“Even the Church of England’s 2021 paper GS 2222 acknowledged (para. 35) that “Anecdotal evidence from Wales suggests a super-parish type model has not worked well.” It added “but there is an absence of hard data.” Where is there any empirical evidence that mega-parishes are more viable and sustainable than the local parish system?”
The Church of England needs to train more clergy and not more expensive bureaucrats who do not work weekends in order to reverse decline. Read original article here
Emma Thompson writes in The Times about how The Church of England must rebalance their spending to pay priests a better wage.
“They must visit and speak to the people in Wales, they must study the figures and look at the facts and avoid going down the same disastrous road if they do not wish to kill local community spirit and personal relationships, dry up donations and see church closures and sales which proclaim loud and clear their failure to keep the flame of Christianity alive.”
“Pressed by Mr Lunn about whether the Archbishops’ Council recognised that dioceses were not “trying to undermine the mission of the Church”, but had policies “dictated by their finance or lack thereof”, Bishop Seeley agreed: “One of the things that is going on here is we have got a long-term Vision and Strategy and short-term pressures around finance, and those two timetables don’t meet. . .
“We need to try to find a way to mitigate the current situation that is prompting dioceses to consider cutting posts . . . through some form of financial provision.” It remained unclear exactly how many posts dioceses were cutting, he said.”
“Professor Nicholas Orme made a key contribution in pointing out the early origins of the parish. Parishes evolved naturally in their locations. This immediately resonated with the spontaneous order explained…
From the Bournemouth Echo THE PROPOSED merger of three churches in Southbourne has been halted after objections by members. Church members of St Katharine’s, St Nicholas and All Saints were…