On The Way is 'top down' not 'bottom up' - Church Times 20 May 2022

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 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 Transforming Mission locally while simultaneously implementing cuts.

On 28 April 2022, "Issue 10 - On The Way Update" reported: "[Rural Dean] Caspar [Bush' went on to repeat the answers that had been received by the Steering Group from (sic) their questions when they met with Bishop Hugh and Archdeacon Paul [Bryer]."

The document then details five specific instructions they were given to 'achieve the Deanery plan". There is not space here to spell out all the directives they received from the Bishop but one is particularly revealing: "There was a possibility for TM [Transforming Mission] money to be reset if necessary to achieve the Deanery [OTW] plan.

In other words, despite many diocesan denials, Save The Parish (Cornwall) is correct that the finances and operations of TM and OTW are inextricably intertwined, and there must be a full, honest and transparent audit of them to ensure millions of pounds are not wasted, many more priests are not axed, and our rural churches not closed.

What the above also shows is that Save The Parish is also correct that OTW is very much a bishop-led, top-down, not bottom-up process.

Neil Wallis

Save The Parish (Cornwall)



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