Agenda Volume 2 - Methodist Conference

34. The Future of Wesley House, Cambridge
10. The Trustees have taken advice
from their solicitors, Messrs Taylor
Vinters, on their duties now that
it will soon become impossible to
carry out their trusts in full. They
have been advised that by virtue
of the Charities Act 2011 they are
under a duty to apply to the Charity
Commission for a scheme which will
enable them to apply the trust assets
“cy‐près” (as near as possible to the
original purposes). The Trustees have
also been advised that when the
Charity Commission makes a cy-près
scheme, it must have regard to the
following matters:
(1) the spirit of the original gift;
(2) the desirability of securing
that the property is applied for
charitable purposes which are
close to the original purposes;
and
(3) the need for the relevant
charity to have purposes which
are suitable and effective in
the light of current social and
economic circumstances.
“The relevant charity” means the
charity by or on behalf of which the
property is to be applied under the
scheme.
11. The Trustees’ solicitors have
identified five elements in the
intention recorded in the Trust Deed:
(i) a college, hostel or institution (ii)
in the University of Cambridge (iii) for
theological and pastoral education
(iv) of accepted candidates for
ordained ministry (v) of the Wesleyan
Methodist Church or its successor.
According to the Trust Deed the
purpose was that students might
have the full benefit of University life
and tuition alongside those elements
distinctive to a Methodist formation.
(The Appendix to this report gives a
little more detail about the founder’s
original intention.) In exploring
proposals for new ways of using the
trust assets which could form the
basis of an application to the Charity
Commission for a cy-près scheme,
the Trustees are bearing in mind
their solicitors’ advice that element
(iv) is the one which at present
requires amendment, because that
is the element which clearly can
no longer be satisfied as matters
currently stand. As explained further
in Section C, the Trustees believe
that there are significant elements of
the Fruitful Field proposals to which
Wesley House can contribute while
giving effect to the other elements
of the founder’s intention. It will also
be appreciated that any modification
of element (iv) could take the form
of widening it so that the charitable
purposes extend to the further
theological and pastoral education of
ministers who are already ordained
and, if thought appropriate, the
theological and pastoral education
of lay persons who are not accepted
candidates.
12. The broad outlines of the legal
context were before the Conference
of 2012. The Fruitful Field rightly
describes Wesley House as an
“independent Methodist entity
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Conference Agenda 2013