Phoney consultations further afield

A tweet this morning by Robert Thompson (@Rgt71Robert), Vicar of St Mary & St James, London NW6 suggesting that 'consultation' about the Church Commissioners' Strategic Development Funding spend is as deeply flawed elsewhere as it is in Cornwall.

He writes:

Thanks to those many clergy who contacted me about my tweet on these successful SDF bids

They have been called ‘vanity projects’ & forms of ‘money laundering for particular networks’ & it is clear that the ‘consultations’ instead of leading any change of plans, partnership or co-creation, were simply an information events about their imposition on others. There is also a clear disquiet about the lack of any meaningful listening from Senior staff in the Episcopal Areas affected & the Diocese. The entire process has simply exacerbated low levels of trust & clergy morale. The questions ordinary parish clergy are asking are 1) why can they & their parishes be invested in rather than we continually plant ‘new worshipping communities’ & habitually under resource & weaken the already ¾ existing communities until they physically collapse & have no choice but to permit church planting to survive 2) who is actually looking out for the welfare of ordinary parish clergy & showing any meaningful pastoral care for them? 3) is mutual flourishing a joke? This must stop.

Click the following link to read all the responses he receives ....https://t.co/bxTNQfM72w

(https://twitter.com/Rgt71Robert/status/1549273389742817280?t=A7WFyTF61oHkWeTnrb_ptQ&s=03)


In Cornwall, the Bishop of St Germans Hugh Nelson argued recently that it was wrong to suggest there were plans to consolidate East Wivelshire deanery into just 3 PCCs even though it was in the deanery plan and in documents issued by the archdeacon of Cornwall.