Save The Parish - Cornwall

“A bishop with the soul of a servant should be able to express uncertainty about the way ahead, ask for help, and, ….'find reverse gear’ if necessary.” Click here to read. An important leader from the Church Times (8 September 2023), just days after the Sunday Telegraph published an expose of the unhappiness and unrest in Cornwall caused by the Bishops of Truro and St Germans's restructuring plans for the Diocese of Truro - known as 'On The Way'.   Bishops should be sensitive and responsive to the unrest - and concern - that their plans provoke, it suggests. As the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen makes his way to his new appointment at Winchester (his farewell service at the Cathedral was last Sunday)  Save The Parish Cornwall is urging the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, to have the courage to press the 'pause button' on these plans. People across Cornwall believe that they should be re-evaluated and re-assessed, this time with proper consultation. ...

Important - and extensive - coverage in today's Sunday Telegraph of the situation in Cornwall and Save The Parish's campaign to expose the fundamental flaws in the Bishops' On The Way restructuring plans. Click here and here to read.   A spokesman from the Diocese of Truro is quoted as saying 'It is not true that these plans were forced on the deaneries."  The Diocese has repeatedly insisted that the plans were 'bottom up' rather than 'top down' but this has certainly not been the experience of those involved on deanery level.   In fact, the Bishop of St Germans himself said at the Diocesan Synod meeting in November 2020: “ A: The Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, explained that, as mentioned by Archdeacon Paul, he is working with Jonathan Rowe on a complex piece of work that will support deaneries and help sustain them. Deaneries in most need will be given support first. A bottom up approach is critical, particular in regard to put...

Yet another report indicating the connection between a flourishing church and a minister in place - something that the Bishops of Truro and St Germans prefer to ignore as they push through with their divisive and unpopular plans for church re-organisation in Cornwall in the Diocese of Truro - known as On The Way . The latest development has been the decision in Kerrier Deanery to form a mega benefice of 23 churches under one rural dean. Section 5 of this report commissioned by the United Reformed Church (URC) stresses the critical importance of investing in leadership – not only for the flourishing of the church, but for the good of the whole community. "Churches are wellsprings of formal and informal community leadership, forming (and paying) community champions who take initiative and empower their neighbourhoods, building up ‘dignity’ and a sense of ‘purpose’ in individuals and groups."

Cornwall’s Bishops have been stung by hard-hitting coverage on BBC Sunday Politics South West of their controversial On the Way cost-cutting programme which is cutting clergy numbers, merging parishes and threatening church closures. In a 1200-word statement on the Diocese of Truro website , and an accompanying letter to all churches, the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, and the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, complain about many aspects of the report ( click here to view the report ). The problem is, as so often with the Diocese of Truro statements, rhetoric does not coincide with reality. Truro complains (on the Diocesan website): “The report lasted just under five minutes but…. Much of the time was given to four speakers from a campaign group, three of whom have no connection with the church in Cornwall or with wider Cornish society." Save The Parish Cornwall explains: The four actually included two well-respected...

A powerful and articulate letter by Pam Dodd of Probus in today's West Briton (2 March 2023). The letter gets the prominence it deserves:  the Bishops' On The Way restructuring plans in Cornwall will decimate parishes and church communities across the Diocese of Truro.

  The |Bishops of Truro and St Germans faced further challenges last night at the latest stop of their slickly choreographed On The Way roadshow. The Bishops, visiting deaneries split by divisive On The Way plans, are proposing an end to priests in parishes in the Diocese of Truro. At St James's Church, Torpoint, in East Wivelshire deanery, both Bishops were presented with concerns voiced at previous On The Way deanery visits. However  - as at their previous roadshow stops - the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen and the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson carefully manipulated proceedings to evade dissent - ensuring the evening was weighted towards their contributions - and minimal time given to questions. There were 80-90 people at St James's last night, but many others were unable to attend. The meeting was poorly advertised and puzzlingly held from 5-7pm on a Saturday afternoon during the Six Nations rugby tournament - an impossible time for sports fans, young families and others with weekend comm...

