STP Spring Conference Panel Discussion

Panel on diverse experiences of campaigning against pastoral reorganisation

Please outline the background to your disagreements with your local Diocese:

NW: There is a massive reorganisation in Truro Diocese called ‘On The Way’, with parish priests being replaced by ‘Oversight Ministers’. These are essentially managers who oversee a team of employed and volunteer lay ministers covering large areas of the county.

RH: Wigan Deanery was initially given the task of reducing stipendiary clergy numbers from 24 to 17.5, because parishes were unable to meet the Parish Share demand. We agreed to it, and worked hard to thrash it out. This was superseded by the ‘Transforming Wigan’ scheme, with financial support from the Church Commissioners, leading to a reduction to 11 stipendiary clergy across four ‘hubs’ within the Deanery. We felt as though they had a choice, but we didn’t really—we were misled as to where we thought we were going, and didn’t understand implications. As a priest at the time, I now have great regrets. If STP had existed then, things may have been different. Wigan will never be the same again.

SA: I retired from full-time ministry to a rural Benefice of four parishes. The Diocese sought to reduce the number of stipendiary clergy in the Deanery by one. Because our Benefice had been vacant for some time, we were told we would lose our clergy post.

SH: When a vacancy arose for a new House for Duty priest for the Six Pilgrims Benefice, the Diocese said we couldn’t have one—despite the fact we have been consistently paying our way. The plan was to merge us with a larger neighbouring Benefice (which neither Benefice was happy about).

What has been the impact on the ground?

NW: The destruction of the role of the traditional parish priest and local parishes, forcing them into large conglomerations. There has been an exodus of stipendiary parish priests, some of whom did not want to participate in the reorganisation, while others have been driven out by the restructuring. The Deanery of Kerrier, consisting of 23 parishes, is now ministered to by a single Rural Dean plus a pioneer minister who doesn’t work on Sundays. At least four other Deaneries are going through a similar reorganisation. The Diocese believes the gap can be filled by lay ministry. Communion by extension (where the elements are consecrated in advance by an ordained priest and then couriered around the various churches), which was originally for emergencies, has become commonplace.

The Diocese has often told objectors ‘You are the only person who’s complaining’, and STP Cornwall has sought to share information around the Diocese. Based on the Diocese’s own figures, STP Cornwall established that there were only 39 stipendiary priests in post in the entire Diocese out of 58 budgeted posts. Meanwhile, Church House had grown from 20 posts ten years ago, to 40.6 now—more people at Church House than stipendiary clergy in parishes. This information has helped to galvanize people.

RH: The role of the parish priest has changed. There is now a church-run funeral company to do funerals, which are no longer conducted by local parish clergy. The Eucharist is no longer expected to be at the heart of worship.

SA: The vision for the Stafford area in the Lichfield Diocese is for oversight ministers, lay-led services, and non-Eucharistic worship, and for such priests as there are to be entirely mission-focused. The Diocese’s has claimed that maintaining regular Eucharistic services distracts a minister from undertaking mission! The intention now is that laity will take services without training, qualification or understanding of the liturgical year, the seasons, or how to preach a sermon. In our Benefice, people were distressed at the prospect of losing a weekly Eucharist, and of putting four rural parishes together with the surrounding urban parishes, with different church tradition and mission styles. People are upset and bewildered—‘How can the Church do this to us?’

SH: When the Diocese said we couldn’t have a new House for Duty priest, we advertised the post in the Church Times anyway! We told the Diocese that the Parish Share is an unwritten covenant: we pay the Parish Share, and in exchange we expect the services of the clergy. We threatened to withhold Parish Share until this issue is resolved.

How has the Diocese reacted to your resistance on the ground?

RH: I was prompted to participate today in response to the widely publicised independent review into ‘Transforming Wigan’. I am worried about the Liverpool Diocese, who say they have considered the report and felt it went well (which is not what most others think), and are now implementing something similar across the whole Diocese, under the banner ‘Fit for Mission’. There will be one change, namely that parishes will be able to opt out—but what will it look like for those parishes that do choose to opt out?

SA: The Diocese has ignored the large number of objections, and has proceeded with breaking up the Benefice and putting in place curates-in-charge on the basis of the new structure, who have begun changing the pattern of worship—notwithstanding being in the middle of a statutory consultation. This calls into question the process of having a statutory consultation if it can be simply ignored. The Archdeacon has said that even if we are successful in getting the pastoral plan referred back to the Diocese, it will take at least a couple of years to come up with a new pastoral plan; and in the meantime, they will continue to press ahead with all the changes currently taking place.

RM: Initially, a flat refusal to consider our request. Because we didn’t have a priest, we were excluded from all discussions at the Deanery Pastoral Group; at the Deanery Synod, I was told to shut up when I tried to ask question. After getting nowhere, I wrote four times to the Bishop. Eventually, the Diocese relented, and we now have permission to appoint a House for Duty priest. I would advise everyone to keep pushing, and don’t take it lying down. (Applause!)

The Diocese will say ‘there is no alternative’. What do you think the alternative might be?

NW: We were originally told it was all about money—there was no alternative because there’s no money. Recently, however, the Bishop of St Germans said on TV that it’s not about money at all, but about the kind of church we want to be. Cornwall is a relatively rich diocese: there was an alternative, but they just didn’t tell us about it.

STP Cornwall has come up with a positive alternative proposal based on the existing budget, which would involve having 100 trained stipendiary priests to cover Cornwall’s 200 parishes and 300 churches.

RH: Before I retired, we were working on an alternative pastoral plan. It never went ahead because it was displaced by ‘Transforming Wigan’. Funding from the Church Commissioners is for seven years, and has been spent on bureaucracy—what we could have done with that in the parishes!

SA: The words ‘There is no alternative’ were repeated over and over again—but with imagination there are always alternatives. The Diocese is unwilling to consider any alternative proposals. By the time the pastoral plan reaches the parishes, it is fully worked up, with no opportunity for parishes to come up with other ideas. Meanwhile, the Diocese of Lichfield has recently advertised for a full-time Director of Communications, full-time Strategic Planning Director, and a Net Zero Project Manager. The Diocese does have money: we need to help parishioners understand that alternatives do exist.