Donations to Living Hope from church members and others topped £1m for the first time last year.

Meanwhile, building work has begun on Living Hope’s new church in Douglas.

It was given planning consent in July to convert a former music shop on Finch Road into a new base for its ‘Douglas AM’ congregation.

Living Hope has eight congregations in the island - in Port St Mary, Peel, Ramsey, Castletown, Laxey, St John’s and two in Douglas.

But the Douglas AM congregation been without a permanent site or home since it was established in 2008 and currently meets on a Sunday morning in the Palace Cinema.

A gift day was held last year when a staggering £150,000 was given and £300,000 pledged towards the Douglas AM project.

Latest financial statements for Living Hope Community Church Ltd, for the year ending August 31, 2023, show that income received from church members and other individuals totalled £1,023,540, up from £947,233 in 2022.

This included donations to the building fund of £25,165 and £9,150 to the benevolent fund.

Living Hope’s principal source of income being from ’tithes and offerings’ from the congregation, the majority of which comes by way of standing order directly to the company’s bank accounts.

It also earns income from events, taking the total, including interest, to £1,132,461.

Total expenditure rose from £1,031,231 in 2022 to £1,096,809, creating a surplus of £35,632 and overturning a deficit of £36,591 from the previous year.

The number of directors increased last year to seven with the appointment of Mr JP Wood in July.

But only three served on the board for the full year and the amount spent on directors’ wages actually reduced from £219,495 in 2022 to £207,810 last year, despite lead pastor Jonathan Stanfield getting a pay rise from £68,895 to £73,106.

Chris Staples resigned as an employee at the end of March last year but continues to serve as a director and pastor on a voluntary basis. As a result, the amount he got paid fall from £51,351 to £31,090.

Pay is set by an independent remuneration committee made up of church members.

Mr Stanfield and Mr Staples are both directors of Four12 Global NPC, a South African-based non-profit partnership of churches to which Living Hope made a voluntary gift of £45,760 in 2023.

Neither Mr Stanfield or Mr Staples receive any financial payment from or have any financial interest in Four12.

The Four12 conference in July last year attracted just over 1,000 participants including about 330 worshippers from a wide range of countries.

Last year, Living Hope entered into a 25-year peppercorn lease arrangement with the Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocesan trustees for St Joseph’s in Willaston.

It spent £23,544 on refurbishment and improvements to the property.