Annual Report

Transcription

1 Annual Report Don t let anyone tell you that God doesn t take sides. I believe God is always on the side of the poor, the powerless, the marginalised, the outcast. Archbishop Desmond Tutu 1

2 At-a-glance 2012/13 We depend on our members and supporters to help shape and facilitate our work to make the love of God known and seen in our world. In this 10th Anniversary Year Inclusive Church has had a strategic look at the landscape of the church. We have identified those places in our shared life in which some of God's people are missing and in response to these gaps have developed and devised resources to enable full inclusion. At the heart of who we are as an organisation and as individuals is our faith in Jesus Christ and our commitment to Jesus' call to make the love of God known and seen in our world. The resources we develop are varied and range from study materials and sign-posting through to engagement with the structures of the church, in all situations seeking to act prophetically and courageously in furtherance of full inclusion of all Christians in all parts of the church. Our Annual Report contains a snapshot of the amazing work done by our part-time National Coordinator, Bob Callaghan. It's important to notice that Bob is part-time, because he does achieve full time production in part time hours. Bob has been fundamental to the development of the work of IC as he has met Christians around the country both in his travels and electronically. The study and liturgical resources we have developed are in response to requests from churches and individuals. Our first Annual IC Lecture this year was to set the scene for the development of theological material which will contribute at a structural level to a greater awareness of those who are missing and at a practical level to rectify this. We are planning, with a major publisher, a series of six books each with a different focus for those who are not fully included. The first two are concerned with Disability and with Mental Health. The other areas of our work: poverty, gender, sexuality, BME are outlined belowand they really are works in progress. 2

3 We depend on our members and supporters to help shape and facilitate our work. Thank you so much to all who contribute to the work of IC- financially, by keeping in touch, by holding us to account when we've missed the mark, through prayer, and your own courageous work. In this 10th year we have identified an opportunity for 1000 people to make a contribution of 100 each in order to secure our work for the next three years. Please consider whether you might be one of these 1000 and get in touch with our Hon Treasurer, office@inclusive-church.org.uk quoting GIVING as the subject. There is plenty opportunity for volunteers to contribute to the work of IC. If you have particular skills and a few hours a month or week to offer please get in touch with Bob using the details on page 19. Our hardest working volunteer is our Honorary General Secretary, Keith Elliott. Keith is the embodiment of the phrase, 'if you want something done, ask a busy person'. He is a constant source of knowledge, particularly with regard to governance issues, a constant support to me as Chair and to Bob in his work, and a constant worker for the gospel. I thank him, David Hancock and all the Trustees for their work during the past year and commend our Annual Report to you. The Reverend Canon Dianna Gwilliams Chair of Inclusive Church 3

4 What this means in practice there is a real passion for the church to be much more inclusive. The day to day work of Inclusive Church is rich and varied. One of the privileges I have as National Coordinator is getting out and about visiting churches and groups in different parts of the country. It is very clear from conversations I have on these visits that there is a real passion for the church to be much more inclusive. Many local churches are being really creative in exploring what being inclusive might mean in their context. Where the institutional church seems at times to be dragging its feet on some of these issues, local churches and individuals are way ahead and just getting on with it. One day the institution will catch up! Inclusive Church does a huge amount this annual report gives a flavour of our work. None of this would be possible without the generosity of those who support Inclusive Church financially as well as with their time and skills. Thanks to all of you. Bob Callaghan National Coordinator 4

5 Anniversary Celebrations 2013 marked the tenth anniversary of Inclusive Church. This has been an opportunity to celebrate and consolidate our work. 10 th Anniversary Liturgy To signal our commitment to finding ways to articulate a coherent theology of inclusion, as part of our celebration year, we inaugurated the Annual Inclusive Church Lecture. We were delighted that the first was given by The Rev'd Canon Professor Martyn Percy, Principal of Ripon Theological College, Cuddesdon, at Southwark Cathedral on June 20 th The event was attended by over 160 people. Another key part of our 10th anniversary celebrations will be Inclusive Church Sunday which will take place on Sunday 15th September We are delighted that liturgical material for the event has been specially drawn together by Steven Shakespeare (Prayers for an Inclusive Church) and the children and young adult material by Phil Greig (an experienced youth and children s worker who has recently published Moving Images, Changing Lives: Exploring the Christian Life and Confirmation with Young People Through Film; it s published by Church House Publishing). We think the material is rich and exciting. It has been sent to our registered inclusive churches but is also available to download from our website: Entitled On Being Together: the possibility of Church the lecture is available on our website: es%20for%20inclusive%20church%20sunday. docx We hope churches up and down the country take part. Don t forget to send us your 5

