Principal activities of the company

Nelson Street Church Rochdale is an Anglican ‘Bishop’s Mission Order’ Church, led by Revd Janie Cronin who was commissioned by the Bishop of Manchester to plant a resource church in Rochdale. Our objectives are set in our governing documents, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, which was agreed by the Board of Trustees in September 2020. OUR OBJECTIVES The advancement of the Christian religion principally: - through the provision of an Anglican place of worship in Rochdale, and - by contributing towards the establishment, renewal and revitalisation of churches with the Anglican communion. The Board of Trustees is committed to the vision statement of the church to play our part in the re- evangelisation of the nation, the revitalisation of the church and the transformation of society by ‘loving God, loving people and making a difference’. In accordance with the vision statement, the church aims to meet its objectives through the provision of church services, courses, and planting churches. Given the diversity of the church’s activities, performance is measured on a case-by-case basis.

Additional information

Structure, Governance and Management Governing Documents The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee without share capital, incorporated on 15th September 2020 and registered as a charity on 29th October 2020. Nelson Street Church Rochdale was established under a Memorandum of Association that establishes its objects and powers and is governed under its Articles of Association. Members of the charitable company guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £10 to the assets of the charitable company in event of winding up. STRUCTURE The directors of the company are also charity trustees for the purpose of charity law. The Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance and management of the church. The responsibility for leadership of the churchs activities, development of its spiritual life and its daily management has been delegated to the senior leadership team who are supported in that role by the staff team including clergy. The Board of Trustees retains final decisions over policy, employment of staff and finance, and takes responsibility for all matters of legal and regulatory compliance. Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no financial benefit from the charity. Trustees are appointed by trustee members and can be appointed by ordinary resolution at a general meeting of members. DECISION MAKING All financial and strategic decisions over £10,000 are taken by the entire Board of Trustees. Any financial and strategic decisions over £5,000 are taken by the senior leadership team. The organisational implementation of the strategy is carried out by senior leadership. The Revd Janie Cronin fulfils the key day-to-day senior management role. The salary of the key management role is paid by the diocese in accordance with the agreed salary structure of ordained personnel in the Church of England. TRAINING All staff, volunteers and trustees undergo formal recruitment and selection process, followed by an induction period that includes any training considered necessary to effectively perform their role. Senior Leadership of the church consists of clergy, whose pay is set via stipend, the level of which is set by the Diocese. VOLUNTEERS The church benefits from the dedicated work of a great number of volunteers. In accordance to FRS 102 and the Charities SORP (102), the economic contribution of general volunteers is not recognised in the accounts. PUBLIC BENEFIT In accordance with our duties as stated in section 17(5) of the Charities Act, we have considered the guidance provided by the Charity Commission regarding public benefit. This public benefit has been demonstrated by the activities undertaken since inception of the charity outlined in this document. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE Since the charity was formed all decisions made and the structure put in place will help us deliver our vision as stated above. Highlights of the period January 2024 to December 2024 include: Sunday Services - Towards the end of 2024 average Sunday morning attendance was 99 adults and 33 children each week, with an estimated 170 different individuals attending each month. In September we celebrated 3 years of meeting in the church building with 120 people staying for a celebration lunch, this meant that we could use our new kitchen for catering. A large number of the congregation were previously de-churched or unchurched and more than half were under the age of 40. At least 60 per cent of adults volunteered on various teams (worship, AV, welcome, hospitality, children). Dedication and Infant Baptism Services – in April 2024, 182 individuals (133 adults and 49 children) and in November 2024, 207 individuals (158 adults and 49 children) attended our Dedication services. Adult Baptisms – we hosted a baptism service in June at which 2 people were baptised and 3 individuals affirmed their baptismal vows (129 adults and 39 children attended), in September we also had 3 adults affirming their baptismal vows (89 adults and 32 children attended). We had some new members join the church following the baptism of family or friends. On 27th October 2024 we were honoured to be featured in the Church of England online service: Sharing the Light of Jesus. 