Save The Parish - Cornwall

On Tuesday 25th April at 6pm, Save The Parish is holding its MPs’ meeting at the Houses of Parliament. Please do make sure that your MP has been invited to attend, using our pro forma letter here https://savetheparish.com/contact-your-mp/ ). This is to discuss the duty of Parliamentary oversight of the Established Church with reference to the future of the parish system.

  The |Bishops of Truro and St Germans faced further challenges last night at the latest stop of their slickly choreographed On The Way roadshow. The Bishops, visiting deaneries split by divisive On The Way plans, are proposing an end to priests in parishes in the Diocese of Truro. At St James's Church, Torpoint, in East Wivelshire deanery, both Bishops were presented with concerns voiced at previous On The Way deanery visits. However  - as at their previous roadshow stops - the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen and the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson carefully manipulated proceedings to evade dissent - ensuring the evening was weighted towards their contributions - and minimal time given to questions. There were 80-90 people at St James's last night, but many others were unable to attend. The meeting was poorly advertised and puzzlingly held from 5-7pm on a Saturday afternoon during the Six Nations rugby tournament - an impossible time for sports fans, young families and others with weekend comm...

When the Church of England's General Synod met earlier this month, Save the Parish held a very successful ‘fringe’ event. STP Steering Committtee member Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent tells us more.... A range of Synod members, including John Spence, the Church of England’s Head of Finance, and his deputy came to hear what three of our financial scrutiny team had to say about finance and figures in the Church, and improving the husbandry of a charity's financial resources. We would love you to watch it for yourself – you can find it online at https://youtu.be/45nrep1IvWk First in the video, you can hear my introduction (1.30-5.30) dispelling the myth that diocesan ‘mega-parish’ schemes are necessary for financial reasons. The presentation shows how instead our parishes fund the dioceses, with more money coming upstream from the parishes to the dioceses, via parish share and from the Diocesan Stipends Funds (money generated for stipends by the ‘glebe' which was taken f...

The Bishops of Truro and St Germans emerge red-faced in the latest Diocesan newsletter (published today ) after earlier this month shutting down challenges to their controversial On The Way  restructuring plans. The Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen on 9 February 2023 curtly refused a meeting with Save The Parish Cornwall: click here to read the letter written to him by concerned churchgoers .  And here to read a report about his response (the Bishop requested that his letter was not published). He had tetchily responded to a searching question at a Carnmarth North deanery visit a few days earlier (4 February 2023) by saying that that no - concerned churchgoers should not go to him.  Click here to listen to the question and here to read a transcript.    A report subsequently published on the Diocese of Truro website did not record challenging questions at that meeting. Click here to see how dissent was glossed over. The penny now seems to have dropped. The paragraphs i...

On The Way deanery plan summaries have now been published on the Diocese of Truro website and are condensed (to the point that they hardly make sense in some cases) - https://trurodiocese.org.uk/resources/next-steps-on-the-way/fruitful-sustainable/deanery-plans/ They appeared at the start of the year, as both diocesan bishops started on a round of deanery visits to drum up support for these controversial plans. And as they tour the county with a carefully rehearsed roadshow, growing unease - and dissent - is being voiced. These visits are being presented in a light-hearted vein - almost as social events - but are naturally being used as part of the ‘consultation’ involved in On the Way plans.   If you are concerned about pastoral re-organisation: this is a chance to speak out before the schemes are published.  It is important to record dissent at every stage.   The diocese is choosing to ignore growing dissent. The Bishop of Truro has refused to meet campaign...

The Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen has curtly rejected calls by Save The Parish Cornwall for a moratorium on his On The Way restructuring plans , and refused a request for a meeting to discuss the widespread concern of churchgoers across Cornwall. STP Cornwall sent the Bishop a letter on 29 January 2023 requesting this. Click here to read. In his brief response dated 9 February 2023, the Bishop said that adequate consultation had been undertaken in developing these plans, and that he would not be offering a meeting to discuss alternative views. He stressed that his letter should not be reproduced either in full, or in part. In the letter, the Bishop referred to a meeting at Illogan Church on 4 February 2023, which was attended by STP Cornwall supporters. At this meeting, which was to discuss the situation in Carnmarth North deanery and its On The Way plans, the Bishop was questioned about a lack of transparency and consultation. Click here to read more. At the time, th...

