone seeking a closer relationship with God.
The highlight of Inclusive Community Church happens every Sunday when we gather as a church family to Worship and Fellowship. In addition to our onsite Sunday worship each week, we continue to live broadcast our services and maintain a recording online throughout the following week. Through this online ministry we continue to reach and worship God with those of our congregation and friends worldwide who cannot be onsite with us in our church building. We have an induction loop and an individual large screen monitor so those with hearing or visual impairments can better worship with us.
We have marked the church year with special services for Advent, World AIDS Day, Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, Pridetide, Harvest Festival, All Saints Day, Remembrance Sunday, Transgender Day of Remembrance (held at The Old Fire Station), and Reign of Christ.
We introduced an Advent series entitled How Does a Weary World Rejoice and a Lent series entitled Wandering Heart: Figuring Out Faith with Peter . Both included a take home devotional booklet. During Lent we offered an online 40 Minutes for 40 Days online small group over Zoom. We also continued our popular monthly Praise & Prayer service and Community Coffee Mornings in our church building.
We support local LGBT+ Pride activities, ensuring that we are visible to the wider community in showing God’s inclusive love for all people. This year we again held a Season of Pridetide by having a two-day information stall at the Bourne Free Pride Festival at Meyrick Park in Bournemouth that included our presence at the increasingly popular Family Day where we reached many young people and families. We also marched in the Saturday Bourne Free Parade through Bournemouth town centre. We continued the Bourne Free celebrations with our Sunday Pride Worship Service, and our annual Sunday afternoon Pridetide BBQ following Sunday. Our Pastor also helped to staff the Bournemouth University Chaplain’s information stall at the University’s Student Pride event, which allowed us to directly reach students as well as handout information about our work and ministries. We also had an information stall at the first LGBT+ Poole Pride held at the Lighthouse theatre in July 2024.
We celebrated our Trans siblings by marking Transgender Awareness Week with our Trans Joy Sunday Worship Service. For Transgender Day of Remembrance we again partnered with Bournemouth University’s Chaplain and Students’ Union for a Service of Remembrance held at the Students’ Union’s nightclub and music venue, The Old Fire Station.
We partnered with Body Positive Dorset to host our annual World AIDS Day service in our Sanctuary, followed by a time of refreshments and fellowship in our Church Hall. Bourne Free joined us this year in support with their Chair providing special music.
We continue to welcome and support asylum seekers into the life of our church as they settle into a permanent life in Britain. For Advent we collected clothes for the new Dignity Centre, which works with the increasing number of asylum seekers being housed in the Bournemouth area.
In August 2024 our Pastor and one lay member attended the Network Gathering of the European Network of Metropolitan Community Churches, that was held in Hamburg, Germany. It was an opportunity to connect with other churches in our international fellowship, attend workshops, and learn about the wider ministry of some of our churches.
For our forty-fifth anniversary celebration in October 2024, the Moderator of the UFMCC, Rev Elder Cecilia Eggleston, joined us for a Saturday evening of Meeting the Moderator. Rev Eggleston then preached for our 45[th] Anniversary Worship Celebration on Sunday morning.
Many of our members and friends have volunteered in ministry in numerous ways this year, in worship services, outreach, maintenance, and administration. We thank each volunteer for all that they do to help us minister together to each other and to our community.

Financial Review

Our church finances are a continued concern as we continue to face the challenges of maintenance and repairs on our building that is over 125 years old, and as inflation has driven up our ongoing costs, especially for utilities.
We encourage everyone who worships with us to be faithful stewards of all the gifts that God has given them, to view the church as theirs and to financially support it as best they can. We are very grateful to everyone whose prayers, faithful support, and generosity have helped to fund our church upkeep and enabled our Christian ministry and outreach to continue.
We give a special thank you to those who generously responded to our fundraising appeal this year. The increase in monthly giving and extra one-off donations have increased our financial stability and allowed us to begin to take care of some necessary priorities that had been previously delayed.
In the year ending August 2024 our church gratefully received income of £52,800 (compared to £46,600 in the previous year). The income was composed of £42,000 donations from the congregation, £8,500 Gift Aid tax refunds and £2,300 from renting our hall to local groups.
Our expenditure was £44,000 in the year ending August 2024, compared to £45,600 in the previous year. We spent £30,800 on the Pastor’s salary and expenses; £7,200 on the church building, equipment, and bank loan interest; and £6,000 on other costs.
We own and seek to maintain the church building as our long-term asset and a centre for our Christian ministry. Our reserves policy is, where possible, to hold enough income in available reserves to meet at least one month’s average routine spending. Due to our fundraising appeal, we exceeded this target in the year ending August 2024

as our income exceeded expenditure to produce a surplus of around £8,800, compared to a surplus of £1,000 in the previous year.

