Introduction and Nominations
It has been another very busy 12 months since our last AGM on 27 April 2025, but we are making progress. The following nominations have been received:

• For Treasurer: David Venus
• For Secretary: Louise Reeve
• For membership of the Management Committee (trustee): Jane Simpson

Moving Forwards – CIO and Unitarian Transformers

We are happy to announce that we have appointed Stevie Devlin to be our Unitarians in the Community Community Development Lead. She will be working with us and with Unitarian Transformers, looking to find people within Newcastle upon Tyne who would like to explore their spiritual in a Unitarian way, and find out what would work best for them – perhaps meeting in the evenings, perhaps meeting in coffee shops, perhaps something we have not yet thought of! We will be looking to offer 1-2 gatherings during the week in due course, once we have explored what might work best.

Some of the proceeds of sale of our building from 2023 have been used to fund this. The NUA (Northern Unitarian Association – our District Association) applied for a grant from the Wood Green Trust alongside the Stockton Unitarians to fund more outreach work in Newcastle and Stockton.

We have looked at becoming a CIO, as our excepted charity status will end in 2031, and this provides a more secure legal status and limits (but does not remove) personal liability for trustees. We intend to do this in 2027, as becoming a CIO takes some time and energy, and we need to focus on delivering the Innovation Fund and Unitarians in the Community projects.

Charities

We supported various charities in 2025-2026:

• Joseph Cowen: We continued to make ongoing monthly donations of money, and also coffee, tea, dried milk, men’s socks and underpants, and men’s toiletries to the Joseph Cowen Centre for homeless men in Byker, named for an MP who regularly attended services at the Church of the Divine Unity.
• Pathways4All: We donated toys for children in need in the local area following the Toy Service in December 2025, who are a charity supporting disabled children and their families in the North East. They were very happy to receive some extra toys ahead of their Christmas celebration this week, so I travelled to the Tim Lamb Centre for Children in Rising Sun Park, North Tyneside to drop them off.
• People’s Kitchen: Following our Harvest Service in autumn 2024, we asked those attending to donate either funds or goods to the People’s Kitchen.

Committee including Worship Calendar

Louise Reeve continued as Secretary, and was elected Chairperson by the management committee. David Venus continued as Treasurer. Committee membership numbered three nominated members throughout 2025-2026: Louise Reeve, David Venus, and Jane Simpson.

What’s happened during the year
A round-up of what has happened during 2025-2026:

• Finances and Investments: We have split the proceeds of the sale of our meeting between the M&G Charifund investment, and the ethical investment fund created for us by Geoffrey Clarke Associates. So far this has provided a steady stream of income.
• Herbert Barnes Award 2026: We have awarded this to Rev. Rob Foreman for 2026; he will lead worship for us on 31 May 2026.
• Meeting Space: We continue to meet online via Zoom and in person at the Large Spiritual Commons Room at Northumbria University’s Student Central. This has led to increased attendance and more new faces, although there have been some issues with controlled access to the building, but we believe overall the move has been a positive one. We will look for an alternative venue for our new Unitarians in the Community gatherings.
• Northern Unitarian Association (NUA): In October 2024, Louise Reeve became President of the NUA, and in April 2025 she became our representative to the NUA. The NUA AGM took place at Stockton Unitarian Chapel on 11 October 2025. Publicity and Outreach: We have continued to publicise our services online through our website, via Facebook, Bluesky and YouTube, also via the social networking site Meetup. Offline, we display posters at Northumbria Spiritual Commons, and advertise with our our banner and sandwich boards which are on display every Sunday morning inside and outside Student Central.
• Worship Calendar: Louise Reeve continued as Worship Secretary. Average attendance at services over 2025-2026 has been 8, including between 3-4 people attending via Zoom and quite a few new visitors! We continue to have a mix of Unitarian Ministers and lay worship leaders, ministers and lay worship leaders from other denominations and other religious traditions including Buddhism and meditation services from local meditation and yoga teacher, Kainara Motta.
• Safeguarding: Our three trustees, David, Jane and Louise, continued as our Safeguarding Leads through 2025-2026.
• Social Action: We marched at Northern Pride 2025 for the fourth time, and plan to do so again in July 2026.