Save The Parish - Cornwall

  A message from Save The Parish national steering committee member Emma Thompson "We on the steering committee are conscious that we owe you an update after the July General Synod in York. If we ever seem silent, please be reassured that it is not because we are inactive - in fact a period of silence usually indicates that we are flat out!  We are trying to act as advocates for the parishes with all of: (i) Parliament (with the complications of needing to forge relationships with a new set of MPs, including a new Second Estates Commissioner and Ecclesiastical Committee members); (ii) the diocesan bishops (some of whom are sympathetic/supportive); and (iii) the officials working in the Church’s central administration (ditto - in fact, we were recently even thanked for “persevering"). GENERAL SYNOD JULY 2024 Some good news from this General Synod is that it was presented with a CofE paper (GS Misc 1384) which confirms what we have been saying since STP began nea

Save The Parish supporters from across Cornwall have been elected on to the Diocesan Synod as lay members. This can only be a good thing and should result in a more balanced debate.   Click here for the full list of lay, and clergy, members. Of course there are differences of opinion. But nothing can be gained by anger and polarization: there is a better way. In this spirit we have published The Way Forward: A new direction for the Diocese of Truro. This statement accompanies our dossier ‘Don’t Turn Off The Lights, Bishops’.   Click here to read the new statement.   Copies will be distributed across Cornwall via Diocesan Synod reps. This statement sets out constructive views for the future and includes a proposal for a serious, constructive and costed alternative new direction for the Diocese of Truro’s “On The Way” programme for change. This calls for restructuring to be based around 100 stipendiary parish-based priests, supported by 12 curates, in our churches cross the co