The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association

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Anglican support charity for the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East

The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association

Logo St Georges Cathedral Jerusalem.jpg
Type Charitable company
Founded 2014-09-08 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 1158476; company 09067852
Headquarters 1 Hart House, The Hart, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7HJ
Area served Cyprus, Egypt, Israel
Key people Rev David Longe (chair)
Website www.jmeca.org.uk


The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association (JMECA) is a charitable company (09067852, incorporated 3 June 2014) registered on 8 September 2014; register areas are Cyprus, Egypt and Israel.[1] It was formed to take over the earlier unincorporated JMECA (248799); its object is to support the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Anglican Province of Alexandria, and it "may maintain the Cathedral Church and the Close of Saint George the Martyr in Jerusalem" (PDF p.3).[2] It is administered by The Jerusalem and the East Mission Trust Limited from 1 Hart House, The Hart, Farnham GU9 7HJ, and publishes Bible Lands (PDF p.4–7).[2] The trustees include the Rev Canon David Longe (chair from June 2025), the Rt Rev Anthony Ball, John Mullin Clark, David Wright, Dr Clare Amos, the Rev Catherine Dawkins, the Rev Dr Catriona Laing, the Rev Dr Alastair Kirk and Dr James Roberts (the last three appointed 17 June 2025) (PDF p.7).[2][1] In the year to 30 June 2025 income was £267,932 (donations £127,644; investment income £140,288), expenditure £232,485 and funds £4,427,137 after investment losses of £146,813 (PDF p.13).[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "To encourage support in prayer, money and personal service for the religious and other charitable work of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria in communion with the See of Canterbury."[1]

The register describes its activities as: "The Object of the Charity is to encourage support for the religious and other charitable work of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria, in communion with the See of CanterburyThe Charity's charitable purposes are; through grant making, to bring relief of poverty, education, health, community development and relief to those in need"[1]

Register classifications: Education/training, The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty, Overseas Aid/famine Relief, Accommodation/housing, Religious Activities, Economic/community Development/employment, Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity.[1]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Cyprus, Egypt, Israel.[1]

Trustees

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]

Trustees of The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
John Mullin Clark 2014-06-03 Diocese of Iran Trust Fund (299104); St Mary's Waqf (313916); The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust (313581); The Friends of the Diocese of Iran (257483); The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund (1124343); The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Michael & All Angels Blackheath Park SE3 (1133778); Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt (253591)
David Wright 2014-07-01 —
Dr CLARE AMOS 2016-11-24 St Mary's Waqf (313916); The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust (313581); The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund (1124343); Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt (253591)
The Right Reverend Anthony James BALL 2016-12-23 —
Catherine Mary Dawkins 2022-11-30 St Mary's Waqf (313916); The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust (313581); The Charterhouse War Memorial and Tercentenary Trust (268012); The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund (1124343); Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt (253591)
Rev David Longe 2024-11-27 Yes St Mary's Waqf (313916); The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust (313581); The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund (1124343); Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt (253591)
Rev Dr Alastair James Kirk 2025-06-17 St Mary's Waqf (313916); The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust (313581); The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund (1124343); Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt (253591)
Catriona Hannah Laing 2025-06-17 C4WS Homeless Project (1189622); St Mary's Waqf (313916); The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust (313581); The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund (1124343); Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt (253591)
Dr James Roberts 2025-06-17 St Mary's Waqf (313916); The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust (313581); Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt (253591)

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2018-01-04 John Clark; Colonel Brian Lees; Bertrand Olivier; John Gilbert Pringle; Hugh Wybrew; David Wright; William Taylor; Matthew Ivan Rhodes; George Andrew Hill; Clare Amos; Canon Anthony Ball; John Banfield; Bassam Kirreh; Phillip Southby; Canon Huw Thomas; Zuhair Boulos [3]
2021-01-15 Revd Canon Anthony James BALL (chair) (from 23 December 2016); The Reverend Canon Hugh Wybrew (from 01 July 2014); David Wright (from 01 July 2014) – also trustee of Oakleaf Enterprise; CLARE AMOS (from 24 November 2016) – also trustee of The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund, Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt, St Mary's Waqf, The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust; William Taylor (from 01 July 2014); John Gilbert Pringle (from 03 June 2014) – also trustee of Friends of St Cross Hospital Winchester, The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund, Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt, St Mary's Waqf, The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust; John Mullin Clark (from 03 June 2014) – also trustee of The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund, The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St Michael & All Angels Blackheath Park SE3, Sat-7 UK Trust Limited, Fulcrum-Anglican, Trust Property Held in Connexion With the Episcopal Church in Egypt, St Mary's Waqf, The Arthur Benjamin Jones Travel Bursary Trust, Diocese of Iran Trust Fund; Rev Dr MATTHEW IVAN RHODES (from 21 June 2017) – also trustee of The Jerusalem Bishopric Fund, Ranmoor Parish Centre Trust, The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St John the Evangelist, Ranmoor, Sheffield, St Mary's Waqf [4]

