Save The Parish - Cornwall

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....

Local newspapers (Reach Group) in Cornwall covered the debate raging this week over clergy numbers in the Diocese of Truro . A Save The Parish Cornwall report has revealed that, at the end of December 2023, the Diocese employed more administrators at Church House, Truro, than clergy.  Read on for the Editorial column published in Cornish newspapers alongside coverage of the report.  

We hand delivered our report ' Don't Turn Off The Lights, Bishops' to Lambeth Palace on Wednesday 21 December and recorded a video message for Archbishop Justin Welby.  Click here for the message. Our petition -  calling for a moratorium on the Diocese of Truro's damaging On The Way plans - is gaining momentum.  Please sign. Click here https://chng.it/L8KfGmrs6p    

  Michael Victor’s timely article in The Church Times, with superb accompanying cartoon by Bill Caldwell , exemplifies the dire actions of dioceses across the country. Our only criticism should be that the bruisers outside the door don’t look as threatening enough as in real life. Click here to read Michael Victor's article. For centuries, the followers of Christ have been known as a flock of sheep, with Jesus the Good Shepherd and ordained clergy acting as His deputies. The analogy is becoming more and more apt as we discover that dioceses across England, led by their bishops and approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury, are behaving more and more like packs of wolves. Wolves, the traditional enemy of sheep,   encircle them, cutting off their escape to their folds - their churches. We should remember that ultimately, sheep are killed and eaten, taken to the abattoir before being devoured. Elderly sheep are easy prey for wolves, which will eat them but prefer the juicy meat ...

After the unexpectedly swift departure of the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, the Diocese of Truro is seeking a new Bishop. The Dean of Truro Cathedral, Fr Simon Robinson, is seeking people's views. It's important to respond.  After the debacle of the efforts initiated by Mounstephen to restructure the C of E in Cornwall (click here to read the response of congregations and communities across Cornwall to failures in process and consultation) , this is YOUR chance to express your views.  Cornwall needs a bishop who understands a Rural Diocese, and is prepared to listen to the people in the parishes as well as senior staff. Cornwall needs a Bishop who fervently hopes that people in all parishes, whether church goers or non attenders, know who their priest is and where he/she lives, in the community. Hopefuly there is enough a push and groundswell reaction to the On The Way fiasco to lead to the diocese reverting to being led by parishes, rather than Diocesan House Staff. Be...

 What does £88,000 pay for? more than one Save The Parish Cornwall supporter has asked recently.  The answer (if you put this question to the Diocese of Truro) is  - 'a clergy post'.  Cornish parishes are constantly being asked to contribute - via Mission and Ministry Fund (MMF) payments to 'clergy salaries'.  But to make an obvious point, if there are no clergy - as is increasingly the case in Cornwall as the acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, rolls out plans for 'oversight ministers' in huge benefices - where exactly is the money going? And why should people in the pews continue to pay it? Click here to read an article in the latest edition of the Church Times written by a curious - and weary -churchwarden. As unease spreads about Church House plans - known as On The Way - which will result in radical restructuring of the C of E in Cornwall, Save The Parish Cornwall supporter Sue McClaughry has started a petition calling for a moratorium. Pleas...

As unease spreads about Church House plans - known as On The Way - which will result in radical restructuring of the C of E in Cornwall, Save The Parish Cornwall supporter Sue McClaughry has started a petition calling for a moratorium. Please click here to sign. Sue writes: The rural parishes across the whole of Cornwall are under threat, churches are at risk of falling into disuse and closure. There should be deep concern about the current and planned alterations to the practices of the Church of England across the Diocese of Truro. It is our belief that the process entitled On The Way which has instigated large scale changes in almost every parish in the Diocese is fundamentally flawed.  In many cases the plans will result in a reduction in clergy numbers, for example in one area there will be one priest overseeing 10 churches and 3 chapels, whilst in another two members of the clergy, one of whom will not work on Sundays, will be responsible for 23 churches. In these l...

