‘Beatings’ does not do justice to the extreme physical violence that Smyth inflicted on his victims. Combined with the brain-washing psychological control he achieved over them it was nothing short of torture. The CofE may trumpet the continuing extension of its safeguarding training, but it is only a procedural matter of jumping through hoops, it does nothing to change how badly those at the top deal with both victims & those falsely accused. Indeed, to spend such huge amounts of money on officials & lawyers while totally failing both victims & accused, while at the same time ever more lowering… Read more »
Safeguarding training sounds like a good idea but I wonder if it has actually saved a single victim from abuse ? But of course nobody knows because the effectiveness of the process isn’t monitored. When I undertook basic training as a member of our Church Council, I was incredulous that there was absolutely nothing about empowering children to speak up. If you are an 11 year old girl being abused by your father doesn’t the Church have a responsibility to help? In practice of course not because the church wouldn’t be legally liable and that is what this is really… Read more »
Fr Dean
1 day ago
Bishop Conway’s silence in response to Graham’s pleas is deafening. Another bishop clinging on by his fingertips in the face of the victims pain. Great men used to offer their resignations straight away in these circumstances, but these are not great men.
It does seem that Justin Welby has, to some extent, taken a bullet for Stephen Conway. Perhaps I am being unfair. However, Christopher Lowson was suspended for a long period for what transpired was a supposedly ‘minor’ safeguarding lapse. That suspension effectively amounted to deprivation, as Lowson resigned his see not long after he returned to post. I wonder what Lowson thinks about Conway’s refusal to resign over what some might construe as being a rather more consequential failure. I should add that Conway has been the chief sponsor of the Lincoln Time to Change Together scheme, which is to… Read more »
I agree that Bishop Conway does appear to be the Dr Beeching of the CofE. He left Ely before Ely: 2025 reached its denouement. Cambridge remained relatively unscathed whilst ministry in the Fens paid a heavy price. There have been savage cutbacks in ministry in Scunthorpe and its surrounding villages. There are severe job losses on the horizon at the town’s steelworks as the old blast furnaces are decommissioned just as the diocese retrenches in the town. There’ll be nothing pretty about Bishop Conway’s legacy in either Ely or Lincoln. Graham, Keith Makin and Private Eye have detailed his safeguarding… Read more »
“I agree that Bishop Conway does appear to be the Dr Beeching of the CofE” Hardly. Beeching was the adult brought in when the British Transport Board had finished making a total disaster of the railways, via the medium of the Modernisation Plan. The Modernisation Plan gave the railways a vast amount of money and almost as important, the time to put things right. Instead, they decided that all was well and what they needed to do was spend the money on running a pre-war railway. Instead, they spent the money like Richard Pryor in Brewster’s Millions, the objective being… Read more »
Round of applause. Beeching is one of the most unfairly maligned figures in post war British political history, and his report is actually a model of what government reports should be aiming for.
Btw, Great Central – though he was vindicated there IMO by the complete collapse of *all* the freight traffic that paid for it on a day to day basis. Closing the GC was the right decision at the time. But agree if the CofE had a Dr Beeching it might be a good thing.
Forecasters can only hope to get things right 50% of the time at best, which probably applies as much as to church closures as it does to Beeching. The trend in transport is now towards improving local accessibility as large urban centres become congested and working from home and online shopping become the norm. So the question is what happens when churches in large urban areas become full, which is the challenge that successful centrally located Resource Churches now face. Do they plant into existing parish churches in the surrounding area or somewhere new, with lower church maintenance costs? If… Read more »
John Smyth liked boys to bleed and ++Welby didn’t do enough to stop him. How crass of you to describe his survivors as baying for the Archbishop’s blood.
Anglican Priest
1 day ago
Good to read the Commonweal piece and to hear how others view the present state of the CofE.
Simon Bravery
1 day ago
Dr Percy is now spreading himself between Macao, Hong Kong and Switzerland. I wish him well.