Companies House officers

Companies House lists 29 current and former officers of the charitable company (09067852), 10 of them active.[5] Officers recorded as resident outside the UK: Anthony James Ball (Italy, active).[5]

Appointments of these officers to overseas companies registered in the UK (FC) or on the Register of Overseas Entities (OE):

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-06-30 £95,201 £440,171
2022-06-30 £283,314 £467,251
2023-06-30 £174,333 £304,922
2024-06-30 £437,291 £1,034,650
2025-06-30 £267,932 £232,485

Source: register annual-return history.[1]

Historical finances (UK Government Web Archive)

Income and spending shown on archived register pages
Financial year end Income (£) Spending (£) Source
30 Jun 2015 0 0 [7]
30 Jun 2016 3,682,951 248,708 [7]

Archived accounts

Accounts no longer on the live register were found in the UK Government Web Archive:

  • Accounts for the year ended 30/06/2016[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/06/2017[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 30/06/2018[10]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 grants £166,967, a fall of 42.8% (PDF p.5): Diocese of Jerusalem £121,882 (2024: £260,361), Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf £18,191, Province of Alexandria £26,894 (2024: £686,103) and Iran nil (2024: £30,000) (PDF p.18).[2]
  • Two special appeals raised £94,444: "the Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza" £60,496 (2024: £145,309) and the Archbishops' Joint Appeal for the Diocese of Jerusalem £33,948 (2024: £97,773); £91,705 of the Diocese of Jerusalem grants were earmarked. A £20,000 grant for St Peter's Church, Jaffa was unspent and deducted (PDF p.4–5, 19).[2]
  • Restricted funds include the Moore-Steele Fund ("educational work in Israel and Jordan"), the Phillips and Cane Fund (originally "training of Palestinian clergy"), the Newton medical fund (£67,051, at the discretion of the Archbishop in Jerusalem) and the Gobat Stewart Fund for bursaries at St George's School, Jerusalem (PDF p.26).[2]

Israeli partners

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, based at 65 Nablus Road, Jerusalem, whose parishes and institutions are "scattered across five separate countries or territories: Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel";[11] and the diocese's Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.[2][12]

Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF

Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the Israeli recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.

Evidence of activity beyond the 1949 armistice line
Finding Confidence
The Al Ahli hospital appeal (£60,496 in FY2025; £145,309 in FY2024) funds the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Palestine Square, Gaza City, in the occupied Palestinian territory; this is humanitarian medical support, not settlement activity.[2][12] High – Gaza (humanitarian)
Grants of £121,882 to the Diocese of Jerusalem: the diocese works in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Israel, and the accounts do not locate the individual grants.[2][11] Not established

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[2]

Controversies and regulatory action

  • No Charity Commission inquiry, Official Warning or Gazette insolvency notice naming this charity was found, and its register entry shows no regulatory alert;[13] it is not among the charities named in the Commission's cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements (May, September and December 2025) or in the September 2026 statement of results.[14][15][16][17] The charities in the Commission's settlements class inquiry (opened August 2026) have not been named, so it is not known whether this charity is among them.[18]
  • Shared administration and trustees. The trust company charged a management fee of £36,001 plus fundraising recharges of £3,214; it administers five charities, including St Mary's Waqf, the Jerusalem Bishopric Fund and Trust Property held in connexion with the Episcopal Church in Egypt (PDF p.5–6, 19).[2] Most JMECA trustees are also register trustees of those charities.[1] In FY2024 £684,930 (funds of Holy Trinity Church, Algiers) was transferred to St Mary's Waqf (313916) (PDF p.5, 18).[2]
  • Ethical investment policy. The charity invests through the CBF Church of England funds and states a "particular sensitivity relating to investments in the occupied Palestinian territories" (PDF p.4, 6).[2]
  • Late filing. The register records the annual return and accounts for the year to 30 June 2024 as due on 30 April 2025 and received on 17 May 2025 – 17 days late.[1]

