Dissenting voices emerge at Diocese of Truro Synod over eyewatering 2026 budget deficit

Dissenting voices emerged at today's Diocese of Truro synod over the eye-watering budget deficit planned for 2026 - nearly £4.5 million after a £3.4 million deficit in 2025.

Supporters of the Diocese of Truro's 'strategy led' budget - which aims to support unproven and unfinished deanery plans created during the restructuring process known as On The Way - say that a total of £22 million of Diocesan reserves need to be poured into these plans over a ten-year period. On The Way envisages a model of Oversight Ministers managing teams of lay ministers and workers - often in large benefices - rather than priests in parishes.

Others today counselled caution and called for firm evidence that the much-vaunted 'fruitfulness and sustainability' of this approach is provided before the financial situation of the Diocese is weakened yet further.

Martin Saunders from Pydar Deanery regretted the fact that only 20 minutes had been allocated to such an important discussion.  The stipendiary clergy are the fundamental building block of the Church of England, he said.  "They are our representatives in each and every street in England. They are the go-to person for everyone. Without them and their PCCs (Parochial Church Councils), the Church of England would not exist. We need to, and must, nurture them and their ministry and also substantially increase their number. 

"We are told that the budget is being prepared by bringing together the 12 'approved' deanery plans - although Pydar deanery plan was only conditionally approved. Those plans were prepared when there was apparently no money to increase the number of parish priests, and the plans were drawn up accordingly."

Mr Saunders went on to point out that papers supporting the draft budget referred to 58.5 stipendiary clergy in 2025 but only 53.1 stipendiary priests in 2026: 'That is a decline in active clergy, not an increase."

He also said that a report from the Bishop's Diocesan Council (BDC) to the Synod was illuminating. It referred to significant resources channelled into recruitment but weaker than expected retention. "I wonder why?" Mr Saunders asked. "There has been no explanation. Surely this is of great concern to this Synod." 

Mr Saunders concluded with a call to the Synod to reject the budget and referred to the Save The Parish Cornwall paper outlining a budget to fund 100 stipendiary priests in Cornwall. He asked for the chance to present it with a colleague at a future Synod. Diocesan Secretary Simon Cade roundly and abruptly rejected the request. 

East Wivelshire Diocesan Synod representative Patrick Newberry said he would not be voting for the budget, not because it was a deficit budget as the deficit had been planned within the TDBF (Truro Diocesan Board of Finance) asset strategy. But he called for evidence that the Diocesan On The Way plans were working and achieving their expected outcomes.

"The reason I can't vote for it is that that a governance body such as this should satisfy itself - before it approves a deficit budget - that that money is being well spent. I am troubled that we have not seen reasonable evidence that the Diocesan plans are actually starting to deliver an outcome and after three years, four years in some cases, they really should be. I'm troubled because as I read the papers, I can't see the actual benefits as an outcome."

Mr Newberry stressed that he had no problem in principle with the TDBF  - as a charity - spending its reserves. But he was concerned because reserves can only be spent once.

"My greatest fear is that we wake up in eight years, seven years, time and we have spent £22 million and we haven't achieved very much," he added, saying that he would like to see some proper evidence from deaneries of what has actually has happened as a result of the implementation of the plans.

"It has been suggested that we may need to make a midcourse correction to our budget," he said. "That would be a very wise thing to do."

The draft budget was passed: 47 votes for (including three proxy), nine against (two online) and one abstention.

The Diocese's draft budget has once again drawn widespread attention and alarm. Save The Parish national finance scrutiny team member, Stephen Billyeald, former head of Rymans plc, has said that Truro Diocesan Board of Finance has been kept afloat overall by grants from the Archbishop's Council and sale of properties, and the situation is unsustainable.

The reality of 'On The Way' is unsettled and its results unproven. Of the 12 deaneries in the Diocese, On The Way plans in two of the largest - Kerrier and Penwith - are far from complete and Penwith Deanery returned to the drawing board last weekend with a 'reset' meeting. As Mr Saunders mentioned in his speech at the Synod, Pydar deanery plan was only ever conditionally approved.  In Carnmarth North, the failure of Transforming Mission in Camborne  - as elsewhere in Cornwall - to achieve its targets has caused controversy and confusion - in particular over the past and future financing of the scheme.