Cornwall's Bishops in tailspin after BBC Sunday Politics coverage
Cornwall’s Bishops have been stung by hard-hitting coverage on BBC Sunday Politics South West of their controversial On the Way cost-cutting programme which is cutting clergy numbers, merging parishes and threatening church closures.
In a 1200-word statement on the Diocese of Truro website, and
an accompanying letter to all churches, the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev
Philip Mounstephen, and the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, complain
about many aspects of the report (click here to view the report).
The problem is, as so often with the Diocese of Truro statements, rhetoric does not coincide with reality.
Truro complains (on the Diocesan website):
“The report lasted just under five minutes but…. Much
of the time was given to four speakers from a campaign group, three of whom
have no connection with the church in Cornwall or with wider Cornish
society."
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
The four actually included two well-respected
SouthWest MPs who are indeed from Devon and Dorset but who are well-known in
Parliament for their concerns about the direction of travel of the Church of
England both nationally and in this region. The sole Save The Parish
activist was actually on the national STP steering group but also happens
to be a South West native so crossed the Tamar to add his expertise.
The fourth ‘speaker’ was a parishioner from Penwith in West Cornwall who
is deeply unhappy with the On The Way plans.
Truro complains (on the Diocesan website):
"…despite
making serious claims about the Diocese of Truro, only 29 seconds were given to
Bishop Hugh.” And then later: "A final brief clip gave 29 seconds of
input from Bishop Hugh. It then cut back to the studio for discussion with the
two Devon MPs.”
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
Bishop Hugh was actually featured TWICE in the
programme, and not 29 seconds, but for a total of 49 seconds. The subsequent
studio discussions did not involve the two MPs in the film, as the Diocesan
statement claims, but two local councillors and a SW-based
cabinet minister who disappointingly declined to express opinions on
the subject.
The Diocese was -
by its own account – given the opportunity to ‘field a single speaker’. Tellingly, the Bishop of Truro was not put up
for interview – but his number two, the Bishop of St Germans.
Truro complains:
it is not true that the diocese is ‘deliberately
cutting the number of priests’.
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
Well - yes it is. Bishop Hugh actually confirms in
the BBC report that clergy numbers ARE being cut in Cornwall, and admits that
the original financial justification is in truth not the driving
principle. He says that by the end of the current On The Way process there will
even be “slightly fewer” priests than the current low of 54 (it was 70+ in
2020).
Truro complains (on the Diocesan website):
“So that you are aware, Bishop Hugh and I have made
a point of briefing our local Cornish MPs on what is happening in the Diocese.
It is perhaps not a coincidence then that the programme did not feature any of
our MPs.
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
Truro complains:
"Nor is it true that money earmarked for
stipends is being used for ‘other things”.
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
Well, it certainly hasn’t been properly spent
on stipends. Truro diocese has a designated Diocesan Stipend Fund (DSF) of
£39m, the income of which is purely meant to pay priests salaries.
In 2021
the diocese declared an alleged overall £1.3m
budget “deficit” in the diocese, which the Bishops publicly said
triggered the controversial On The Way reorganisation plans. Yet that
same year Truro chose to spend just £21,000 of the DSF income on salaries it
is specifically designed to cover.
The accounts reveal they were entitled to have
spent over £1.5m (more than enough to cover that alleged deficit) from that
fund’s income, but for some unexplained reason chose not to do so.
Truro complains:
… about the use of Sancreed Church as a case
study of disquiet, saying: "In fact, the church in question is in a unique
situation, for unique reasons and should never have been used as an example in
this report. It is mischievous of those who approached the BBC to have offered
this church as if it were typical, and we are disappointed in the level of
journalism which did not seek to ask basic questions about their suitability
for interview.”
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
This astonishing, bad-tempered and personal attack on
both historic Sancreed church and its congregation is baffling. The spokeswoman
complained - justifiably, many might think - that the church
continues to be left by the diocese without an incumbent priest for nine
years, and concluded that she and the rest of the congregation had seen no sign
that there is any plan by the Bishops to rectify their plight.
Neither Save The Parish nationally, nor Save The
Parish Cornwall, approached the BBC to suggest this programme. They came to us
and asked for our involvement.
Truro complains:
… that the reporter said: "The diocese is
proposing a series of changes called ‘On the Way’ which will see some vicars
looking after as many as 15 or 20 churches. They say it’s vital to help
modernise the church’. This is factually incorrect in at least three ways.”
1.
The plans that emerged were developed
locally in each deanery and not ‘ by the diocese’.
2. …while two of our 12 deaneries will see new patterns
of ministry with stipendiary clergy leading teams of ordained and lay people
over areas that will include more than ten churches, ten deaneries will not.
3. Nobody has ever said that On The Way or any of the work currently underway is ‘vital to help modernise the church’.
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
1. Despite diocesan bluster it is the Bishops who have
shaped, led and directed the On The Way process throughout from the very top,
and everyone involved knows it. The Bishops’ Episcopal College - led by
Bishop Hugh - set out for deaneries the general direction of travel, and
any ideas had to be cleared by them first. Many changes were made at their
instruction. In at least two deaneries, representatives were told that they had
to vote through the ‘approved’ plan, otherwise Bishop Hugh would vote it through
anyway.
2.
The diocesan statement admits
here that, yes, at least two deaneries will have what they call ‘oversight ministers’ running "areas that will include more than ten churches”. Such
as Kerrier, where under On The Way in future just two paid priests
will supposedly care for 23 churches …
This pattern is also proposed elsewhere and is already the norm in areas
where Transforming Mission has been operating i.e. St Austell, Camborne,
Falmouth, Liskeard and Highertown, Truro.
The ten-year ‘Diocesan Plan for Change and Renewal’ – due to be nodded
through the Diocesan Synod tomorrow (20 May 2023) – states clearly (page three)
“… there
will need to be significant change in patterns of parish ministry. More
clergy will be in oversight roles leading and overseeing teams of lay and
ordained ministers who themselves will lead local church communities.”
The statement also fails to acknowledge is the fact that other pastoral
re-organisation schemes are planned in other Cornish deaneries.
3.
As above, the ten-year ‘Diocesan
Plan for Change and Renewal’ – due to be nodded through the Diocesan Synod
tomorrow (20 May 2023) – states clearly (page three)
“Deanery plans call for a
reversal in the declines of numbers worshipping in our churches. To do this
there will need to be a significant change in patterns of parish ministry.
Truro complains:
The two MPs who were interviewed in the
programme were not from Cornwall, and so therefore had no right to
an opinion and therefore should not have been quoted.
Save The Parish Cornwall explains:
Both MPs have a long track record of speaking in
parliament and elsewhere on Church of England issues, and as
South West MPs are both very well aware and have commented publicly
before on the controversy surrounding On The Way and the Diocese of Truro.
It seems an ill-judged suggestion by the Bishops that elected MPs from
the region should not air their views.
Both the letter and the statement on the Diocesan
website ‘Putting the record straight’ do have one positive element. They both
close with a call for people to send in their views.
The On The Way process has proceeded with a staggering lack of consultation
with churchgoers and local communities. Any moves to truly listen to people’s
concerns must be welcomed.
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