5,000 individuals watched the service on YouTube and almost 400,000 people have viewed it on the Church of Englands social media. Over Easter and Christmas periods we held a number of events in the community and in church. Our curate (now priest!), Georgina, focussed on ministry in Syke (see Syke section) and has been working with the local diocese with the plan to plant a new church in 2026. She has supported Nelson Street with many services. We celebrated her ordination as a priest in June. After which, Georgina has also presided at communion at Nelson Street on a number of occasions and supported local churches with Christenings, Eucharist and has also spoken at a funeral at a local crematorium. In September, she led one of Nelson Streets deeper teaching courses over a few weeks (see Deeper Teaching section). Our ordinand Elizabeth was a very creative addition to our Sunday morning services. She led a number of Sunday services and our Good Friday service, and often preached during 2024. She is now doing her curacy in Moss Side, at St James with St Clement and Whalley Range, St Edmund benefice. Throughout 2024 we had 3 childrens groups running alongside the Sunday morning service; these groups were: Creche (ages 0-3), NKids (ages 4-11) and NYouth (ages 11-15). Where volunteer numbers have allowed, these sessions have been a much-needed split for the children to allow age-appropriate teaching and games to take place. These sessions were attended by approximately 30-40 (with an average of 33) children overall each week. Worship together (where children join the adults for sung worship) have become a twice monthly occurrence. During 2024, we extended our schools work to building connections with more classes in Greenbank Primary School. These connections have led to Nelson Street Church welcoming over 60 children to experience Easter and 60 to experience Christmas with us in church. Overall, we went into 11 different classes in school at both Christmas and Easter to provide Religious Education lessons. Each half term or school holiday we hosted movie afternoons, craft days, termly parties. We had 40 children sign up for the weekly badge adventure over the summer holidays. NYouth continued a monthly Youth Group on a Sunday evening, aimed at discipling 11–18-year-olds. On average, 16 individuals attended these sessions and 8 attended the fortnightly Youth Band practice. In September, we had a Youth Sunday Service, where our youth led the service and the youth band led worship, this was very well received with 36 children and 89 adults attending. Nelson Street Church was also a leading part of the No More Knives tour in Rochdale with The Message Trust (a Manchester based charity focused on community and youth work), which mixes music with powerful stories to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need to say no to knives and start to discover their full value and identity. This event in December saw 400 young people attend. Nelson Streets youth Christmas social was a great success, bringing over 30 young people into the building and having fun. RESOURCING All the courses facilitated by Nelson Street Church in 2024 were offered to other local churches. Alpha – In 2024 we ran 2 Alpha courses (February and September) - a 7-week course that gives guests the opportunity to explore faith and the meaning of life whilst sharing a meal and developing community, 35 people in total completed the course. Following Alpha, Nelson Street ran an Alpha Plus course, a 6-week discipleship course for those who had completed the Alpha course and wanted to know more. The Bereavement Journey – The Bereavement Journey course, to support those dealing with grief, was run twice in 2024 (February and October). In total 34 individuals completed the course, many with no previous connection to Nelson Street Church Rochdale. In September 2024 we ran a Prayer Ministry Training course. During 2024, Janie led Talk Tips (a course to equip people to preach) and service leaders training. Once a term we also lead Service leader vision events, to which all people leading, speaking or leading sung worship are invited to ensure that all are inspired and aligned with the vision of Nelson Street Church. We also held a 4-week course entitled Hearing Gods Voice, which explored how we can hear Gods voice and the gift of prophecy. One of the Deeper Teaching modules in 2024 was Restoring Eden, a theological look at Christians responsibility to climate change and other environmental emergencies. And Freedom in Jesus, a look at what this actually means with reference to Galatians 5:1. In September we began a course called Gods Big Story – to explore Jesuss role in Gods plan. In 