How can we save England’s churches from closure?

The Secretary of the Rectory Society asked me to write for them, thinking it would be helpful to those who are involved in supporting their churches or anyone who loves our church building heritage and who value the “old” parish system.

I felt sad to hear parishes referred to as “the old system”. This IS the Church’s operating system.  It has no sustainable replacement, despite £464m of central funding distributed since 2017 for new projects, many outside the parish system.

The Archbishop of York’s plan (“Vision and Strategy for the 2020s”) is to spend billions creating 10,000 “new worshipping communities” by 2030.  The C of E’s new “Statistics for Mission 2024” (published October 2025) shows on p.19 that almost half these new schemes are failing – you would not invest your own money in them.  Yet the Archbishops’ Council continues to pour in millions. 

Sometimes STP is accused of being acerbic. However, many bishops concerned by this policy have asked us to keep going, even told us “not to lose our edge”.  Edgily and regrettably, I advise maintaining a healthy cynicism about anything your diocese may tell you: for example that there is insufficient money (the Church Commissioners manage investments worth £11.1bn, the dioceses another £5.9bn), or insufficient vicars (around 1,000 work in the bureaucracy, not parishes).  

There is ample central funding for innovations – within parishes – AFTER first paying for sufficient parish priests for “everyone everywhere” (the C of E’s own strapline).  If the “upstairs church” stopped cutting parish clergy posts, it might encourage much-needed new ordinands.

In the “downstairs church”, I hope churchwardens are not feeling exhausted and isolated – please do not despair!  Here are suggested ways to protect your church.

1. Widen the benefits of “the old system”: localised ministry and pastoral care.  Make your church indispensable to the whole community.  Get village organisations using the church.  Encourage your vicar, if you have one, to fulfil the canon law duty to visit people: schools, care homes, the sick.  If you have a church school, create termly visits, and special events in church such as carol services or Nativity plays, Remembrance, Christingle and Messy Church (formerly known as Sunday School).  Involve locals in caring for the churchyard: beetle hunts, bird feeders, batwatching, etc..  If you have a vicarage, keep it in community use.  Photograph all activities.  Defend your vicar against diocesan pressure to take on extra parishes.  Have a church service, lay-led if necessary, every Sunday to maintain your congregation in “holy habits”.
   
2. Do not merge your PCC.  STP volunteers sadly see merged PCCs dominated by one church voting to close another.  Keep your PCC strong. Befriend adjacent parishes for mutual strength, without compromising your individual identity.  Cultivate your church’s Patron, appointed for your protection.  PCCs are independent charities which must make their own financial decisions.  Do not agree to commit ahead to donating the parish share.  It is a voluntary, free will offering, not a tax.
   
3. Join Save the Parish (via www.savetheparish.com).  Know your rights (please see the “Parish Pack” and “How to Object” on the website).  Prepare for a fight (through gaining knowledge of rules and procedures).  Isolate your parish assets from diocesan reach.  Email STP any questions.  Stay sharp about diocesan spin – ‘developing mission and ministry’ may mean fewer clergy, increasing pressure on lay volunteers.  ‘Fruitful and sustainable’ usually means raising parish share.  As for ‘You can only have the clergy you can afford’,what is it but blackmail?
   
4. Re-engage with C of E governance.  Join its “synodical” system, to penetrate diocesan lack of transparency, and thereby effect change.  I practise what I preach, despite Evelyn Waugh’s warning in ‘Decline and Fall’ that: “A lay interest in ecclesiastical matters is often a prelude to insanity”.
   
5. Like me, fill your church’s place(s) on your local deanery synods, created to send parish concerns upstream.  Understand goings-on at deanery level – increasingly, dioceses are setting numbers of clergy and parish share ‘due’, then leaving it to deaneries to sort out, pitting churches against each other.
   
6. Nominate suitable people to your local diocesan synod, to gather intelligence.  Participating in mine has been revelatory.  Much funding for new schemes untransparently comes from parish share!  Some of us are, together, making progress with maximising funds for clergy stipends, reducing parish share requests and improving governance.
   
7. Please consider standing for the General Synod on a pro-parish ticket.  It sorely needs members who understand numbers, transparency and accountability.  Small and rural churches, despite punching above their weight in attendance and giving, are especially under-represented.  In September, I won a contested by-election for a seat on the General Synod (national church parliament).  Next summer (2026), there is the equivalent of a general election.

Emma Thompson