Save The Parish - Cornwall

Important - and extensive - coverage in today's Sunday Telegraph of the situation in Cornwall and Save The Parish's campaign to expose the fundamental flaws in the Bishops' On The Way restructuring plans. Click here and here to read.   A spokesman from the Diocese of Truro is quoted as saying 'It is not true that these plans were forced on the deaneries."  The Diocese has repeatedly insisted that the plans were 'bottom up' rather than 'top down' but this has certainly not been the experience of those involved on deanery level.   In fact, the Bishop of St Germans himself said at the Diocesan Synod meeting in November 2020: “ A: The Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, explained that, as mentioned by Archdeacon Paul, he is working with Jonathan Rowe on a complex piece of work that will support deaneries and help sustain them. Deaneries in most need will be given support first. A bottom up approach is critical, particular in regard to put...

 Click here to read.   Pages 6-9 of the document.

"Borrowing their thinking from management consultants trying to revive ailing companies like Wilko and Pizza Hut, the leadership focuses on what the customer wants, sets sales targets, closes down underused outlets, and re-energises the sales team for greater, more frenetic activity," Rev Giles Fraser writes in Unherd . Once again, Kerrier Deanery in west Cornwall gets a mention (Rev Marcus Walker's article in last week's Spectato r drew attention to Kerrier.)    Rev Fraser continues:  "The latest, and most ridiculous of these corporate reinventions of the Church is the idea that the clergy no longer has to work on Sundays – because other people are busy on that day. One deanery in Cornwall will have 23 churches, and only two full-time clergy. One of these “will work primarily in the community, looking for exciting opportunities to grow churches for people who have never been to church,” the area dean bubbled enthusiastically. He went on: “I’ve heard ...

 Charles Moore writes in today's Daily Telegraph - click here.

After a casual enquiry, Save The Parish Cornwall discovered that the important Minutes of Diocesan Synods in the early years of On The Way are not in fact up on the Diocese of Truro website.  We have therefore sought them out: we will add to these documents as more emerge. Only recent Diocesan Synod reports are accessible via the Diocese of Truro website . Asked why important Minutes of earlier significant Synods were not available, Communications Officer Kelly Rowe - surprisingly, in view of the infinite nature of the internet - said: "We don’t keep everything on the website due to its size."  As deanery plans now reach a crucial stage, we have tracked down these documents - essential reading for anyone interested in the genesis of On The Way.  2019 Presidential Address to Synod November 2019 by the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro "Just this last week Cornwall Council agreed to invest no less that £612,000 in the Truro Lifehouse project based at All Saint...

  Britain is no longer a Christian country, say frontline clergy in an article published by The Times today. Click here to read. The Times selected 5,000 priests at random from among those with English addresses in Crockford’s Clerical Directory of Anglican clergy and received 1,436 responses, analysing data from the 1,185 respondents still serving. The survey uncovered high levels of stress among priests, many of whom feel over-stretched. They fear that the church’s efforts to arrest the decline in attendance will fail and this may ultimately lead to its “extinction”. Professor Linda Woodhead, head of the department of theology and religious studies at King’s College London, said: “It’s extremely important to hear the clergy’s views. It’s hard to carry out these surveys which is why we have very few of them, and it is very interesting.” She added: “This survey shows the clergy t...

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...