“This is why thousands of grassroots laity and clergy met, in person and online, last week to plot a General Synod campaign to oppose this new plan and remind our superiors of the promises their predecessors made when they despoiled the parishes of their assets a generation ago. The election is next month and our slogan is the simplest of all: Save the Parish.”
Jonathan Baird writes about clergy occupying administrative roles rather than being frontline vicars. Read the original article here
“Since the 70s there’s been an asset grab. The [property, rectories and endowments] of local churches have been nicked by the dioceses and Church Commissioners, and have been sold off. Actually, if we start reinvesting in the local, and allow local churches to build themselves up again, there’s a huge scope for those churches to survive.”
There was also a comment in an article of 4th April 2023 in the Glasgow Times confirming previous reports that poor areas are worst affected by clergy-cutting and the withdrawal of church…
From the Daily Telegraph: Too often Bishops seem preoccupied with fighting climate change or opposing the democratically elected Government; it could lead to a wonderful revitalisation of the Parish system…
In Emma Thompson’s column for The Times this week, she reminds us of the core purpose of the fund now managed by the Church Commissioners and its theological underpinning, in light the General Synod debate this week to reform how funding is used.
Emma Thompson writes in The Times about how The Church of England must rebalance their spending to pay priests a better wage.