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...

The Diocese of Truro's major restructuring and clergy-cutting exercise On The Way is felt nowhere more keenly in Penwith, one of the first deaneries to vote through an unpopular and challenging restructuring plan.  The Episcopal College recently failed to recruit a Rural Dean responsible for a new 'split' deanery into East Side and West Side and oversee parish re-organisation : only one application was received. What are the proposals on the table? How and why has this situation developed? Our Bishops, sadly, share the view of others in the hierarchy of the Church of England that there is little future for parishes as a means of delivering the Gospel. Key to this has been a national paper called the 'Mission and Pastoral Measure' which argued that congregations with an average congregation of 20 or fewer were unviable. A way forward was proposed - concentrating clergy and financial resources in 'Transforming Mission hubs in some cities and towns. (In Cornwall,...

If you are worried about developments in Cornwall - plans for radical parish re-organisation and our Bishops' drive towards 'Transforming Mission hubs' in the Diocese of Truro - then please think about writing to your MP. Save The Parish is organising a meeting at the Houses of Parliament on 25 April 2023 at 6pm. It will be led by Chris Loder, MP for west Dorset. We are keen for as many MPs as possible to attend so they can learn about what's happening in Cornwall - and elsewhere in the country. Anyone can contact their MP at any time. If you do not know your MP's email address, you can find it via this l ink.   FIND YOUR MP Please think about writing. Below is a suggested template with a Cornish angle for you to work with - and add any details you wish. I am worried about the future of our parish churches in Cornwall and am writing to ask for your support with a campaign that I have joined: ‘Save The Parish’. There is a meeting taking place in Committee Room 14 at ...

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...

Once again, an evasive answer from the Diocese on the finances of Cornwall's five Transforming Mission projects - funded by the Church Commissioners (60%) and diocesan reserves (40%).   This time, it is Chairman of the Truro Diocesan Board of Finance Mike Sturgess who dodges the question presented at the September Diocesan Synod by Peter Holman representing Carnmarth North deanery. Mike Sturgess's full response is below but questions remain. As yet, Mr Sturgess has not responded fully to key elements: his response is in italics. Key remaining questions re in bold. 1.  As recommended in the report, we have been open about how we will use our reserves to fund mission initiatives in deaneries and parishes. Could you please let us know which diocesan reserves are being used to fund TM initiatives? Where is this indicated in the TDBF 2021 accounts, please?   2. We have established a new board for change and renewal that will oversee the funding of TM churches, the mission...

  A bleak night in Portreath, Cornwall, saw Carnmarth North deanery plan voted  through after two delays. Initially Rural Dean Caspar Bush and his team failed to submit it in time for Episcopal College approval before the June synod meeting. Then following the death of the Queen, the 9 September 2022 synod  was postponed. On Tuesday 18 October, Rev Bush finally saw the On The Way plan approved which will see him as Rural Dean Tsar head up a new 'On The Way' unit swallowing up Transforming Mission Camborne. His former curate Rev Graham Adamson becomes a 'peripatetic' vicar across Carnmarth North's 18 churches. As one clergyman from Camborne bravely said at the Synod, a fair amount of the Church Commissioners' Lowest Income Community funding - which will finance this new roaming position - will be spent on his petrol costs. Rev Adamson will also in an odd twist be overseeing the work of his former boss Rev Rosheen Browning, priest in charge at Camborne, who has st...

The weekly local press across Cornwall today carried our Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury ahead of his recent visit to Cornwall. Our Save The Parish message continues to hit home..... Bishops: please listen to the people of Cornwall.

Senior clergy in Carnmarth North Deanery steam-rolled through their On The Way plan on Wednesday (15/6/22) despite Rural Dean Caspar Bush admitting that the 67-page document had only been distributed to parishioners at the last minute and there was no time for proper consultation. Rev Bush only sent the document out to Deanery Representatives on Sunday morning (12/6/22) due to a ‘technical glitch’ with the Diocese. This meant that in the best-case scenario – if the plan had been then immediately been distributed to congregations by the Deanery representatives, who were not instructed to do so – congregations had just over three days to digest proposals which will change church life forever. In fact some present at the meeting at St Mary's Church, Portreath, said that their Parochial Church Councils were unaware that the Deanery Synod was taking place. “We can’t pretend that’s been done as well as it should have been done,” Rev Bush said. “I put my hand up on that. I give my ...

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...

  A well-argued and well-balanced letter in the Church Times today (Friday 27 May 2022) by a vicar in Ashford, Kent, questioning the box-ticking and numbers' obsession of Transforming Mission, an evangelical programme being rolled out across five towns in Cornwall. The Rev. Dr Stephen Brian's letter is in response to a letter by Rev Rosheen Browning, Priest in Charge at Camborne, Cornwall, published last week - suggesting an indicator of  the success of Transforming Mission lay in the level of its engagement with young people.    Rev. Browning's figures contradicted 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.

The Diocesan Synod meets on 28 May 2022 to approve its 2021 accounts amidst a fierce debate around the Bishop of Truro's planned cut programe.  The meeting will be open to the public (though no questions from the public will be permitted) and will be held at St Erme Community Centre (TR4 9BD) starting at 930am. For anyone interested in learning more, the accounts can be downloaded from https://trurodiocese.org.uk/?s=Diocesan+accounts Interestingly, they show that in the most recent financial year the diocese has actually made gains totalling £12.5m, while spending on its expensive mission programme Transforming Mission - funded by the Church Commissioners and Diocesan reserves - was £197,000 under budget. The financial statements narrative says the Bishop has decided to “reset” the £6m Transforming Mission project which was initiated in Cornwall in 2017 and has since been rolled out amidst controversy, setbacks, delays and target failures in five Cornish towns - first Falmouth,...

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Save The Parish Cornwall, the Diocese of Truro branch of Save The Parish has called on the Bishops of Truro and St Germans to meet to discuss the brutal cuts planned in their housekeeping programme 'On The Way'.'On The Way' has caused upset and dissent across Cornwall. The text of the letter is reproduced below: 26 April 2022   Dear Bishop Philip and Bishop Hugh, We the undersigned have set up a Cornish branch of Save The Parish (STP). As you are aware, STP has been set up to push back against the increasing centralization of the Church of England while administrative costs burgeon and there is a general movement away from the C of E’s traditional roots in this country i.e. the parish.  This is of particular importance to us in Cornwall as, of course, this is a largely rural county. We are particularly concerned, too, in Cornwall for other reasons. 1.         That very large sums of money – 60 per cent coming from the Church ...