Save The Parish - Cornwall

  

St Keverne Church is one of 22 in the deanery  Save The Parish founder Rev Marcus Walker has issued a statement in response to the Church Commissioners' ruling over a controversial restructuring plan for Kerrier deanery in west Cornwall.  Click here to read the background. The plan - which originally proposed two priests overseeing 22 churches - was amended, upping the number of priests to three. But this is not enough and campaigners should keep fighting, Rev Walker says.  “The parishioners of Kerrier and surrounding areas have put up a great fight against the destruction of local parish ministry.  They achieved the significant increase from two clergy to three through vigorous campaigning.  But this is not enough to provide local ministry for such a wide area with so many churches.  The risks remain of clergy numbers falling again and churches closing.  I strongly encourage people who want and need local priestly parish ministry in Cornwall to keep ...

The Church Commissioners have published their ruling on the controversial restructuring plan in Kerrier, upping the number of priests to three from two in response to representations made about the scheme.  Click here to read  their report on the hearing that took place on 13 May 2026.

There are fundamental flaws at the core of the controversial pastoral re-reorganisation plan for Kerrier deanery in west Cornwall, Rev Marcus Walker writes in today's Church Times (8 May 2026):   "Let us take all of what the diocese says at face value. If it is invoking an Evangelical reformed tradition of Truro, and itself holds to a reformed theology of the eucharist, what does it think is happening at communion by extension? Ripped from the context of the gathered community at the supper of the Lord, and without any theology of the real presence, what is being offered to the people of God in these services of communion by extension according to its own theology? Cranmer, Calvin, and John Stott would all say the same: nothing. There is no participation in the supper of the Lord on earth or in heaven. Their people have asked for bread and are being given a stone. On its own terms this plan fails; it should not stand. "  Click here to read the full Letters' ...

  Click here to read the full article.    The Church Commissioners's hearing is in response to the high level of objections to the Diocese of Truro's controversial plan to create a giant new benefice in Kerrier, west Cornwall.  Sir Robert Buckland, former Solicitor General for England and Wales and current Church of England third Estate Commissioner, will oversee proceedings. Here is a link to papers, now in the public domain, that will be discussed at the hearing.  https://www.churchofengland. org/resources/parish- reorganisation-and-church- property/consultation-parish- reorganisation-and-closed- church-proposals/proposals- affecting-benefices

Falmouth Packet 22 April 2026 Responding to a high level of local objection, the Church Commissioners will hold a hearing on the Diocese of Truro's controversial plan to create a giant new benefice in Kerrier, west Cornwall. Sir Robert Buckland, former Solicitor General for England and Wales and current Church of England third Estate Commissioner, will oversee proceedings. Click  here  to read an article in this week's Falmouth Packet. A total of 167 people opposed the plan in a consultation: just 22 people supported it, including the two stipendiary clergy proposed in the reorganisation. The Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev David Williams, continues to support the plan, which proposes creating one giant benefice, replacing the current six benefices.   Kerrier deanery covers the entire Lizard peninsular as well as Porthleven and other churches west of Helston. Hearing details -Wednesday 13 May 2026 10.30am - 1.00pm. National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth TR11 3Q....

There has been a seismic change in the the Diocese of Truro’s controversial On The Way  restructuring in Penwith Deanery. The original plan, drawn up some years ago despite local opposition, has been thrown out.  Other deaneries in the Diocese of Truro, still struggling with On The Way initiatives, should take heart from this radical change of direction. The extent of the 'reset'   -  referred to in technical terms in the February 2026 edition of Penwith Deanery News  - is revealed in detail in the lengthy minutes of a Penwith Deanery Synod held at St Pol de Leon Church, Paul, on 28 January 2026 which was attended by approximately 50 clergy and synod representatives. The minutes - more than 8,000 words long - were approved without amendment at a subsequent Penwith Deanery Synod earlier this month. They refer frequently to decisions made and views expressed at an extraordinary Deanery meeting in November 2025 called and chaired by Rural Dean Rev Adam T...

