Save The Parish - Cornwall

  Saturday 18th October 2025 St James the Greater, 219 London Road, Leicester, LE2 1NE Programme 11.00  Coffee and registration (in the church) 11.30  Rev’d Marcus Walker: welcome and review of the year 12.00  Bijan Omrani: the Christian roots of national and parish life 13.00  Lunch (in hall, which has lift access if needed) 13.45  Panel:  What makes churches thrive? Chaired by Prudence Dailey 14.30  Practical issues: preparing for General Synod elections; how to start a local group 15.00  Bishop Esther Prior: A Parish is for Life 15.45  Rev’d Marcus Walker: The way ahead 16.00  Tea 16.30  Evensong for St Luke’s Day: preacher - Rev’d Ruth Schofield 17.00  Drinks If you have any questions please email milbankalison@gmail.com or ring 07738873279.   

Abigail Kirby-Harris (representing Trigg Minor deanery) had intended to speak at length at yesterday's Diocesan Synod discussions on Oversight Ministry but sadly was prevented from doing so as - unexpectedly - the morning's schedule was curtailed and an early lunch announced without explanation. Abigail had been able to make a few remarks on Oversight Ministry before the session closed - as did other Save The Parish supporters: click here to read. But she had consulted her PCC (Parochial Church Council) and was planning to say much more on their behalf. She was frustrated - to say the least - not to be able to deliver the short speech due to the abrupt and unexpected end to the morning session. Abigail understands that the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev David Williams, having been informed about the situation by Diocesan Secretary Simon Cade, has asked to see a copy of Abigail's speech. We reproduce it here in full. "I understand that the Save the Parish Cornwall websit...

The new Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev David Williams, has spent his first months on the road listening to churchgoers but appears not to be taking heed of pleas for more priests in parishes: the case was strongly put today at the Diocesan Synod for Oversight Ministers in large benefices.   Save The Parish supporters from across Cornwall – and beyond the Tamar – have expressed their grave doubts about this direction of travel which has failed spectacularly in other parts of the country. At the Synod, Bishop David’s head of ministry, Isaac McNish, put forward a case for continuing to roll out the Oversight Ministry model   - started during the Diocese’s radical restructuring programme known as 'On The Way'.   The plan is for Oversight Ministers to be for the most part administrators, managing teams of lay workers, ministers and readers who are responsible for pastoral care as well as taking services when necessary.  Mr McNish painted a picture of four imaginary churc...

"It is a brave man (or women) indeed who applies for the job of Oversight Minister.   Apart from having to spread his services thinly among many Churches his only means of trying to implement the aspirations of those above is persuasion – he has no sanctions.   PCCs are made up of a complex mix of people whose only essential qualification is a willingness to volunteer. The phrase   “herding cats” springs to mind. In the case of my own Deanery – East Wivelshire – two of the three Oversight Ministers have just resigned after about a year in the job. "  John Kennaugh Keen readers of this blog will remember a thought-provoking post back in March this year by a Church Treasurer in east Cornwall .  What is going on? John Kennaugh asked.  Six months on, John has written another article - 'What happened?' - this time about bureaucracy and Oversight Ministry, which will  be debated at this coming Saturday's deanery synod. In 1955 ,   a chap called Pro...

  Falmouth Packet 3 September 2025   

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...

Extract from paper for discussion at Diocese of Truro Synod, September 2025 We - and other churchgoers across Cornwall - had hoped that the advent of a new Bishop of Truro might halt the onward march to Oversight and Lay Ministry in large groupings of parishes.  The concept was introduced during the controversial On The Way deanery restructuring  programme championed by the former Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, and his suffragan Bishop, the Rt Rev Hugh Nelson.  Sadly, in the years since, there have been many examples of Oversight Ministry proving just too much for those charged with it - impossible administrative loads resulting in physical and mental exhaustion. However ... a paper due to be discussed at next month's Diocesan Synod offers complete endorsement and suggests full steam ahead with Oversight and Local Ministry - despite high profile failures. Click here to read.    The model enables 'incumbent status stipendiary priests to lead...