Cornerstone is a coffee shop and Christian book shop run by four Grove churches, including GFEC, that provides a Christian presence and witness in the community.

GFEC folk have continued to play their part. As well as Anita & Katrina employed by Cornerstone full time, and Teresa who bakes cakes, others work as volunteers; during the week or as part of GFEC's Diamonds & Rubies teams on Saturday mornings. As a church we are particularly grateful to Katrina Kerr for taking over the organisation of the Saturday teams. GFEC has also supported Cornerstone by giving 12% of its income this year.

The year began with a visit from Stephen Cottrell in April. The Bishop of Reading gave a talk and signed copies of his book "The Things He Said". The Acoustic Gospels concert by Graham Kendrick at Wantage Civic Hall in May attracted 300 people. The event provided an opportunity for Christians to invite others to hear the gospel and to generate publicity and funds for both Cornerstone and the children's charity Compassion International. July saw the UK launch party for Michael Wenham's second book "I Choose Everything". September saw the launch of Friends of Cornerstone.

The summer saw the introduction of a new till with a barcode reader which promises to reduce mistakes and provide management information for stock control & sales analysis. In the autumn there were prolonged problems with the heating, dishwasher and related plumbing that resulted in several unexpected closures and additional unbudgeted costs. Some generous one-off donations allowed us to purchase a new dishwasher before the run up to Christmas and significantly increase the number of books in stock. The board is currently negotiating with suppliers for a bean-to-cup coffee machine.

Financial performance has improved a little. Unaudited figures are shown in the table to the right. Sales rose by on1y 1.3% although encouragingly book sales were up 8%. Progress was made in cutting overheads in the second half of the year - reducing the trading deficit by 12% to £23.6k. Had donations been the similar to last year there would have been an overall deficit of roughly £6k. However one-off donations gave an overall surplus of just over £25k. During the year progress was also made in revising policies, procedures and other documentation to improve the reliability of operations and resilience against changes in staff, volunteers and trustees.

As well as the continuing need for more volunteers, there is a pressing need for new board members from GFEC and other churches to ensure Cornerstone continues to make progress financially, in its day-to-day operations and in its real mission of being a Christian presence in the community. Please pray about these needs and whether you could make a positive contribution in some way to the Cornerstone mission.

Paul Haynes