Deaneries in the west of the Diocese of Truro - Kerrier and Penwith - have been struggling with controversial restructuring plans known as On The Way, introduced by the former Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen. After years now of heated and often painful discussion, Penwith deanery has abandoned its On The Way plan. Following a well-attended meeting last November , it is moving on and making a fresh start.  Details below, circulated in the February 2026 edition of Penwith Deanery News.... Deanery Plan Development   1.        Deanery Planning Day 1.1.        The Deanery Planning Day (November 2025) began with Eucharist as a visible symbol of our unity. Each person shared the Body and Blood of Christ with each other. This rootedness in worship was deliberate to help us all focus on the source and destination of our work for the day. 1.2          We...

Anyone who has been involved in recruiting a new vicar knows the challenges. It's a time-consuming process, to say the least. There's likely to be a long interregnum as extensive consultation takes place, a detailed 'parish profile' prepared and complex legal, diocesan and patronage rules negotiated. But does it have to be like this? A Save The Parish supporter in a rural Cornish deanery writes..... In our parish we’ve been in vacancy since the beginning of July 2025, and it would seem (from what I can deduce) that our vacancy is not likely to be filled any time soon. This situation (inexplicably to me) does not seem to be a matter of concern for the senior clerics in our region.  I should say straight off that I have no experience of recruiting for a parish priest job role, and I’ve had no direct involvement in this particular recruitment process. So I have no relevant direct experience. But I do have a career’s worth experience of recruiting for senior positions in th...

 A message from Save The Parish founder Rev Marcus Walker: This year is a defining year for Save the Parish. This summer there will be General Synod elections which will determine who speaks for parishes at the national level for the next five years. But your parish can only have a say in choosing those representatives if you have members serving on Deanery Synod. YOU CAN HELP! Every three years your parish elects representatives to Deanery Synod at your Annual Parochial Church Meeting. These Deanery Synod reps are the electors for General Synod. If you want your parish to have a vote, you need to be on Deanery Synod. If you want people to vote for Save the Parish candidates, you need reps who will do this. To ensure you have a voice here’s what you need to do at your APCM this spring: Check that your parish has its full complement of Deanery Synod representatives appointed - this is different for each Parish, so check how many you should have. Ask your current Deanery Synod membe...

  A message from Save The Parish founder Marcus Walker:   I hope you have been able to celebrate well, wherever you have found yourself this Christmas. There is something intensely parochial about this particular feast (parochial being meant entirely positively, as you would hope!) All the key moments are small scale: a child born to a mother; a couple needing to return to their family home; the risk of scandal. Christ is born into a family, with uncles and aunts and cousins; he is known to a community, who wonder how on earth Joseph the carpenter's son can possibly be preaching to them about the Eternal God. And yet overshadowing the whole story are questions of national and global significance: tax inspectors from a pan-Mediterranean empire, death-squads of a local tyrant, wise men from the East. The interplay of the intimately local and the powerfully global tells the story of Christianity - of the Word which is both in the beginning with God and becoming fl...

 Save The Parish co-founder Alison Milbank writes... This is a rather belated report on our 2025 conference.  Save the Parish welcomed over 120 people to           St James the Greater in Leicester for our conference on October 18th, on the theme, ‘A parish is for         life’. We are entering a new stage in our development as an organisation, as we have become part of the solution for the future flourishing of local ministry in the Church of England. The positive focus of the conference reflected this, though it comes after no fewer than four STP centrally supported events in Leicester diocese to protest against the radical removal there of local parish ministry.   This event was focused on reflecting on our gains in synod, which Marcus described, as well as the alliances with rural bishops in seeking to rebalance financial resources back to the parishes. Bijan Omrani, whose book about the Christia...

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.  T...

Stephen Billyeald, former Managing Director of Ryman Group plc and a member of Save The Parish's national Financial Scrutiny Group analyses the Diocese of Truro 2026 draft budget (click here to read the papers) . He writes:   Truro Diocesan Board of Finance (TDBF) has shown an operating deficit on Unrestricted Funds every year from 2021 to 2024 totalling £11 million over the four years. A deficit of £3.4 million is forecast for 2025 and £4.5 million deficit is budgeted for 2026. Restricted Funds have broken even at the operating level over the four years but the fund balance has declined by £5 million as a result of transfers to Unrestricted Funds. In the same period £3.1 million was received from the Archbishops’ Council as grants and over £3m was received from the sale of properties. Truro DBF has been kept afloat overall by grants from the Archbishops' Council and sale of properties. This situation is unsustainable. 2026 Budget The budget does not provide any evid...

