Save The Parish - Cornwall

After a casual enquiry, Save The Parish Cornwall discovered that the important Minutes of Diocesan Synods in the early years of On The Way are not in fact up on the Diocese of Truro website.  We have therefore sought them out: we will add to these documents as more emerge. Only recent Diocesan Synod reports are accessible via the Diocese of Truro website . Asked why important Minutes of earlier significant Synods were not available, Communications Officer Kelly Rowe - surprisingly, in view of the infinite nature of the internet - said: "We don’t keep everything on the website due to its size."  As deanery plans now reach a crucial stage, we have tracked down these documents - essential reading for anyone interested in the genesis of On The Way.  2019 Presidential Address to Synod November 2019 by the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro "Just this last week Cornwall Council agreed to invest no less that £612,000 in the Truro Lifehouse project based at All Saint...

  Britain is no longer a Christian country, say frontline clergy in an article published by The Times today. Click here to read. The Times selected 5,000 priests at random from among those with English addresses in Crockford’s Clerical Directory of Anglican clergy and received 1,436 responses, analysing data from the 1,185 respondents still serving. The survey uncovered high levels of stress among priests, many of whom feel over-stretched. They fear that the church’s efforts to arrest the decline in attendance will fail and this may ultimately lead to its “extinction”. Professor Linda Woodhead, head of the department of theology and religious studies at King’s College London, said: “It’s extremely important to hear the clergy’s views. It’s hard to carry out these surveys which is why we have very few of them, and it is very interesting.” She added: “This survey shows the clergy t...

A candid admission by Kerrier's new Rural Dean that some of her flock may have been made to feel 'insignificant' during the On The Way process is the latest sorry development in the saga. "Through the process of the 'On The Way' plan I do realise that some of you may have felt insignificant," writes the newly appointed rural dean Rev Heidi Huntley in West Kerrier's The Link magazine. "You may even have wondered where God is in all of this." Consultation - and communications - around Kerrier's controversial plan, which involves creating a giant benefice of 23 churches - has been minimal and discussions have been heated.  In the plan, Rev Huntley, who arrived in  Cornwall earlier this year from Royston, Hertfordshire,  will oversee the proposed new benefice with the help of just one other ordained clergy member - a pioneer minister who will not work on Sundays - and a team of lay workers.  Click here to read more about Cornwall's Bish...

Rev Marcus Walker, founder of Save The Parish, asks the question in this week's Spectator.  Click here to read the article.   He also talks about the situation in Cornwall where the Bishops' radical restructuring plans are wreaking havoc on local church communities. He quotes the new Rural Dean in Kerrier deanery in west Cornwall (covering an area from the Lizard to Helston and beyond) who will be in charge of no fewer than 23 churches.  Click here to read Rev Heidi Huntley's article on the plans, published in West Kerrier's July magazine.  

It may be holiday time in Cornwall but there’s no rest for the Diocese’s Director for Change and Renewal Ruth Marriott. Ms Marriott has sanctioned a proposal for a five-church benefice in Penwith Deanery despite vociferous objections: further heavy-handed action from a Diocese desperate to push through its unpopular and controversial re-organisation plans known as On The Way. Both of Truro’s Bishops have repeatedly insisted that the restructuring plans have been ‘bottom up’ not ‘top down’, with ideas originating from individual deaneries. In fact, the opposite has been the case with the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, micro-managing the plans’ development and implementation at every turn. The latest example of this has been the ruling from Ms Marriott on 18 August 2023 ‘approving’ a proposal for a five-church benefice uniting Madron, Gulval, Heamoor, Zennor and Towednack with a single priest (to be appointed) based in Madron. Parishes involved have repeatedly expressed t...

Abandoned church in Wales As radical plans for church restructuring go forward in Cornwall - backed by the Bishop of Truro the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen and the Bishop of St German's the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson- the first 'pastoral re-organisation' schemes are now being published. These are part of On The Way , the Bishops' vision of a radically different Church of England in Cornwall. If you are at all worried about the 'mega benefices' proposed - e.g. in Kerrier 23 churches are to be brought together under one rural dean - it's important to start making your concerns known. (Click here to read the draft proposals for Kerrier). The patron of your parish could be an important ally: please think about contacting him or her. Patrons have the power to object. Future generations are likely to look back at these extraordinary plans with confusion and dismay.  Similar plans in Wales have resulted in widespread church closures. Click here to read Save The Parish's f...

