Save The Parish - Cornwall

A response by the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson,  to a request at last Saturday's Diocesan Synod for transparency over Transforming Mission finances is reproduced below. Bishop Hugh did not directly respond to the request to provide the original sustainability model spreadsheets. We would be interested to hear of people's responses to this statement.  Bishop Hugh repeated figures produced by the Diocese earlier in the month relating to vastly increased youth work in Camborne Cluster following Transforming Mission.   These figures contradict a Diocesan document produced in October 2018, which details extensive youth work across Camborne Cluster   before the Transforming Mission programme was started there in 2019. TRURO DIOCESAN SYNOD    28/5/22   9/1     Question under Standing Orders, Vivian Hall Altarnun w Bolventor, Trigg Major Deanery Synod, and General Synod 'Can you please provide the original sustainability model spreadsheets for Cornwall’s

The Bishop of Truro has repeatedly said in recent days that ‘Bishops don’t close churches’ as they don't have the power. They only close churches on the instigation of local people. He repeated this yesterday (Sunday 29 March on Anoushka William’s Sunday Show on BBC Cornwall radio.) The villagers of Merrymeet in east Cornwall - where St Mary’s Mission Church faces closure - have had a very different experience. Peter Luck, head of the residents' association, explains In today’s world it is interesting how the word ‘community’ is used: ‘community funding’, ‘communities pulling together’, ‘community workshops’, ‘congregational community’, ‘village community’. You get the idea. Here in Merrymeet we do not have a village shop or village pub or any ‘community hub’. We have a fight on our hands: to keep St. Mary’s Mission Church from closing this coming September. This building is in the middle of our little village and serves us all as a place of worship and a well-used communi

  The Bishop of Truro, the Rt. Rev Philip Mounstephen, announced a change of direction today for his diocese - reeling from his painful housekeeping process called  On The Way . The process of On The Way , which encourages deaneries to come up with cost-cutting plans, will now be 'integrated' with Transforming Mission , he said in his presidential address at the Diocesan Synod at St Erme, Cornwall.  Transforming Mission is a multi-million pound resource church programme - funded by the Church Commissioners - being rolled out in five towns in Cornwall.  The Bishop had faced criticism for imposing his On The Way clergy cuts, while pouring Church Commissioners' riches into Transforming Mission. On The Way and Transforming Mission (TM) would henceforth be brought together under one 'overall project board, chaired by the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, the Bishop said.  He gave no further details of what this would entail and how the project board would work,

  A well-argued and well-balanced letter in the Church Times today (Friday 27 May 2022) by a vicar in Ashford, Kent, questioning the box-ticking and numbers' obsession of Transforming Mission, an evangelical programme being rolled out across five towns in Cornwall. The Rev. Dr Stephen Brian's letter is in response to a letter by Rev Rosheen Browning, Priest in Charge at Camborne, Cornwall, published last week - suggesting an indicator of  the success of Transforming Mission lay in the level of its engagement with young people.    Rev. Browning's figures contradicted a Diocesan document produced in October 2018, which details extensive youth work across Camborne Cluster   before  the Transforming Mission programme was started there in 2019.

You may have just chanced upon this blog, and wondered what on earth all the fuss is about.... What is 'On The Way'? And why is it causing such concern in Cornwall and the Diocese of Truro?   On the Way started in February 2021 in Penwith, St Austell and Kerrier deaneries. The Bishops announced at the time that these deaneries would be offered 'On the Way advisors' who would work closely with the Rural Dean 'to enable the church communities and those that they serve to dream, pray and plan for the future.'  Click here to view the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen's introductory video in 2021. The process so far has proved painful and divisive. Other deaneries are now working on their plans. Click here for key dates. Save The Parish Cornwall's Andrew Lane has put together some useful background. On the Way is ostensibly a consultation exercise with the Cornish parishes to agree a plan to balance the books. So what is wrong with the books?   In the last few years

