Save The Parish - Cornwall

Truro's Bishop's Diocesan Council (BDC) will not report to the Diocesan Synod tomorrow (18 November 2023) on Save The Parish Cornwall's request for a moratorium on controversial On The Way restructuring plans, the acting Bishop of Truro has said. Instead - in a highly unusual and controversial development - the BDC will rely on social media outlets to communicate its discussions last month. "The BDC meeting on 17 October considered a wide range of agenda items, of which the call for a moratorium to the implementation of Deanery plans and the connected Diocesan plan was one," the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson wrote in an email on 16 November 2023 to Save The Parish Cornwall (STPC).   Bishop Hugh, who signed off a confrontational and dismissive statement on 30 October 2023 on social media outlets in response to STPC's request, went on to refer to his 'report': "As you point out, the subsequent report, which was shared publicly, makes clear that BDC receiv...

A moratorium is possible, Bishop Save The Parish Cornwall's Andrew Lane has some constructive suggestions for the acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson There is no disguising that 'On The Way' has been a distinctly poor example of public 'consultation'.There are now deep rifts in the Church particularly between the Diocese and the laity, there is despair and most disturbingly a great deal of distrust. We have to fix this. The former Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Bishop Philip Mounstephen has presided over this mess and has now shimmied off to new and unsuspecting pastures. This has left Bishop Hugh with a lot on his plate - for which we could all feel some sympathy - but it also affords him a great opportunity to heal division and right the sinking ship. To start at the beginning, what would have be the best way to conduct an On The Way process that would have involved all interested parties and stood the best chance of a successful outcome?  Act...

Click here to read an Open Letter from Save the Parish Cornwall to the Bishop's Diocesan Council. Cornwall’s acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson, has responded aggressively to Save The Parish Cornwall’s request for a moratorium on his controversial On The Way plans.  This request was based on a dossier of contributions from people across Cornwall, reacting to the plans. Bishop Hugh put the dossier and moratorium call to the Bishop’s Diocesan Council (BDC) on 17 October 2023.  The BDC robustly rejected the proposal, he reported back to Save The Parish Cornwall. He subsequently posted a confrontational statement to this effect across the Diocese of Truro’s social media outlets on 30 October 2023. Save The Parish Cornwall questions why the BDC’s decision is not recorded in a report from the BDC to the Diocesan Synod on 18 November 2023, its omission being highly irregular, given the significance of the representations in the dossier. We also question whether ...

"The smiley man behind the desk has won. Hence, the promotion of bullying personalities, the silence in the face of abuse claims, the NDAs enforced on those pushed out of jobs, and, of course, the cost of reputational management." Angela Tilby's column in this week's Church Times hits the nail on the head. This is what we are seeing in the Diocese of Truro. Click here to read.

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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 ...

An evaluation of ‘Transforming Wigan’   - a controversial programme for change - has been published: click here to read an Executive Summary . This evaluation is an 'absolute shocker' and should be a game changer, writes Rev Marcus Walker of Save The Parish on Twitter. This is so important given how many other dioceses are implementing schemes following what we can safely call the Failed Wigan Model, he says. Sadly, the Diocese of Truro is one of these dioceses: click here to read more. The highlights of 'Failed Wigan'? £1.2 million wasted Weekly attendance 1/3 Annual giving 1/3 Deficit £56,000 to £295,666 In figures that is almost 600 people stopping going to church and £500,000 less given. Read the report here: https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/603eb0893e402/ What was the plan? Merge all the 33 parishes of Wigan into one super benefice with seven “parish hubs” (they love “hubs” in the new CofE). Slash the number of clergy from 24 to 15 (they actually o...