2024 we continued to release our Worship Pastor half a day a fortnight to fulfil chaplaincy role in a local textile company. Rochdale Town-Wide Prayer Gathering – Janie and James regularly meet with local church leaders, and Nelson Street are committed to being involved in the bi-annual town- wide prayer gatherings. Nelson Street hosted The Gathering in May, where approximately 20 local churches gathered together for this town wide prayer and worship event. This was a great success and we saw 200 individuals attend. In November, Nelson Street hosted Churches across Rochdale gathering together for a joint time of prayer for our schools and young people. in April 2024 Nelson Street hosted the Deanery synod. In 2024 we ran several different events with a view to reaching out to those who do not normally attend church. We continued to run Spirit Cafe once a month in 2024. This initiative has proved a highly successful way of engaging with the unchurched. Our weekly average is 12 guests. Throughout the school holidays of 2024 various Pop-Up activities were hosted for children throughout Rochdale, including film nights, craft days, outdoor games and termly parties. We hosted Tea, Toast and Tummy time for babies and their parents or carers. We collaborated with Theatre in Flow (TiF) including Mental Dental a theatre performance and discussion exploring Englands dental health emergency, which we hosted in April. We also hosted a TiF Womens Clothes Swap in April and a Supper Club throughout the summer. Supper Club is a social gathering and meal, which is open to all women, but focusses on those in circumstances such as poverty, homelessness, with mental health challenges, disability, domestic violence, refugee status, or other personal struggles. In beginning of the year, a fortnightly Friendship Cafe was hosted as a safe, warm space for people to have free coffee, cake and some company. We hosted a number of social events such as Blokes Breakfast, Chaps curry, and Womens Curry nights which were very popular hosting between 30 – 60 individuals at each event. We began a social weekly drop in sessions for crafts and games called Connect.in up to the Christmas period. Aimed at people who were seeking community and friendship in the Christmas period, this proved very popular. Karaoke we held a karaoke night during the summer period, which saw 40 church and unchurched people attend. World Mental Health Day - we opened the church as a drop in, offering a safe space for people to come to talk, learn about mindfulness, and take part in crafts and other activities. Around 20 people dropped in during the day. In 2024 we continued outreach in Syke. We spent time going door-to-door around the area most weeks, taking prayer requests, handing out invitations and talking with people. Georgina continued as Chaplain at the Sea Cadets, where numbers grew from 30 to around 40 young people, and 10 adults each week. On 28th March we handed out over 400 creme eggs and Easter Cards at Greenbank Primary School - a further 50 leftover creme eggs were later enjoyed by the Rochdale Sea Cadets! The team ran fortnightly craft and wellbeing sessions for parents at Greenbank Primary School, there were 10-20 Mums at each session, and a total of about 30 different Mums. On 31st October we went out to spread some light, talking to trick-or-treaters and knocking on doors. We handed out about 200 glow sticks and Christmas invitations, and more than 2kg of chocolate! In December, we held Carols on the Common, led by a brass quartet. 60 people gathered together, including locals, people from Nelson Street and a group from the Sea Cadets. Throughout December we handed out invitations to our new Meet & Eat worshipping community, which we plan to launch in January 2025 at the Sea Cadets building on Greenbank Road. Focus – In July 2024 we took 42 people to Focus, HTBs Christian Festival, for the first time. This was a wonderful way of getting to know each other, spending time in Gods presence and connecting with the wider HTB network. Award – in 2024 Nelson Street Church were proud to be awarded a Bronze Eco Award. VOLUNTEERS Nelson Street Church Rochdale uses volunteers to help support all aspects of its ministry. At a normal Sunday morning service by the end of 2024 around 60 volunteers to support the hospitality, worship, kids, and youth teams. We also have 20 volunteers to help with our various courses. Any midweek events such as The Bereavement Journey, Alpha, Spirit Cafe and the Youth Nights could not be run without substantial volunteer teams. FUTURE PLANS Future plans of the church in 2025 involve continuing the activities outlined above, as well as offering more soft edge events for those who are not connected. In 2025 we aim to start: NKids – In 2025 we plan to split the childrens work on a Sunday morning so that we have 4 groups running alongside the Sunday morning service instead of 3; these groups will be; Creche (ages 0-3), Sprouts (ages 4-7), Giants (ages 8-11) and NYouth (ages 11-15). These sessions will be a much-needed split