Churchgoers from across Cornwall have written to the Bishop of Truro demanding an immediate moratorium on drastic cost-cutting schemes that will cut clergy numbers, redraw parish boundaries and change worship in the county forever. The letter resulted from a public meeting in January attended by worried parishioners from 10 of the 12 deaneries in the county. It called for an “open honest and transparent “ rethink of the destructive and irreversible cutbacks contained in the diocese’s On The Way plans. It came as the county’s bishops finally admitted this weekend to “seismic” plans to do away with Cornwall’s traditional parish priests and instead impose “oversight ministry” where clergy will become little more than administrators supervising lay staff running multiple churches and taking over religious affairs. “The traditional ‘vicar’ role that most of us have in mind when we think of someone wearing a dog collar, well that’s gone now” the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, Bishop of St Germans, told...

Penwith Deanery's radical On The Way deanery plan has stumbled at the first fence as the national  advertisement for a rural dean to oversee its implementation only attracted one applicant. This is a bit of an embarrassment for Truro's Episcopal College. The post will be re-advertised - and possibly rewritten, according to local sources. The original ad sought an incumbent with almost super human powers - click here to read the job description. The new Rural Dean would be priest of three churches (Gulval, Madron and Heamoor) while overseeing the implementation of a controversial restructuring plan creating two super parishes - east Penwith and west Penwith  - and simultaneously hiring a flotilla of new posts in an extensive 'support team'. So no wonder just one applicant.  On The Way confusion as diocesan leadership fails Across west Cornwall and beyond, congregations are confused and uncertain as the diocese fails to make the way forward clear and engage in adequat...

The main issue Save The Parish has with the Diocese of Truro's plans is that we believe they are addressing the wrong question from the wrong perspective - too often misusing wrong information to justify their actions. In effect, the Bishops of Truro and St Germans publicly argue that they are making a ‘business case’ for ‘growing’ the church in Cornwall. But no genuine company seriously trying to turn round a struggling business model has ever succeeded by axing their sales staff, closing down outlets, and effectively telling customers to change their buying habits because they don’t know what’s best for them. In this case, STP believes that this is what is happening to the vicars and their parishes and churches, and churchgoers and local communities in Cornwall. What the Bishops want Our Bishops are set on a certain ideological trajectory i.e. developing a ‘mission church’ model at the expense of rural parishes and in doing so are burning through its (OUR) financial asse...

  Cornish bishops actively mislead in denying diocesan plans for church closures, pressure groups say The Bishops of Truro and St Germans are actively misleading the people of Cornwall by saying that there are no diocesan plans for church closures - because their own documents show that the likelihood of shutting churches is being openly prepared for, Save The Parish Cornwall and the Cornish Buildings Group (CBG) say.   The two campaigning groups said earlier this week that the Bishops’ radical restructuring plans will change the face of church going – and the Cornish landscape - forever. The Bishops responded (27/10/22) by saying that there were no diocesan plans for church closures. “The Bishops are simply playing with words here and are actively misleading the people of Cornwall,” said Susan Roberts of Save The Parish Cornwall, which is campaigning to keep priests in parishes and churches open. “Plans drawn up by deaneries which envisage huge benefices hav...

Despite the repeated assurances to the contrary by the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, moves are indeed afoot for major parish re-organisation in the Diocese of Truro through On The Way plans. Earlier this year, the Bishop repeatedly told both Save The Parish Cornwall - and East Wivelshire synod members - that 'there are no plans for parish re-organisation'.   This despite papers written by Archdeacon Paul Bryer extolling the virtues of 'super parishes' and Joint Councils  - that have proved so disastrous elsewhere in the country. People attending the most recent East Wivelshire Deanery Synod have learned that there are in fact plans. And plans that the diocese intends to implement swiftly. Click here to read the East Wivelshire powerpoint which has left many synod members bewildered. " Slide 9 is particularly important," says one. "There is no suggestion in any of this that individual parishes can opt out of the mega benefices - which w...

Unsurprising reactions on Facebook to the  Bishop of St Germans the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson's recent address at the Truro Diocesan Synod. The Bishop laments the decline of church going. Click here to read the piece with its oddly defeatist tone. The three comments below a just a sample of the response.  Bishop Hugh laments the decline in church going.  We’re all aware of the consequences of changes in patterns of belief in this country. We see it in our church pews, in the numbers of children in our churches and in our PCC bank balances. But I think those are the symptoms, not the cause. The real change isn’t that people still believe the same things they used to believe but have stopped going to church because shopping is more fun. The real change is that people believe different things now. it’s not fundamentally that people’s rational beliefs have changed And it’s not fundamentally that people’s rational beliefs have changed - that people have worked their way through the ...