6 photographs and stories of how you celebrate our birthday! Partnership Working Inclusive Church is committed to working in partnership towards creating a church that is welcoming and open to all. At its heart Inclusive Church remains very much rooted as an Anglican organisation, although we work closely with churches and individuals of other denominations. Working with individuals and partner organisations we seek to raise awareness about the ways that people feel excluded by the church. Our network of individual supporters and partner organisations reflects the breadth and scope of the Church of England and beyond. We come from differing traditions and differing locations but we are united in one aim: To celebrate and maintain the traditional inclusivity and diversity of the Anglican Communion. will be able to inform everything from the creation of future IC liturgy to creating resources for theological practitioners. Disability Inclusive Church was delighted to be able to collaborate with Clare Herbert, Lecturer in Inclusive Theology at St Martin s-in-the-fields (an independent trustee of IC) on a dedicated Disability Conference in October Keynote speakers included Professor John Young, Jane Young and The Rev d Rachel Wilson at an event that was attended by 50 people. A number of IC trustees acted as workshop facilitators. Comments from participants included: Hugely inspiring and informative - thanks Thank you! This was fantastic! Inclusive theology There is much work that has been done to explore the theology about each of the areas we work in, but little unified theology that brings them together. What it means to express an inclusive theology is something that we are committed to. In 2012/13 we have begun work drawing together a theological advisory panel to underpin our work. We anticipate the panel Inclusive Church will be supporting a second conference at St Martin s on Saturday 19 October Prof. John Swinton, Professor of Pastoral Theology at Aberdeen University will be the keynote speaker. 6

7 The conference will also include contributions from people with the lived experience of disability and mental health issues. As a result of our Disability Conferences, Inclusive Church took part in the Anglican Health Network conference Faith in Health and Healing in Birmingham in April 2013, helping lead workshops and panel discussions. For more information visit: Mental Wellbeing Our work in mental health has strengthened in , and we are grateful in particular to Eva McIntyre for working closely with us in this area. For more information visit: Poverty Savi Hensman, a trustee of Inclusive Church representing LGCM, drew together a poverty questionnaire sent to each of our registered churches. The results of the Poverty Survey Report have been circulated to trustees and will be available in the autumn of It was felt to be useful exercise, enabling churches that responded to articulate something of how they are dealing with issues around poverty. Both at Greenbelt in 2012 and 13 Eva joined us to help raise the issue of mental health issues. We were amazed at the number of conversations we had around mental health. Together with Eva, we brought her one woman show Mind Your Head to two events in London. The first marked Mental Health Day on 10th October 2012 at St Matthews Westminster. The second was at Southwark Cathedral on 27 June Through these events we were able to raise issues around mental health to an audience of over 100 people. Amongst other things, there was generally a strong wish for issues of poverty and economic exclusion to be included as a priority for IC. Savi Hensman and the National Coordinator will map the large number of excellent resources that are available and signpost these to our churches and individual members through the newsletter and website. We continued to work with Eva through Mental Health Matters at General Synod in 2012 and 2013 with fringe events and staffing of a stall. 7

8 Women in the episcopate Inclusive Church has sought to support WATCH in the campaign to bring legislation before General Synod for the consecration of women as bishops in the Church of England. WATCH are valuable trustee members of Inclusive Church. Inclusive Church shared at events in and around the November 2012 General Synod and continues to work to raise the issue. A key way it does this is ensuring that news and updates are communicated through the Inclusive Church website and newsletter. As we look to the introduction of new legislation, we recognise that it is likely to be brought to the new General Synod that will be elected in Work has already begun to ensure that a good number of inclusive candidates are elected to General Synod. LGB&T Inclusive Church works in partnership with a number of organisations in this area. Much of the work is coordinated through the LGB&T Anglican Coalition. Although we have seen moves to equality during 2013 with the introduction of legislation enabling same-sex marriage, there remains significant discrimination still within the church. Each week we deal with enquiries from individuals for whom this is a significant issue. Inclusive Church works to support or signpost individuals. We have responded to requests from Deanery Synods in 2012 and 13 to address issues around human sexuality, civil partnerships and equal marriage. BME issues BME issues remain a concern for Inclusive Church. Our member churches are encouraged to make use of the excellent resources that are available to mark Racial Justice Sunday in partnership with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. The 2013 resources are available here: Notice was given of the Thanksgiving Day for the ministry of the Diocesan MEAC Committees in the Diocese of Southwark For all the saints Saturday 20 th October 2012 Greenbelt Inclusive Church has been an exhibitor at Greenbelt since 2011, famous for giving away thousands of jellybeans! In 2012 and 13 we have used a shared exhibition space in partnership with Modern Church, Progressive Christianity Network and 8

