St Paul Old Ford annual report 2024
Vicar’s report
Dear friends,
As we reflect on 2024 and look ahead to what God is calling us into, I want to frame this report around three themes that we’ve begun reflecting on in the PCC: invitation, discipleship, and storytelling.
Invitation
What does an invitational church look like?
Am I allowed to say that think it looks a bit like us? Every time someone shares an event, brings a friend to church, shows up to pray, or sits and listens over coffee or at one of our amazing bring and share lunches, that’s an invitation. It says “come, join in with what God is doing here!”
We saw this spirit of invitation in the raffle for Bow Foodbank, in the success of St Paul’s Kitchen, and in our first ever service with Prayers of Love and Faith for Vlad and Mark. We’re also a church that invites partners into our space and story, including IntoUniversity and Ability Bow, who continue to thrive in our building.
Both organisations’ leases are up for renewal, and we are committed to ensuring they can remain at the heart of our building’s life. We especially look forward to celebrating 20 years of Ability Bow here next year, and we continue to support their vital work by offering below-market rent and seeking to keep costs manageable.
I’ve come up with a new slogan: ‘St Paul Old Ford Do Food’. Our bring and share lunches are legendary expressions of hospitality, generosity, and joy. On top of that, week after week, people comment on the warmth of our church: not only literally, but in our God-given atmosphere of love and authenticity that’s uniquely us! I believe we are a gift that God would further unwrap for our community to be blessed by. And so our challenge and invitation this year is to keep opening our lives and church to others with even greater freedom and faith.
So this year, we’ll keep asking: What kind of community are we becoming? Who else might God be calling us to reach, welcome, and invite into this beautiful people He is creating?
Discipleship
How might we grow as a church where we take our own and each other’s discipleship seriously?
Discipleship means learning to live as a follower of Jesus: not just on Sundays, but at home, in our workplaces, and our relationships. This past year, I’ve been encouraged as we read our Lent book together, in midweek Bible studies, Saturday morning prayer online, Alpha, spending time with our children and young people, and in conversations I’ve had with many of you.
But as joyous as it is, discipleship is costly too. In 2024, we faced the painful loss of our beloved sister Angela Doherty. We also had to come to terms with April’s retirement. Their absence reminds us just how much we rely on one another. Furthermore, our youth Pastor, Debbie has been signed off work since last December. This has left a considerable gap in how we support and disciple young people. We miss Debbie dearly, and we constantly pray for her, Jenyce and their family.
This year, with God’s help, we are committed to rebuilding youth provision, strengthening teams, and ensuring that everyone, from our children to our elders, knows there is a place here for them to grow in their faith.
Storytelling
What is our story, and how does it fit into God’s story? How do we tell it well, and to whom?
In 2024, we marked 20 years since the building regeneration, welcomed Rev Philippa Boardman back to preach, and continued our support for our mission partners, the Quail family in Nicaragua. Our story includes both celebration and struggle, including the ongoing challenges of moving into our third year of having no treasurer, of increasing overheads, and so managing a small financial deficit despite increased income.
But our story is woven into the much greater story of God, a faithful God who walks with us, shapes us, and continually calls us to imagine new ways of being church. A God who has never let us down, and who isn’t about to start now! It’s the story of a community made up of God’s children from every background, gathered not by accident, but by grace. A place where the gospel is proclaimed week after week, and still transforms lives. A people striving to embody the radical love, welcome, and justice that Jesus set in motion, and to carry that movement forward in our own time.
My hope is that we will grow in confidence as storytellers: sharing our testimonies, speaking openly about God’s work among us, and helping those whom God is drawing near to recognise that their story belongs here too, within the unfolding story of God.
