Cornwall's Bishops further challenged as On The Way roadshow continues
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 commitments.
As at their visit to Carnmarth North (4/2/2023), the Bishops ensured that contributions invited from the floor centred around 'good news'. Only a small amount of time was allowed for other questions which were glossed over if “difficult” and dwelt on if “positive”. Time management was clever, noted one person present.
Bishop Philip, opening the meeting, welcomed the audience to what he called this “conversation”.
In fact, anything but a conversation followed as he talked at length about his vision for “The Saints Way”, in Cornwall. Reading extensively from a sheet of the same title, Bishop Philip, who is able to trace some distant Cornish ancestry, explained 'how important our churches had been since ancient times and how our faith derived from our Celtic tradition'. No time was taken to discuss this vision. Worryingly, in order to draw on this tradition Bishop Philip's leaflet suggests a number of ways that our mission can be more effective, most of which do not appear to involve clergy or church buildings.
The audience were then asked to break into groups of 2 or 3 people sitting close to each other to share good news stories about mission activities happening in their churches or community.
Worse, however, was to follow. The groups were then invited to share these good new stories with the rest of the audience.
"This was a clever time consuming exercise which involved a microphone being carried around the room and people talking at length about their projects, with both Bishops," a worried attendee reported. This technique, used at Carnmarth North, not only used up a great deal of time but also allowed the Bishops to identify those members of the audience who were empathetic with the process and therefore likely to ask non-threatening questions.
Eventually, Bishop Hugh took the stage to explain what was happening across the Diocese, starting with a substantial sermon on commercialisation and change. This echoed his recent dispiriting speech at the September 2022 Diocesan Synod which provoked a mixed response. Click here to listen to that speech and here to read the speech and here to read the reaction on Facebook.
Outlining a radical and irreversible change to ministry in Cornwall, he spoke of 'failure' - a theme echoed in this year's Lent literature but challenged by many. Click here to read a letter in the Church Times.
Bishop Hugh concluded by saying that the key points common to all the plans were:
· Stipendiary clergy would be used for oversight ministry, while LLMs and readers would replace them in the churches and communities
· Greater engagement with children / schools / poor
· Sharing faith outside the church
Only after he finished, more than an hour into the meeting, were questions taken from the floor. And issues raised that had already been raised at Carnmarth North and Trigg Major were voiced.
Q. Older people feel that having served the church for the whole of their lives they are now being put on the shelf.
A. Little sympathy - or acknowledgement of the need for pastoral care - was expressed for people who have spent their lives supporting their local churches .
"We spend huge amounts of time effort and money on older people," the Bishops said. "We have a responsibility to everyone – we need to reach the unreached. We need to concentrate more on the people we are currently missing. Truro diocese has the oldest demographic of any in England - 55 % over 70 this does not reflect population of Cornwall so we have to attract more young people."
Q. In last 40 years ordained clergy numbers have dropped by 50% while employees in the diocese have gone up 50 %
· Stipendiary clergy would be used for oversight ministry, while LLMs and readers would replace them in the churches and communities
· Greater engagement with children / schools / poor
· Sharing faith outside the church
Only after he finished, more than an hour into the meeting, were questions taken from the floor. And issues raised that had already been raised at Carnmarth North and Trigg Major were voiced.
Q. Older people feel that having served the church for the whole of their lives they are now being put on the shelf.
A. Little sympathy - or acknowledgement of the need for pastoral care - was expressed for people who have spent their lives supporting their local churches .
"We spend huge amounts of time effort and money on older people," the Bishops said. "We have a responsibility to everyone – we need to reach the unreached. We need to concentrate more on the people we are currently missing. Truro diocese has the oldest demographic of any in England - 55 % over 70 this does not reflect population of Cornwall so we have to attract more young people."
Q. In last 40 years ordained clergy numbers have dropped by 50% while employees in the diocese have gone up 50 %
A. Bishop Philip showed a graph to indicate that clergy number decline is much gentler than decline in congregation [no scales or numbers were given so essentially this was a meaningless comparison]. The Bishops added that compliance in the church is just the same as NHS etc; they don’t employ people because they want to, they do so because they have to. There has been a 12.5% reduction in office costs in Truro last year.
Q. Our church has twice merged with other parishes to form larger cluster / benefice, on each occasion reduction in services resulted in reduction in congregation. We are concerned that with an ever more distant priest you lose connection with congregations.
A. "It’s a real challenge but this is the reality we are in and there are smaller numbers of everything so we have to make choices," said the Bishops. "It’s for that reason that we are encouraging wherever possible for people to look out people to be a local minister to help redevelop the church in a particular place to be a known person with a known face in that church."
The Questioner tried to ask a supplementary question but was spoken over by Bishop Hugh and the microphone moved away. This also happened at Carnmarth North: the microphone was taken from a person voicing dissent.
No further questions were taken, despite many raised hands.
Finally Bishop Philip read from Luke (c 14 v 16-21). - a passage about anointing and re-dedication. Again, this echoed proceedings at Carnmarth North. The audience was then invited to come forward to be anointed with oil by the bishops. The majority but by no means all those present seemed to do this.
There were many, as at Carnmarth North, who felt that the use of holy oil - at what was in essence a political meeting - was fundamentally wrong.
Q. Our church has twice merged with other parishes to form larger cluster / benefice, on each occasion reduction in services resulted in reduction in congregation. We are concerned that with an ever more distant priest you lose connection with congregations.
A. "It’s a real challenge but this is the reality we are in and there are smaller numbers of everything so we have to make choices," said the Bishops. "It’s for that reason that we are encouraging wherever possible for people to look out people to be a local minister to help redevelop the church in a particular place to be a known person with a known face in that church."
The Questioner tried to ask a supplementary question but was spoken over by Bishop Hugh and the microphone moved away. This also happened at Carnmarth North: the microphone was taken from a person voicing dissent.
No further questions were taken, despite many raised hands.
Finally Bishop Philip read from Luke (c 14 v 16-21). - a passage about anointing and re-dedication. Again, this echoed proceedings at Carnmarth North. The audience was then invited to come forward to be anointed with oil by the bishops. The majority but by no means all those present seemed to do this.
There were many, as at Carnmarth North, who felt that the use of holy oil - at what was in essence a political meeting - was fundamentally wrong.
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