To me the ”Graham’ and Rouch pieces bookend the same issue. Graham understandably wants “to know the truth” and CDMs. Those two wishes, however, are in tension: anyone potentially facing a CDM should have a right to silence and a presumption of innocence. Those rights can clearly stand in the way of getting to the truth, which is where I see Rouch engaged. Notwithstanding that presumption of innocence, we can’t have the Church of England run by people who have invoked that right to silence or who have de-facto relied upon it. There ‘Graham’ is right. +Welby should have come… Read more »
Fr Dexter Bracey
1 day ago
I’m curious about Martyn Percy’s claim that “…there are hardly any – indeed, no – examples of the much-vaunted new models of the church making a net contribution to their diocese for the investments they have received.” In this diocese, we are told that the resource church is ‘a net contributor to the diocese’, which I have, perhaps cynically, assumed to mean that it is still being funded by grants from beyond the diocese. But where can one find any clear facts about these matters?
Thanks Dexter. I also picked up that claim, and whilst I’m sympathetic to Martyn Percy’s general perspective, I did wonder where the data is for this claim. The economist (and sceptic) in me would really appreciate independent and peer-reviewed analysis of church growth funding in the Church of England, but I’ve never really discovered enough reliable data for this. Those who fund the projects (of course) have a vested interest in proving their success; those who disapprove on ideological grounds will regard them as failures; but genuinely open-minded research is hard to find. Martyn occasionally comments on Thinking Anglicans, perhaps… Read more »
We mustn’t forget that Resource Churches haven’t been the only initiative in recent years. Although their number seems to have fallen considerably (I may be wrong in this) there are/were the various “Fresh Expressions” of church which, it seems to me, can never be viable unless they form part of an existing church’s outreach work. That, however, was not the rationale behind them when they first started – at least, as I was given to understand things.
Quite. I know of two “Fresh Expressions” in this diocese which have folded since the pandemic, even as the diocese trumpets the claim that it seeking to establish 150 new worshipping communities.
“Fresh” Expressions seems to me like old milk that has gone off. Surely HTB plants are passed their “sell -by” dates. Their ‘liturgical’ expression is as old as Billy Graham rallies, Salvation Army meetings or Westboro Baptist Church. Its time for the CofE to ditch these daft attempts to get down with the kids, and start promoting the beauty of holiness.
Thanks. So-called ‘Resource Churches’ are by definition solvent and possess significant staffing, resources etc. We have no ‘fresh expressions’ – entirely and wholly new congregations – that are self-sustaining and net-contributors to their sponsoring diocese. To do so, they’d need to stump up a stipend, pension, on costs and housing to break even, which most dioceses agree is circa £60k. I’m not aware of any research that shows a ‘fresh expression’ generating that kind of income, let alone anything on top to pay back into the diocese as some quota contribution. Ergo, it would seem that the much-vaunted ‘fresh expressions’… Read more »
There was a Visitation of St. Michael-le-Belfrey in 1991, conducted by the Bishop of Selby, the Archdeacon of York, and Dr Tina Baxter. St. Mike’s was then a well-established and fairly prosperous church with a large congregation and membership – but the report concluded that the church was a net receiver from (not net giver to) the diocese. PCC members were indignant, as they perceived themselves as resourcing other churches, but the figures proved the point. Of course, St Mike’s did also resource other churches in areas like mission teams, the arts, and music. But with 3 full-time clergy, plus… Read more »
The sad thing is that Strategic Development Funding often goes to the large, often middle-class churches who have people skilled at the hoop-jumping task of bid writing. In one of my former work roles, I used to do it to get European Social Fund money. You have to know all the tricks and the buttons / keywords to press.
