Annual Report Support Foundation 2020

Introduction

In 2020 we continued the work, which has been done since 2008: support the work, which St. Andrew's Biblical Theological Institute is doing. Here you find the summary of our work in the last year where the report is given in two parts. First you get a general overview. After that you see on this site the formal requirements for an Annual Report, as stated by the Dutch tax authorities, when dealing with the so called ANBI-foundation. As a consequence of this, some more legal information, which is given in the previous reports, is now produced in the ANBI-part – see link below this message.

 

Board meetings

At regular and irregular moments members of the Board met in small circles and exchanged views on several issues. By the end of November a Zoom-meeting was scheduled for the Board plus the advisor to the Board. At this meeting the decision was taken to re-appoint all the members. In addition to that, a new member to the Board was appointed, Mr. Walter Lüssi from Switzerland.

 

The Board continues to consider the way it has worked as effective and efficient. As a consequence, we will continue this working style as much as possible.

One of the objected aims for 2020 (work on a succession-plan for Board members) was discussed. As a result, the Board has one more member. Another result is that some persons were asked to discuss the possibilities to become a member of the Board with two or three people. If successful, the vulnerability of the Board decreases.

During the Board meeting we discussed questions with regard to the continuity of St Andrew's itself. Here again a challenge regarding succession can arise. The happy circumstance to discuss this was the fact that in November 2020 there was a festivity since at that moment St. Andrew's existed 30 years. In addition to this, the rector celebrated his 60^th anniversary – which was done in a conference early November. Due to the Corona-pandemic, the conference was also accessible through the internet – obviously a steep learning curve for us all.

As a result of the Board-discussion we started to review the constitution of our Support Foundation. Results are expected in 2021.

 

Support

In 2020 the main characteristic was and is "business as usual under unusual conditions", especially regarding the activities of St. Andrew's which are supported by this foundation. We are proud that we have been able to support the work of St. Andrew's for quite some years now, also since good relations have been established between some agencies and the rector of St. Andrew's. It bears fruit.

The work of the Support Foundation, also regarding the spending of the money, dealt with the work outside the home country. The relationship with the Free University in Amsterdam was alive. Since the formal relation with an appointment for 1 day a week would last until the end of 2020, a review has taken place. We happily agreed with the proposal that the rector of St. Andrew's would change his position with the Free University from a paid staff member to an honorary staff-member (guest researcher), to begin 1 January 2021.

 

In addition to the above-mentioned project with the Free University, the received funds were used for the following projects:

Conference "Theology of Openness: Religion, Society and Culture" (Moscow, 6 November 2020);
Conference "Person in a Post-Religious Society" (Moscow, 11-12 December 2020);
25th St. Andrew's Readings on Contemporary Theological Issues (Moscow, 11–13 December 2020).

 

Finally, we would like to thank our donors as well as individuals, which have supported us in our work. It is an encouraging part of the support which could be generated for St. Andrew's Biblical Theological Institute.

  

Wageningen, 13 April 2021