'MEGA-PARISH' SCHEMES - update from SAVE THE PARISH
Other dioceses may be achieving the same result differently (for example by allowing current appointments to end without appointing new parish priests). A ten-year plan noted by the Truro Diocesan Synod on Saturday plans for 55 Oversight Ministers across the diocese. We believe this to herald a pan-diocese plan for a complete change of style of ministry. Truro's Bishops have already confirmed that two of Cornwall's 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 - Kerrier and Penwith. Large pastoral re-organisation schemes are also planned in other deaneries - such as East Wivelshire - and it is widely believed that more will follow.
The key consideration for you is that, if your parish is asked to merge, or your priest is asked to take on more churches, your PCC or priest can say no! Although the Leicester scheme has been accepted by its diocesan synod back in 2021, these votes have no legal effect, so do not let anyone lead you to assume otherwise. Diocesan synods are not even mentioned in the Church legislation on parish reorganisation schemes. A diocesan synod vote is not a ‘done deal’.
Below for your further information are some links to media coverage, which give further details. If you would like to contribute to the current correspondence in the Daily Telegraph, please write asap to: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk . This is the Church Times letters page address, too: letters@churchtimes.co.uk.
Please pass the links below on to friends, in Leicester especially, and suggest that they look at them, that they register with Save The Parish and that they consider coming to our York day conference on Thursday 6th July. Please consider starting a regional STP group now in your diocese, in case the same kind of wholescale proposal is put forward there - it is wise to be prepared!
Kind regards,
Alison
Revd Professor Canon Alison Milbank
Steering Committee
Save The Parish
LEICESTER:
1. Angela Tilby makes it quite clear in the Church Times that the Leicester scheme is not designed to rescue struggling parishes: https://savetheparish.com/2023/05/19/angela-tilby-argues-that-parishes-can-say-no-to-new-monster-schemes/ (You can register free to read Church Times articles)
2. The link to the YouTube clip she refers to can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZnCSBYWutI. In this helpful explanation of the mega-parish scheme, Professor Roy Faulkner, a General Synod member from Leicestershire, is interviewed by Revd Brett Murphy, whose church is being asked to join the second of Leicester’s new "Minster Communities”. Revd Brett’s concerns include that there will be insufficient priests to cater for the needs of parishes with different traditions. (A recent Church Times letter from Professor Roy Faulkner is here: https://savetheparish.com/2023/05/12/letter-church-https-savetheparish-com-p7883previewtruetimes-april-2023-2/)
3. Here is Saturday’s Daily Telegraph report on the same scheme, with quotes from Emma Thompson of STP: https://savetheparish.com/2023/05/21/daily-telegraph-article-on-the-anger-over-just-3-priest-in-launde-mega-parish/
4. These are the Daily Telegraph letters printed on Monday 22nd May: https://savetheparish.com/2023/05/22/daily-telegraph-letters-35-churches-and-3-vicars-in-launde-minster-in-leicestershire/
5. These are the Daily Telegraph letters printed today, Tuesday 23rd May: https://savetheparish.com/category/articles/
6. The implementation team’s document on Leicester's first Minster scheme (Launde) includes an Oct 2022 report from the Finance & Generosity Working Group envisaging that there may be a “doom loop”, whereby having fewer clergy leads to reduced giving (which would be consistent with the CofE’s own research findings) which would, in turn, lead to even fewer clergy. Here are the words used: “… Parishioners will ask what the Parish Contribution is going towards when there is a low level of spiritual support provided. This may well create a “doom loop” where giving further reduces and thus less funding further shrinks the number of clergy available".
The same document also mentions that some churches may have to be “re-purposed” (which we take to mean closed), but that this has not been discussed with congregations and PCCs.
7. Leicester MP Alberto Costa has kindly asked these Parliamentary Questions about the scheme on our behalf: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions?SearchTerm=Church+Commissioners&DateFrom=18%2F05%2F2023&DateTo=01%2F12%2F2023&AnsweredFrom=&AnsweredTo=&House=Bicameral&Answered=Any&Expanded=False
8. To ask your MP to ask Parliamentary Questions, please follow the guidance here: https://savetheparish.com/parliamentary-questions-answers/. A good question to investigate is how many of the parish churches in your diocese are currently in vacancy.
TRURO:
1. The BBC SW Politics programme noticed what Truro diocese was doing and made a report on its reorganisations, which was shown on Sunday 14th May. At the conclusion of the programme, the (suffragan) Bishop of St Germans says “in the end... it’s about what we think matters”, which could be taken as implying that rural parishes don’t matter? Please find the link to the short BBC report on this page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM8_JquEKPM
2. Truro diocese took part in the report, although the diocesan Bishop of Truro declined to participate, but then mounted an attack on the BBC’s selection of material: https://trurodiocese.org.uk/2023/05/setting-the-record-straight/
3. Here is the link to a Truro document (the figures on p.27 are interesting, e.g. they plan to go up from 358 to over 500 churchwardens although it is not made clear how): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pUoJp8DTGOjKw1Om1MYuvilEx26b7IEp/view)
4. STP Cornwall is a Truro diocese regional group which runs its own blog. You may like to read it here: https://savetheparish.blogspot.com/ and consider starting your own regional group.
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