Per Rupert Shortt, the ‘hollowing out’ was already very well advanced in many places prior to Welby. By the mid-2000s dioceses like Canterbury, Chelmsford or Winchester had already re-formed into very large benefices in which incumbents had become de facto area deans. The transformation of Exeter and Carlisle dioceses into mission communities began, respectively, in 2003 and 2011. Over a decade ago Whittam Smith remarked that the Commissioners risked becoming a large fund with a dead Church attached. What happened under Welby was the development of a formula which would reduce political pressure on the Commissioners for a return to… Read more »
I do wonder how much general parish visiting and pastoral care of parishioners, as opposed to gathered congregation, is done by the parish clergy of the shiny evangelical HTB/church plant clergy. In my experience, even 50 plus years ago, the evangelical parish clergy in South London were big on the gathered congregation but had not been ‘moved by God’ to visit ‘the parish’. In my experience the parish church can come to life if the people of the parish are cared for and served. Perhaps I am naive in thinking that it was those in particular that we were charged… Read more »
Per Rupert Shortt, the ‘hollowing out’ was already very well advanced in many places prior to Welby. By the mid-2000s dioceses like Canterbury, Chelmsford or Winchester had already re-formed into very large benefices in which incumbents had become de facto area deans. The transformation of Exeter and Carlisle dioceses into mission communities began, respectively, in 2003 and 2011. Over a decade ago Whittam Smith remarked that the Commissioners risked becoming a large fund with a dead Church attached. What happened under Welby was the development of a formula which would reduce political pressure on the Commissioners for a return to… Read more »
Perfectly expressed, thank you.
I do wonder how much general parish visiting and pastoral care of parishioners, as opposed to gathered congregation, is done by the parish clergy of the shiny evangelical HTB/church plant clergy. In my experience, even 50 plus years ago, the evangelical parish clergy in South London were big on the gathered congregation but had not been ‘moved by God’ to visit ‘the parish’. In my experience the parish church can come to life if the people of the parish are cared for and served. Perhaps I am naive in thinking that it was those in particular that we were charged… Read more »