Challenges and opportunities
This past year has brought some significant transitions. April’s retirement in October was a real loss, not just personally, but in terms of the support she gave in pastoral care, Bible study, preaching, and presiding at communion. When I first arrived at St Paul’s, we had four clergy regularly involved. Now it’s just Billy and me. That inevitably means more pressure on those of us still in post, and it’s been a stretch at times. But it also opens up space for others to step into ministry. I’ve been really encouraged by Jessica and Andrew preaching, and I’d love to see a small team of lay preachers grow. Also, the Wednesday lunchtime bible study leadership is now spread out among its members. The challenge is for all of us to ask: what has God given me, and how might it fit into the life and ministry of the church?
Looking ahead to 2025
To live out these themes of invitation, discipleship, and storytelling, we are focusing on:
- building further, our children and youth ministries
- strengthening financial oversight: appointing a treasurer and improving our financial systems
- considering how our discipleship activities may be more inclusive and intentional spaces
- extending our welcome, especially to people on the margins of church life
- telling our story well through testimony, communication, online presence and local engagement
- sustaining our partnerships: renewing leases and continuing to support IntoUniversity and Ability Bow in any way we can
To everyone who has served, given, prayed, or persevered, thank you. Thank you for being part of this story. God is certainly not finished with us yet, and I look forward to all that lies ahead.
With love and gratitude in Christ Jesus,
Revd Darius Weithers
Vicar, St Paul and St Mark Old Ford
Aims and objectives
The parochial church council (PCC) of St Paul and St Mark Old Ford works in partnership with the vicar to further the mission of the church in this parish: to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ through worship, teaching, service and welcome. The PCC is committed to creating a safe and inclusive space where everyone is welcomed and fully known, and to enabling people to grow in confidence in Jesus and live out the way of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The PCC confirms that in planning its activities for the year, it has had due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.
Achievements and performance
In 2024, St Paul’s continued to provide regular opportunities for worship and discipleship. Our Sunday Eucharist remains at the centre of our worshipping life, supported by midday Prayer, Saturday morning prayer (online), and midweek Bible studies. We also conducted weddings, funerals, and other occasional offices.
We continued to build strong partnerships within the wider community, including hosting IntoUniversity and Ability Bow in our building throughout the year. We expanded our building hire capacity and reach, creating new income streams and opening the building to more local use.
Our youth and schools ministry remained a priority. We sustained our weekly youth lunch club, Sunday school and Sunday morning youth (for more information, see the youth ministry section), and took school assemblies in local schools and welcomed children into the church at important times such as Easter, harvest, and Christmas.
We were grateful to welcome Hina as an intern and to have Iryna join the team, expanding our capacity for engagement.
There were many highlights in the year, which Rev Darius has mentioned in his report above.
We give thanks for the energy and commitment of the congregation and volunteers who sustain the mission and ministry of the church.
Church finances
2024 overview
The PCC is pleased to report a 14.6% increase in income, from £237,847 in 2023 to £276,916 in 2024. This reflects growth in building hire income, cafe takings, and fundraising initiatives.
However, expenditure rose by 18.6%, from £234,503 in 2023 to £278,228 in 2024 mainly due to increased staffing and utility costs. This meant that overall St Paul’s was left with a deficit of £1,311, compared to the small surplus of £3,344 in 2023.
Church income
The main sources of income were as follows.
Church activities: these contributed £188,095 in 2024, compared to £153,925 in 2023. The largest proportion of this by far was income from property rental, which brought in 181,019 in 2024.
Donations and legacies were the next largest source of income. These contributed £82,717 in 2024, compared to £80,328 in 2023. Income in this section includes planned and unplanned giving, gift aid claims and contributions towards utility bills from tenants.
There was growing income from the cafe in its first full year of operation since the reopening. It contributed £6,323 in 2024, up from £4,011 in 2023.
Investment income: the deposit account interest increased to £6,105in 2024 from £3,594 in 2023.
Church expenditure
The main areas of expenditure were as follows.
Church running costs: like everyone else, the church is not immune to cost of living pressures. This can be seen in the almost 45% rise in the costs of running the church, up from £140,754 in 2023 to £200,507 in 2024
Common Fund: each year the PCC pledges its Common Fund contribution to the Church of England. The figures in the accounts show the cash amount paid to the Diocese of London at 31 December but there is always a balance due on the pledged amount as the final payment is made in the following January. For 2024 the PCC committed £62,500 to the Common Fund, up from £60,000 in 2023.
