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....

A candid admission by Kerrier's new Rural Dean that some of her flock may have been made to feel 'insignificant' during the On The Way process is the latest sorry development in the saga. "Through the process of the 'On The Way' plan I do realise that some of you may have felt insignificant," writes the newly appointed rural dean Rev Heidi Huntley in West Kerrier's The Link magazine. "You may even have wondered where God is in all of this." Consultation - and communications - around Kerrier's controversial plan, which involves creating a giant benefice of 23 churches - has been minimal and discussions have been heated.  In the plan, Rev Huntley, who arrived in  Cornwall earlier this year from Royston, Hertfordshire,  will oversee the proposed new benefice with the help of just one other ordained clergy member - a pioneer minister who will not work on Sundays - and a team of lay workers.  Click here to read more about Cornwall's Bish...

Rev Marcus Walker, founder of Save The Parish, asks the question in this week's Spectator.  Click here to read the article.   He also talks about the situation in Cornwall where the Bishops' radical restructuring plans are wreaking havoc on local church communities. He quotes the new Rural Dean in Kerrier deanery in west Cornwall (covering an area from the Lizard to Helston and beyond) who will be in charge of no fewer than 23 churches.  Click here to read Rev Heidi Huntley's article on the plans, published in West Kerrier's July magazine.  

Kerrier Deanery's plans for a radical restructuring plan envisaging a giant benefice with 23 churches coming together under one Rural Dean have caused shock waves not just locally but beyond the Tamar. And clearly - to judge from the newly appointed Rural Dean Rev Heidi Huntley's article in West Kerrier's July parish magazine - elements of the 'On The Way' plan have come as a great surprise to local residents too.  Some people aren't quite sure what is going on, she suggests.  And, she adds, it's been a 'bit of a shock'  - to put it mildly - to hear that the second priest to be employed in the deanery (through Church Commissioners' funding - the Rev Susie Templeton - won't be working on Sundays....  So much for the 'consultation' process that allegedly took place about the re-structuring, part of Cornwall's Bishops' On The Way plans for reshaping church in the county. Rev Heidi writes: Dear friends It’s come to my attenti...