Last week Save the Parish Cornwall (StPC) circulated a document entitled ‘The way forward; a new direction for the Diocese of Truro’. It describes their vision, with a plan and budget for achieving it.

We were pleased to see their plan clearly laid out, including suggestions that we agree with. The information below is for people and PCCs who want to understand their plan, including the finances, in more detail.

 Save the Parish Cornwall document : A diocesan response

This document is for anyone wanting to engage with the content of the Save the Parish Cornwall (StPC) document, ‘The Way Forward: A new direction for the Diocese of Truro’. 

As the place of the Church in society continues to change, and as we discern God’s call to his people in Cornwall, we welcome all contributions to our shared decision making, including those made by Save the Parish Cornwall (StPC) in their document, in which there is much that is helpful. 

The StPC document includes suggestions, many of which are already in the Diocesan Plan, which we agree with: 

  • Communion by Extension: The StPC view is what is described in the current diocesan policy. 
  • Church buildings: We agree and encourage everyone to read what the Diocesan Plan says about church buildings. The Diocesan plan is to support rather than close church buildings and we have recently started providing new support for parishes in caring for their church buildings. 
  • Diocesan democracy: We agree that we need a full diversity of people and perspective in the various groups that support our shared life, including Diocesan Synod. 
  • The work being led by Bishop Graham James on small churches is also looking at challenges around recruiting local church officers and PCC members. 

There are also omissions in the StPC document, in particular there is no mention anywhere of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, mission, scripture, prayer, worship or service to our communities. It is a plan for more priests, rather than for the flourishing of the whole People of God, called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with Cornwall in ways that are fruitful and sustainable. 

We agree with StPC that more priests are needed. We have recruited ten this year already – a record number – and we want to recruit more every year to build up those numbers – but we know that just having more parish priests isn’t the whole answer. We need clergy and lay people to work together. 

The vision outlined in the StPC document may be appealing in its suggestion that the answer to all our challenges lies in having 100 priests, but many of us will remember when there were 100 parish priests in Cornwall, and our churches still got smaller. 

Among the problems we face, and that the Church of England faces nationally, is a shortage of clergy caused by a bulge in retirements and a fall in vocations. It is more difficult recruiting to dioceses outside the southeast than elsewhere. Recruiting to our current target number of clergy is demanding and requires significant diocesan investment. 

This highlights an inconsistency running through the StPC document. On the one hand it calls for central costs to be eliminated, on the other hand it calls for the ‘diocese’ to do more, including the work of recruiting 30 more clergy, being pro-active in recruiting for Diocesan Synod and PCCs, ensuring that PCCs are communicating with congregations and supporting PCCs in caring for their buildings – all of which would need to be done by the diocesan team. 

While it’s tempting to think that millions of pounds can be saved by cutting budget areas entitled Mission and Diocesan Governance and Administration, the numbers in the StPC budget do not add up. The figures provide no budget for spending on the diocesan team (the work done from Church House) and still project a large deficit. The document describes £5.5m of income and spending £6.8m solely on ordained ministry. That would mean no support for clergy recruitment, no finance team to pay stipends, no lay or clergy training, no clergy housing repairs and maintenance, nobody to promote or work on priestly vocations, and no safeguarding team. This would make clergy recruitment and retention impossible. 

Employing clergy is not the only thing that the Diocesan Board of Finance does, and the figures in this document would also require cutting funding for everything else. That would mean that parishes would have to start paying for DAC advice, faculties, and all legal costs. Save the Parish Cornwall’s proposal would cut mission funding that is helping to pay for parish nurses, children’s and schools’ work, and debt advisors. 

In short, this would mean that the Diocese of Truro ceases to exist. 

There are no simple solutions to the challenges we face – if there were, they would have already happened. Nonetheless, God is faithful, and we trust that we have been given everything we need to be the people he calls us to be. We need to continue working and praying together in parishes, deaneries, and as a whole diocese, as we discern and implement our plans. 

We know that this is often demanding, and that that many of you are working and praying hard for your churches and communities. 

Thank you for all you do. 

If you would like to discuss these issues further, please contact your Rural Dean or Archdeacon.