SPCK’s AGM – An Annual Gathering in Exceptional Times

December 1, 2020

On 19th November 2020, our AGM took place via Zoom. Find out more about the event in this blog post.

Zoom Meeting

In a year that has seen mute buttons and video cameras take on a whole new significance, we held our AGM via Zoom on Thursday 19 November 2020. Sixty eight people attended the afternoon event and 23 formal apologies were received.

The AGM was chaired by James Catford, SPCK’s Chair. The Trustees’ Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 April 2020 was presented by SPCK Chief Executive, Sam Richardson. As he explained, “Our mission continues to face challenges but we took a real step up to promote Christian knowledge even as the fundamentals of the business came under unprecedented pressure.”

Our Board of Trustees – the Governing Body - play a critical role and bring a wealth of experience and expertise to SPCK. We are delighted to welcome two new trustees, Mr Matthew van Duyvenbode and Dr David Muir. Matthew is Chief Strategy Officer at the food bank Charity Trussell Trust, which supports people in crisis across over 1,200 sites across the UK as well as working locally and nationally to address the longer-term causes of this acute poverty. David is senior lecturer in Public Theology, Christian Apologetics and Ministerial Theology at Roehampton University as well as director of the Whitelands Centre and European convener for the transatlantic roundtable on religion and race. You can read more about our trustees here https://spckpublishing.co.uk/about-us

Sam noted that there were three main areas challenging and influencing the work of SPCK this year:
Covid-19
Within days of the March lockdown SPCK launched the Faith At Home bedtime stories, a daily video on YouTube based around some of our best-loved books for children. A few days later we released discounted eBooks in a wide range of subject areas.
Black Lives Matter
Sam noted our own ambiguous history and our continued deep reflections in this area. Books that addressed the international concern include Ben Lindsay’s We Need to Talk About Race, published last year but which saw a huge surge of interest this year. We also published a new edition of Anthony G Reddie’s Is God Colour Blind? and continue to fund and support ATNP, which put out its first titles this year.
Climate Change
Ruth Valerio’s book Saying Yes to Life, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book of 2020, played a significant role in the General Synod setting a 2030 goal of becoming carbon net zero.

Publishing
We were shortlisted for the Independent Publisher of the Year 2020 (British Book Awards) and shortlisted for the Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year (Independent Publishing Awards).

2020 publishing highlights include the NIV Bible Speaks Today Study Bible; Systematic Theology (New Edition); Faithful Witness – The confidential diaries of Alan Don; Candles in the Dark by Rowan Williams; Three Vicars Talking by Giles Fraser, Kate Bottley, and Richard Coles and Extraordinary Women of the Bible by Michelle Sloan.

The AGM also premiered a short video showcasing the work of our charitable projects including Diffusion, ATNP, Assemblies and Home Groups, and an invitation was given to anyone interested in supporting our charitable work to get in touch with our fundraising team: fundraising@spck.org.uk

James Catford concluded, “the vision of the publishing, which continues to not only serve the church but beyond it…and the generosity of spirit that SPCK has demonstrated with cheaper books, free books and books in prisons expresses our core values.”