Update from Save The Parish nationally

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A message from Save The Parish national steering committee member Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent

It has been a while since our 3rd birthday newsletter in August and there are a number of things on which I would like to update you.
 

A word of thanks

Save The Parish is not a charity because charities are not allowed to have political campaigning as their primary purpose.  Because of the Established status of the Church of England our campaign could be construed to be political.  We are a limited company with a Board and annual accounts, all visible on the Companies House website.  Your Steering Committee are all volunteers but we do ask for and receive generous donations, for such things as research, printing and conferences.  But I thought you would all like to know that donations have been steadily increasing month by month over the last couple of years.  This is very heartening and a strong indicator of the growing support for saving parishes.  Thank you.
 

STP - Leicestershire Launches

As another mark of our growing strength you will I hope be pleased to hear that in addition to STP – Cornwall - https://savetheparish.blogspot.com/ - which has been campaigning for over 2 years, there is now STP – Leicestershire.  They have had a very successful launch, attended by over 70, and are building strong opposition to the Leicester Diocese ‘Minster Community’ scheme which is being rolled out across the whole diocese.  Parishes who do not sign up will ‘receive no further resources from the diocese’ and those which do sign up will be bundled into groups of at least 20 churches, quite possibly with only one full time priest.  Priest numbers and curate training are both being cut.  If you would like to get in touch with STP – Leicestershire, particularly to lend your support, please email joey.newton@savetheparish.com

Other STP groups

There is further news that STP – Bath & Wells is up and running. Contact christo.chanter@savetheparish.com - and so is STP – Yorkshire.  We are also hopeful of groups in the dioceses of Hereford and Norwich.  The formation of local groups is another sign of the growing strength of Save The Parish.  We anticipate that local groups will be able to challenge their dioceses on the specifics of plans being rolled out in such a way that recognises local considerations, such as the balance between rural and local, or large and small parishes.  If you are interested in supporting any of these new groups, or forming a group in your own diocese, do please get in touch via help@savetheparish.com.  We will help you get started through our supporters list (which we can access for you but do not share), provide STP email addresses for you, allow the use of the STP logo and provide insurance cover for public meetings.  We are finding it works well just to have small beginnings with a few supporters who are happy to exchange information about what is happening in their diocese – and let things grow from there.  Please do consider this for your own diocese – you will not be on your own.
 

Find us on Social Media

Many of you may not be users of social media – but there are plenty who are.  We are active on X (formerly known as Twitter) and increasing our visibility on Facebook.  Whenever there is new material on our website it will also be signposted on Facebook, so this is a very good way of keeping in touch with developments and the arguments you can deploy to save your parish.  Just search for Save The Parish on Facebook and ‘follow’.   https://www.facebook.com/savetheparish/

Growing concerns

At the national and parliamentary level we have strong concerns with some proposed changes in church legislation that are working their way through the General Synod to Parliament.  The issue is the review of the top level governance of the Church of England – which is often the subject of criticism for its complexity and lack of accountability.   A draft ‘Measure’ (which will eventually have the force of an Act of Parliament) has been published - https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/gs-2360-national-church-governance-first-consideration-july-2024.pdf  There are lengthy supporting reports and General Synod papers.  At present the Measure is going through its ‘First Revision’ which will consider amendments to the proposed legislation, in much the same way that Bill Committees work in Parliament.  Save The Parish are extensively involved in this process on your behalf.  For now, I would just like to bring to your attention a few areas of major concern:

  • It seeks to form a new charity – Church of England National Services (CENS) which will replace all the functions of the Archbishops’ Council and most of the functions of the Church Commissioners.  It is proposed that the Church Commissioners, who hold £10.6 billion of investments specifically to support parish ministry, will be reduced to just managing those funds and passing the income to CENS for distribution.
     
  • There is active discussion on the precise definition of the charitable purposes of CENS.  In particular whether they will be broadened beyond the 300 year old purposes of the Church Commissioners’ endowment funds, as set by Parliament.  STP is actively engaged on this topic on your behalf.
     
  • It is proposed that the independent Church Commissioners’ Missional, Pastoral and Church Property Committee (MPCPC), to which many of you are appealing to support your opposition to unwelcome reorganisation schemes affecting your parishes, will be abolished.  It may be replaced by a Mission and Pastoral Adjudication Committee within CENS – the same body that will be making funding available to your diocese to reorganise your parish.  Judge and Jury.  Your parish could thereby lose the independent support that has been available from the Church Commissioners for over 300 years.

 
This is a very complex topic and it has been several years in gestation; it has more time to run but gradually these things get set in concrete.  I just wanted to bring this to your attention and offer some reassurance that STP are actively challenging it every step of the way.
 

Can you help with a photograph?

Finally, we launched a very successful postcard at our Spring Meeting and 1000 copies disappeared very quickly!  It had a graphic of a parish church on the front and a short description of the goals of STP on the back.  We have potential copyright issues over the graphic and so would like to replace it with a photograph of a clearly active parish church.  If you have any such photographs please send them to help@savetheparish.com.  If the photographs have any recognisable people in them, then we would need their permission to use the photograph.  Please help us out with this request.
 
Many thanks for your continuing support as we grow in strength and are actually saving parishes around the country from unwelcome plans.

Best wishes,
Sir James Burnell-Nugent
Steering Committee, Save The Parish

Join STP As An Organisation


We urge PCCs to join our campaign. The more PCCs we can tell the CofE we represent nationwide, the better. From your perspective, it is a step taken in advance to establish that your PCC unanimously wants to preserve your parish, if and when your diocese comes up with plans to merge it.

So, if you are on a PCC, help run a 'Friends of X Church' group, or otherwise know of or run an organisation that cares for or depends on the parish system, please apply below for your organisation to join Save the Parish.
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