Video for 19th June, 2025
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
My great grandparents, John and Betsy Caswell Davies are buried at Almeley in Herefordshire. Going back further, the branch of the family with the fine surname of Pyefinch (sadly no longer to be found) go back generations in Presteigne. Going back even further there is evidence that Richard Rodd, builder of the Rodd Court is an ancestor. The value one places on a place and a building changes with those sorts of connections. If you are standing in a church chancel on the graves of your direct ancestors you are less inclined to entertain the ideas of the disposal of the building for a carpet warehouse. Its one of the reasons I am committed to the parish system. In rural areas like ours, church buildings have served generations: both those who gather for worship and those who don’t. Rumours of closure often serve to mobilise local communities to a more realistic level of support. Inevitably, shifts in population mean that some buildings are no longer required. Scarce resources mean we will have to focus our energies on fewer places of worship, whilst hopefully preserving the buildings no longer required for occasional use for baptisms, weddings and funerals. But the fundamental unit of Church of England life – the parish, proves remarkably resilient. By and large it is through local churches that people find faith, grow in discipleship and experience love and pastoral care. Local churches can be catalysts for community transformation, mobilising both worshippers and people of good will to serve their communities and make life better for everyone. The people and clergy of this diocese make huge sacrifices of time, energy and money to make this possible.
This is one of the reasons our Diocesan Synod passed a motion some months ago requesting a substantial redistribution of funds from the Church Commissioners to dioceses to sustain and support parish ministry, especially the provision of clergy. This motion has now been passed, either in its original form or with some variations in ten other dioceses. The motion will be debated at General Synod in July. Since the original motion it has become clearer that the Church Commissioners shouldn’t be quite such a subject of people’s ire! By and large the Commissioners make the money – and they are very good at it. Decisions about how the largesse are spent are made by the Archbishops Council through the agency of the Triennium Funding Working Group. They have just released their proposals in detail for the triennium 2026-2028. Much of this is welcome. Funding flows have been simplified; stipends and pensions have been raised significantly, as has support for lower income communities. Taken together this will make our diocese £100k a year better off. However, the transitional support which tapers from £300k next year down to almost nothing over the next six years still has strings attached. £200k will be given directly but there will still be the need for a grant process for the remaining £100k. Our experience of such grant application processes with the current system don’t fill me with great encouragement.
My main beef remains that a significant proportion of diocesan support is only accessible through a labyrinthine process, and then only given for project-based activities. Colleagues in other dioceses tell me that they have applied and got vast sums not because they are convinced the projects will have a huge effect on church growth, but because that the only way of getting some money! Like me they would simply like direct grant support to avoid the terrible downward spiral of reducing clergy posts and amalgamating benefices with the entirely predictable consequence that the jobs thus created are unfillable. Unsurprisingly, the number of people coming forward for ordination has fallen to a 10 year low. What is on offer in many places isn’t an attractive option. My prayer is that General Synod will send a clear message that there needs to be a re-think. The national strategy does talk about the revitalisation of parish ministry but starves dioceses of the resources needed to make that possible. There is a place for grant funding from the centre for innovation but that needs to be substantially reduced in favour of direct and permanent support. We must still take responsibility for funding ministry locally alongside this. I believe there is the possibility of a new settlement that will give a stable, sustainable foundation for parochial ministry for the future. Do pray for those of us who will be arguing for such on Saturday, July 12th of General Synod this year.
+Richard