Save The Parish's Emma Thompson describes how a mega-parish re-organisation scheme has  been rejected in Winchester - thanks to local objections Anyone interested in opposing radical pastoral re-organisation schemes might be interested in reading about the below:  proposals for pastoral reorganisation affecting the benefices of Pastrow; and Appleshaw, Kimpton, Thruxton, Fyfield and Shipton Bellinger.    https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/mpcp2233_pastrow_appleshaw_paper_complete.pdf This was in Winchester Diocese, where villages were threatened with a mega-parish. On page 2, the bases are set out on which the Church Commissioners scrutinised the proposals. Annex R contains the representations that were made. There are some potentially useful grounds for challenge in there - which could be very relevant for Cornwall. The report has now come out from the Church Commissioners of their decision in this case. Click here to read .  The ...

Save The Parish's Emma Thompson writes about a major success at this month's General Synod. The campaign succeeded in blocking moves to give Bishops new powers to sell off parish property .... Given all the big stories that have hit the press recently about General Synod (the Church’s parliament), you would be forgiven for not noticing one little vote on a clause in the very boring-sounding ‘Miscellaneous Provisions Measure’. As is often the case, the more boring the name of a Bill, and the more controversial the matters that surround it, the more likely it is that something significant might lurk in the detail. This Miscellaneous Provisions Measure was no exception. Sitting quietly in clause 15 was a proposal to allow bishops unilaterally to sell parish land during an interregnum. We spotted this and managed to achieve our first major Synod win as Save The Parish. The Revd Tom Woolford, a STP member, proposed what he described as ‘the soft and cuddly end’ of Save...

A visit by Cornwall's Bishops to Illogan Church to discuss Carnmarth North deanery's On The Way plans elicited several questions about the proposals that will change the nature of church life in Cornwall forever.  The subsequent report by Communications officer Kelly Rowe however ignores the challenges and fails to report dissension: click here to read   'Positivity and Hospitality in Carnmarth North' . To hear the questions challenging the Bishops, read on. A churchgoer from Crowan asks the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, whether he had consulted adequately on these potentially devastating changes.  Click here to listen and click here to read a transcript.   The Bishop said adequate consultation had taken place and abruptly dismissed suggestions that people unhappy about the proposals should contact him. "I have no reason to believe that proper consultation has not taken place," he said. "On The Way does not require consultation as it...

Writing to record your objections to the radical On The Way plans backed by our Cornish Bishops might seem daunting. But Save The Parish has many resources to help. If you are keen to pick up your pen, a supporter has recently drafted up this template which might help. It has all the background and can be adapted and amended to your church's circumstances. "The Diocese is confidently giving the impression that the Parish Reorganisation in this area, and others, is a done deal. This is not the case. Any plan for Parish Reorganisation has to be submitted to the Church Commissioners for approval. Once received they will ask PCCs for comment. Whilst we should certainly state our views at that stage, any concerns or objections will carry more weight if they have been previously raised with the Bishops. So if you have concerns you should certainly be writing to Truro now and if you feel your concerns have not been adequately addressed you should reword and resend your letter. It i...

 

Churchgoers from across Cornwall have written to the Bishop of Truro demanding an immediate moratorium on drastic cost-cutting schemes that will cut clergy numbers, redraw parish boundaries and change worship in the county forever. The letter resulted from a public meeting in January attended by worried parishioners from 10 of the 12 deaneries in the county. It called for an “open honest and transparent “ rethink of the destructive and irreversible cutbacks contained in the diocese’s On The Way plans. It came as the county’s bishops finally admitted this weekend to “seismic” plans to do away with Cornwall’s traditional parish priests and instead impose “oversight ministry” where clergy will become little more than administrators supervising lay staff running multiple churches and taking over religious affairs. “The traditional ‘vicar’ role that most of us have in mind when we think of someone wearing a dog collar, well that’s gone now” the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, Bishop of St Germans, told...

The Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, has faced further troubles over the past week as stories of serious discord at the Cathedral during his watch have surfaced. The findings of a investigation have been published on the Diocesan website and the subsequent determinations of the Bishop - click here to read.   The investigation found 'serious concerns' regarding 'discordant leadership, conflictual working relationships, underperformance and an unhealthy culture'.   A new Interim dean, the Rt Rev Simon Robinson, has now been appointed. The report said despite 'some evidence' of 'warm and productive' working relationships, key working practices were made less effective by the "prevailing culture". It said change was needed 'at pace'. This report - as is often the way with those on sensitive issues - is hard to make sense of without  relevant background.   The Bishop, asked about these findings by the media, said that the outg...