Summer update: Save the Parish Conference and General Synod - Part 1

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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 priorities of local communities. This has been made far more challenging by increasing the number of churches which share a vicar, as parish priests end up stretching themselves between their many churches and communities. Ms Maskell, a former union representative for faith workers, told the conference: “The impact on clergy wellbeing is significant as they are stretched further to provide ‘service’ to an increasing number of people, and this then impacts the wellbeing of both community and clergy.”
Click here to watch the opening of the conference

You can watch all of the conference on our YouTube channel, but an amazing rallying cry for the parish came from priest and author Fergus Butler-Gallie, who said: “God is not an ‘absentee landlord’ but was made flesh as a particular person in a specific place and time. In doing that, God makes sacred a particular place and time; so, we can’t say that the glories of God can happen anywhere – no, it has to be somewhere. Our job is now to convince the CofE that our ‘somewheres’ matter – each is a Bethlehem, a Nazareth, a Jerusalem.”
Click here to watch Fergus Butler-Gallie's address


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