Save The Parish - Cornwall

 The proposed closure of St Mary's Church, Merrymeet, east Cornwall, has sparked outrage locally. Villagers say their views have been ignored by Truro's Bishops and Archdeacons who have their own agenda. Local resident Hilary Geary's letter to the Church Times today (20 May 2022) sums it up:

  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

 An interesting letter in the Church Times today from the Rev Rosheen Browning, Priest in Charge at Camborne, Cornwall, where one of the county's Transforming Mission programmes is being rolled out. Rev Browning says numbers at toddler groups and holiday clubs show that engagement with young people has vastly increased in her five-church cluster's work, pushing back at critics suggesting the scheme is not quite the success expected as large numbers of new worshippers have not materialised.  These figures contradict a Diocesan document produced in October 2018, which details extensive youth work across Camborne Cluster   before the Transforming Mission programme was started there. In the Church Times, however, Rev. Browning writes that an increased engagement with young people in a deprived area indicates the programme has a 'sustainable future'. The churches in her cluster - Camborne, Penponds, Tuckingmill, Crowan and Treslothan - engaged on a regular basis with just 20

Villagers at Merrymeet in east Cornwall are working hard together to fight  Diocesan plans to close their local church, St Mary's.  The Cornish Guardian (20 May 2022) picked up their press release and ran with it this week. They are awaiting a response now from the office of the Bishop of Truro to their open letter to him.