Please write to your MP
If you are worried about developments in Cornwall - plans for radical parish re-organisation and our Bishops' drive towards 'Transforming Mission hubs' in the Diocese of Truro - then please think about writing to your MP.
Save The Parish is organising a meeting at the Houses of Parliament on 25 April 2023 at 6pm. It will be led by Chris Loder, MP for west Dorset. We are keen for as many MPs as possible to attend so they can learn about what's happening in Cornwall - and elsewhere in the country.
Anyone can contact their MP at any time. If you do not know your MP's email address, you can find it via this link.
Please think about writing. Below is a suggested template with a Cornish angle for you to work with - and add any details you wish.
I am worried about the future of our parish churches in Cornwall and am writing to ask for your support with a campaign that I have joined: ‘Save The Parish’.
There is a meeting taking place in Committee Room 14 at 18:00 on 25th April 2023 about the future of our parish churches, and the Church of England itself.
The Church of England is at a crossroads and I very much disagree with its leadership which is seeking to fundamentally alter the way the Church is run, and, by default are dismantling our historic parish system to do so.
Clergy numbers are being cut across the country but the situation appears to be particularly severe in Cornwall. Parishes are being coerced into mergers. Dioceses are selling off vicarages and houses built at the expense of the parishes. The Church of England is removing those profits away from parish work at a time when they are barely getting back up on their feet after COVID when the Archbishops agreed to the closure of all parish churches.
Power centralised. Parishes merged. Clergy cut.
This is no way forward for the Church of England.
The benefits of parishes in our constituency are incalculable. Parishes are the pillar of so many communities in Cornwall and across the country. They are a vast, social support network which amounts to £55 billion a year of benefit to local communities. Their loss would be incalculable for our country.
According to government statistics, rural communities make up over 90 % of the population of Cornwall, farming and agriculture related professions have higher than average rates of depression and suicide. Our rural parishes have major problems with mental health, loneliness and isolation, the presence of churches and clergy in these remote areas provides support for all parishioners, whatever their needs. The proposals by the Bishops in Cornwall to concentrate clergy in hubs based around towns, to which the countryside villages have little or no access, will remove a major source of support from all those who live in isolated rural areas. Clergy on the ground provide mental health support and community cohesion. Their absence from rural parishes can only be detrimental to the social fabric of our communities.
Parishes are our national heritage. So much of our local history is reliant on the living presence of these buildings. Nearly 50% of the listed buildings in the UK are churches, and the task of preserving those buildings for future generations is left entirely to local parishes. Abandoned by the central church, they are being left to rot or sold into private hands.
I am asking you to join this meeting and to participate because we need your help. The Church of England is the established church and you have influence over the future of these issues and are in a position to hold the Church Commissioners to account. Save the Parish is a group of clergy and parishioners from all across the Church. They are united in their view that the parish system must be protected and have been championing parishes within the Church of England; now we are turning to Parliament to help.
Chris Loder MP, the MP for West Dorset is holding a cross-party briefing on 25th April 2023 at 18:00 in Committee Room 14 to go into more detail on how Parliament can help. Please attend this meeting – I would really appreciate it. Chris will be able to let you know more. His email is: Chris.Loder.mp@parliament.uk
Thank you for your time, I’d be very grateful if you could support this campaign and I look forward to hearing back from you.
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