Save The Parish - Cornwall

 We've long suspected it  - but here's the proof. The template and the choreography all spelled out. This carefully planned timetable is how our Cornish Bishops go through the motions on deanery visits - avoiding challenging questions about their plans by allocating minimal time to open discussion.  It's the same at every single deanery visit. Click here for accounts of previous visits, curiously and inaccessibly scheduled on Saturday afternoons. The Bishops' next visit will be to Carnmarth South on 29 April 2023 - again from 4pm to 6pm on a Saturday.

  An excellent article here by Pam Thornbury. The Bishops of Truro and St Germans are proposing changes that will change the nature of church life in Cornwall forever.  And worse - they are doing it without proper consultation.

 As the Diocese prepares to publish radical parish re-organisation schemes, it is useful to read the following documents written by Archdeacon Paul Bryer to understand how he values - and promotes -  such potentially destructive changes.  Archdeacon Paul is very much in favour of pastoral re-organisation: he is not a neutral voice. An Introduction to Parish Re-organisation by Archdeacon Paul Bryer Advantages of One Parish by Archdeacon Paul Bryer Frequently asked questions - setting up Joint PCCs Background to parish re-organisation from the C of E Save The Parish has published a paper on resisting Joint Councils, which are often a first step in parish re-organisation.  Click here to read. And here to read Save The Parish board member Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent on just why to resist 'mega parishes'. These changes are being introduced alongside moves from the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, to replace the traditional parish priest with 'oversight...

 An important letter in this week's Church Times (24 March 2023) from Rev Peter Bellenes on how much of 'aggression' in social media comment is triggered by a failure by managers to engage reasonably.  "My observation of some areas of the Church of England is that, in plans for wholesale pastoral reorganisation, there is the same failure to engage'. Little wonder, then, that there is disappointment and anger.  Click here to read the letter in full (it is the second on the Church Times letters page.) Nowhere is this more apparent than in Cornwall, where controversial On The Way plans have been micromanaged by the Episcopal College. Click here to read how the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, controlled the development of the On The Way plan in Carnmarth North deanery.        https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pbDdU3S3lrmE62d3UvJzW2cX3U8VXfHm/view?usp=sharing

Answers, please, Bishop Philip.  Save The Parish Cornwall has sent a further letter to the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, expressing the deep concerns of church goers across Cornwall about the lack of consultation - and clarity  - over On The Way plans.  We ask for a meeting to discuss this and an open conversation about the way forward. Click here to read the letter .   Key questions for Bishop Philip:   Confusion about the Diocese’s recent statement in the press that there would be ten more clergy in post by the end of 2023. This contradicts TDBF budget plans: correspondence with the Diocesan press office has failed to clarify this. At both Bishops' deanery visits to discuss On The Way plans, challenges have been shut down and questions from the floor have been kept to a minimum. Proceedings have been choreographed to allow praise – but not criticism. Following a Save The Parish meeting with Bishop Hugh on 31 August 2022, we were promis...

As the Bishops continue to push through unpopular On The Way plans, Save The Parish Cornwall is gathering together evidence of the lack of proper consulation and - very importantly - interference in the planning on deanery level. This evidence conclusively shows that these plans were not 'bottom up - emanating from ideas within the deaneries, as both Cornish Bishops repeatedly suggest. They were instead 'top down', with the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, micromanaging at every stage with the Episcopal College. The plans developed according to his directives. In Carnmarth North this was particularly evident. Click here to read the December 2021 update by the deanery lay chair where Bishop Hugh says that the plan is for On The Way and Transforming Mission are going to be merged: "Caspar Bush (rural dean) then reported back on discussions the Steering Group had had with Bishop Hugh earlier in the day . These concerned two what he called ‘elephants in the ...

Annual Church meetings are being held across Cornwall over the next few days. Church accounts will be presented and plans for the coming year discussed. And at many of these meetings, deanery synod members will be elected.  Deanery synod membership is an important - and crucial - role. Deanery synod members are the only people who can elect diocesan synod or general synod members. Deanery synod members are the electorate for the Church of England.  This is particularly important as we face such change in Cornwall through On The Way plans - and our Bishops are talking about 'oversight ministers', rather than priests in parishes. Please think about standing. Forms should be at the back of your church. The date of your Annual Church meeting should be clearly advertised. You will need a proposer and seconder.    Here's a leaflet from Save The Parish with more information.

