THE charity St John’s Guild for the Blind has confirmed that there are no plans to appoint a General Secretary, after concerns were raised about the budget assigned to such a post and the appointment process for it.
The Revd Brian Regan, who was elected as the Guild’s chair last December, said this month that, besides there being no such plans, the idea of appointing an “outreach officer” had not been taken further, after being “briefly mentioned last year”.
The charity’s latest annual report, for 2023, filed last year, says that in 2021 the trustees set aside £175,000 “to support and fund the appointment of a new General Secretary”.
The charity, established in 1919, has total funds of £4.1 million. It provides financial grants towards pilgrimages and the purchase of specialist equipment.
Earlier this month, Anne Abel, a former trustee of the Guild, wrote to the Church Times to say that her attempt to raise concerns about 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 year 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 should 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 about 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 other than grants was “disproportionately high at £74,00”, Fr Ackerman wrote. This included rent of almost £11,000 paid to the ACS, whose Birmingham office provides a base for the Guild (News, 9 May). The General Secretary fund would be “better used in grants in direct support to those in need and, as such, would do far more to meet the charity’s objects”.
Fr Ackerman was previously chaplain to one of the charity’s local guilds, based at his church and organised by Miss Abel.
In a statement this month, Fr Regan said that the Guild “takes all complaints raised very seriously and will always endeavour to investigate any complaints it receives and, where appropriate, take action to resolve those concerns. Save to say that St John’s Guild does not accept Miss Abel`s characterisation of the charity, it would not be appropriate to provide any further response at this time.”
