THE campaigning group Save the Parish Cornwall has defended its calculations regarding the ratio of parish priests to administrators and office staff within the diocese of Truro.
In recent weeks, the group and the diocese have disputed the numbers (News, 15 March). Martin Saunders, a lay member of the diocesan synod and a chartered accountant, said this week that his figures had been checked by the diocese in early February.
They had confirmed that, as of 31 December, there have been 39 “full-time stipendiary parish incumbents” in post, and 19 vacancies. The 2024 diocesan budget had forecast that 40.6 full-time-equivalent lay staff could be employed on the diocesan office. The numbers were referred to in a blog published by Save the Parish Cornwall last month: “Penpushers outnumber priests”.
In response, the diocese of Truro said that the numbers were “incorrect”, and said that there have been, in total, 58 stipendiary clergy in post at the top of February: 40 incumbent-status stipendiary parish clergy, two archdeacons, and 16 stipendiary curates. A spokeswoman said this week that the number for the top of March was more likely to be 61 in total: 46 incumbent-status clergy and 13 curates. She confirmed that, in 2024, parishes would contribute about £600,000 to Church House costs through MMF (parish share).
In a letter to the Church Times this week, Mr Saunders writes that curates are “normally excluded from clergy numbers”, and that archdeacons should not have “direct parish responsibilities”.
Neil Wallis, of Save the Parish Cornwall, said on Monday that the group’s concern was about what number of paid stipendiary priests there have been “actually out in parishes”. “Our concern is totally straightforward,” he said. “We imagine that the Church is healthier for having priests in parishes.” He was critical of the diocese’s response, which had suggested that the campaign group had been “dishonest”.
The diocese reports that there are currently about 20 vacancies. The spokeswoman said that there have been plans “in hand to recruit to all of them as soon as we are able to advertise, interview, and appoint. We are well below where we have to be, and we all know that.” The goal is to have 85 stipendiary clergy in post.
Mr Wallis said that this was “music to our ears”. Save the Parish has suggested that “higher use of funds could support 100 clergy, small clusters of, on average, three churches, led by ministers who’re properly trained within the pastoral skills crucial to be an efficient parish priest.” It argues that the massive emptiness rate is said to the diocese’s move to a model of oversight ministry, and in addition to the departure of clergy unwilling to tackle such positions (News, 2 June 2023).
Save the Parish has called for a direct moratorium on “On the Way”, the deanery planning programme that has resulted in restructuring within the diocese, including a fall in stipendiary clergy posts in some deaneries (News, 2 June 2023). Mr Wallis reports that communion by extension is becoming “routine across large areas of Cornwall”.
In its response to Save the Parish’s blog post — which suggested that curates appointed to oversight positions were “inexperienced” — the diocese said that the campaign group was “hitting out” at clergy within the diocese. “We know from feedback that dioceses with energetic Save the Parish groups struggle greater than others because clergy are wary of coming into an area where they shall be harassed,” it said.
Mr Wallis said that claims of harassment were “almost laughable. Our whole raison d’être is to be in favour of priests in parishes. . . What we’re deeply apprehensive about is that this oversight-ministry idea. . . We are usually not in favour of laypeople being brought in to act effectively as social staff, when the job of a priest is way wider than that.”
He also questioned claims concerning the difficulty of recruiting to Cornwall, arguing that individuals were “desperate” to live within the region. “Parish priesthood matters — and the drive to maneuver away from that, and from the traditional parish system that nurtures it, diminishes the Church,” he said.
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