You can download the pdf copies of our 2024 accounts below.
St Paul Old Ford accounts 2024
St Paul Old Ford detailed income statement 2024
Treasurer
The Treasurer role remains vacant, which is a significant operational challenge. Financial oversight has been shared among existing staff and PCC members, with support from a financial adviser and our independent examiners.
Reserves
Our reserves policy is under review to ensure that the church can cover at least three months’ essential operating costs. The PCC is committed to maintaining financial stability and is working to recruit a new treasurer.
Church activity through the week
Prayer
Prayer is a vital part of our church life, as we speak to God and listen for him speaking to us. 2024 saw the revival of daily midday prayer daily in the Tower Room. It’s a great opportunity to take time out in the middle of the day to come and pray.
We also continued our monthly evening prayer meetings in the church cafe on the second Wednesday of each month, as well as the weekly online prayers every Saturday mornings, led by Rev Darius.
Bible study
Our weekly Bible studies are an opportunity for us to deepen our faith and to care for one another, There were 3 groups meeting on Wednesdays:
- lunchtime Bible study at 12.30 in the Garden Room
- evening Bible study, every other week, at 7:30pm in the church cafe
- Bible in the pub, at 8pm in The Eleanor Arms
Other groups
In 2024, we started a stay and play session for parents with babies and toddlers aged 0 to 4 years. It provides fun and engaging activities in a safe environment in the meeting hall on Fridays between 10am to 12pm.
There is an informal group that began meeting in the church cafe on Fridays at 11am, led by Joy, called Knit and Natter (with the emphasis on ‘natter’!)
The men’s breakfasts continued regularly throughout 2024, led by our lay reader, Andrew Walters, assembling a group of men in the church café in Saturday mornings for a time of food and fellowship.
Food bank
We have a trunk inside the reception area that’s used to collect food and other essential materials for the Bow Foodbank. Chris delivers this every Tuesday to the foodbank’s Roman Road centre round the corner. It contributes to a very urgent need, which is sadly always growing.
Pastoral care at St Paul’s
The pastoral work at St Paul’s is headed by Anne, our pastoral assistant and Revddd Darius. There is a small pastoral team, including Joy Redman, Chris Watson and Doris Ani-Agyei. Our associate priest April Keech, retired in October, and she has been greatly missed by the pastoral team.
The pastoral team meets together occasionally as a group to pray, and confidentiality is strictly observed. When the church building is open (Monday to Friday from 9.30 to -5pm) there is usually someone on reception who can offer help or contact someone who can help.
We offer pastoral care to members of our church and community who are housebound, ill, in hospital, or going through a difficult time. We have two or three elderly members who are in their 90s and unable to get to services, so we make regular visits to them, or phone calls, sometimes taking communion and always offering prayer.
Sadly, in 2024 we lost 2 of our church members, Angela Doherty and Maureen Beer. We miss them greatly and pray for their families. We also held a memorial service for Eddie Collins, who passed away in late 2023.
St Paul’s building report
The building team
The St Paul’s building team is made up of Divya, our building manager, Grace, the welcome and hospitality co-ordinator, and in 2024 we welcomed new team member Iryna as our part-time office and finance administrator.
The team also includes Trevor is our handyman, whose help has been invaluable as always, finding creative ways to repair and update things in the building. As well as being a willing helper, his abilities and knowledge saves us a lot of money each year, solving problems with ease.
Room bookings and venue hire
The numbers of bookings last year were the highest they have ever been – bringing in over £40,000 – which has only ever happened in one other year before. We began working with room hire website Sharesy to advertise space and this has contributed to the higher number of bookings. It has brought in many new customers and types of events including engagement parties, children’s parties, dance workshops, baby sensory, sound baths and exercise classes for various age groups.
