A “BOLD reshaping of the Church in Plymouth”, intended to assist to double church attendance in the town, is among the many initiatives to be funded by a latest £10-million Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) grant for the diocese of Exeter.
Plymouth, the most important urban centre in Devon, with a population of about 270,000, and better than average levels of deprivation, had been identified as an “area of concern” by the national Church, the Suffragan Bishop of Plymouth, the Rt Revd James Grier, has said.
There are “whole communities in the town which have never been reached by their parish church”, diocesan recruitment material says. Amid “declining attendance, leadership gaps, and financial pressures”, the clergy emptiness rate (one third, amounting to 10 posts) has created “a rare opportunity to shape a latest culture: one which’s rooted in mission, built on collaboration, and open to growth”.
Bishop Grier, who was born in Plymouth, said that an audit of the town had been expected to recommend significant pastoral reorganisation, given the ratio of clergy to congregation size. “In practice, what the review said was, ‘There isn’t any excuse for these churches to not be growing.’” The SMMIB bid had entailed a request that funding be provided for half of every vacant post (with the diocese funding the opposite) on the understanding that the clergy recruited devote time to mission beyond the present congregation.
The diocese announced last month that the Vicar of the 11-church Pastrow Benefice, in Winchester diocese, the Revd Alexander Randle-Bissell, had been appointed as the brand new City Dean of Plymouth. Goals for the initiative include the expansion of 2035 latest disciples, and the establishment of 35 latest worshipping communities in the following ten years.
The grant follows a £1.7-million grant from the Strategic Development Fund (SDF) in 2018 for church engagement and growth in the town’s deprived estates (News, 10 August 2018). While churches here had grown by about 200 people, this had been a “tough gig” for the curates sent to serve them, Bishop Grier said. Some had left for other posts, and lessons had been learned in regards to the need for higher structures and support.
The £10-million grant will even fund the Exeter Leadership Development Programme, which shall be offered to all clergy within the diocese. The SMMIB money would also fund the event of lay leaders in recognised posts, and help to make sure that children and youth staff went “to the correct places reasonably than places who can afford it”.
Before the awarding of the grant, the diocese’s budget for 2026 included a net deficit of about £840,000, after planned property sales. It was expected to grow in 2027 and 2028. At the October meeting of the diocesan synod, the minutes say, “Concern was expressed in regards to the demise of the ‘Hereford motion’ and the continued culture of national control and oversight of the broader financial settlement.” Another concern was “the lack of expertise before the Synod in regards to the application to the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board”.
The Bishop’s staff had discussed reduce clergy posts from 165 to 130 by 2035, however the Bishop of Exeter, Dr Mike Harrison, told the diocesan synod that, in his view, “a discount of clergy is a worse-case scenario.” The aim is to take care of numbers.
Bishop Grier said: “For all of the pain and the distress of the last however-long of us doing SMMIB . . . what they’re quite good on is testing your strategy.” The message from the SMMIB: “We won’t allow you to spend any of this money on sustaining. It is all about growth.”
The Church “can’t do what we’ve at all times done and expect different results”, he said. “The world is rapidly changing.”
