THE charity St John’s Guild for the Blind has confirmed that there aren’t any plans to appoint a General Secretary, after concerns were raised concerning the budget assigned to such a post and the appointment process for it.
The Revd Brian Regan, who was elected because the Guild’s chair last December, said this month that, besides there being no such plans, the thought of appointing an “outreach officer” had not been taken further, after being “briefly mentioned last 12 months”.
The charity’s latest annual report, for 2023, filed last 12 months, says that in 2021 the trustees put aside £175,000 “to support and fund the appointment of a latest General Secretary”.
The charity, established in 1919, has total funds of £4.1 million. It provides financial grants towards pilgrimages and the acquisition of specialist equipment.
Earlier this month, Anne Abel, a former trustee of the Guild, wrote to the Church Times to say that her try and raise concerns concerning the charity had been met with “deep hostility” and that she had been “removed as a trustee against my wishes after serving for over thirty years”. The charity had treated her in a “damaging, humiliating and unprofessional way”.
In her letter, she wrote that Canon Darren Smith, the General Secretary of the Additional Curates Society (ACS), had resigned last 12 months as chair of St John’s Guild for the Blind “just before a position on the guild’s payroll was being finalised. The role specification details it must be a traditionalist priest with housing provided.”
In December, the Vicar of St John’s, Kensal Green, the Revd David Ackerman, raised concerns with the Charity Commission concerning the creation of such a post, which was “simply not needed”, given the charity’s “very modest activity levels”. The latest annual report recorded grants totalling £43,370. Expenditure on items apart from grants was “disproportionately high at £74,00”, Fr Ackerman wrote. This included rent of just about £11,000 paid to the ACS, whose Birmingham office provides a base for the Guild (News, 9 May). The General Secretary fund could be “higher utilized in grants in direct support to those in need and, as such, would do much more to satisfy the charity’s objects”.
Fr Ackerman was previously chaplain to considered one of the charity’s local guilds, based at his church and organised by Miss Abel.
In an announcement this month, Fr Regan said that the Guild “takes all complaints raised very seriously and can at all times endeavour to research any complaints it receives and, where appropriate, take motion to resolve those concerns. Save to say that St John’s Guild doesn’t accept Miss Abel`s characterisation of the charity, it might not be appropriate to offer any further response right now.”
