A Victory in Synod!

A message from Save The Parish national founder Rev. Marcus Walker

Good news! For the first time since the setting-up of Save the Parish three and a half years ago we have really good news to share: a change in the law which will put parishes back at the top of the Church of England’s spending criteria. If I may, I will give you an update on what went on. The whole question was fought on what might have been the quiet backwater of a piece of technical legislation: the National Church Governance Measure. This has been working its way through General Synod for years and had always been an opportunity for members of Synod to clear the chamber and retire to the tea room. But being on the governance of the Church of England it was probably the single most important piece of legislation that we have been discussing. And lurking within it was a section about how the Church of England could use the income from the Church Commissioners’ endowment. You can read the background in a Church Times article I wrote last month: ‘Synod, seize chance to refund poorest parishes’

After writing the article, the STP team on General Synod had to craft an amendment that would actually do we need: refund parish ministry, especially among the poor.  With the help of the legal office we did this, and had to resist some pretty strong efforts to persuade us to drop or water down the whole thing. But we tabled an amendment so that all funding decisions have to have “particular regard to the requirements of section 67 of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840 relating to the making of additional provision for the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required”, which was simply lifting the language used in earlier legislation (which made it far harder to claim this wouldn’t be possible to implement). The debate was on Thursday, so we had four days of trying to persuade members of Synod to support it. In this we were hugely assisted by you. Your response to my request to contact your reps bore great fruit. Laity, clergy, and even bishops came up to me to say they had been contacted and were going to be in the chamber to hear the debate. Thank you: this was essential to the amendment passing. The debate finally happened on Thursday evening. You can watch it here, or by clicking on the image below.  The debate was excellent, not least because for the first time bishops came out in support of a Save the Parish motion - and not just one, but two. Thank you to Martin Gorick, Bishop of Dudley, and Michael Beasley, Bishop of Bath and Wells. If you are in Worcester or Bath and Wells, do please thank them for their words, which were powerful and full of love for their parishes. When the vote was taken, it was clearly carried in all three houses of General Synod, but of particular note was that a number of bishops publicly backed it. Among them (and, as the vote happens very quickly, I apologise to any bishops I missed) were the Bishops of London, Blackburn, Leeds, Exeter, and, of course, Bath & Wells and Dudley. They too deserve thanks - it can be a thankless task being a bishop, and it doesn’t hurt to let them know we have seen them trying to do the right thing and we’re grateful. So what will this mean? Well, it will take a while for this measure to become law. It needs its third reading, which is likely to be in July, and then to go to Parliament, where it will be considered by the Ecclesiastical Committee of both Houses, and who will decide if it needs a full debate in Parliament or not. It is unlikely that this change will be in effect before 2027. But, the fact that Synod has spoken so authoritatively on this point, with the support of so many bishops, might mean that funding decisions taken before then might be taken with an eye to the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required. On that point, we need to pray. The other item we were hoping to debate - the motion from Hereford diocese, which was being presented by the Bishop of Bath and Wells to transfer into Diocesan Stipends Fund money to compensate dioceses and parishes for the Church Commissioners offloading their pensions responsibilities to them - was adjourned until July. Too many other matters were discussed and took longer than expected to be voted on, and so this got shunted. When it does get debated, it will be a very significant opportunity to re-balance Church of England finances back towards the local and to lift a very significant burden from the backs of parishes (whose parish share has covered this pension deficit). But that is now a question for next time. And so, thank you for your help in this campaign. It has seriously borne fruit - and fruit that will last. This is not the end of our work, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, (to borrow from a great man), the end of the beginning. Save the Parish has come of age. With my prayers and blessings - and my thanks,