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Annual Report Summary 2023-2024

Covering the period 01 August 2023 to 31 July 2024

A message from Andy Tilsley and Joel Wade, Co-Senior Leaders

Last year was a particularly significant year for the church, as we were handed the senior leadership of the church from David Stroud. The church and everyone involved in the transition is to be commended for the spirit in which this change has taken place, and the church is in excellent health as it heads into a new and exciting chapter.

We want to pay credit to the hard work of the staff team, who have navigated all these changes with grace, faith and a generous spirit, as well as the hundreds of people across the church who give so much time, energy and money to make all of this possible. We are inspired by their love for God and His church, and full of anticipation for the new chapter together.

 

Our Services

In Numbers:

  • 5 services, 4 locations
  • 27 community groups
  • 235 volunteers serving on our hospitality, kids, prayer, production/tech, welcome and worship teams
  • 600+ mince pies consumed after 850 people (including over 200 children and youth) attended one of our Carol, Christingle, and Nativity services across the service locations.
  • 559 people gathered on any given Sunday – with averages of 127 in Mile End, 71 in Central, 71 in Stockwell, and 290 in our two Sutton services (of which 83 are children and youth!)

Highlights from across the church

There have been many highlights this year! But here a handful of particular note:

  • Gathering the church together for another brilliant church retreat at Ashburnham Place in August  – we had a total of 332 people attend, and were joined by guest speaker Joshua Luke Smith. 14 people were baptised in the lake too!
  • Central service – David Stroud handed over leadership to Joel Wade in April. The service moved location to Mary Ward House in Russell Square. David has taken on the role of Founding Pastor and continues to lead the Everything network.
  • East service – Adnan and Jess Khan were commissioned as the leaders of the newly merged East service in April and continue to see the service grow and flourish as they lead it into a new chapter. A Farsi speaking service has started to gather on Sunday afternoons at Coborn Street.
  • Stockwell Service – Helen and Shaninga Marasha formed a new local Leadership Team (6 people) and Core Team (community and ministry/team leaders). Community groups met weekly and continue to strengthen the service alongside quarterly Empowered events.
  • Sutton Service – Andy and Joy Tilsley continue to the lead the service. Joy came on staff and oversees the Children’s work across the church. The service moved locations due to the continued growth in both the English and Cantonese speaking services.
  • Launched two new charities in February 2023 – STEPS Global and Everything (AORT) Network.
  • Annual Gift Day offering raised £195,000 surpassing our target of £150,000.
  • Guiding church members through both joyous and challenging times through our pastoral courses – this year we ran monthly serenity services, STEPS courses, marriage MOT course and Alpha courses.
  • Autumn 2023 we led the church through a significant series on the subject of sex, sexuality, marriage and singleness. There were 12 sessions over 3 months, and guest speakers included Carl Trueman, David Bennett and Damilola Makinde.
  • Hosting The Last Supper Clubat Coborn Street in April is always a favourite – we had over 100 guests sit down over a three-course meal to explore the story of Easter through a mixture of short talks, spoken word from Joshua Luke Smith and live music.

Partnerships

STEPS

Over the past year, STEPS Global has directly impacted over 480 lives and connected with more than 1,100 people through its programmes. New resources such as a podcast and Spanish translation have been developed and they have received hundreds of individual reports of how STEPS has healed, restored, and transformed lives, leading to greater peace, a renewed hope, and in almost all cases, a deeper faith. We continue to work closely with STEPS, running and promoting the courses within the church.

Everything Network

Key activities this year have been the Everything Leadership Development Cohort, which trains 40 young leaders over the course of the year to develop their sense of calling for the work of cultural renewal.

The Everything Supper Club is designed to connect senior leaders from many different sectors and enable them to collaborate to bring about renewal.
The annual Everything Conference gathers, encourages and send-out change-making missionaries to work for cultural renewal in whatever sector or part of the world God has them.

We continue to work closely with STEPs and the Everything Network, partnering with them to run the Everything Conference and promoting their events and programmes within the church.

Local Social Action and Mission

GrowTH
Sutton Community Project
Refugee Education UK (REUK)
Other Organisations

GrowTH

Our Mile End service continue to partner with GrowTH, a charity in Tower Hamlets that works with local churches to provide shelter for 10-20 homeless guests over the winter months, while also help them find permanent accommodation. This year, the night shelter hosted over 70 guests, three of whom committed their lives to Jesus.

Sutton Community Project

The Sutton Community Project gives out free fruit & vegetable boxes to those in need in the local community. They are serving 120 families per week, and providing a community cafe, as well as support and prayer for those in need. They also provide money advisors from Christians Against Poverty (CAP). As well as engaging over 60 volunteers in this project.

Refugee Education UK (REUK)

Refugee Education UK (REUK) provides educational support to unaccompanied children and teenagers arriving in the UK. Christ Church London has continued its support of REUK by contributing £10,000 to this work.

Alongside its mentoring program, REUK has continued its advocacy work, most recently joining Together with Refugees, a coalition of organisations concerned about the proposed changes to the asylum system.

Other Organisations

Christ Church London has also contributed to and partnered with projects such as The Street Kitchen in Stockwell, Acts 435 and Pimlico Foundation providing food, shelter, training and prayer to those most vulnerable in our London communities.

International Social Action and Mission

International Justice Mission
Compassion UK
Other organisations

International Justice Mission

We have continued our partnership with IJM, contributing £10,000 to their field office in the Dominican Republic. The project has significantly reduced child trafficking in the region. We are now working closely with IJM to discuss how else we can work with them to impact other nations and end modern-day slavery for good.

Compassion UK

We contributed £10,000 to two Child Survival Programs (CSP) in Rwanda, which seek to end child poverty by providing holistic care to mothers and their children from pregnancy until the child is old enough to enter the sponsorship program. We are also encouraging our church members to consider sponsoring a child linked to these projects.

Other organisations

As part of our response to the Libya and Morrocco appeal, Christ Church London contributed £3,000 to Christian Aid’s disaster relief work in November 2023.

Finances