9 the Centre for Radical Christianity. It was great to work together and have such a big space together. Our stall was only possible thanks to the volunteers who gave up their time to join us. Over 65 hours of volunteer time in total! We made over 120 contacts and distributed over 750 IC leaflets. Working with Eva McIntyre, conversations about mental health only emphasised how important this issue is for people and their churches. Young IC Young Inclusive Church is aimed at year olds. There are regional groups: YIC Leeds, YIC Canterbury and YIC London. YIC members seek to support one another with issues around ethnicity, mental health, gender, poverty, sexual orientation and disability, particularly where these issues intersect with faith. YIC Young IC has a strong on-line presence through Facebook and Twitter. To be part of the Young IC community - wherever you live you can find the group using: Facebook - facebook.com/youngic youngic@live.co.uk Twitter search youngic Inclusive Churches IC currently has almost 200 registered churches; with average congregations of 70, this equates to a church membership of approximately 14,000 people. The trustees were asked to make contact with our Inclusive Churches during the 10 th anniversary year. This gave the trustees an opportunity to get under the skin of what inclusion means to parishes and to feed back their findings using a standard feedback form. We are beginning to see a wider range of churches/groups wanting to register with us. Some of these are non-anglican, some from other denominations, some from groups of people disaffected by mainstream church that have established themselves as congregations in their own right. Inclusive Ambassadors During 2013, our 10 th Anniversary Year, Inclusive Church introduced the Diocesan Ambassador scheme. So far we have 19 Dioceses covered. 9

10 The Ambassadors are in many ways the eyes, ears and voice of Inclusive Church in the different dioceses, and can play a vital role. To help strengthen their work there are guidelines in place for each ambassador, and the first of what will be regular support meetings were held in

11 Finance IC is now spending more money than it receives. Expenditure on activities is reflecting the increasing work and spread of the organisation into new areas. The 2012 accounts show that there was a small surplus of over the year as a whole. The Full IC accounts are available on request. Table 1: Income and expenditure summary Income Donations from individuals Donations from corporate bodies Other income TOTAL INCOME Expenditure Generating donations Charitable activities Governance costs TOTAL EXPENDITURE

12 Table 2: Income and expenditure breakdown Income Individual donations by cheque and standing order Gift Aid reclaim Corporate donations On-line donations through just giving T-shirt, materials and badge sales Other income TOTAL INCOME Expenditure Generating Income Costs of executive Salary and pension Income tax and National Insurance Office rent and services Expenses of chair and co-ordinator Printing and materials Greenbelt attendance General Synod seminars Covenant campaign Disability Conference Mental Health Day and Healing conference TOTAL EXPENDITURE Once again we thank Jeffrey Nash for examining the accounts for IC is now spending more money than it receives. Expenditure on activities is reflecting the increasing work and spread of the organisation into new areas. As a result, a Thousand hundreds campaign was launched at our Annual Lecture. In this 10th anniversary year Inclusive Church is celebrating our work to make the church a place within which everyone is included. We are a small charity with big objectives. 12

13 We are working towards a church where those who live with poor mental health or with disability know that they are positively included and valued. We are working to address issues around the causes of poverty and actively welcome those who feel excluded because of their financial circumstances. And we campaign for a church within which issues of gender or sexuality are not barriers to fellowship and service. 100 will support Young Inclusive Church rent a meeting space and run events for people across the UK. 100 will keep the website for 1month or provide 2 newsletters per year s will enable us to be at Greenbelt and continue to provide support and encouragement for individual Christians s will enable us to provide theological reflection and run events for churches wanting to be more welcoming to those with disabilities. Can you be part of the s campaign for our 10th anniversary year? The investment is small the return is enormous We are very grateful to the 20 individuals who have already pledged a total of 2,700. For more information on how to support our work go to: For financial matters contact our Treasurer: office@inclusive-church.org.uk Please quote FINANCE as the subject. We hope in the coming year to undertake further fundraising activity to help support and sustain our work. 13

