St Elizabeth’s Parish Church
Dundonald
Trustees Report 2023
St Elizabeth’s Church
Aims and purposes
St Elizabeth’s Church Select Vestry (SV) has the responsibility of working with the incumbent, the Reverend Timothy Anderson, in promoting the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic and social .
The SV is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of the Church Property.
Objectives and Activities
When planning our activities for the year, the incumbent and the SV have considered the Commissions guidance on public benefit and in particular the specific guidance for the advancement of religion. In particular, we try to enable ordinary people to live out their faith as part of our parish community through:
Worship and prayer; learning about the Christian Faith; and developing their knowledge and trust in God.
Provision of pastoral care for people living in the parish. Missionary and outreach work.
To facilitate this work it is important that we maintain the fabric of the Church at St. Elizabeth’s.
Achievements and Performance
The SV are keen to offer a range of services during the week and over the course of the year for our community.
Sunday Ministry
The 10.30am Service would be the main meeting on Sundays with an average congregation of 80 people of all ages. Included in this is a crèche and groups for children of different ages. TASTE started again in September and meets on Sunday evenings and is an informal and relaxed way for believers and unbelievers to explore what the Bible says about faith and life. We have have online streaming of these services.
Midweek Ministry
St Elizabeth’s run a network of Fellowship Groups, meeting bi-weekly, in homes around Dundonald. There are groups meeting on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning Wednesday evening and Thursday evening. Also, a Young Adult’s Group meets every Monday evening, which provides a chance to discuss a chapter of a Christian book and pray. ‘Rooted Youth Group gathers on a Friday evening, here we have bible teaching, music, videos, discussion, prayer and various fun activities for children of secondary school age.
Community
A.B.C (ADULTS…BABIES…CHILDREN) TODDLER GROUP-A.B.C’s meet Thursday mornings 9.3011.00am during term time for food, good fun and fellowship. Each week there is Bible exploration for toddlers, songs and nursery rhymes.
DUNDONALD BIBLE MINISTRIES
Dundonald Bible Ministries has grown out of a gospel partnership between ourselves and two other local churches – Dundonald Presbyterian and Dundonald Baptist. Initially we began with a series of evening meetings during the week before Easter. This partnership has grown and as well as the Easter events continuing we now serve together in children’s and youth ministry, and joint services. The essential need for people of all ages to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ motivates Christians to put aside denominational differences and serve the Lord together. This is a great privilege and joy, and is the purpose of Dundonald Bible Ministries.
Due to the pandemic these services were unable to go ahead. However, at Christmas our church had an outreach programme. We distributed 500 Christmas packs which included Booklets, CD’s and sweets to our local community.We also organised a treasure hunt in our local park for families and children at Easter and Christmas.
Mission Partners
St Elizabeth’s gives a significant proportion of its income to gospel ministry in other parts of the world and a list of these can be seen on our website.
DUNDONALD FOODBANK
Dundonald Foodbank is one of over 400 Foodbanks throughout the UK, and is run as a joint initiative between seven local churches. In the last 12 months Dundonald Foodbank has helped many people who have found themselves in financial difficulty through no fault of their own. People get into financial difficult and need the help of the foodbank for a variety of different reasons.
LOOKING AHEAD
G2 Project: Gospel and Godliness – A 10 Year Vision
By 2027 we would like to achieve the following:
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Small groups to grow from 50% to 75% of the congregation
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Young Adults- a support network of at least 20 mature Christian believers standing firm for the Lord in their workplace , their collegewe and amongst their friends.
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A regular midweek gospel ministry to the workplace in Dundonald (e.g. hospital workers , businesses, teachers, public sector workers etc. )
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Apprentices – an established pattern of appointing one full time apprentice every year for a two year term.
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Word Ministry Training Team- establishing and running a distance learning course to men and women for word ministry at St Elizabeth’s.
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Women- a regular fellowship that provides formal bible teaching and generates gospel centred friendships.
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Pastoral Care – a Team of 10 people trained and equipped to read the bible and pray with the sick, elderly and housebound.
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Theological Training – Supporting and sending at least 4 men to an Evangelical College for ordination and future ministry training in Ireland.
