‘It is about how each of our parishes can survive and thrive - and what each of our parishes can do when we feel or see a threat appearing’
@WalkerMarcus
opening the
#SaveTheParish
Spring Conference in Bristol
“Responding to the £100 million fund, Rev
@WalkerMarcus
, founder of the
@SaveTheParish
campaign group, said: “Suddenly, the Church has money.
How can the Church have the brass neck ever to ask for another penny from its parishes again?”
We are proposing a plan
@synod
that, if approved, could pump money into our nation's poorest parishes!
#SaveTheParish
Here
@WalkerMarcus
explains how at York
#synod
debate on the revitalisation of the parish debate he will move an amendment to help parishes that most need it
We've done the sums and...from the 25 dioceses which still have their manifestos public & those who told us of their support beforehand, well over 150 people joining
#GeneralSynod
have pledged to
#SaveTheParish
.
This is a significant bloc & should make a huge difference.
Opening our recent
@SaveTheParish
conference
@WalkerMarcus
thanks supporters for their work raising the profile of parish ministry
@churchofengland
'The genius of the
#parish
system is it isn't top down... It's each area, each community, knowing how best to serve that community'
“When Her Majesty the Queen died parishes across the country lept into action.
“Parishes were there to commemorate, to share in grief- it was the best of the Church on display.”
Our Chairman
@WalkerMarcus
at
#STPinParliament
"We've been astonished since we launched
#savetheparish
. It's been letting a lid off a volcano. Laypeople & clergy around the country who feel they're not listened to."
"The Parish is small enough to be human, realising that Christian faith is faith in a person"-
@AngelaTilby
👇
Wonderful to have Bishop
@RevAndrewRumsey
speaking powerfully on the history of the Parish
‘Parish is a kind of bond- a covenant with place, binding secular to sacred…
It expresses our need for a footing in the world’
#SaveTheParish
Our letter to the Bishop of Truro,
@pmounstephen
, who last week refused outright to meet supporters of STP, who called for an open, honest and transparent audit of Diocesan finances in the wake of massive increases in central spending.
📰Press release👇
We need to appreciate small rural churches for the joy that they are & move away from any kind of failure narrative
Love this 🍊comparison from the Bishop of Exeter👇
Her Majesty the Queen, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has died after 70 years as our Monarch.
May she rest in peace. God Save the King.
Is
@churchofengland
in a doom spiral?
@telegraph
looks at latest figures👇
Responding to the analysis
@MarcusWalker
said “As sure as night follows day if you close parishes & reduce clergy, the no. of people who are able to turn up to church will fall"
"The hastening death of the parish will tear the beating heart from many a small place that is reliant upon church to help organise its common life."
Well said
@giles_fraser
!
Fantastic to see a packed room for our inaugural Parliamentary event!
Lots of MPs and Lords in attendance, as well as clergy and parishioners from all over the country.
#STPinParliament
"Since the 70s there’s been an asset grab...If we start re-investing in the local & allow local churches to build themselves up again, there’s huge scope for those churches to survive."
STP founder
@WalkerMarcus
on
@GBNEWS
this morning 👇
Full interview:
“Churches are most venerable buildings that provide spiritual nourishment for all of us”
Rachel Morley, Director of
@friendschurches
at our
#STPC22
conference today
#SaveTheParish
“66% of the money raised from within the CofE comes from givers in parishes all around the country.
“The Church must cut its excessive bureaucracy in its dioceses to free up money for more clergy. It can be done. It must be done.”
- Sir James Burnell-Nugent at
#STPinParliament
A really important thread by
@WalkerMarcus
- how Paula Vennells was hired to diagnose the Church’s structural and managerial ills *after the Post Office scandal was known and she had been forced to resign*
Well, well, well. Did you know that Paula Vennells is the progenitor of the Church of England’s Governance Review? The massive project to centralise all the power - currently dispersed to ensure checks and balances - across the Church?
You didn’t? Well… buckle up.
The largest contributors to the funding of the Church are the parishes. Generous donors give nearly £1 BILLION EVERY YEAR. £318 million is paid to dioceses for parish ministry. Yet dioceses are cutting clergy, leading to a 'doom loop' of less giving, leading to even less clergy.
“Our parish churches are the most important group of parish churches in the world...They ought to have World Heritage status...Once sold off, particularly if they’re sold for housing…they’re gone for local people.”