St Paul’s Kitchen
Our church café St Pauls Kitchen has seen an increase in new customers becoming regular customers, alongside the return of older known faces. People comment daily on the delicious food and sense of safety, community and socialisation they feel they are able to experience here. Jeanette and Rose run the café, speak with customers, know people by name and their food preferences, even offering custom meals at times. This passion and multitasking is a joy to witness and perfectly represents the values of St Paul’s which aims to be welcoming to all.
Youth ministry
During 2024, our youth ministry was once again led by Debbie Mack. Debbie did a fantastic job developing teams to support the work and building strong partnerships with local churches. Some of the highlights of the year were taking some of our young people on a residential trip, as well as taking others to a local youth worship event, both of which were made possible through those partnerships.
The core of our youth ministry last year consisted of two drop-in youth clubs and our Sunday morning youth group. The drop-ins were Rise, which met on Monday nights, and its partner group, a Thursday lunchtime club at Morpeth School. The lunch club served as a first point of contact for young people outside the church, whom Debbie would then invite to join Rise on Monday evenings.
The lunch club experienced remarkable growth, starting with just a handful of students and eventually welcoming 15 to 30 each week, so many that the team nearly had to turn some away. As a result, Rise also saw significant growth, increasing from a regular group of 3 to 6 young people, to an average of 14 by December.
This year we also said “see you soon” to Charis, who joined the Rise team in 2023 and stepped back to prepare for the birth of her baby. At the same time, we welcomed Hina as our Stepney Intern, and Jess who both joined the youth ministry team during 2024.
Our Sunday youth group also went from strength to strength, welcoming new young people and expanding the leadership team working alongside Debbie. Altogether, 2024 was a significant year for both our outreach to young people and the discipleship that takes place primarily on Sundays.
Sadly, Debbie became unwell in December and was signed off work long-term. As a result, we made the difficult decision to pause the Monday night Rise group until we can rebuild a team to relaunch it. However, Sunday youth has continued and is now being led by Jemma, Shola, Hina, Bianca, and Rev Darius. The Morpeth lunch club also continues, now led by Hina and Michael and Abie from St Paul’s Shadwell.
Despite the setbacks, we are deeply encouraged by all that God has done through our youth ministry this year. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who gave their time and energy to serve and pray for our amazing young people. We thank God for the opportunities we’ve had to walk alongside them and their families, and we look forward with hope and expectation to what God will do next.
Rev Darius would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to all the Rise, Sunday youth, and lunch club leaders, without whom none of this amazing work would have been possible.
Safeguarding
Why safeguarding is important
The issues of safeguarding which have been a very contentious issue in the Church of England for several years came to a head over the past few months. The publication of the Makin report in November 2024 detailed the ways in which senior clergy failed to take action on the abuse carried out by John Smyth. The handling of the case of David Tudor who was banned from ministry because of past abuse is also under scrutiny. The Church of England is currently focusing on strengthening its safeguarding practices, including implementing new codes of practice and exploring models for independent safeguarding.
As a church, we want St Paul Old Ford to be as safe a place as possible for everybody who uses the building. So it’s very important that we make sure that we have a culture that addresses the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, by making sure we have robust policies and procedures in place. Please remember that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility.
Safeguarding is an item on the agenda of all PCC meetings. We have worked on our action plan and safeguarding policies and procedures over the past year, such as a lone working policy, and polices on recruitment of ex-offenders and appropriate boundaries. We have made sure there is a safeguarding policy notice, information about safeguarding procedures and details of people with safeguarding roles on display in the church and on our website. We discuss safeguarding concerns with the diocesan advisers. We use the software programme MyConcern to record information. The PCC is aware of the House of Bishops’ guidance on safeguarding.
Activities relevant to safeguarding
Many of the activities we’ve already outlined in this report are relevant to safeguarding. These include the activities for children, young people and adults, such as the Sunday school, Sunday youth group, RISE, Morpeth School lunch club, stay and play, men’s and women’s breakfast groups, the work of the welcome team and pastoral team, and the bible study groups.