for the primary-aged children to allow age-appropriate teaching and games to take place. We hope that by autumn term each of these groups can run weekly. Hope Has Name - working with other churches to reach the people of Rochdale with events and a website directing people to their local churches. Rooted – to reach non-church going families who wish to bring their children to church in order to be eligible to attend Church of England schools. The evenings will be the first Wednesday of the month including games, music Bible, stories and worship. Connect.in due to the success of Connect.in at Christmas 2023, we planned to do this as a monthly event. - Holy Spirit Conference – we have invited Johnny Nimmo and Nicola Neal to host a weekend of prayer ministry training, sung worship, this event will be open to Nelson Street congregants and the local community and churches. As part of this we will invite leaders from Rochdale churches to a special training session. - Meet and Eat in Syke – see Syke section above. We will continue to train and equip our congregation to impact their local communities through teaching, with courses and training on a variety of topics. KEY RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES The principal risks and uncertainties that the trustees see as facing the charity and any subsidiaries include the ongoing responsibility of the financial cost of maintaining the Church premises as well as SDF grant funding for staff roles tapering off. The trustees plans and strategies surrounding these risks include working closely with the Diocese and the SDF Project Board to explore opportunities to apply for relevant grants as well as forecasting and budgeting for the increased financial responsibilities. The Trustees continue to be aware of the impact of the rate of inflation and cost of living on charity expenditure (particularly rising energy bills) and income (namely congregational income) and are reviewing this throughout the year. This is expected to continue to have a negative impact on finances in 2025. We continue to have ongoing issues with the church boilers, impacting heating and hot water supply and a number of leaks form the roof. We continue to work with the Diocese on these issues, but the resolution could have an impact on unreserved funds. By the end of 2024 we were still unable to recruit a Youth Worker for the vacant role. A change to the staffing structure was implemented in January 2025 combining the Children and Family Worker role with the Youth Worker role. The Youth Worker role will focus on discipleship and pastoral care for the youth we are connecting with, rather than focusing on outreach. FINANCIAL REVIEW In the financial year ending 31st December 2024, the church received voluntary income from the congregation totalling £97k (2023 £56k) and grants totalling £159k (2023 £195k). Total income for the year came to £256k (2023 £251k). Expenditure in 2024 totalled £237k (2023 £271k) giving rise to a surplus on unrestricted funds of £20k (2023 deficit of £30k). Restricted funds ended the year with a balance of £49k (up from £48k in 2023). The church has an outstanding loan from the Diocese of £117k. There is currently no timetable agreed for repayment of this loan. The loan was given to help fund the refurbishment of the building. Reserves Policy The Board of Trustees are aware of the need to maintain sufficient reserves. The policy is to hold free reserves of at least 3 months of unrestricted expenditure which would indicate a minimum level of £21k. At the end of 2024 there was £123k of free reserves. These are unrestricted reserves (excluding fixed assets) which are available for use in the next 12 months. At 2024 levels of unrestricted expenditure, these reserves are adequate to cover over a years annual expenditure. It should be noted that the loan of £117k from the Diocese is not taken into account in these figures as it is not expected to be due for repayment until after at least 12 months. In the longer term, as the loan of £117k becomes due for repayment, it is anticipated that the churches income by that point will be sufficient to cover the repayments over 60 months. SAFEGUARDING The Board of Trustees have adopted the Diocese of Manchesters safeguarding policy relating to children, young people and vulnerable adults and appointed Revd Janie Cronin and Mrs Linda Mycock as Safeguarding Officers. The Safeguarding Officers have completed the necessary diocese training courses in safeguarding young people and vulnerable adults. The trustees are committed to the principles of best practice in relation to safeguarding and comply with the duty under section 5 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016 in respect of having due regard to House of Bishops guidance on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. The guidance can be read in full on the Church of England official website.

This report was approved by the board of directors on 25 September 2025
and signed on behalf of the board by:

Name: Jane Cronin
Status: Director