That is, unfortunately, a near-universal truth: that funding goes to those best able to access it, and those best able to access it are rarely those in most need. It’s possible to draw up ways of allocating funding that are mindful of this, but those methods are in turn gamed once they are known. The “solutions” are often universal funding, which is largely unaffordable: cf. Child Benefit and Winter Fuel Allowance. It’s made particularly bad the moment the funding body wants “evidence” of the success of whatever it was the money was for. That process — set objectives, ensure they… Read more »
The Charity Commission website has the accounts of any PCC with an income above £100k. As you are in Coventry Diocese, you could look St Mark’s Coventry which describes itself as a city centre resource church: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/5135078/accounts-and-annual-returns St Mark’s, which is an HTB plant, had an annual income in 2023 of £317,341 and contributed £63,000 of that to the diocese as parish share. They also paid £113,093 in staff costs, presumably covering everyone on their Team page (https://www.stmarkscoventry.org/team) who receives a wage other than the vicar. My diocese estimates that a full time stipendiary minister costs around £55k (stipend, housing,… Read more »
Thanks John T. I’m not familiar with St Mark’s Coventry, but it might be a good example to look at. My guess is their parish share of £63K for 2023 is probably 100% of the cost of one stipendiary (my brief search indicates an official diocesan figure of £58K for the year 2018, and it has presumably gone up since). But the accounts also indicated they received a grant of £34K from Coventry Diocese for that year – which suggests they were a net loss on Diocese funds for that year. Previous years also show considerable grants from the Diocese… Read more »
And I noticed 10000 house churches as a supposed inspiration in the particulars for a clergy job recently. In the same particulars it said the Diocese would assist in closing some of the churches there. The culture that has grown up of planting churches seems potty to me. And wholly unrealistic too.
Across all Church of England parishes, about 31% of expenditure was on “parish share”. There is, of course, a lot of variation hidden beneath this aggregate figure.
As with all of our other work, suggestions for other analysis that would be useful are very welcome.
Pat ONeill
1 day ago
“Instead, I had, in December, a bizarre meeting with an empty shell of a man. There was no human connection. The most extraordinary thing is that, in a two-hour meeting, Justin did not use my name once. And at the end (I admit, late for another meeting), he just walked out. No handshake. No looking me in the eyes, clasping my hands. No final apology. So, for me, no closure. What a missed opportunity. For him, not me.” The most astonishing thing to me is the absence of an offer to pray together. In 72 years, nearly 40 of them… Read more »
I imagine that ++Welby modelled his approach on that of the masters at Eton. Though as you say dreadful behaviour for someone in Orders. Sadly the man is tin eared as was evidenced by his resignation speech in the House of Lords. The extent of the problem for the CofE manifested in that several of his colleagues (notably the Bishop of Manchester) were chortling away at his lame attempt to justify himself. Only the Bishop of London had her head in her hands.
Is it really surprising that ‘an empty shell of a man’ has no prayer in him to offer? Graham is describing a man barely functioning personally, pastoral and spiritually. I am distressed for ‘Graham’ who did not receive what he most sought and needed. I am also distressed by the description of a church leader so clearly close to the edge.
That was my reaction too. ‘Graham’ describes someone who is worn down and worn out and himself in need of support. While I suspect he resents being forced to it, the picture painted is that retirement was a blessing for ++Justin too.
I had some compassion for Justin in the immediate aftermath of his resignation announcement and to some extent still do, though it was reduced a bit when I read in Private Eye Ian Hislop’s withering description of encountering him the following day at a drinks reception at the British Museum. As others have said, he has a tin ear.
