Save the Parish founder praises Church for ‘finally’ listening

Rev Marcus Walker, founding father of Save the Parish, has praised the leadership of the Church of England for putting more funding into the saving of souls and into a few of the poorest parishes within the country.

Save the Parish bills itself as a grassroots organisation inside the Church of England. Its primary goals are the preservation of the parish system, keeping churches open and increased funding for local, particularly poorer parishes.

Writing for The Critic, Rev Walker praised the General Synod for “finally” listening after “years of shouting from the margins”. Walker gave particular credit to the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, who’s in control of the church budget for the following three years.

“[She asked] what we thought should occur, actually listened to us — and greater than doubled the cash going to the Lowest Income Communities Fund. This would have been unthinkable three years ago,” he said. 

Walker also noted that the Archbishop of York’s opening address to the Synod was centred across the importance of the parish and recognised the “quiet revival” that appears to be going down in English Christianity.

Research by groups similar to the Bible Society has suggested an increasing variety of individuals are going to church, particularly amongst Generation Z, those currently aged of their 20s.

From 2018 to 2024 the proportion of 18-24-year-olds attending church at the very least once a month surged from just eight per cent to 12 per cent. Among men of that age bracket the change was much more pronounced, going from 4 per cent to greater than 20 per cent.

Walker also touched on this apparent change, “If the mood shift that I’m sensing here in York is real, it would reveal itself in a recent Archbishop who combines a manifest love for God, a recommitment to our Anglican identity, an openness to real debate, a love of the local and a reinvestment within the poorest parishes.”