Alison Milbank in the
@NewStatesman
👇
The CofE often complains about the cost of church upkeep. They don't pay! We do! PARISHES SPEND OVER £600 MILLION PA on the upkeep of their churches. If we look after the church, would the diocese please provide a vicar? To rephrase Gray, ‘The rude forefathers of the parish weep’
We welcome the recognition of the pleading of STP & others fighting against cuts in clergy & the formation of mega-parishes.
The proof is in the pudding. Will these new grants be genuinely accessible to ease the burden of the parish share that is a struggle for so many parishes?
The
@churchofengland
is called to serve every community in the country, to be a presence that transforms lives and answers the call of God.
The Triennium funding announced today will help the Church live out that calling.
“‘We don’t have this problem anywhere else’ is what we were told”
@neilwallis1
of
@SaveParishCwll
reminds
#SaveTheParish
about the power of ‘Information, Information information’ to loud applause 👏🏻
The CofE has spent £176 million trying to stem decline - but this spending came at the direct expense of ordinary parish churches
Now, lo & behold…
it seems like if you cut funding, you cut services;
if you cut services, you cut numbers👇
It was amazing to see how well versed and up to-date school children were on the latest CofE jargon- now it looks like the opposite is true. I wonder: which adult wrote it? 🤦
A reminder from
@RachaelMaskell
that the church must not rush in to change
‘They do not know what doors they are closing - and what opportunities will be lost’
#SaveTheParish
#STP2023
🚨Exciting news! 🚨
The Archbishop of York
@CottrellStephen
will be attending our conference this Thursday.
We hope this will be an opportunity to have a productive dialogue, and to ask some incisive questions.
Not one to miss! 👇
"Revd
@WalkerMarcus
, the chairman of the
@SavetheParish
campaign group, said that clergy and lay people are concerned that not enough money is being sent to the Church’s “frontline”."
Read our Chairman's letter to
@JustinWelby
in today's
@Telegraph
👇
We're calling on Archbishops
@JustinWelby
&
@CottrellStephen
to put their money where their mouth is in the upcoming Triennial Budget, and back up their statements in support of the Parish with proper financial support.
📰 Press Release 👇
‘You cannot have a warm space on the internet - and you have got to have a building to have a food bank!’
Eddie Tulasiewicz of
@NatChurchTrust
on the vital importance of church buildings & heritage at
#STP2023
#SaveTheParish
“Over the last 20 years, the CofE has turned in on itself.
“No longer interested in looking after the nation, but looking after its own survival via large-scale centralisation.”
-
@AngelaTilby
at
#STPinParliament
The Church Closers’ Charter (GS2222) doesn’t seem to be going down well.
A whopping 1,600 responses- the vast majority of which are critical.
Time for a rethink
@churchofengland
👇
"Parish expresses a covenant with the nation beyond the congregation, which no idea or word captures in the same way..."
"The Parish is a rehearsal space for the Kingdom of Heaven where our love for God is practised in our love for neighbour" -
@RevAndrewRumsey
👇
#savetheparish
An exploration by
@BBCNews
South West into why parishioners are up in arms in Cornwall about plans to slash the number of priests and merge dozens of churches into mega parishes.
📺
Church closures? How many are we talking? A few dozen? Nope. Since this is a secret report Paula Vennells didn’t hide the plan: over a thousand church closures.
Over a thousand! That figures has never been owned up to before by Church officials.
1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ ⛪️ 🚫
These new members come from all over the country and hold a wide range of theological positions.
As we come together to reset the trajectory of the CofE, what better time to join us than now? 👇
Blog post from
@Psephizo
packing a punch on use of
@churchofengland
investment funds👇
As assets accumulate while parts of the church are in dire financial difficulty, & cutting clergy- he argues 'the maths is not complicated; what is needed is the will'
"This profoundly un-conciliar, centripetal direction of travel needs to be completely reversed. The Church of England must become centrifugal, recognising its roots in the parishes."
✍️ The Rev'd Colin Huber-Percy
Parliament can help us
#SaveTheParish
.
Join us this September in Parliament for an event with
@chrisloder
to find out just what Parliament can do, and how we can encourage parliamentarians to get involved.
Tickets are free. Secure yours today 👇
"The church doors may well be shut, the vicar elsewhere, conducting a service in one of the other churches in his “mega-parish”.
📰
@AllisonPearson
is absolutely right; read her article in the Telegraph here:
#SaveTheParish
is a year old today!