Other registers and records

Scotland and Northern Ireland

No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (register export dated 14 October 2026, searched by name).[19] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[20]

The Gazette

Searches of The Gazette for the charity's name returned only Companies House filing lists; no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice naming the charity was found.[21]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[22]

Sanctions screening

The charity's name, its current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees and officers named in the accounts read for this profile and (for charitable companies) its Companies House officers were screened against the UK Sanctions List and the OFSI Consolidated List. No match was found. Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor (UK sanctions ID RUS1127) does not appear among this charity's trustees or officers.[23]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[1] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[24]

Parliament

Selected Hansard references
Date House Member Debate
2015-10-29 Lords The Lord Bishop of Southwark Syrian Refugees[25]

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association", "JMECA" returned 1 contribution in total.[25]

Web archive

  • jmeca.org.uk: 24 yearly captures, first 2003-04-05, last 2026-01-06.[26]

The UK Government Web Archive holds 3 archived Charity Commission register pages used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Charity reporting is up to date" and "Other regulators: No information available".[4]

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (tables charity, charity_trustee, charity_annual_return_history, charity_area_of_operation, charity_classification), extract dated 14 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 Charity Commission, The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association (1158476): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ Register entry 1158476, contact and trustees (capture of 20180104) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Register entry 1158476, full print (capture of 20210115) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Company 09067852: officers Companies House, viewed 15 October 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 BANFIELD, John Martin: appointments Companies House, viewed 15 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Register entry 1158476, financial history (capture of 20180104) UK Government Web Archive.
  8. ↑ The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association accounts, year ended 2016-06-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  9. ↑ The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association accounts, year ended 2017-06-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  10. ↑ The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association accounts, year ended 2018-06-30 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, Home and Contact Us j-diocese.org, retrieved 15 October 2026 ("PO Box 19122, 65 Nablus Road, Jerusalem"; the Archbishop's parishes and institutions "are scattered across five separate countries or territories: Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel"; archdeacons for Israel/Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon/Syria).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, List of English speaking doctors and medical facilities in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza GOV.UK, updated 4 January 2021, retrieved 15 October 2026 (Gaza: "Al-Ahli Arab Hospital – Palestine Square, P.O. Box 72, Gaza city").
  13. ↑ Charity Commission, Register of Charities, charity overview page (register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/ followed by the organisation number) for each of the 25 batch-11 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. The pages showed reporting status (for example "Charity reporting is up to date (39 days late)" for British Friends of Rambam Medical Centre, "(4 days late)" for British Friends of Aleh and "(11 days late)" for Urgent Projects).
  14. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  15. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  16. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  17. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator concludes investigation into 4 charities as class inquiry continues GOV.UK, 9 September 2026, with Statement of the results of a class inquiry (same date), both retrieved 15 October 2026.
  18. ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026, retrieved 15 October 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
  19. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026, downloaded October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-11 charity names found no matching Scottish registration (the only hits were unrelated names such as J R Gibb Charitable Trust and Boleskine Community Care).
  20. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 15 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-11 charity names returned zero results).
  21. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
  22. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1158476 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
  23. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-11 screening covered 386 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages (UK Government Web Archive), Companies House officers of the charitable companies and of related companies named in the accounts (GS Property Management Services, Igerville, Housefresh, Vitalina, Rochester Developments and Delapage), and trustees, examiners, donors and grant recipients named in the accounts read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; the only token matches were generic words in organisation names ("Trust", "Fund", "Israel", "Republic") and surname-only coincidences (Cohen, Levy, Friedman, Green, Said); lists downloaded October 2026.
  24. ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK – the service returned HTTP 403 (bot protection) to automated access in October 2026; no titles were looked up or purchased. Candidate title numbers below come from the free CCOD / OCOD datasets (October 2026 release), not from paid title registers.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
  26. ↑ Internet Archive CDX index for jmeca.org.uk Wayback Machine, queried 15 October 2026.
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