JOINT STATEMENT WITH THE CORNISH BUILDINGS GROUP
CAMPAIGN GROUPS CALL FOR MORATORIUM ON BISHOPS’ RADICAL PLANS TO CHANGE CORNISH CHURCHES 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