Save The Parish - Cornwall

On 29 January 2023, Save The Parish Cornwall sent a letter to the Bishop of Truro asking for a moratorium on his On The Way plans for church reform in the county. They said that they feared these plans would erode and eventually destroy the Church of England locally.  This followed a meeting in Truro on 6 January 2023 when churchgoers from ten of Cornwall's 12 deaneries expressed deep concern about these plans.  The text of the letter is reproduced below. Dear Bishop Philip, We are writing to call for a moratorium on the On The Way plans that are being rolled out across Cornwall.  We are asking you personally, for the second time, for an urgent meeting to discuss a number of issues before these proposals move into formal consultation. This call for a moratorium was passed overwhelmingly at a Public Meeting in Truro in January attended by nearly 40 churchgoers from parishes in 10 of the 12 deaneries in Truro Diocese.  The meeting, called by Save The Pari...

Radical parish re-organisation is planned in Kerrier, Penwith and East Wivelshire deaneries - and possibly others too. These moves will change the nature of the Church of England in Cornwall forever. It's important to resist pastoral re-organisation schemes as soon as they are published. You could strengthen your position by seeking help from potentially powerful allies with a strong ‘voice’ and influence with the Bishop.   Each parish has a patron. In many cases in Cornwall, this is the Bishop. But there are a few parishes with independent patrons. If the patron has not been consulted, it may be grounds for complaint when the schemes are issued. Parishes unhappy with proposals could write a letter something like the below. “Dear [Patrons’ name],  I am writing to you as the [e.g. churchwarden] of [name of church].  It is my understanding that you are our church’s patron.    I would like to bring to your attention that… [details].   It appears that this pro...

Devastating flaws in the Bishop of Truro's plans for giant benefices in Cornwall have been exposed by a top Save The Parish analyst. Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent , a member of Save The Parish's national committee, put the case very clearly to a packed public meeting at Truro Library on Monday. The sweeping pastoral reorganisations in On The Way schemes planned by the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen and his team threaten to be a disaster, he said. They have failed elsewhere and they will fail here. Read on for the full text: I want to dwell on three reasons why mega-parishes are a very bad idea. And then I want to encourage you to stand up against them: · First reason - there is no financial need for the Bishop of Truro to be doing this to your much loved parishes. · Second reason - these large structures of mega parishes such as are being proposed across the diocese from Kerrier to East Wivelshire are very unlikely to work as intended. They will not bring fruitfuln...

We have uploaded as many plans as possible so that people in different parts of Cornwall can find out what's going on elsewhere. Up to now, this has not been the case. The Diocese has rolled out the On The Way process on a piecemeal basis so that many people have been completely unaware what has been going on in neighbouring deaneries. Some have voted for plans in which they have no confidence - simply because they have been told that there was no choice. They were told that the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, would approve the plans if they didn't. Powder Deanery Plan Click here to read   Trigg Minor Deanery Plan Click here to read Kerrier Deanery Plan Click here to read This plan was passed by the narrowest of margins .At the meeting of the Kerrier Deanery Synod on 23 rd  September 2022, at which the Deanery Plan was presented for approval, the secret ballot as recorded in the Minutes was:   For the Plan:      14 Against:  ...

Just before Christmas, Cornwall's Bishops issued an extraordinary document relating to their 'On The Way' programme - entitled  'Next Steps On The Way  - Frequently Asked Questions' . This document was distributed to Parochial Church Councils across Cornwall - to the bewilderment of many.  Click here to read it. Why were people puzzled? Because this is a diocese-originated FAQ document simply defending a diocese-originated plan. Here is Save The Parish's response: There is no mention of any specific parish or deanery in this document. It’s all coming top-down from the diocese. ·        On page 2, re closing churches, the threat is less the boarding-up or selling of church buildings, more the very real threat of churches being rendered moribund by infrequent use. A church that has a service once a month is hardly ‘open’ by most people’s definition. What does it communicate about the importance of a church, that a priest is only sent there o...