Conclusion

In this year we marked the forty-fifth anniversary of our church’s ministry and celebrated Rev Dwayne Morgan’s twentieth anniversary as our Pastor. We continue to give thanks for all that God has done in our midst and has accomplished amongst us. For the year ahead we continue to look forward in the hope of Jesus Christ as we remember the words of the Apostle Paul:

Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. Galatians 6:9-10

Reverend Dwayne Morgan Pastor & Chair of Trustees November 2024

7[th] November 2024

The Trustees Inclusive Community Church Hannington Road Bournemouth BH7 6JT

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS

Report to the Trustees of Inclusive Community Church, on accounts for the year ended 31[st] August 2024

Respec+ve responsibili+es of Trustees and examiner

The Trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year (under sec$on 144(2) of the Chari$es Act 2011 (the Act)) and that an independent examina$on is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

Examine the accounts (under sec$on 145 of the Act);
To follow the procedures laid down in the General Direc$ons given by the Charity Commission (under sec$on 145(5)(b) of the Act), and
To state whether par$cular ma3ers have come to my a3en$on.

Basis of independent examiner’s statement

My examina$on was carried out in accordance with General Direc$ons given by the Charity Commission. An examina$on includes a review of the accoun$ng records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes considera$on of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explana$ons from you as trustees concerning any such ma3ers. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those ma3ers set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner’s statement

In the course of my examina$on, no ma3er has come to my a3en$on:

Which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the Trustees have not met the requirements to ensure that:
a. Proper accoun$ng records are kept (in accordance with sec$on 41 of the Act); and
b. Accounts are prepared which agree with the accoun$ng records and comply with the accoun$ng requirements of the Act; or
To which, in my opinion, a3en$on should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed… SueW ……… Date… 7/11/2024…..

Sue Wintle FMAAT ACIE Accoun$ng Technician 27 Basco3 Road Bournemouth Dorset BH11 8RJ

Inclusive Community Church

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

for year ended 31 August 2024

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Unrestricted Restricted Total Total Notes
Funds Funds Funds Funds
£ 2023-24 2023-24 2023-24 2022-23 1
INCOME :
Donations & collections 41,467 500 41,967 34,132
Gift Aid tax recoverable 8,348 125 8,473 7,203
-
Rent & fund-raising 2,300 2,300 2,763
Grants - - - 2,445
TOTAL INCOME 52,115 625 52,740 46,543 3
Less EXPENDITURE :
Staff : Pastor 30,789 - 30,789 30,250 2a
Premises & equipment 6,754 429 7,183 10,120 2b
Other running costs 5,855 - 5,855 4,947 2c
Charitable donations 108 50 158 244 2d
TOTAL EXPENDITURE 43,506 479 43,985 45,561 3 & 5
NET INCOME 8,609 146 8,755 982
TOTAL FUNDS at 1 Sep 2023 143,315 2,370 145,685 144,703 3b
TOTAL FUNDS at 31 Aug 2024 151,924 2,516 154,440 145,685 3a
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The attached Notes 1 to 5 are part of these Financial Statements.

Inclusive Community Church

Registered Charity No. 801108

BALANCE SHEET at 31 August 2024

£ Fixed Asset : church land & building Note 1 f Current Assets Income receivable Cash at bank and in hand Current liabilities Bank loan repayable within one year Payments in arrears Net current assets Long-term liabilities NET ASSETS Represented by: Note 4 Unrestricted Funds General Fund Capital Reserve (Building) General Fund Restricted Funds Building Fund (for repairs & equipment) Goodwill Fund (for people in need) TOTAL FUNDS Bank loan repayable after more than one year		2024 912 8,692 9,604 (4,103) (704) (4,807) 145,540 6,384 2,081 435	2024 150,000 4,797 (357) 154,440 151,924 2,516 154,440	2023 810 4,051 4,861 (3,600) (940) (4,540) 141,764 1,551 1,885 485	2023 150,000 321 (4,636) 145,685 143,315 2,370 145,685

Dwayne Morgan, Chair of Trustees, September 2024

Inclusive Community Church

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS - year ending 31 August 2024

Note 1 - ACCOUNTING POLICIES

a. Accounting basis . These financial statements have been prepared on an income and expenditure basis for a going concern in accordance with the Charity Commission’s Statement of Recommended Practice for charity accounts following the Financial Reporting Standard (FRS 102) effective from January 2019.

b. Income. Individuals' monetary donations to the Charity are recognised in the financial statements when they are received. Gift Aid tax claims are included in the financial statements at the same time as the related donation. Other income is recognised when due.

c. Liabilities and expenditure are included in the financial statements at their cash value when the liability arises.

d. Restricted Funds are income funds that must be spent on restricted purposes for which the income was given.The Charity currently has two restricted funds: the Building & Equipment Fund (for maintenance costs and for purchase of equipment) and the Goodwill Fund (for assistance to people in need).

e. Unrestricted Funds represent the remaining income funds of the Charity that are available for spending on the Charity's general purposes, including the General Fund and other Funds designated by the Charity's trustees for its own use or for spending on a future project.

f. Tangible assets . The church building and its land are shown in the Balance Sheet as a fixed asset at a historic value of £150,000 dating from 2000. The difference between this book value and the outstanding bank loan is represented in Unrestricted Funds as a General Fund Capital Reserve. Equipment, furnishings and other purchases are included in expenditure in the Statement of Financial Activities in the year they are acquired and do not appear as fixed assets in the Balance Sheet.

g. Depreciation is not provided on the church building and land as the likely residual value is not less than the carrying value shown in the Balance Sheet.

