Roy Faulkner suggests that priests should be the most important employees of the Church of England. Reducing the diocesan employee count and putting priests in the community should result in more cure of souls and would grow the Church locally.
“This is beyond managed decline, it is driven decline.”
Withdrawing resources from local communities results in loss of trust and confidence, argues Alan Billings DURING the past few years, the police service in England has had to learn something…
How can one oversight minister grow 35 churches in one minster; even with the help of lay staff?
Community and answers to life’s deepest questions draw people to church. Some of us prefer to gather in a church erected by the people who inhabited this place before us, rather than a converted warehouse or cinema. Judge this not as mossy traditionalism. The historical continuum of place (and ministry) inspires the reassuring feeling of each generation’s being moored to something precious. Despite society’s secularisation, there is some hope that the baton of faith can be passed on. One-third of this country’s schools are church schools.
“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…