Trustees Annual Report
Lambeg Parish Church (NIC101735) Church Hill, Lambeg BT27 4SB 1[st] January 2022 until 31[st] December 2023
Trustees:
Rev. Edmond J Coulter, Elizabeth McBurney, David Smyth, Edward Allen, Stephen Shaw, Robert Brown, Brian Bloomfield, Victor McDonald, Avril Hughes , Angela Sloan, Leslie Mills, Grace Mills, Neill Wilson, Gwen Mawhinney, Patricia Willis , Angela Bennett (Resigned April 23) , Judith Finch , Helen Heggan
Finances
Income:
Freewill Offering and Plate Collections have increased from £90,348 in 2022 to £95,314 in 2023. The Development Fund account income decreased from £10,488 in 2022 to £10,016 in 2023. Gift Aid totalling £16,599 was reclaimed during the year.
Light and heat subscriptions from Parish organisations to cover costs of heating and lighting amounted to £600.
Expenditure:
Due to collections from our parishioners amounting to £3,757, together with a further £1907 received from our Hilden Coffee Morning, held for the Friends of The Cancer Centre, we were able to make payments of £9,573 to Missions and Charities.
Following all these transactions the Accounts at the end of the year were as follows: Current Accounts - £47,585,89 Savings - £33,270.35
All other payments in 2023 were paid when received and in full.
The security and safekeeping of all monies is important to the Trustees and all money is counted and taken to the Bank under dual control.
Statement of Trustees' Responsibilities
The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the statement of receipts and payments and statement of assets and liabilities in accordance with applicable law and regulations. The law applicable to charities in Northern Ireland with Income of less than £250,000 requires the trustees to prepare a statement of receipts and payments and a statement of assets and liabilities for each financial year. The trustees are responsible for keeping accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Parish’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the assets and liabilities of the Parish. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Parish and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
The Finances are managed by the Treasurer and Financial Advisory Committee who report back to the Trustees at the Select Vestry meetings on a regular basis.
A Safeguarding Trust Panel is in place to ensure compliance with current legislation and GDPR regulations are adhered to.
A working party undertake routine weekly maintenance of the parish building and grounds on a weekly basis.
Purpose
The principal function of the Parish is to support the advancement of the Christian religion by promoting through the work of the Parish the whole mission of the Church, pastoral, social and ecumenical.
All functions of the Parish relate to the advancement of religion through holding regular worship and communicating with and caring for parishioners of all ages especially the sick, elderly and others in our community.
Public Benefit
The charity trustees have complied with their duties in line with the Commission’s Public Benefit statutory guidance.
Regular Church services and reaching out into the community took place and weekly prayer meetings are held in the Hilden Centre.
Church services are recorded, and DVDs delivered weekly to the housebound.
The church hall and the Hilden Centre are regularly used by the various organisations including the Girl’s Brigade, Church Lads Brigade, Sunday School, Parent & Tots, Mothers Union, Men’s Society, Open House, and Needles & Pins.
A youth club for 7–11 year-olds, in partnership with the Hilden Community Association and Resurgam is held in in the Hilden Centre each Friday evening.
The Mothers Union continue to take on responsibility for the collection and distribution of items for the Lisburn Food Bank. Donations of food during our Harvest services were donated to the Refugee Centre.
The Mothers Union continue to provide wash bags to the Royal Victoria Hospital for patients who had emergency admittances.
Our Church Planter has been working with a local school where he taught scripture to Year 8 and had also been involved with their GCSE Class.
A Coronation coffee morning was held in the Hilden Centre and Coronation afternoon tea held following the church service, both events were well attended by parishioners and local community. We also held our first Autumn Fayre over the Harvest weekend and again was well attended by parishioners and local community.
Going Concern
The trustees have reviewed the accounts and are satisfied that there are adequate funds in place to ensure that the Parish can continue its activities and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023 can be signed off as a going concern.