David, we have ‘Graham’s’ description of how he experienced this meeting but I wonder what ++Justin made of it. What did he think he was being asked to do, how genuinely did he strive to do it, and to what extent did he think he had succeeded or failed? ‘Graham’ believes that the needs he brought to the encounter were straightforward and should have been easy of fulfilment. ‘All I want is honesty, humble, human honesty.’ I know enough about ++Justin to know that he would have done what lay within his character to offer both honesty and humility but… Read more »
Jane, As someone not ordained and coming from outside the inner circles of the C of E I’m really struggling with your comments. You have always been very clear that you did not think Archbishop Welby should resign, and still see things from that angle. If as you say it is the sober truth that wounds of abuse inflicted during someone’s formative years cannot be healed this side of heaven the only logical conclusion has to be that the Archbishops’ Council et al have been right in not offering them redress all this time, and that death is their only… Read more »
Susanna, for accuracy, I haven’t said that I did not think Archbishop Welby should resign. The only comment I’ve made about that on this blog was soon after it happened when I wrote, ‘I think it was right that Welby resigned when he did. The situation had developed in a way that made it necessary.’ My comment here is simply that his resignation doesn’t seem to have resolved anything for survivors. Again for accuracy, I haven’t said that for survivors ‘death is their only way out’ therefore the Archbishops’ Council have been right in not offering them redress. I do… Read more »
As.a generality, most of the apologies I have heard from senior clerics, both to survivors and LGBT+ Christians, have been expressed in the first person plural. Unsurprisingly they have not typically been followed by any actions consistent with that ‘apology’. What we don’t hear is “I did X and Y wrong. I am sorry. I cannot put it right but I accept responsibility and this is what I am going to change/do.” I haven’t heard a single member of the Archbishops Council for instance apologise for their personal role in the disastrous way the ISB was disbanded. I would also… Read more »
Amen. Few people understand clinical depression, then again how could they? I certainly could not have done Abp Justin’s job, in those circumstances. I mean he could have reported this disaster earlier and he should indeed have resigned, but stop the blame at ‘he didn’t shake my hand, didn’t feel like praying with me or looking me in the eye.’ The measure you mete out and all that.
An acquaintance of mine also knows Mr Welby personally, and told me, well before the resignation issues, that he was ‘a broken man’. He had the misfortune of holding office at a time when the institution gives every sign of falling apart and, despite all his efforts, there is nothing he could do to prevent it. Maybe Froghole can correct me if necessary, but I can’t think of any of his recent predecessors – say over my lifetime of 71 years – who have had to cope with a similar series of disasters. I’m also depressive; I can understand something… Read more »
Just reading the Papers online I see that on Monday his final day as Archbishop of Canterbury he is to celebrate a Eucharist in Lambeth Palace Chapel and finally he will make his last appearance as Archbishop of Canterbury at Evensong also in Lambeth Palace Chapel, where at the end of the Service he will formally lay down his Crozier (probably the Canterbury Diocesan Crozier) on the Altar of the Chapel as a sign of formally demitting office as Archbishop, the I expect on the quiet he will be given an unofficial informal Farewell with a small presentation by his… Read more »
I am sorry to read of your difficulties, and hope that you are able to establish a workable equilibrium, for your own peace of mind. Going back to 1954, I suspect the only comparable period which comes to mind was 1986-91, which was marred by three major events: (i) the personal attack upon Runcie by Bennett in the 1986 Crockford’s preface; (ii) the collapse in the financial standing of the Church Commissioners in the wake of the property slump after 1988; and (iii) the increasingly intense internal warfare between the supporters and opponents of female ordination, which threatened to break… Read more »
Froghole, could I question one statement in your otherwise very helpful summary. You state “There was also a pervasive sense of malaise throughout much of the Church and it was, of course, the period during which some of the most egregious abuse occurred: indeed, that abuse may well have occurred in part because of that atmosphere of disintegration and disillusionment.” It is a common discourse in conservative circles that such widespread sexual abuse only started in about the 1960s, and was triggered by the collapse in sexual morals in society at that time. The unstated assumption here is that before… Read more »
I agree with you completely. The abuse occurred well before, and well after, that turbulent period. However – and this is mere speculation – there was a sense of both national and local decay, or incipient rot, which may have amplified impunity in certain quarters as the 1980s progressed. That was certainly my own impression at the time, especially in certain specific areas, such as East Sussex, which was then local to me. The second half of the 1980s seemed to be a nadir period for the Church, although in political terms it saw the emergence of certain tropes and… Read more »
Thanks for the clarification, which I agree with. As with many things to do with sexuality, and especially homosexuality, one must always be aware of the difference between what actually happened in private, and what was perceived to be happening, or was recorded as happening, in public debate. I think it’s hard to argue that things did happen. One of my favourite bits of evidence is in a book of courtly gossip by Walter Mapp – De Nugis Curialium – a secular clerk from the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire area in the late 12th Century. “So also, two white abbots were conversing about… Read more »
Not surprising at all, and I have been concerned for Welby for several years. But, if Welby had agreed to meet with Graham in 2013, possibly he would have been in a better state to offer what Graham needed, and Graham in a better state to receive it. The delay in meeting Smyth survivors is inexcusable.