One year ago today, members of the CofE gathered at
@WalkerMarcus
's church in London, rallying behind the STP banner ahead of Synod elections.
One year on, the national debate is shifting.
Read more 👇
Bishop of Leicester
@SnowMartyn
has announced that
@leicestercofe
won’t use any of the new CofE money announced *for* parishes.
Rather he says if giving *from* parishes doesn’t increase clergy will be cut!
So much for the promises from the Archbishops less than a fortnight ago.
⛪️Parish Story
From the Deanery of Frome in the Bath and Wells Diocese, another story of priest numbers being cut, despite the success of the local parishes.
There is an alternative, and we will make sure the Church of England sees it.
Some great polling from the CofE itself which shows that people have a clear preference of the local…the parish.
Without secure local parishes, sustaining that strong community spirit- which people cherish- is impossible, and so is the mission of the Church.
C of E’s national lead for evangelism
@StephenHance1
has been looking at public perceptions of us. Headline refers to most common: benign indifference (‘most people don’t think about us at all’)
Following yesterday's Thunderer column
@thetimes
- today this letter 👇
Huge pressure placed on parishes while resourcing goes to 'projects'
#SaveTheParish
"I've been a parish priest for nearly 30 years...it has become increasingly obvious that diocesan structures have become parasitic, weakening the parishes.
"42 dioceses, 112 Bishops, these ‘birds that cannot sing’."
An essay by Rev'd Peter Owen Jones 👇
Tonight at 18:30!
Online Launch of ‘The Once and Future Parish'
Rupert Sheldrake & Alison Milbank discuss the current threats to the parish system & its potential for spiritual revival
Sign up to join for free 👇
Is your diocese pressuring your PCCs to merge? Are you looking for ways to strengthen the future of your parish?
We've launched our Parish Pack- Advice & resources written to offer support to Incumbents, Churchwardens, PCC Members & congregations 👇 1/2
"If [the draining of parishes to hire Diocesan management] is allowed to continue it will hasten the demise of the
@churchofengland
& we will be the last generation...to enjoy its community benefits & traditions built over centuries since the reformation"
Tickets for the STP Summer Conference are live!
Our second in-person event is being held this July in York, free and open to all.
Register your ticket to hear from excellent speakers, meet other supporters and enjoy food, drink and an evensong 👇
"We are in danger of letting excessive managerialism strangle the life out of our Church.
"Our Parishes are its heart and soul, not top-heavy bureaucracies and virtue-signalling talking shops."
✍️
@RobertBuckland
Churches 'may not be places that we go to for answers any more, but they are still places we go to to make peace with the questions'
Beautiful words in
@MathewJLyons
review of
@PeterAlanRoss
'Steeple Chasing' for
@spectator
👇
#SaveTheParish
'It's a rollercoaster of an interview with one of the great clerics of our age' 👇
@holysmoke
chats to
@WalkerMarcus
about the scale of the crisis facing the Established Church
& how
@StBartholomews
has become a beacon of hope for traditional Anglicans
Up and down the country, parishes were the focal point for communities mourning the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
We asked people to tell us what their parish did during this sad time.
Ben Bradshaw is on the money here.
Parishes across the country are being being let down by a reduction in the numbers of priests, pushing them into ever larger benefices.
The
@churchofengland
’s own research shows that fewer priests means less growth, more decline.
My question to the spokesman for the
@churchofengland
@churchstate
about the drastic reduction in priests in many diocese & its impact on the centuries old parish system & church schools
Great to meet local MP
@RachaelMaskell
this morning before things kick off at
#GeneralSynod
!
Was an opportunity to share common views, and talk about the importance of local parishes to their communities.
Fantastic to see Rachael wearing the
#SaveTheParish
pin badge 👇
“If you love your parish, you need to fight for it. A green paper this year revealed that dioceses have identified up to 356 churches which they want to close within five years…”
Emma Thompson in the
@Telegraph
👇
What are the threats to the parish system
@churchofengland
?
How can parish churches and communities be revitalized?
👇Professor of Theology Alison Milbank chats about her new book 'The Once & Future Parish' with biologist Rupert Sheldrake
#SaveTheParish
⛪️Parish Story - The hierarchy must wake up and smell the coffee, Bath & Wells Diocese
"Somehow we need the church to understand the desperate situation as we retired priests are mostly over eighty and tired."
