"Rev Richard Cunningham - lives close by the school in [redacted] that Kingham Hill owned [redacted]. Studied at London University- trained and worked as a teacher, followed by a stint on the staff of St Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate. Trained for ordination in Oxford and after clergy roles locally and in Oxford works as the Director of UCCF: The Christian Unions."
I've redacted some details because I don't want to give away what may be Cunningham's home address. I'll refer to it as the 'Churchill Building' from this point forward.
Do you notice the connection to St Helen's Bishopsgate? It won't be the last time you hear that name.
Actually, the bio above seems to be missing one role. In an interview for Pantheos Cunningham talks about an earlier stint at UCCF in the 90s:
"Following a stint on staff as Evangelism trainer in the 90s I remained hugely interested in the ministry of UCCF and continued leading student missions. But I never imagined I would ever go back to work for UCCF- so was as surprised as anyone when I was made Director in 2004."
So, his career has gone something like this:
- Teacher
- Staff at St Helen's Bishopsgate
- UCCF
- Ordination training
- Curacy? (normally part of ordination training)
- UCCF
Elsewhere, in 1993, the The Areopagus Trust was founded. That is the date of the founding document referenced on the Charity Commission website.
Sadly the Charity Commission website only gives us the last 5 years of charity filings. So we have no available records about The Areopagus Trust from 1993-2018. We don't know who the trustees and staff were in the 90s, and details of the nature of the UCCF relationship. However, the founding document remains visible, with its focus on UCCF.
Let's focus on the Churchill Building. We don't know who owned it in these earlier years. It may have been used by the charity all along, or it may have been purchased/leased at some point.
In 1997, the year Tony Blair became Prime Minister, we find the first evidence that Cunningham lived in that building. The source? Planning permission. In 1997 planning permission was requested for the Churchill building:
If we look at the details we find the contact for the application is 'Mr Richard Cunningham':
Maybe that means Cunningham owned the Churchill Building in 1997. Or maybe he had a significant role at the charity and they owned the building.
Three years later Cunningham got involved in a different charity called Christian Heritage as a director (They later renamed to The Foundations Trust). In the paperwork he completed on 10th May 2000, he listed his address as the Churchill Building:
The 'Annual return for 2000' for Christian Heritage, filed on 6th March, confirms the same details.
Each year, until 2008, these forms for Christian Heritage list the Churchill Building as his address. No return was filed for 2008. Maybe the rules changed for charity reporting from that year.
In 2003, Cunningham became a trustee of the Proclamation Trust. They are a charity founded by Dick Lucas when he was Rector of St Helen's Bishopsgate. They seem to have had a close relationship with that church; they are linked from the 2008 St Helens website with a handful of other organisations.
The address he gave for his trustee details? The Churchill Building.
The current UCCF website tells us:
"Richard has been Director of UCCF: the Christian Unions since early 2004. Immediately prior to that he was Executive Director of the Areopagus Trust, developing initiatives in confronting secular thought in universities across Britain and Europe and, at the same time, was Director of Evangelism at St Andrew’s Church, Oxford."
So, in 2003 he led the Areopagus Trust. I wonder when he began that role. The way this is phrased indicates he left that job when he became UCCF director.
In 2007 Cunningham joined forces with three other Anglican priests Nigel Beynon (then curate of St Helen's Bishopsgate), Jason Clarke (UCCF) and Hugh Palmer (Rector of All Souls, Langham Place) to found the Christian Events charity. This is the charity that underpins the Word Alive conference. He filled in the paperwork for director, and listed his address as... the Churchill Building.
The names of these founders rather struck me. So I dug some more and discovered something interesting: 3 of these 4 are former staff members of St Helen's Bishopsgate. The exception is Jason Clarke.
The 2008 Christian Events annual return lists the address again. In the following years the annual returns don't mention trustee/director addresses.
I've seen Twitter posts from a member of Cunningham's family in 2007 and 2016. They refer to the Churchill Building like a home. I'm not going to link to those for privacy reasons.
In 2013, the biography from the start of this post was displayed on the Kingham School website, stating that Cunningham lives in a type of property that matches that of the Churchill Building.
Helpfully, in 2016, the Proclamation Trust filed an annual return. That paperwork lists the UCCF director's address as the Churchill Building.
In 2017 there was more building work planned - for sleeping accommodation this time:
And the contact name? You guessed it: Mr R Cunningham.