Volunteer DBS checks
All volunteers who are working with children, young people and vulnerable adults need to be recruited safely. A part of this is appropriate levels of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks which need to be renewed every 3 years. Some of these are still underway.
Training
All these volunteers also need to do safeguarding training. The 3 areas are Basic Awareness, Foundations and Raising Awareness of Domestic Abuse, which need to be undertaken every 3 years to stay up to date with best practice. These are mostly done online but we hope to arrange some in-house training in the next few months as an alternative route. Training is an area that still needs more work.
Safeguarding Sunday
We marked Safeguarding Sunday on 17 November 2024. It is an annual event which aims to raise awareness and highlight the importance of safeguarding and how it protects vulnerable children, young people and vulnerable adults. Our service was themed around issues related to keeping our children, young people and vulnerable adults as safe as possible and to encourage the creation of a safer environment for everybody. Our service discussed issues and best practices and encouraged us all to think about our responsibilities and about what we need to do.
Working together to improve safeguarding
Our church safeguarding officer Jean Robinson says “I would like to thank everybody in the congregation for their willingness to engage and support safeguarding since I was appointed as Parish Safeguarding Officer in May 2024. Many people have given their time to complete the required training and undergo Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for which I am very grateful. The reception and admin team have helped with all sorts of things. Darius has been very willing to give me his time and support and the PCC and church wardens have been involved and supportive. I am also very grateful for the diocesan safeguarding advisers for their patience, support and advice. We still have a lot to do but I know we will be able to move forward.”
Church governance
How the PCC works
The parochial church council (PCC) is a corporate body established by the Church of England. The PCC operates under the Parochial Church Council Powers Measure 1956. The PCC is a registered charity. Appointment of PCC members is governed by and set out in the Church Representation Rules.
Members of the PCC are either ‘ex officio’ (on the PCC because of another position they hold), elected at the APCM, or co-opted in line with the Church Representation Rules.
The PCC meets 5 times a year, to oversee the spiritual, financial, and practical affairs of the parish. It hears reports of church business and makes decisions about the running of St Paul’s. It is chaired by Rev Darius.
We also have a standing committee made up of the vicar, the churchwardens, the treasurer (when we have one) and the secretary, who handle the church’s business between PCC meetings. They are authorised to act on behalf of the PCC, subject to any directions and decisions by the full PCC.
PCC members
The parochial church council (PCC) members in 2024 were:
• Rev Darius Weithers
• Melanie O’Reilly (church warden)
• Tim Murray (church warden)
• Rob Lowther-Adamson (secretary)
• Emma Andrews (from 2024 – co-opted)
• Victor Cummings (from 2024 APCM)
• Shola Ogunlade (from 2024 APCM)
• Matthew McKay
• Janet Andrews (from 2024 APCM)
• Anne Zakiewicz (pastoral assistant)
• Andrew Walters (licensed lay minister)
• Tracey Yeman (deanery synod rep)
• Jean Robinson (safeguarding officer – from 2024)
• Chris Watson (left at 2024 APCM)
• Dee Kafeno (left at 2024 APCM)
• Doris Ani-Agyei (left at 2024 APCM)
• Ceri Durham (left at 2024 APCM)
• Corrine Louis (left at 2024 APCM)
Statement of PCC responsibilities
The PCC is responsible for ensuring that proper accounting records are kept, and that financial statements are prepared which comply with the Church Accounting Regulations 2006 and the Charities Act 2011. The PCC is also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Administrative information
The Parish of St Paul and St Mark, Old Ford
St Stephen’s Rd
Bow
London E3 5JL
Charity number: 1133963
Vicar: Rev Darius Weithers
Church wardens: Melanie O’Reilly and Tim Murray
PCC Secretary: Rob Lowther-Adamson
Treasurer: vacant
Bank: Barclays
Financial adviser: Jenny Bernard
Independent auditor: Alex Mutyaba, Alex & Co, Chartered Certified Accountants
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