An open letter to East Wivelshire

-

Deanery representatives in East Wivelshire meet on 30 June 2022 to vote on their On The Way plan - click here to read it. The Bishops of Truro, and St Germans, are rolling out On The Way across Cornwall. It's a cost-cutting exercise resulting in severe clergy cuts and loss of local agency through parish mergers.

Save The Parish Cornwall's Peter Bellenes has written to deanery representatives in East Wivelshire ahead of their meeting. His letter stresses how vitally important is that they should listen to  parishioners' concerns  - and fight to save their parishes and heritage.  Click here for a guide to arguing against parish re-organisations, published by Save The Parish.

15 June 2022

Dear Deanery representatives East Wivelshire,

 

You will shortly meet to consider the deanery plan and it may well be suggested to you that this project is a fait accompli. The East Wivelshire deanery plan is far reaching in its plans for closing almost 50% of churches and, from what we see elsewhere in the diocese, the likelihood of PCCs being combined to form just 3, one for each of the focal parishes of Torpoint, Callington, and Saltash.

 

You have an opportunity at the deanery sessions to fight for your parish and its heritage, to preserve the input of the laity at the most local level where it counts.

 

I am attaching a guide from Save the Parish, the national parish preservation movement in the Church of England, about how and when your PCC can object to proposals. Many of us have over the years sung with feeling the hymn “we love the place O God wherein thine honour dwells”, do not let this deanery plan dishonour the investment of prayer, time and money given freely by you and your forebears.

 

Yours in Christ,

 

Revd Peter C Bellenes

For more information see:

Savetheparish.com;

savetheparish.blogspot.com;

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Save The Parish Cornwall responds to Diocese of Truro statement

-
Image
Save The Parish Cornwall issues the following response to a regrettable statement by the Diocese of Truro published on its website on 5 March 2024. The Diocese misleadingly says that Save The Parish Cornwall is 'targeting clergy' and providing inaccurate clergy figures. Save The Parish Cornwall’s recent analysis of clergy numbers in the Diocese shows that there were just 39 priests for Cornwall’s 200 plus parishes and 300 churches at the end of December 2023 - according to figures supplied by Church House sources at the end of January 2024. A further 19 other incumbencies remained vacant. Stipendiary priests in Cornwall at the end of December 2023, and their locations: data supplied by Church House sources to Save The Parish Cornwall at the end of January 2024. There was, therefore, one stipendiary priest to 15,000 people: the population of Cornwall is just over 600,000. The number of stipendiary priests in Cornwall at the end of December 2023 was 39. Save The Parish Cornw
Read more

Cornwall's Bishops in tailspin after BBC Sunday Politics coverage

-
Image
Cornwall’s Bishops have been stung by hard-hitting coverage on BBC Sunday Politics South West of their controversial On the Way cost-cutting programme which is cutting clergy numbers, merging parishes and threatening church closures. In a 1200-word statement on the Diocese of Truro website , and an accompanying letter to all churches, the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, and the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, complain about many aspects of the report ( click here to view the report ). The problem is, as so often with the Diocese of Truro statements, rhetoric does not coincide with reality. Truro complains (on the Diocesan website): “The report lasted just under five minutes but…. Much of the time was given to four speakers from a campaign group, three of whom have no connection with the church in Cornwall or with wider Cornish society." Save The Parish Cornwall explains: The four actually included two well-respected SouthWest MPs who are i
Read more

REVAMPED DEANERY PROPOSALS ACKNOWLEDGE NEED FOR NAMED PAID PARISH PRIESTS IN PARISHES

-
Image
 A crucial deanery synod meeting in west Penwith next week will test both diocesan commitment to maintaining levels of ministry and the deanery’s ability to negotiate with Church House while taking heed of the concerns of anxious churchgoers. At the meeting - the latest step in the Diocese of Truro’s controversial On The Way restructuring plans - there will be a vote on hotly contested clergy numbers.  Thrashing out a plan for the Land’s End peninsula has been beset with problems due to a high number of vacancies as well as recruitment difficulties. The situation is complex: Penzance has some of the highest levels of poverty in Cornwall and the area has some of the county’s most historic churches and fiercely loyal church communities. In the spotlight now: the Diocese’s commitment to increasing number of priests in post and its stated priority ‘to answer the ministry needs of the deanery'. The latest West Penwith Area Ministry Proposal - click here to read   - includes the welc
Read more