PRESS RELEASE: Save The Parish Cornwall meets Truro Diocese top brass in On The Way moratorium call

 Save The Parish Cornwall held a face-to-face sit-down conference this week with Bishop Hugh Nelson and senior officials of the Diocese of Truro.
At it, the Save The Parish Cornwall pressed strongly for an immediate moratorium of the diocese’ sweeping On The Way church reorganisation plans that will change irrevocably Anglican worship in the county.
Although organised previously, the meeting in Truro came a day after significant coverage in the national press sparked by a 57-page dossier of testimonies collated by Save The Parish Cornwall from deeply concerned and distressed Cornish churchgoers and the wider community about both the manner and the impact of the damaging On The Way plans.
The dossier, published widely this week, includes further demands from Save The Parish Cornwall including:
*Guarantees that stipendiary priest numbers in the county be increased within a year from the current record low of 54 to a minimum 81 - not including curates in training - and then boosted to an average 100 which be equivalent to one vicar for every three churches.
*A scrapping of the Bishops'  controversial and damaging “oversight ministers” proposal, where under On The Way only one stipendiary priest oversees large numbers of churches and parishes by managing paid lay-workers, retired priests, and freshly recruited lay ministers.
*In particular, halting the pastoral re-organisation scheme in Kerrier deanery where a huge benefice of 23 churches will be created, overseen by a rural dean with the help of a Pioneer Minister who will not work on Sundays.
*A halt to the sales of parsonages - the diocese has stated in its 2024 Budget Consultation that it plans to sell off 20-30 parsonages to raise £10 million for its coffers.
*An end to the apparently limitless powers of Deanery Implementation Teams (DITs) by making them accountable. Currently they appear able to chop, change, expand and alter ‘agreed’ deanery On The Way plans at will, answering only to the Bishop or archdeacon.
An STPC spokesperson said: “We were pleased to sit down with Bishop Hugh and his team, and appreciated sharing this time with them. 
“But what the Christians of Cornwall will appreciate more would be Bishop Hugh having the courage to halt these damaging process that is doing such irreversible harm and causing such distress and schisms among churchgoers in the county.
Then time should be taken to re-examine every deanery plan to see if they  can genuinely be made to work - we know most simply cannot in their current form.”
After the meeting Bishop Hugh told the STPC group: “We have heard what you say and your serious concerns. We will consult with colleagues and get back to you. Feedback is always good."
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