  At last: an acknowledgement from the Diocese of Truro that its controversial plans for Kerrier Deanery are unworkable and more pastoral support is needed from clergy. An advertisement in today's Church Times seeks an 'Interim Pastoral Priest' intended to help to fill the inevitable gap left by just one Rural Dean and a Pioneer Priest overseeing more than 20 scattered rural churches. Click here to read the job description.    Click here to read the original Kerrier On The Way Deanery Plan (the Diocese has been unable to recruit several of the lay worker positions. The plan talks of 23 churches: the job description lists 21).  Key points follow.... Archdeacon Clive Hogger starts by introducing the highly controversial Oversight Ministry model which, he says is 'equipping the lay and ordained leaders and the people in the parishes to work together as a team'. Oversight Ministry is a concept introduced by the Diocese of Truro following its restructuring process known ...

 A welcome sign that controversial On The Way deanery plans can be adjusted, reshaped - and in some cases, torn up. A Penwith Deanery Plan Review Day will be held on Saturday 15 November at Paul Church Hall from 10am until 430pm. All are welcome but places should be reserved by emailing the Deanery administrator on  penwithdeanery@gmail.com Penwith's On The Way plan has been controversial from the start: click here to read about two earlier incarnations.   Many have been feeling despondent and unsure of the way forward - particularly in the west of the deanery.   Click here for more background on Saturday's meeting.   The agenda makes it clear that the plans have been hit by significant problems, to say the least -  around trust and relationships, working practices and agreeing priorities.  The aim is to build 'an action plan that is challenging, achievable, and genuinely owned, with clear success criteria.'    For the full agenda with ...

 List of Truro Diocesan Synod members - November 2025

Many thanks to Jonathan Harradine, from Penwith Deanery, who has drawn our attention to You Are Not Alone in Feeling Lonely , a recent report by Age UK . Mr Harradine is a Research Fellow at York University in the Health Sciences Faculty, which contributed to this report. Its message is particularly relevant as 'Oversight Ministers' - clergy overseeing ever larger numbers of parishes - become an increasing reality in Cornwall. Isolation leads to mental health issues: people need local contact, the report says. Click here to read it. "I think the insights in this report highlight the need for the Church to recognise that it is not supporting its parishioners and its communities adequately in this important area for our Health and Wellbeing,"  Mr Harradine says.  He believes it is particularly important to consider this ahead of the upcoming Penwith Deanery Planning Day (15th November) and the review of Penwith's On The Way Deanery Plan.  Local clergy recently ac...

The Diocese of Truro has just published its 2026 draft budget showing a planned deficit widening to an eye watering £4.476 million from £3.973 million last year.  Another Halloween budget , which will dismay those who had hoped for a steadier hand on Diocesan finances. Click here to read the Truro Diocesan Board of Finance 2026 Budget Story    Appendix One  - 2026 Budget Summary Appendix Two  - Budget Changes compared to 2025 Appendix Thr ee - Budget Appendix Four - Asset Strategy   Appendix Five - Budget by department Appendix Six - Cash Flow   Appendix Seven -  Cost of Ministry Appendix Eight - note on movement of funds   Appendix Nine - Reserves Policy   31 October 2025

The statement below was published on Truro Cathedral website on Monday 7 October 2025 regarding Rev Canon Alan Bashforth. Only in the penultimate paragraph does it state that the requirement to undertake the Safeguarding Risk Assessment 'was not a result of police investigation or a safeguarding concern involving children'.  Click here to view the statement on the Cathedral website.    The Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, Bishop of St Germans, recently met with Alan Bashforth to discuss the outcome of an independent safeguarding risk assessment. Alan has received the report and has had the opportunity to provide feedback to the assessor. After careful consideration of the findings and following appropriate professional advice, Bishop Hugh has made the decision that Alan will not be returning to his duties at the cathedral. We recognise that this decision may have a significant emotional impact on those involved and affected. In line with our commitment t...