Bishop of Truro announces change of direction amidst painful cuts debate

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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, simply saying:

"There has been some fantastic work going on under the TM banner, but we said from the start we wanted that work to be a blessing to the wider church, and by taking on a more integrated approach I'm sure we can better work to that end." 

He added that the new part-time Director of Change and Renewal being recruited by the Diocese to roll out On The Way would now be funded by the Church Commissioners with a grant of £140,000 as an 'indication of their support for the On The Way process.'   It had initially been announced by the Diocese that this would be funded by reserves.

In a further change of direction, Mounstephen also said that the Diocese would now draw from its own reserves to invest in those deaneries that have no so far received Transforming Mission funding.

"The Bishop's Diocesan Council has committed to investing at least £2million over the next five to seven years from our reserves to support creative local initiatives in funding."

Several deaneries across Cornwall are due to finalise their On The Way plans this month.

 He repeated earlier statements that Church House costs would be reduced at least £250,000, but  - as previously  -  gave no details of how this would be done.

The full transcript of Bishop Philip's speech can be read here.


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