David Runcorn
1 day ago
Rouch offers one of the most perceptive comments on the Archbishop’s resignation Dr. Alec Ryrie observes that ‘the archbishop’s decision was actually a testament to the progress Welby had made in creating new protections. “The fact that he has changed the culture sufficiently that it’s reached the point that he himself could be forced to step down is, in a bitterly ironic way, a kind of achievement,” I think he is right and I while acknowledging much more still needs to be done, I am grateful.
A little statistical interjection, if I may (I am the person who has the job of for collecting, checking, collating, analysing, and publishing Church of England attendance statistics): Abigail Freemann Rouch writes: “Welby has been criticized for failing to reverse the decline in church attendance (though it has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels)” Martyn Percy writes: “the number of paid-up members of the church has effectively fallen off the cliff edge—and there is no sign that this decline is temporary.” The figures are available in the latest Statistics for Mission publication here: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/statisticsformission2023.pdf The precise number depends on which measure… Read more »
Thanks for that dose of reality, Ken Eames. “In October 2023 in-person attendance was 19% below what it was in 2019″. That’s certainly not a return to pre-pandemic levels. Not quite falling off a cliff, either, but the trend is very clear and surely calls for a massive re-direction of thinking? Heads out of the sand. Is the overwhelming focus on safeguarding driving everything else out of consideration? To someone looking in from the outside it does seem a bit like the only show in town.
Could I ask what ‘other’ issues should be taking up the space? What sort of ‘massive redirection of thinking’? The continuing shambles of safeguarding practices in the CofE may well make victims and others think it should be the only show in town. There was a comment elsewhere on this blog about a nativity play which had prompted the remark that the shepherds were probably ‘rehabilitated paedophiles’. I’m not surprised. The cynicism prompted by safeguarding failures in the CofE is there. I’m sure you aren’t suggesting that the institution must take priority. But I doubt whether ‘move on, that’s quite… Read more »
‘Beatings’ does not do justice to the extreme physical violence that Smyth inflicted on his victims. Combined with the brain-washing psychological control he achieved over them it was nothing short of torture. The CofE may trumpet the continuing extension of its safeguarding training, but it is only a procedural matter of jumping through hoops, it does nothing to change how badly those at the top deal with both victims & those falsely accused. Indeed, to spend such huge amounts of money on officials & lawyers while totally failing both victims & accused, while at the same time ever more lowering… Read more »
Safeguarding training sounds like a good idea but I wonder if it has actually saved a single victim from abuse ? But of course nobody knows because the effectiveness of the process isn’t monitored. When I undertook basic training as a member of our Church Council, I was incredulous that there was absolutely nothing about empowering children to speak up. If you are an 11 year old girl being abused by your father doesn’t the Church have a responsibility to help? In practice of course not because the church wouldn’t be legally liable and that is what this is really… Read more »
Bishop Conway’s silence in response to Graham’s pleas is deafening. Another bishop clinging on by his fingertips in the face of the victims pain. Great men used to offer their resignations straight away in these circumstances, but these are not great men.
