Save The Parish - Cornwall

Thank you to our Save The Parish supporter who discovered this very moving blessing prayer for leaders. Blessing for a leader May you have the grace and wisdom to act kindly, learning to distinguish between what is personal and what is not. May you be hospitable to criticism. May you never put yourself at the centre of things. May you act not from arrogance but out of service. May you work on yourself, Building up and refining the ways of your mind. May those who work for you know you see and respect them. May you learn to cultivate the art of presence In order to engage with those who meet you. When someone fails or disappoints you, May the graciousness with which you engage Be their stairway to renewal and refinement May you treasure the gifts of the mind through reading and creative thinking So that you continue as a servant of the frontier Where the new will draw its enrichment from the old, And you never become a functionary. May you know the wisdom of deep listening, The healing ...

If you are worried about developments in Cornwall - plans for radical parish re-organisation and our Bishops' drive towards lay ministry 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. 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    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 18:00 on 25th April 2023 about the future of our parish churches, and the Church of E...

Concern in Cornwall at the actions of the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, again reaches a national stage. A letter in the Church Times (Friday 3 March 2023) from Truro Cathedral Friends and congregation members outlines the damage his recent - and, they say, unnecessary visitation has caused.  Click here  to read the Church Times letter by Juliet and Richard Lingham, and Truro Cathedral Friends and congregation members (it is the second letter on the Letter's Page). There has been considerable controversy in the Diocese of Truro around Mounstephen's actions at the Cathedral: click here to read more about that. "The Church Times letter questions where the natural justice is in the Bishop's actions," said Save The Parish Co-ordinator Susan Roberts. "And also points to lots of positive achievements that have gone unrecognised.  Feelings that could equally apply to the whole On The Way process." The Bishops' (of Truro and St Germans) O...

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.

On Tuesday 25th April at 6pm, Save The Parish is holding its MPs’ meeting at the Houses of Parliament. Please do make sure that your MP has been invited to attend, using our pro forma letter here https://savetheparish.com/contact-your-mp/ ). This is to discuss the duty of Parliamentary oversight of the Established Church with reference to the future of the parish system.

  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...

When the Church of England's General Synod met earlier this month, Save the Parish held a very successful ‘fringe’ event. STP Steering Committtee member Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent tells us more.... A range of Synod members, including John Spence, the Church of England’s Head of Finance, and his deputy came to hear what three of our financial scrutiny team had to say about finance and figures in the Church, and improving the husbandry of a charity's financial resources. We would love you to watch it for yourself – you can find it online at https://youtu.be/45nrep1IvWk First in the video, you can hear my introduction (1.30-5.30) dispelling the myth that diocesan ‘mega-parish’ schemes are necessary for financial reasons. The presentation shows how instead our parishes fund the dioceses, with more money coming upstream from the parishes to the dioceses, via parish share and from the Diocesan Stipends Funds (money generated for stipends by the ‘glebe' which was taken f...