Roy Faulkner Interview: Minster Communites, Save the Parish and the End of the Church of England

Don't miss this important film - click here to watch Rev Brett Murphy, an incumbent in the Leicester diocese talking to Professor Roy Faulkner, member of General Synod and Save the Parish.

Some of the comments that this video has received have a familiar ring in Cornwall, as people express deep concerns about the plans of Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro, to introduce lay ministry and 'oversight ministers' in the county, rather than traditional vicars.

Just a few reactions to Rev Murphy's film:

 - This has been a very informative interview Brett. I actually go to a church in Derbyshire about 10 miles from your church and we are trying to get a similar thing to happen in the diocese of Derby! Loads of people in our village are complaining to me about the fact that they cannot speak to the vicar because his vicarage is in another parish and people feel that the church is really losing its connection with the local area which is absolutely heartbreaking, because the town where our churches are based really feels like they are trying to crush the Holy Spirit  there is little or no evangelism going on in our town anymore and loads of Christians are feeling really pushed out in the cold because their views are not being listened to even though people are speaking to me when I feed it back, it seems to just fall on deaf ears 

 - The same thing is being done in Lincoln. Also for financial reasons. 3 vicars for 12 parishes is generous compared with what we will have as a small rural parish. We too have never defaulted on our parish share. As a rural parish personal contact is so important for trust. This will go. We will get occasional services from any clergy available and even more occasional communion. Pastoral work just won’t happen. Mission too will be affected negatively. 

- As a retired priest with PTO in Leicestershire, serving a very financially solvent village church, but which has now already been permanently deprived of its part-time stipendiary priest (by decision of the bishop), I welcome very much your contributions on this video to a debate that to a large extent has been silenced by the bishop. For instance, on two of his videos on this topic, I took the bishop to task for (i) failing to carry out pilot schemes before the diocesan synod's decision to implement this major restructuring; (ii) failing to ascertain how many parishes were willing to consolidate their finances to a central fund and (iii) failing to provide any theological rationale for what was being proposed. He refused on both occasions to respond, even though mine were the only comments to his videos! In relation to Launde, there has been no discussion of any (or any potential) problems that they have or are likely to encounter. I think that parishes need to know what the alternatives are. As Roy so astutely says, the power is in the hands of the hierarchy to sack priests who advocate going it alone. In my case, I imagine that my PTO would not be renewed, in order to get rid of me. The only way forward is for parishes to make it clear that they will not allow the centralisation of their finances. The bishop may have the legal power, but the parishes have the financial power to assert their position. Without the parish share contributions, the scheme is doomed to fail. The money should be spent on paying the expense of maintaining and restoring the churches and paying for their own priests to come in and provide the service expected of a national, established church rooted in Anglican theology.