14 Governance and the Board New ways of working were introduced to support Board decision making and further changes, training and support will be made in 2013/14 (as necessary) to improve Board performance. People The following trustees served on the Board in 2012/13 giving their time and energy to the future direction of Inclusive Church: Independent members Sally Barnes Rachel Beck Trevor Donnelly Jack Dunn Keith Elliott Giles Goddard Dianna Gwilliams David Hancock Clare Herbert Robert Key Rosemarie Mallet Simon Sarmiento Samuel Walker (Young IC)* Partners Rachel Weir (Watch)** John Plant (Modern Church) Jeremy Timm (CA) Savi Hensman (LGCM) Jenny Thomas (ABC) *Samuel Walker resigned during the year and was replaced by Dan Barnes-Davies as the YIC representative. Sam has been a trustee since We thank him for his contribution to the Board; especially his work in helping to establish Young 14

15 Inclusive Church and representing it at Greenbelt. We wish him well for the future. **Anne Stevens (Vice Chair of WATCH) replaced Rachel Weir as the representative of WATCH on the Board. The Board welcomes the continuing collaboration that this affords about this significant issue of inclusion. Biographies of our trustees are available to view on our website. Representation Gender profile Total number of trustees 18 Number of women 8 Number of men 10 Age profile Under Not disclosed 18* Ethnic profile White 0 Asian/Asian British 0 Black/African/Caribbean/Black 0 British Not disclosed 18* Sexual Orientation Bisexual 0 Gay 0 Straight 0 Transgender 0 Not disclosed 18* Disability Yes 0 No 0 Not disclosed 18* *This information will be collected for our new Board following the 2013 AGM and published on our website. Performance We remained focused throughout the year on developing a Strategic direction for Inclusive Church, starting with a strategic planning Awayday in November 2012 following last years AGM. This helped the Board set IC s strategic direction up until The Board met 4 times during the year on: 2 October February April July 2013 Attendance was as follows: 15

16 Independent members Name Number of meetings attended Sally Barnes 4 Rachel Beck 3 Trevor Donnelly 1 Jack Dunn 2 Keith Elliott 3 Giles Goddard 4 Dianna Gwilliams 4 David Hancock 4 Clare Herbert 2 Robert Key 2 Rosemarie Mallet 2 Simon Sarmiento 3 Samuel Walker (Young IC) Partners Name Rachel Weir (Watch) John Plant (Modern Church) Number of meetings attended Jeremy Timm (CA) 2 Savi Hensman (LGCM) Jenny Thomas (ABC) In 2013 contact has started to be made by trustees with our registered inclusive churches. Trustees found this a positive activity to help them understand the needs and issues faced by those seeking to create an inclusive welcome New ways of working were introduced to support Board decision making and further changes, training and support will be made in 2013/14 as necessary to improve Board performance. Board members do not receive any remuneration or expenses. Looking ahead As the Board monitors the delivery of its current Strategic Action Plan ( ) in the coming year, it will continue to ensure that it has sufficient talent and expertise to deliver its programmes, campaigns and activities. Both at Board and operational levels greater emphasis will be placed on succession planning (as required). A review has been undertaken of the National Coordinator s role which is responsible for the day-to-day management of the organisation. Plans to strengthen and develop this role to reflect the way in which ICs work has developed. Working with partners To start the year off, Inclusive Church hosted its 4 th Partnership Day on 26 January Groups taking part included campaigning groups such as Changing Attitude, WATCH and GRAS; and groups that encourage liberal theology. 16

17 The day was led by the Bishop of Buckingham (Alan Wilson) with The Rev d Canon Rosie Harper. Also contributing to the day was Nathan Ward a Christian magician! Media relations The partnership day enables lead officers and staff from all of Inclusive Church s participating groups to network, update each other and be encouraged in their work. The next Partnership Day is planned for 25 January Marketing communications Corporate identity During the year we created a Media group that will develop a media communications strategy supported by professional media training. Web presence We have identified volunteers who will take responsibility for maintaining our Facebook and Twitter output. We are also reviewing our current website offering and plan to strengthen this in future, making greater use of multi-media platforms. During the year we refreshed IC s branding to reflect our anniversary year. Our existing logo that is well recognised has been amended for our anniversary year: For governance matters our Hon. General Secretary: office@inclusive-church.org.uk Please quote GOVERNANCE as the subject has also seen the roll out of a revised corporate logo for Inclusive Church: 17

18 Member and supporter Information Key dates for 2013/ AGM 7 September 2013 Board meetings 7 September 2013 (immediately following AGM) 7 December March AGM 21 June 2014 How to get in touch Inclusive Church St John's Waterloo Waterloo Road London SE1 8TY The Rev'd Bob Callaghan National Coordinator T: E: office@inclusive-church.org.uk W: 18