A brief introduction to the work of the East Midlands Synod Trust
The Synod Trust is the legal owner of the assets of the Synod which includes property and money and is regarded as the body with legal responsibility for its activities and employees.
Our Conciliar nature
As the United Reformed Church, we value conciliar decision making where we:
- listen to each other, and the urgings of the Holy Spirit
- act with humility
- act with grace and generosity
- seek to consider the good of all God’s people, fostering obedience to the Gospel and furthering justice and climate care, rather than narrow self interest
We believe that transparency about our decision making helps us be accountable to each other, and to God, whose mission we seek to serve.
We will use the charitable funds at our disposal lawfully and ensure the activity carried out with them is compliant.
The Trust
The Trust is not a committee of Synod and, while the Synod nominates the members of the Trust Board, it does not have the authority over the Trust that it has over its committees. The Trust, however, is obliged to act in the best interests of the Synod.
The work of the Trust can be described as falling into three areas: Property, People and Finance. In all three it is obliged to adhere to general Trust law and is guided by two documents, the Memorandum and Articles of the Trust and the Second Schedule to the United Reformed Acts. Additionally, the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2022 have a significant influence on its work.
Property
The URC Act distinguishes between properties used for religious worship and properties used as residences. In both cases the Trust holds them for local churches. While the day-to-day management of churches, church halls and manses is the responsibility of the relevant Church Meeting, the Trust must be consulted and it’s authority obtained before a building can be “altered, enlarged, improved, rebuilt, supplemented or demolished”. Sadly, the current situation of the Church is such that the Trust more frequently finds itself called to carry out one of its other duties regarding property which is the sale of closed churches. In all of this work the Synod Property Officer is available to advise churches and while the Act says that the Trust is not “responsible for the repair and upkeep” of buildings “except to the extent of funds supplied” for that purpose the Trust has the ability to make a limited number of grants and loans for the care of church buildings. With regard to Manses the Trust funds the acquisition of houses where either there is no Manse or the current property is unsuitable.
People
The Trust is the employer of the staff of the Synod. As such it is responsible for their salaries and working conditions, but in most cases the day-to-day management of their work lies with one of the Synod committees. The principal exception to this is the Property Officer, whose work relates primarily to areas for which the Trust is responsible.
Finance
The Trust holds all the funds of the Synod. Some of the money can only be used for a specific purpose because it is held in a restricted fund (one where the original donor gave the money for a particular purpose), or in a designated fund (one where either the Trust Board or the Synod has resolved that it is only to be used for a particular purpose). The difference between the two is that designated funds can be re-designated while restricted funds cannot. However, most of the assets of the Trust are held in general funds which can be used without restriction other than those imposed by the URC Acts or the Memorandum and Articles of the Trust. It is from the general funds of the Trust that the Trust funds its own budget and that part of the Synod budget which is not met from a Synod levy on the Ministry and Mission Fund of the URC. The Trust has the power to invest funds to further its aims, and to optimise the financial return in both income and capital growth. It does this through three different firms of Investment Managers thus spreading the risk of any one of these failing to produce an adequate return. While until relatively recently the government imposed strict rules over where charitable trusts could invest these are now much less limiting but the Trust is still guided by the ethical policies of the Church. Accordingly, we do not invest in several areas including fossil fuels, alcohol, armaments or tobacco. The Trust has an investment committee which regularly monitors the performance of its investment managers, and which seeks to advise the Trust Board on how much of the income from the sale of properties should be placed in long term investments and how much should be retained against the projected needs of the Synod.
Charity Commission requirements
The Charity Commission requires the Trust to be confident that its assets are only used for the purposes set out in the URC Acts. It looks to those of its members who sit on the Synod Committees to oversee this regarding the Synod spending and to the officers of the Trust, the chairman, vice-chairman, and treasurer, together with the Synod Finance Officer who functions as Trust Secretary, to do the same with regard to Trust spending. In all of this, the Trust hopes that it lives up to the ideals set out in that statement of values, to listen to each other, and the urgings of the Holy Spirit, act with humility, with grace and generosity, seeking to consider the good of all God’s people, fostering obedience to the Gospel and furthering justice and climate care, rather than narrow self- interest.
Trust and Accounts
Statutory accounts cover the trust and the operations of the Synod. These include details of funds held on behalf of local churches as well as details of Synod funds. Copies of previous accounts can be obtained here: