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“Even the Church of England’s 2021 paper GS 2222 acknowledged (para. 35) that “Anecdotal evidence from Wales suggests a super-parish type model has not worked well.” It added “but there is an absence of hard data.” Where is there any empirical evidence that mega-parishes are more viable and sustainable than the local parish system?”
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More clergy in the front line is the most fundamental step to “overcome this discrepancy between our ambitious aspirations that require stipendiary clergy and our current short-term situation in relation to finance”.
“A CORRESPONDENT whose letter is published this week suggests that something that the Church Commissioners should do with the resources that they hold in trust is “allocate a tiny fraction of their capital gain of £550 million in 2020 to clear the £12-million deficit accumulated by parishes in 2020 owing to Covid.”
“The answers by the Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, the Rt Revd Martin Seeley, to the General Synod (11 February) point to the essence of the financial dilemma being addressed by development of an uncosted Vision and Strategy alongside the massacre, through ever more mergers and closures, of parishes that are the source of £1 billion of funding.”
‘AS THE Church enters Lent, a season of repentance — a time to reflect and change our minds — it should consider how its structures and systems might be reimagined so that it can follow better God’s initiative of transformation, which is always “to make all things new” (Revelation 21.5). We need to find ways to re-engage and empower the hearts and minds of congregations. Given the chance to reimagine their churches and influence diocesan and national strategies from the bottom up rather than be “done to” from the top down, they may feel that their Church is working for, not against, them.’
“WE REALLY need to talk about bishops. The recent governance review of the Church of England got a mixed reception in the General Synod last month (News, 18 February). An amendment proposed by the Revd Sam Maginnis was carried, merely “thanking” the Governance Review Group for its work rather than “welcoming” it.”
“There is fine architecture: stained glass, sublime wood carvings, roofs adorned by angels, and handsome tombs and monuments. But a church is not merely an education in aesthetics; it is an education in history. It helps furnish a picture of society as it was.”
“Bishops are not intended to be missionary bishops, but pastoral bishops, shepherds of the local shepherds. The point of the parochial system led by bishops was to provide pastoral care for every locality. When that original view of the Church of England was followed, there were more parish clergy, more Read more…
“What I witnessed last week appears to be an increasingly unattractive spectacle in which procedural methods are used to wrongfoot elected representatives. The Synod is being reduced to a talking shop.”