SMMI funding. Not sure that things are changing in the rural parish.
On the 31 March 2023, The Church Times carried a leader suggesting Money to turn the C of E more outward looking. Announcements of new funding under the umbrella of the new Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) suggest that the wind has changed direction in the corridors of Church House, Westminster. ‘
Please read the Parish Story recounted below; submitted by Andrew Robinson in the Sheffield diocese.
Our parish was once one of the largest in England at over 100 square miles but over centuries has been sub-divided many times. We still have a vicar who has recently been made priest-in-charge and “oversight minister” of a neighbouring church (split off from our parish about 150 years ago). Our regular worshippers are about one third down on pre-Covid, because some people have aged and some have died over the period, older people are still being very careful about mixing but mainly because young people are not filling the loss of older ones.
But the headline about the wind changing is questionable. Sheffield Diocese is a new one, formed out of the Diocese of York in the early 20th century. The historic reserves of York were not really shared when the Diocese was created so Sheffield is quite a poor Diocese. The current direction to deal with limited clergy and finance is to create mission areas (groups of parishes), to install “focal ministers” (usually lay people, some officially Lay Readers, some churchwardens) to lead day to day activities and services and to have one or in some cases two “oversight ministers” (ordained people) to lead and oversee the parishes and focal ministers in a mission area. The move is receiving finance from Church House which has resulted in the creation of 6 “assistant Archdeacons” for a 5 year period and a number of other staff and assistants to help implement the changes including assistant Bishops. The “extra money” cannot be used to increase the number of stipendiary clergy and after 5 years, the extra money will cease. To enable the new organisation to run smoothly, additional full-time roles are being created in the Diocese for the future, some on significant salaries. The logic is that, with limited professional clergy in mission areas and parishes, strong professional support is needed from the Diocese. The cynical are seeing this extra money as expenditure which will ensure the structure has been changed and cannot easily go back to one where parishes are the fundamental building block.
At a parish level, expenditure is seriously stretched. We have a building dating back to 1200, significantly changed in 1470. It needs ongoing funding and, as is normal, none of this comes from the church organisation through the Diocese. We have to make applications for grants from English Heritage and other grant making bodies ourselves. So the future still looks like one with few ordained people with multiple churches even in City areas, lay people leading most things with new titles such as “Focal Ministers”, population in parishes rarely seeing clergy and the celebration of Holy Communion being a rarity for most, possibly taking place once a month.
While the people at Diocese level are implementing these changes for genuine Christian reasons, the clergy and lay people have had no opportunity to put forward views and alternatives and there are alternatives.
Not sure things are changing.
