Diocese insists on Community Interest Company in Kerrier

Despite grass-roots opposition, the most controversial On The Way plan in Cornwall is inching forward with Diocesan officials ignoring local unease.

At a meeting in Mawgan on Wednesday 29 March about 40 Parochial Church Council members from across the deanery discussed the next step in their On The Way plan. Many were surprised at the turn events had taken. On the agenda: the need to set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) to employ the new workers. 

Kerrier Deanery's On The Way plan proposes a giant benefice - a mega parish - of 23 churches, overseen by a newly appointed rural dean, the Rev Heidi Huntley and employing several lay workers.

This 'need' to set up a CIC had not previously been mentioned by the Diocese, which up to now has directly employed 'lay workers' - e.g. at Transforming Mission in Falmouth. 

Church House is not, however, prepared to employ the new lay workers, for reasons that remain unclear. Neither Archdeacon Paul Bryer nor the Director of Change and Renewal, Ruth Marriott, were able to fully explain and answer key questions from the floor: the new CIC will need Trustees. What will their responsibilities be? What will happen to the CIC once current funding from the Church Commissioners has ended? Will they be obliged to seek further funding?

A show of hands on the matter saw equal numbers (about 10) for and against - with 16 abstentions. Hardly a vote of overwhelming approval - though those leading the meeting declared that the level of approval was such that plans for a CIC could proceed....  The Director of Change and Renewal Ruth Marriott - appointed to push the On The Way plans through - said that this would be taken as an endorsement of the proposals.