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A Local Partnership of Anglican Churches initiating, resourcing and supporting a church plant in a significant population centre in Ireland e.g Galway.
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An Overseas Gospel Partnership with a church , college or agency where Christians are persecuted minority e.g South Sudan.
With the G2 Project in mind, a significant decision by the SV in the Autumn was the appointment of a Families Minister to start in August 2023. The role of Families Minister is a senior position within the pastoral team. The Families Minister will partner with the Rector in helping the people of St Elizabeth’s meet their principle aims of Reaching the Lost, Building Believers and Sending Workers. Specifically, the Families Minister will serve the church family, of St Elizabeth’s, by helping us in our task of making and maturing disciples among the next generation. This job will require an ability to teach and apply the Bible to children and young people, and an ability to use the Bible to train and equip volunteer leaders, parents and the whole church family to be involved in ministry to our young ones.
Financial review
General Fund
The General Fund opening balance was -£69867 with closing balances of - £41,148.
Income
Income received was mostly through Free Will Offering (FWO) which came to £127,867 this year, this is an increase of £7447. We give thanks for the Gifts & donations to the church which came to
£30,907 was received through claiming gift aid on FWO and gifts made to St Elizabeth’s Church.
Organisations using the church premises make monetary gifts to help with the running costs, helping to cover electric and heating bills and the donations this year came to £2045.
Expenditure
The largest expense is salaries / pensions and national insurance as we continue to be a church for mission and training. We are focusing on reaching the lost, building the believer and sending out workers.
This year £18,890 was paid to mission to various mission charities from the general fund.
Maintenance expenses came to £4886. This included repairs to paving and installation of drains.
Restricted DCT Fund
This fund pays the salary of our Curate.
We give thanks to DCT and other donations from people which came to £38,080.
Expenditure
This was Curate’s salary / Employers’ pension and National Insurance Contributions £44,231.
Graveyard Maintenance Fund
We also have a Graveyard maintenance fund which received £3,120
We therefore were able to have the surrounding hedges cut, and other maintenance work carried out.
Mission Fund
The Mission Fund opening balance was £4680 with a closing balance of £5795.
Income
£1000 was transferred from the general fund to the Church Plant Fund as part of G2 Project.
We sent various donations to mission societys =£491
Music Fund
The opening balance was £30, and the closing balance is £30.
Property Fund
The property fund opening balance was £120,565 and closing balance is £112,885.
Income
FWO / donations and bank interest came to £7,406 this year. (Includes gift aid)
Expenditure
The expenditure this year was £86 for bank charges.
Reserves policy
The Trustees aim is to address the deficit in the incoming financial year and the reserves are healthy, but we aim to try and cut our expenditure and undergo fundraising activities.
Volunteers
We would like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard in running all the various activities in our church. In particular we want to mention our Church Wardens Mr J Crooks, Mr R Neill, Mr C Caves and Mr K Murray and also Miss J Poole (Select Vestry Secretary) and the other Select vestry members for their valuable contribution to our ministry and for keeping the church running.
Structure , governance and management
The method of appointment of Select Vestry members is set out in the Registered Church Body rules. At St. Elizabeth’s the membership consists of the incumbent, Assistant Minister, church wardens and members elected by those of the congregation who are on the Registration of Vestry members roll of the church. All those who attend our services/ members of the congregation are encouraged to register on this electoral roll and stand for election on the Select Vestry.
The Select Vestry members are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to the parish including ministry, mission and deciding on how the funds of the church are spent.
The Select Vestry met 6 times this year with an average level of attendance of 80 %.
Administrative information
St. Elizabeth’s Church: Church Green, Church Road, Dundonald, Belfast, BT16 2LP The Select Vestry Members who have served from until this date was approved are: Incumbent: Reverend Timothy Anderson Chairman Assistant Minister: Reverend Thomas Murray
Wardens: Mr Trevor Hollinger Mr Chris Caves Mr Keith Murray Elected Members: Miss Jayne Poole Mrs Ruth Murray Mr Trevor Hollinger Dr Shane Caldwell Dr Tomas Adell Dr Thomas Dowling Mr Colin Sloan Mrs Lynn Logan Mr Mark Calderwood Co-opted Members: Miss Sarah Carson