"The majority of 2021 COE expenditure was not on front-line parish clergy. Rural parishes feel especially abandoned, even though they provide 44 per cent of parish giving."
📰Read Emma Thompson's piece in today's Telegraph!
"The Save the Parish movement, born a year ago this month, has seen its leaders chided as “rascally voices” by Archbishops, and roundly condemned by certain more excitable bishops."
From our Chairman
@WalkerMarcus
's essay in
@TheCriticMag
.
We welcome this statement from
@CottrellStephen
, especially at this time of year.
But we need the hierarchy to deliver on their words, and properly fund the front-line clergy we know will grow the Church.
Join our free Spring Conference on 20th April in Bristol
- With lead bishop for Buildings
@RevAndrewRumsey
& MP
@chrisloder
- Panel discussions on challenging plans for parishes
- Why campaigning matters & top tips
- Lunch, evensong & drinks
Thank you to everyone who came to our STP conference yesterday!
With over 100 attendees, some fantastic speakers and a beautiful Evensong, it was a real success.
We’re sending the message loud and clear: Parishes need to be heard, and they need to be supported.
#SaveTheParish
"The parish is, undisputedly, a sign of presence. Closure means absence and, even worse, abandonment. It is also the locus of history, an important constituent in the stories that are told and the perception of identity."
Former Bishop Stephen Oliver 👇
'The Once and Future Parish' provides a challenge that the church's future should be local - not managerial mission
Join Professor Alison Milbank &
@giles_fraser
as they debate the failures & theological poverty of
@churchofengland
mission policies
“There is perhaps something similar in our relationship to the parish church. Most people do not go to church…but try to close a church and it’ll be the community that rallies round in protest.”
@WalkerMarcus
in the
@NewStatesman
👇
We couldn't have asked for a better interrogator than
@giles_fraser
at our STP Conference last week!
A transcript of the proceedings will be available soon, in the meantime see this very detailed write-up by
@MadsDavies
👇
🔗
Are you seeing your local parish struggle & wondering how to help?
Join us for our
#SaveTheParish
conference on 6 July
#STP23
Hear more about the vital role parishes play in communities across the country & how they need our support now more than ever
We want to cut through the noise of national Church politics, and show directly the problems being faced by parishes.
Is your church being affected by the diocese; are your PCCs being pressured to merge? Tell us your story, and we’ll publish it online👇
"Yet, approaching a winter where many face a bleak choice between heating or eating, some CofE bishops are demolishing community. Wanton destruction of the parish system by dioceses is accelerating."
Read Emma Robarts' article in
@thetimes
.
📨"SIR – The Church of England’s director of communications says the Church is “doing everything it can to support its parishes”.
How I wish that were true."
Read Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent's letter in the Telegraph 👇
'Christianity may be struggling & its buildings hideously expensive to maintain, but in this lyrical love letter to churches
@PeterAlanRoss
reminds us there is something worth saving & people who will make the effort'
@thetimes
review of Steeple Chasing👇
"Where is the accountability for such mismanagement? ...Rather than embark on more restructuring of parishes, perhaps this diocese should be put into special measures"
Letters to the
@ChurchTimes
editor 👇
'A parish church embodies communal England' says journalist & author
@simonjenkins4
in the foreword of A Church Near You
Proceeds from sales of the book will help support the brilliant work of
@NatChurchTrust
&
@TheCCT
👇
"They must speak to the people in Wales...and avoid going down the same road if they do not wish to kill community spirit, dry up donations & see church closures that proclaim their failure to keep the flame of Christianity alive."
A warning from Wales👇
Out of the 76 job listings currently on the
@churchofengland
website, only 22 are for clergy.
Aside from a headteacher’s position, the rest are for ‘officers’, ‘advisers’ and middle management positions.
🔗
If you would like to see what the ratio of frontline clergy to FTE posts in diocesan HQ is for your diocese… look no further. Some of these are incredible, at almost 2:1!
@AP_Davison
@WalkerMarcus
@Psephizo
The staff to stipendiary ratio for all dioceses is available on the Save The Parish website. . Figures for 2022 will be available shortly. All information is taken from audited and published diocesan accounts. The average across England is 3.5:1
Help us to stand up for parishes👇
It's the time of year parishes hold Annual Parochial Church Meetings (the APCM!)
🗳️Could you stand as a deanery synod representative for your parish & ensure it has a strong voice in your deanery?
More information-