Several important Deanery Synod meetings are coming up - when plans for the Diocese's draconian cost-cutting exercise On The Way will be discussed. These meetings are open to the public, and people are encouraged to ask questions. Both the Bishops of Truro and St Germans have said they are keen to hear the views of everyone - not just the 'leadership teams' involved. We will publish further dates and details about these meetings as we learn more. Please do get in touch via the Contact Form on the left to let us know of any other important meetings. Key dates Carnmarth North (including Camborne Cluster) On The Way consultation and plan 16/6 Deanery Plan to Deanery Synod Carnmarth South (including Mabe, Ponsanooth – and Falmouth) On The Way consultation and plan 17/5 ‘Leadership team’ meeting and plan goes to Episcopal College 14/6 Leadership team meets to discuss Bishops’ response 17/6 Final draft to Deanery Synod 20/6 and 1/7 CCs to take indicative votes 21/7 Deanery Synod

The Diocesan Synod meets on 28 May 2022 to approve its 2021 accounts amidst a fierce debate around the Bishop of Truro's planned cut programe.  The meeting will be open to the public (though no questions from the public will be permitted) and will be held at St Erme Community Centre (TR4 9BD) starting at 930am. For anyone interested in learning more, the accounts can be downloaded from https://trurodiocese.org.uk/?s=Diocesan+accounts Interestingly, they show that in the most recent financial year the diocese has actually made gains totalling £12.5m, while spending on its expensive mission programme Transforming Mission - funded by the Church Commissioners and Diocesan reserves - was £197,000 under budget. The financial statements narrative says the Bishop has decided to “reset” the £6m Transforming Mission project which was initiated in Cornwall in 2017 and has since been rolled out amidst controversy, setbacks, delays and target failures in five Cornish towns - first Falmouth,

 The proposed closure of St Mary's Church, Merrymeet, east Cornwall, has sparked outrage locally. Villagers say their views have been ignored by Truro's Bishops and Archdeacons who have their own agenda. Local resident Hilary Geary's letter to the Church Times today (20 May 2022) sums it up:

  A letter to the Church Times today from Save the Parish Cornwall's Neil Wallis, who points out that the Diocese of Truro's housekeeping exercise On The Way is very much a 'top down' rather than 'bottom up' process, despite suggestions to the contrary by the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson. The Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, insisted that the diocese's On The Way (OTW) programme of cuts was 'an intentionally grass-roots led initiative'. The Bishops don't even see the final plans until they have been approved locally, he said. He has repeated this claim in in the media and publicly elsewhere  - which is a pity, as it is sophistry at best. In December 2021, a report about OTW in Carnmarth North deanery synod detailed "discussions the Steering Group had had with Bishop Hugh earlier in the day" regarding what the Bishop called "the elephant in the room" - in other words, the difficulty of rolling out

 An interesting letter in the Church Times today from the Rev Rosheen Browning, Priest in Charge at Camborne, Cornwall, where one of the county's Transforming Mission programmes is being rolled out. Rev Browning says numbers at toddler groups and holiday clubs show that engagement with young people has vastly increased in her five-church cluster's work, pushing back at critics suggesting the scheme is not quite the success expected as large numbers of new worshippers have not materialised.  These figures contradict a Diocesan document produced in October 2018, which details extensive youth work across Camborne Cluster   before the Transforming Mission programme was started there. In the Church Times, however, Rev. Browning writes that an increased engagement with young people in a deprived area indicates the programme has a 'sustainable future'. The churches in her cluster - Camborne, Penponds, Tuckingmill, Crowan and Treslothan - engaged on a regular basis with just 20

Villagers at Merrymeet in east Cornwall are working hard together to fight  Diocesan plans to close their local church, St Mary's.  The Cornish Guardian (20 May 2022) picked up their press release and ran with it this week. They are awaiting a response now from the office of the Bishop of Truro to their open letter to him.

Click here to read.

The Bishop of Truro has curtly refused to meet campaigners fighting church cuts - while setting up a costly new unit to force through controversial multi-million pound changes in the Diocese. The Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, this week refused outright to meet supporters of Save The Parish, who called for an open, honest and transparent audit of Diocesan finances, including costly evangelical initiatives like Transforming Mission in five towns in Cornwall. Mounstephen told the group he had been “mulling over a response” but had decided against a meeting because it had taken its concerns to the press. At the same time STP learned this week that the Diocese is recruiting a new Director of Change and Renewal to lead a team to push through its planned programme of cuts – at a salary of £45-50,000 per annum. “It’s extraordinary to think that the Bishop will not discuss our concerns. Yet this new appointment is a kick in the teeth to clergy and congregations across Cornwal