Inclusive Community Church

Note 2 - DETAILS OF EXPENDITURE

Unrestricted Funds 2023-24 £ (a) Staff : Pastor Salary 27,840 Pension 1,670 Travel & conferences 977 Retreat & training 302 30,789 (b) Premises & equipment Gas, electricity & water 4,228 Insurance 1,983 Bank loan interest 543 Maintenance & equipment - Induction loop - TV monitors - 6,754	Restricted Funds 2023-24 £ - - - - - - - - 429 - - 429	Total Unrestricted Funds Funds 2023-24 2022-23 £ £ 27,840 27,000 1,670 1,620 977 99 302 531 30,789 29,250 4,228 5,101 1,983 1,897 543 662 429 - - - - - 7,183 7,660	Restricted Total Funds Funds 2022-23 2022-23 £ £ - 27,000 - 1,620 1,000 1,099 - 531 1,000 30,250 - 5,101 - 1,897 - 662 614 614 1,144 1,144 702 702 2,460 10,120 / continued

Inclusive Community Church

Note 2 - DETAILS OF EXPENDITURE (continued)

(c) Other running costs Telecommunications Worship supplies & music Cleaning & other costs Outreach & publicity Stationery & post Accounts examiner Raising funds (d) Charitable donations Women's Shelter Goodwill Fund TOTAL EXPENDITURE	Unrestricted Funds 2023-24 £ 2,885 1,645 480 316 273 170 86 5,855 108 - 108 43,506	Restricted Funds 2023-24 £ - - - - - - - - - 50 50 479	Total Unrestricted Funds Funds 2023-24 2022-23 £ £ 2,885 2,778 1,645 1,497 480 186 316 83 273 230 170 170 86 2 5,855 4,947 108 19 50 - 158 19 43,985 41,876	Restricted Funds 2022-23 £ - - - - - - - - 89 136 225 3,685	Total Funds 2022-23 £ 2,778 1,497 186 83 230 170 2 4,947 108 136 244 45,561

Inclusive Community Church

Note 3 - STATEMENT OF FUNDS

(a) 2023-24 Unrestricted funds £ General Fund capital (church building & bank loan) General Fund revenue Restricted funds Building & equipment Outward giving : Goodwill Fund TOTAL FUNDS	Funds at 01-Sep-23 141,763 1,552 143,315 1,885 485 2,370 145,685	Transfer Bank loan repayment 3,776 (3,776) - - - - -	Income Expenditure - - 52,115 (43,506) 52,115 (43,506) 625 (429) - (50) 625 (479) 52,740 (43,985)	Funds at 31-Aug-24 145,539 6,384 151,924 2,081 435 2,516 154,440 / continued

Inclusive Community Church

Note 3 - STATEMENT OF FUNDS (continued)

(b) 2022-23 *Unrestricted funds* £ General Fund capital (church building & bank loan) General Fund revenue *Restricted funds* Building & equipment LGBT Consortium Faith Fund Outward giving : Goodwill Fund Outward giving : Women's Refuge TOTAL FUNDS	Funds at 01-Sep-22 138,191 4,738 142,928 1,774 - - - 1,774 144,702	Transfer Bank loan repayment 3,572 (3,572) - - - - - - -	Income - 42,262 42,262 2,571 1,000 621 89 4,281 46,543	Expenditure - (41,876) (41,876) (2,460) (1,000) (136) (89) (3,685) (45,561)	Funds at 31-Aug-23 141,763 1,552 143,315 1,885 - 485 - 2,370 145,685

Totals adjusted for rounding

Inclusive Community Church

Note 4- ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

At 31 August Fixed assets Long-term liabilities Net assets Net current assets / (liabilities)	Unrestricted funds 2024 150,000 2,281 (357) 151,924	Restricted funds 2024 - 2,516 - 2,516	Total funds 2024 150,000 4,797 (357) 154,440	Unrestricted funds 2023 150,000 (2,049) (4,636) 143,315	Restricted funds 2023 - 2,370 - 2,370	Total funds 2023 150,000 321 (4,636) 145,685

Note 5 - TRUSTEES TRANSACTIONS

(a) The Pastor is ex-officio Chair of Trustees and is paid for duties as Pastor. He is the Charity's only employee. In the year ending August 2024 the Charity spent £27,840 on salary and £1,670 on pension contributions (compared to £27,000 and £1,620 respectively in the previous year).

(b) The Pastor was reimbursed telecoms, travel, conference, retreat and training expenses of £1,737 (compared to

£2,050 in the previous year). Also the Charity paid £50 towards retreat costs for another Trustee (nil in the previous year).

(c ) No similar payments were made to other Trustees or related parties in either year.