The Crown Nominations Commission, tasked with choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury, is expected to make its recommendation this week. For the sake of England’s parish system, let us hope it chooses wisely. The Church of England hierarchy talks a good game on parishes but the evidence shows that, unless there is a significant policy shift, small and rural churches are doomed.
During the General Synod’s July meeting, the Bishops of Hereford and Bath & Wells, supported by Chelmsford and others, mounted a rescue bid. They proposed that 1 per cent of the asset value of the Church Commissioners’ £11.1 billion endowment should be apportioned each year directly to parish ministry.
The commissioners can surely afford £110 million per annum for the endowment’s intended purpose: supporting poorer parishes. Yet the plan was foiled by a wrecking motion and absurdly alarmist speeches from senior Church Commissioners.
Funding is being unevenly directed into handpicked parishes, while drastically reducing frontline parish clergy. Birmingham diocese, which received a grant seven years ago to “undo” the parish system, recently received £17.8 million more.
This includes £5.7 million for “church planting and revitalisation” for only seven out of 162 Birmingham parishes, averaging £814,000 per parish. The Charity Commission website reveals that those seven parishes have a combined annual income of over £4.5 million. This perfectly illustrates how rich “missionary” parishes are being supported instead of poor ones.
Chichester Diocese is being handed £11.1 million, as it plans to reduce stipendiary (paid) ministry and to increase “focal ministry” (code for lay leadership in vicarless churches). Insultingly, lay “ministry” is expected to be more successful than trained vicars at fostering growth. This approach is misrepresented as a logical response to “sustained shortfalls in parish share contributions”. Hello? Studies show that donations drop when you take the vicar away.
Since 2017, more than £460 million has been allocated to these and similar initiatives, with a strong bias towards metropolitan evangelism. The Church claims to be for the nation, serving “everyone, everywhere”. Why won’t the Church allocate money to ministry in small and rural churches and hold a recruitment drive for good new ordinands? The Crown Nominations Commission needs to put forward a genuinely pro-parish successor to the disastrous Justin Welby. Otherwise, for thousands of parish churches all over England, the lights will be going out — for ever.
Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent is on the steering committee of the campaign group Save the Parish