An article in yesterday´s Church Times discussed a recent report by independent research organisation, Civitas, which put forward the view that church parishes were suffering as a direct result of over-centralisation within the church, particularly at the diocesan level. Having been deprived of power and assets, it said, parishes are now “subject to the diocese and the executive power of the Archbishops’ Council”.
The traditional argument in favour of greater resourcing at the diocese level, has been that the diocese is able to recycle funds from wealthier parishes, through what is called the ‘parish share’ to support less wealthy ones, and thus maintain a stronger presence is poorer communities. The report, however, called for a “rethink” of the parish share, and concluded that “the most effective way for dioceses to help parishes would be to reduce numbers of administrative staff.” Working with the ‘Save the Parish’ movement, they had calculated that, reducing the current number of diocesan staff by even one quarter could pay for 1000 new stipendiary priests in parishes.
The report, written by Esmé Partridge and launched on Wednesday, argued that conditions are ripe for a renewal of the parish, which “could be in an ideal position to nurture and direct renewed receptivity to the sacred……If the Church wants to be more ‘relevant’, it should stop trying to reinvent itself…..and rather embrace its role as a bastion of sacred tradition in a postmodern world.”
Read the full story here.
Read the Civitas report here.