It does seem that Justin Welby has, to some extent, taken a bullet for Stephen Conway. Perhaps I am being unfair. However, Christopher Lowson was suspended for a long period for what transpired was a supposedly ‘minor’ safeguarding lapse. That suspension effectively amounted to deprivation, as Lowson resigned his see not long after he returned to post. I wonder what Lowson thinks about Conway’s refusal to resign over what some might construe as being a rather more consequential failure. I should add that Conway has been the chief sponsor of the Lincoln Time to Change Together scheme, which is to… Read more »
I agree that Bishop Conway does appear to be the Dr Beeching of the CofE. He left Ely before Ely: 2025 reached its denouement. Cambridge remained relatively unscathed whilst ministry in the Fens paid a heavy price. There have been savage cutbacks in ministry in Scunthorpe and its surrounding villages. There are severe job losses on the horizon at the town’s steelworks as the old blast furnaces are decommissioned just as the diocese retrenches in the town. There’ll be nothing pretty about Bishop Conway’s legacy in either Ely or Lincoln. Graham, Keith Makin and Private Eye have detailed his safeguarding… Read more »
“I agree that Bishop Conway does appear to be the Dr Beeching of the CofE” Hardly. Beeching was the adult brought in when the British Transport Board had finished making a total disaster of the railways, via the medium of the Modernisation Plan. The Modernisation Plan gave the railways a vast amount of money and almost as important, the time to put things right. Instead, they decided that all was well and what they needed to do was spend the money on running a pre-war railway. Instead, they spent the money like Richard Pryor in Brewster’s Millions, the objective being… Read more »
Round of applause. Beeching is one of the most unfairly maligned figures in post war British political history, and his report is actually a model of what government reports should be aiming for.
Btw, Great Central – though he was vindicated there IMO by the complete collapse of *all* the freight traffic that paid for it on a day to day basis. Closing the GC was the right decision at the time. But agree if the CofE had a Dr Beeching it might be a good thing.
Forecasters can only hope to get things right 50% of the time at best, which probably applies as much as to church closures as it does to Beeching. The trend in transport is now towards improving local accessibility as large urban centres become congested and working from home and online shopping become the norm. So the question is what happens when churches in large urban areas become full, which is the challenge that successful centrally located Resource Churches now face. Do they plant into existing parish churches in the surrounding area or somewhere new, with lower church maintenance costs? If… Read more »
Yes, you are being unfair.
As the treatment of Chris Lowson was shocking, brutal and unjustified.
It’s hardly news, but Bishop Conway made this statement on the Lincoln Diocese website on 12th November 2024:
https://www.lincoln.anglican.org/news/a-further-statement-from-the-bishop-of-lincoln-regarding-the-makin-report-12-11-24/
But apparently no reply to the correspondence from one of Smyth’s victims.
Great men used to offer their resignation when public opinion was fair and balanced. I’m afraid its now just a mob, constantly baying for blood.
John Smyth liked boys to bleed and ++Welby didn’t do enough to stop him. How crass of you to describe his survivors as baying for the Archbishop’s blood.
Good to read the Commonweal piece and to hear how others view the present state of the CofE.
Dr Percy is now spreading himself between Macao, Hong Kong and Switzerland. I wish him well.
The Very Rev Dr Percy has always lectured and preached throughout the world. This is not ‘news’! Nevertheless a thoughtful article
He is a massive loss to the Church of England.
To me the ”Graham’ and Rouch pieces bookend the same issue. Graham understandably wants “to know the truth” and CDMs. Those two wishes, however, are in tension: anyone potentially facing a CDM should have a right to silence and a presumption of innocence. Those rights can clearly stand in the way of getting to the truth, which is where I see Rouch engaged. Notwithstanding that presumption of innocence, we can’t have the Church of England run by people who have invoked that right to silence or who have de-facto relied upon it. There ‘Graham’ is right. +Welby should have come… Read more »
I’m curious about Martyn Percy’s claim that “…there are hardly any – indeed, no – examples of the much-vaunted new models of the church making a net contribution to their diocese for the investments they have received.” In this diocese, we are told that the resource church is ‘a net contributor to the diocese’, which I have, perhaps cynically, assumed to mean that it is still being funded by grants from beyond the diocese. But where can one find any clear facts about these matters?