That planning application is the most recent evidence I have. Cunningham may still live at the Churchill Building, or he may have moved on since 2017.
In summary, there is evidence the UCCF Director lived in this building from 1997 to 2017.
The surprising owners of the Churchill Building
At this point I had a brainwave. Who actually owns this building now?
These days anyone can get that data from the Land Registry, for a small fee of £3. So I did.
And I found something surprising. In 2010 the Churchill Building changed ownership. It was bought by David Douglas Monteath and someone called Michael Stahel Farmer:
You may recall that Monteath is the Settlor of the Areopagus Trust - the person whose funds drive the charity. I'm not familiar with that particular charity set up. He provides the funds, but control may be at arm's-length, in the hands of the charity trustees. Or Monteath may have considerable influence.
Research reveals that in 2002 someone called David Monteath was on staff at St Helen's Bishopsgate.
This seems likely to be the same person, given the other connections we've seen, although we can't be certain. He was in charge of 'Tape Ministry'.
The Proclamation Trust also employed someone called David Monteath in a similar role in 2004. Their website that year says:
"On the audio front, we continue to develop in the area of digital media and website development. David Monteath has been working very hard on your behalf, and very soon there will be full online ordering facilities available via the web which will unleash many new opportunities."
That prompts an interesting question - when Cunningham was a trustee of the Proclamation Trust, from 2003-2018, was he living at accommodation funded by a staff member? If so, that would be a conflict of interest: how could Cunningham be effective in holding the leaders of the charity accountable when they managed someone who was his landlord or benefactor.
Michael Stahel Farmer is a new name for me. I should call him by his official title: Baron Farmer of Bishopsgate.
According to his website Farmer is a Christian who spent his career working in metals trading in the City of London. He is a former treasurer of the Conservative Party, and since 2014 has been a Conservative life peer in the House of Lords.
If we look at Companies House records, we find he has been a director of some interesting organisations. I think two of these are noteworthy:
Gospel Support and Homes Trust Limited sounds fairly anonymous. They say their purpose is to "encourage Biblically faithful gospel ministry across London". When you look at their filings you find that a significant chunk of this ministry is based out of St Helen's Bishopsgate. In fact, the charity was originally named Great St Helen’s Trust.
Kingham Hill School Trust is the charity that underpins the school and theological college I talked about at the start of the post. Farmer was a trustee there from 2002-2014. That will cross over the time when Cunningham was a governor. Perhaps they knew each other.
What does this mean?
We don't know the arrangement Cunningham had with regard to the Churchill Building. He may pay rent. He may be granted use for free. There would be no concerns about that, except that for some, or all, of this period The Areopagus Trust likely had a commercial relationship with UCCF.
That would create a conflict of interest. Imagine you're the person in charge of training at UCCF. Say you're offered a very good deal for residential training accommodation. You may want to take it, but are conflicted - what if that decision jeopardises Cunningham's accommodation arrangement with the current provider, The Areopagus Trust?
Are decisions like that made in the best interest of UCCF and their donors, or in the best interests of Richard Cunningham? There is no declaration of such a conflict of interests in the filings, or of any 'Related party transactions' with The Areopagus Trust. You can find details of what the Charity Commission required regarding these on page 89 of The Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP).
Also, this arrangement may be an undeclared remuneration for the director. Is the accommodation a perk that every director gets? There is no mention of this in the UCCF filings at Companies House at any point in the last 20 years.
Charity Commission rules say charities must disclose:
"the number of employees whose total employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) for the reporting period fell within each band of £10,000 (€10,000) from £60,000 (€70,000) upwards"
(Source: page 81 of the The Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) )
If this was part of the renumeration package for the Director, then shouldn't it have been disclosed according to those rules? In the most recent report UCCF say:
(Source: page 22, Full accounts made up to 30 April 2023, UCCF Filings at Companies House)
The water is muddied here by the fact that the accommodation is coming from a charity separate from UCCF. However, The Areopagus Trust has a core mission to serve UCCF, and is likely to receive payments from UCCF.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of all of this is that it wasn't out in the open. It was very, very hard to uncover any of this information. Why would it be so opaque?
I wonder which trustees knew about The Areopagus Trust.
I wonder who on the UCCF Leadership Team knew about The Areopagus Trust.
More UCCF blogs
The puzzling connection between UCCF and The Areopagus Trust