Proposed pastoral re-organisation in Powder deanery in the Diocese of Truro is proving controversial with many people anxious and angry about the prospect of ancient parishes being merged. The Church Commissioners have put out a call for comment / objections. If you go to this URL https://www.churchofengland.org/consultation and put “Truro” into the search box you will find "Proposals for pastoral reorganisation affecting benefices of St Just-in-Roseland and St Mawes; Gerrans with St Anthony-in-Roseland and Philleigh; et al, in the diocese of Truro.” The consultation period ends on 18 December. Anyone can comment and clearly it is important that people should do so. Pastoral re-organisations like these are aimed at creating 'super parishes' where traditional Parochial Church Councils lose their power and autonomy and the centuries' old power of 'the local' is eroded forever. Once these steps are taken, they are taken forever - so it is important to object soon...

In the latest twist in the Diocese of Truro's steady march towards disastrous On The Way restructuring plans: the acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, has admitted that rural deans are finding the demands of proposed new huge benefices just too much. He is a creating a new role for what effectively are 'area deans' covering several deaneries. He and his colleagues have heard 'clearly and consistently' from rural deans over the past 18 months that their role is not manageable,  he writes in a letter to the Diocese this week. "As a result, there will be a 'significant changes' to the rural dean's role. "The new Deans for each area will carry all the legal responsibilities of a Rural Dean, will play a key role in deanery plan implementation, will support parishes and benefices with the practical and relational work of change and will provide clergy and lay leaders with practical and pastoral support. ... This change is designed to ...

Wake up, Bishop Hugh! An evaluation of ‘ Transforming Wigan ’   - a controversial programme for change - has been published: click here to read an Executive Summary . And guess what, it is not a success.  "The evaluation of a project to transform Wigan into a “missional powerhouse” — which entailed the grouping of 33 churches in a single benefice has reported mixed success after seven years and the spending of £1.2 million," says the Church Times. Tis is serious news for Cornwall. Changes proposed for Diocese of Truro through controversial plans known as ‘On The Way’ are inspired by the Wigan ‘experiment’.  They build on Cornwall's own 'Transforming' initiative - aka 'Transforming Mission' -  i.e. moving ministry away from priests in parishes to large benefices with teams of 'workers' (Youth, Education, Pilgrimage etc) managed by an 'Oversight Minister'. Despite vociferous local opposition, they have been championed by the acting Bishop of...

More than a quarter of churches in Cornwall are failing to offer a Sunday service, analysis by the Telegraph reveals today. Click here to read the full article. Two weeks ago the S unday Telegraph covered our dossier on churchgoers' - and the wider communities' - concerns about plans for radical change in worship patterns in Cornwall . These plans, known as On The Way, have been championed by the former Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, and the acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson (formerly Bishop of St Germans). The paper said today that across 287 churches in the county, 78 had no forms of Sunday worship advertised on the last weekend of September - a total of 27 per cent. Of those that did, just 114 advertised that Communion was being offered, considered by many Christians to be the most important sacrament. Responding to the data, the Rev Marcus Walker, chairman  of the campaign group, Save The Parish, said: "It can come as no shock to any...

  Save The Parish Cornwall held a face-to-face sit-down conference this week with Bishop Hugh Nelson and senior officials of the Diocese of Truro. At it, the Save The Parish Cornwall pressed strongly for an immediate moratorium of the diocese’ sweeping On The Way church reorganisation plans that will change irrevocably Anglican worship in the county. Although organised previously, the meeting in Truro came a day after significant coverage in the national press sparked by a 57-page dossier of testimonies collated by Save The Parish Cornwall from deeply concerned and distressed Cornish churchgoers and the wider community about both the manner and the impact of the damaging On The Way plans. The dossier, published widely this week, includes further demands from Save The Parish Cornwall including: *Guarantees that stipendiary priest numbers in the county be increased within a year from the current record low of 54 to a minimum 81 - not including curates in training - and ...

Click here to read our dossier, published today to coincide with a meeting with the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, and Diocesan Secretary Rev Simon Cade. It contains testimonies from people across Cornwall who are dismayed and alarmed at the Bishops' On The Way plans that will change the nature of the Church of England in Cornwall forever. Bishop Hugh has the power to press the 'pause' button as the controversial plans attract national attention. We are urging him to have the courage to do so. How does healing of the church of Cornwall now happen?  Many have been badly hurt and threatened…. Can a safe place be created where all might flourish? We are calling for a moratorium, an increase in clergy numbers, a halt on the sale of parsonages and an end to oversight ministry.