 A brilliant article by Giles Fraser - click here to read . Giles Fraser is a journalist, broadcaster and Vicar of St Anne's, Kew. Sadly we’re dealing here in Cornwall with the managerialism he describes as crippling the Church of England. Many people are watching - with dismay - as   On The Way plans are rolled out  . Our Cornish bishops  - the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen and the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson - want ‘oversight ministers’ - not priests in parishes.  Click here to read more.   The process of forming 'mega parishes' - in Kerrier, 23 churches under one rural dean - will cause irreversible damage to congregations, and local communities. Save The Parish has published a new paper on the dangers of 'mega parishes'.   Click here to read. 

As the Bishops of Truro and St Germans prepare for St Austell, the latest stop in their On The Way 'consultation' road show , Save The Parish has published a new paper on the potentially catastrophic effects of proposed 'mega parishes' and pastoral reorganisation. ‘Problems with Megaparishes” was written by two ordained academics, and exposes some fresh angles. Click here to read. Huge benefices are being proposed under the Bishops' On The Way plans in Cornwall: in Kerrier, for example, 23 parishes are being brought together under one rural dean. The Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen and the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson will be meeting churchgoers in St Austell from 4-6pm this afternoon - just as most of the nation will be warming up TVs to watch England's rugby match against Ireland in the Six Nations Championship at Murrayfield. The Bishops' tour of Cornish deaneries in this supposed consultation exercise has curiously been timed on Saturday afternoons during the Six Nati...

Next stop for our Cornish Bishops' On The Way Roadshow is St Austell on 18 March from 4pm to 6pm. On Saturday afternoons during the Six Nations rugby championships, the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, and the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson have been touring Cornwall's deaneries following the 'approval' of On The Way plans.  The curious timing of these meetings means that attendance has been confined to keen churchgoers -  excluding people with young families, sports fans and in fact anyone with a busy weekend diary. The carefully choreographed events are intended to constitute consultation. Those who have managed to make the meetings have found that less than less than a quarter of the time (only 25 minutes) is allocated for questions, the balance being used for ministry and sharing good news stories. Key questions unanswered concern the Diocese's hastily written booklet “Next Steps On The Way Frequently Asked Questions” : • The secti...

Thank you to our Save The Parish supporter who discovered this very moving blessing prayer for leaders. Blessing for a leader May you have the grace and wisdom to act kindly, learning to distinguish between what is personal and what is not. May you be hospitable to criticism. May you never put yourself at the centre of things. May you act not from arrogance but out of service. May you work on yourself, Building up and refining the ways of your mind. May those who work for you know you see and respect them. May you learn to cultivate the art of presence In order to engage with those who meet you. When someone fails or disappoints you, May the graciousness with which you engage Be their stairway to renewal and refinement May you treasure the gifts of the mind through reading and creative thinking So that you continue as a servant of the frontier Where the new will draw its enrichment from the old, And you never become a functionary. May you know the wisdom of deep listening, The healing ...

If you are worried about developments in Cornwall - plans for radical parish re-organisation and our Bishops' drive towards lay ministry in the Diocese of Truro - then please think about writing to your MP. Save The Parish is organising a meeting at the Houses of Parliament on 25 April 2023 at 6pm. We are keen for as many MPs as possible to attend so they can learn about what's happening in Cornwall - and elsewhere in the country. Anyone can contact their MP at any time. If you do not know your MP's email address, you can find it via this l ink.   FIND YOUR MP    Below is a suggested template with a Cornish angle for you to work with - and add any details you wish. I am worried about the future of our parish churches in Cornwall and am writing to ask for your support with a campaign that I have joined: ‘Save The Parish’. There is a meeting taking place in Committee Room 14 at 18:00 on 25th April 2023 about the future of our parish churches, and the Church of E...

Concern in Cornwall at the actions of the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, again reaches a national stage. A letter in the Church Times (Friday 3 March 2023) from Truro Cathedral Friends and congregation members outlines the damage his recent - and, they say, unnecessary visitation has caused.  Click here  to read the Church Times letter by Juliet and Richard Lingham, and Truro Cathedral Friends and congregation members (it is the second letter on the Letter's Page). There has been considerable controversy in the Diocese of Truro around Mounstephen's actions at the Cathedral: click here to read more about that. "The Church Times letter questions where the natural justice is in the Bishop's actions," said Save The Parish Co-ordinator Susan Roberts. "And also points to lots of positive achievements that have gone unrecognised.  Feelings that could equally apply to the whole On The Way process." The Bishops' (of Truro and St Germans) O...

A powerful and articulate letter by Pam Dodd of Probus in today's West Briton (2 March 2023). The letter gets the prominence it deserves:  the Bishops' On The Way restructuring plans in Cornwall will decimate parishes and church communities across the Diocese of Truro.