JOINT STATEMENT WITH THE CORNISH BUILDINGS GROUP
Two Cornish campaign
groups are calling for a moratorium on Truro’s Bishops’ radical restructuring
plans which they say will change the face of church going – and the Cornish
landscape - forever.
Save the Parish
Cornwall and The Cornish Buildings Group (CBG) warn that new diocesan schemes
to create giant benefices swallowing up smaller rural parishes will result in
the closure of many churches and the destruction of a vital part of Cornish
life. Clergy numbers will be radically cut and funds instead funnelled towards
lay ‘support workers’.
Patrick Newberry,
Chairman of the CBG, says as many as half of the churches in East Cornwall
could be closed as plans for central ‘mission churches’ and lay ministry –
rather than priests in rural parishes – are implemented. The CBG, which works
to preserve ancient buildings and Cornwall’s heritage, believes it is time to
challenge the lack of consultation on this re-organisation.
“Whole communities are
unaware that the historic buildings in their centre – an essential part of
Cornish heritage – are under threat,” he says. “There has been little or no
realistic honest and open consultation and many grade one and two* listed
buildings are threatened.
“We would urge people
to speak out and challenge the diocese, which plans to put schemes for some of
the new benefices to the Church Commissioners as early as January 2023.”
Save The Parish
Cornwall agrees and says that an inevitable result of proposed giant benefices will
be for rural parishes to be merged with a damaging loss of local control and
involvement. Valuable church assets risk being sold off.
“Our two Cornish
Bishops are ignoring local voices and pushing through these plans despite considerable
grass-roots opposition,” says Susan Roberts of Save The Parish, which is
campaigning to keep priests in parishes and churches open. “For some years, Church
Commissioners’ money and diocesan reserves have been poured into mission
churches in five Cornish towns while rural parishes suffer. Now this is being
taken a step further, as the Bishops roll out their vision of a new Church of
England across Cornwall with reduced clergy - ignoring centuries of Cornish
tradition.
“Under the proposed
scheme in Kerrier, one Rural Dean will oversee 23 parishes and there will be
just one other stipendiary priest. How will this work? The distance from Germoe
to St Keverne might be just 13 miles. But no one really wants to drive from Germoe
to St Keverne on a bleak winter’s day. People who live in Germoe want to go to
church in Germoe.
“The ad in the Church
Times for this rural dean position mentions the word ‘church’ just twice. This vision
isn’t about cherishing rural churches: it’s about the Bishops’ particular
vision of mission, driven by an agenda from way beyond the Tamar. This will
disempower local people and fatally weaken rural churches.”
Both the CBG and STP
Cornwall point out that the Methodist Church took a similar step by
centralising some decades ago - which sadly resulted in the closure of dozens
of chapels across Cornwall.
The Bishops of Truro
and St Germans’ restructuring process - called ‘On The Way’ - has been rolled
out in the years since the pandemic. They say it will tackle the issue of
falling church numbers and revitalize church-going. Deaneries across Cornwall have been asked to
create their ‘On The Way’ plans in a complex process which has ignored many local
voices and sidelined and even threatened clergy who dared to speak out against
it.
Both groups stress
that Cornwall’s heritage and history should not just solely be subject to the
vision of the current Bishops.
“Both our Bishops will
no doubt have moved on to pastures new in five years: we won’t,” says Susan
Roberts. “We will still be here, living with the consequences of these plans.”
Despite Save The
Parish’s repeated requests, the diocese has failed to produce figures to support
its claims of increased worshippers and donations through its mission church
schemes, funded by the Church Commissioners and diocesan reserves.
Ends
Notes to Editors
1.
Interviews available. Call Neil Wallis on 07710 664
144.
2. Save The Parish Cornwall - part of the national Save The Parish movement - was set up in April 2022. For more information, call Susan Roberts on 07772 128 014 or email savetheparishcornwall@gmail.com
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