An update - and a request - from the Rev Marcus Walker, Chairman, Save the Parish "We need to compile a “dossier" for a forthcoming important meeting, at which we need to be able to say “this is happening in a parish” (it can be kept anonymous if you wish).  We welcome all your enquiries; thank you for telling us what is happening among the grassroots.  Please continue reporting your experiences to us - e.g. are you in vacancy and for how long?  Are you being reorganised into a mega-parish and how have you been treated by the diocese?  Are you a retired priest expected to take many services with no time for pastoral care?  Are you a member of the clergy in a poor parish which is struggling while diocesan reorganisations are lavishly financed from Church Commissioner income?  Can you provide any financial or attendance statistics in evidence?   We see at our conferences that people, by sharing stories, work out that what is happening to them is happenin...

  The Rev Marcus Walker, Chairman, Save the Parish, writes about July's General Synod at York.... The meeting of General Synod at York was widely seen to be one of the most fractious meetings anyone can remember. There were three elements of the session on which Save the Parish focused its attention. The first was a motion about parochial ministry. It was fairly 'motherhood and apple pie' but it gave us the opportunity to highlight the complete failure of the Archbishops' Council to follow the terms of the Church Commissioners' endowments - which are supposed to be spent on supporting the stipends of priests in the poorest parishes of the country. You can read an article here about what we were trying to do in this debate, which was written for the Critic. We have also spliced together a video explaining the issue and showing the short debate that was allowed on the topic. Watch our video on parish funding The other big issues which Save the Parish was involved wit...

An update from the Rev Marcus Walker, Chairman, Save the Parish "As you will have been aware, we held our second York conference last month, the day before General Synod began in York (to make it easier for friendly and interested members could come and listen). The theme this year was 'The Parish: the church in action' and I was delighted to open proceedings with a short rallying speech on the way in which our campaign has changed the way our leaders in the church talk about parishes and parish ministry. You can find our press release on the conference here . Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central was our first speaker and set out the enormous importance of the parish church as the centre of mission, worship and community; a place where all can gather together and see needs met. She went on to say that it is hard to see how the centralisation of the church’s decision-making, including that of property ownership, can deliver the necessary understanding or priorit...

Yet another report indicating the connection between a flourishing church and a minister in place - something that the Bishops of Truro and St Germans prefer to ignore as they push through with their divisive and unpopular plans for church re-organisation in Cornwall in the Diocese of Truro - known as On The Way . The latest development has been the decision in Kerrier Deanery to form a mega benefice of 23 churches under one rural dean. Section 5 of this report commissioned by the United Reformed Church (URC) stresses the critical importance of investing in leadership – not only for the flourishing of the church, but for the good of the whole community. "Churches are wellsprings of formal and informal community leadership, forming (and paying) community champions who take initiative and empower their neighbourhoods, building up ‘dignity’ and a sense of ‘purpose’ in individuals and groups."

 Kerrier deanery synod has voted for a mega benefice, uniting 23 churches under a single rural dean.  The synod on Thursday 3 August 2023, voted by 23 votes to four for the proposals which have attracted critical attention and widespread concern on both sides of the Tamar. Many question how one rural dean could properly oversee such a wide area - and point out that such benefices have failed elsewhere. The draft proposals for the re-organisation were described last week by a member of the Synod (who voted against them) as having 'potentially dire consequences for small rural parishes'. Click here to read the proposals which need the approval of the patrons of the various parishes (though the Bishop of Truro has the casting vote. The summary reads: These draft proposals provide for the union of the six benefices of Constantine, Helston and Wendron, Menegae, Mullion and Cury with Gunwalloe, St Keverne, St Ruan with St Grade and Landewednack, and West Kerrier. It provides for th...