Belmont's Constitution
Over the last year the Bursar's Office has been kept busy changing the the legal structure of Belmont as a charity, similar to changes made by other religious orders and diocese. A CIO - charitable incorporated organisation - is a form of business only available to charitable institutions in the UK, and is deemed a more suitable structure for us today. The following describes the change in more technical detail and serves as a formal notice of the change.
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Belmont Abbey General Trust, has for decades been structured as an unincorporated charitable trust, registered under charity number 226278. For a number of reasons, the Trustees have decided to restructure the charity as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO). This will give the charity a corporate structure (under the civil law of England and Wales) which will assist with its ongoing governance improvements and simplify many of our dealings with banks, utility companies etc.
The charity will still operate in the same way as it does now and it will still carry out the same activities – indeed those that deal with the monastery will probably not notice any practical change and the relationship to Belmont Abbey itself will not alter, nor will the arrangements under canon law.
The change will took place on 1st July, when Belmont Abbey General Trust became Belmont Abbey General CIO, registered with the Charity Commission under number 1190035. The principal office of the CIO remains at Belmont Abbey, Ruckhall Lane, Hereford HR2 9RZ.
For those who make donations to Belmont in any way, please take this as formal notice of the change of entity to which you are donating. Conveniently, the bank has agreed to maintain the existing bank accounts and thus there is no need to change any standing order instructions, but over time you may see a slight change in how our name appears on your own bank statements.
A similar change was made to the Belmont Abbey Mission Trust, now the Belmont Abbey Mission CIO, registered with the Charity Commission under number 1191221.
