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Church of England's Reorganisation Shows It Is Planning to Dismantle The Proven Parish-Priest System
May 29, 2023
Letter to The Telegraph:
SIR -- You reported on the Bishop of Leicester's diocese-wide reorganisation scheme ("Church faces backlash over merging 23 parishes in one", May 20), which will cluster together large groups of churches, starting with 23 in the Launde Minster Community.
A similar pan-diocese reorganisation is being advanced in Truro, beginning with churches on the Lizard Peninsula. These schemes reveal how the Church of England is, despite denials, dismantling the proven parish-priest system and substituting Oversight Ministers covering very large groups of churches, with no direct connection to any parish.
Your report quoted Leicester diocese as saying that reorganisation was to make parishes "financially sustainable". Yet the evidence points the other way. The Launde Implementation Team's own report --published last October -- acknowledged the "doom loop", whereby reducing clergy numbers generates fewer donations, leading to even fewer clergy. This will drive churches towards closure (or "re-purposing" as the documentation coyly puts it).
The finance team at Save the Parish, to which I belong, has demonstrated that such reorganisations are not necessary, and that there are four clear areas where the Church's resources could be rebalanced to make parishes financially sustainable. Why punish them when they could be properly resourced with funding and staff?
Sir James Burnell-Nugent
Modbury, Devon
