Save The Parish - Cornwall

The five churches in Camborne Cluster: Camborne, Crowan, Tuckingmill, Treslothan and Penponds. A meeting of churchgoers from churches around Camborne - dissuaded by senior figures in the Diocese from meeting at Camborne Church - filled a community hall nearby last night in an effort to find a constructive way forward from the controversy sparked by expensive mission plans for local churches.  The meeting - which started and ended with prayers and a hymn - was prompted by concerns about a lack of transparency over the Transforming Mission programme in Camborne and surrounding churches, funded by the Church Commissioners(60%) and Diocese of Truro reserves (40%).  The multi-million pound programme, which initially envisaged a spend of more than £750,000 in Camborne between 2019-2025, has also been rolled out in four other Cornish towns (Falmouth, St Austell, Liskeard and Highertown). It originated as a well-meaning attempt by the Diocese to reach ‘missing generations’ and invigor...

A response by the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson,  to a request at last Saturday's Diocesan Synod for transparency over Transforming Mission finances is reproduced below. Bishop Hugh did not directly respond to the request to provide the original sustainability model spreadsheets. We would be interested to hear of people's responses to this statement.  Bishop Hugh repeated figures produced by the Diocese earlier in the month relating to vastly increased youth work in Camborne Cluster following Transforming Mission.   These figures contradict a Diocesan document produced in October 2018, which details extensive youth work across Camborne Cluster   before the Transforming Mission programme was started there in 2019. TRURO DIOCESAN SYNOD    28/5/22   9/1     Question under Standing Orders, Vivian Hall Altarnun w Bolventor, Trigg Major Deanery Synod, and General Synod 'Can you please provide the original su...

 An interesting letter in the Church Times today from the Rev Rosheen Browning, Priest in Charge at Camborne, Cornwall, where one of the county's Transforming Mission programmes is being rolled out. Rev Browning says numbers at toddler groups and holiday clubs show that engagement with young people has vastly increased in her five-church cluster's work, pushing back at critics suggesting the scheme is not quite the success expected as large numbers of new worshippers have not materialised.  These figures contradict a Diocesan document produced in October 2018, which details extensive youth work across Camborne Cluster   before the Transforming Mission programme was started there. In the Church Times, however, Rev. Browning writes that an increased engagement with young people in a deprived area indicates the programme has a 'sustainable future'. The churches in her cluster - Camborne, Penponds, Tuckingmill, Crowan and Treslothan - engaged on a regular basis with just 20...