Thanks Dexter. I also picked up that claim, and whilst I’m sympathetic to Martyn Percy’s general perspective, I did wonder where the data is for this claim. The economist (and sceptic) in me would really appreciate independent and peer-reviewed analysis of church growth funding in the Church of England, but I’ve never really discovered enough reliable data for this. Those who fund the projects (of course) have a vested interest in proving their success; those who disapprove on ideological grounds will regard them as failures; but genuinely open-minded research is hard to find. Martyn occasionally comments on Thinking Anglicans, perhaps… Read more »
We mustn’t forget that Resource Churches haven’t been the only initiative in recent years. Although their number seems to have fallen considerably (I may be wrong in this) there are/were the various “Fresh Expressions” of church which, it seems to me, can never be viable unless they form part of an existing church’s outreach work. That, however, was not the rationale behind them when they first started – at least, as I was given to understand things.
Quite. I know of two “Fresh Expressions” in this diocese which have folded since the pandemic, even as the diocese trumpets the claim that it seeking to establish 150 new worshipping communities.
“Fresh” Expressions seems to me like old milk that has gone off. Surely HTB plants are passed their “sell -by” dates. Their ‘liturgical’ expression is as old as Billy Graham rallies, Salvation Army meetings or Westboro Baptist Church. Its time for the CofE to ditch these daft attempts to get down with the kids, and start promoting the beauty of holiness.
Thanks. So-called ‘Resource Churches’ are by definition solvent and possess significant staffing, resources etc. We have no ‘fresh expressions’ – entirely and wholly new congregations – that are self-sustaining and net-contributors to their sponsoring diocese. To do so, they’d need to stump up a stipend, pension, on costs and housing to break even, which most dioceses agree is circa £60k. I’m not aware of any research that shows a ‘fresh expression’ generating that kind of income, let alone anything on top to pay back into the diocese as some quota contribution. Ergo, it would seem that the much-vaunted ‘fresh expressions’… Read more »
There was a Visitation of St. Michael-le-Belfrey in 1991, conducted by the Bishop of Selby, the Archdeacon of York, and Dr Tina Baxter. St. Mike’s was then a well-established and fairly prosperous church with a large congregation and membership – but the report concluded that the church was a net receiver from (not net giver to) the diocese. PCC members were indignant, as they perceived themselves as resourcing other churches, but the figures proved the point. Of course, St Mike’s did also resource other churches in areas like mission teams, the arts, and music. But with 3 full-time clergy, plus… Read more »
St Mike’s!!….says it all!
When are we going to have Bishop Micky Mouse?
The sad thing is that Strategic Development Funding often goes to the large, often middle-class churches who have people skilled at the hoop-jumping task of bid writing. In one of my former work roles, I used to do it to get European Social Fund money. You have to know all the tricks and the buttons / keywords to press.
That is, unfortunately, a near-universal truth: that funding goes to those best able to access it, and those best able to access it are rarely those in most need. It’s possible to draw up ways of allocating funding that are mindful of this, but those methods are in turn gamed once they are known. The “solutions” are often universal funding, which is largely unaffordable: cf. Child Benefit and Winter Fuel Allowance. It’s made particularly bad the moment the funding body wants “evidence” of the success of whatever it was the money was for. That process — set objectives, ensure they… Read more »
The Charity Commission website has the accounts of any PCC with an income above £100k. As you are in Coventry Diocese, you could look St Mark’s Coventry which describes itself as a city centre resource church: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/5135078/accounts-and-annual-returns St Mark’s, which is an HTB plant, had an annual income in 2023 of £317,341 and contributed £63,000 of that to the diocese as parish share. They also paid £113,093 in staff costs, presumably covering everyone on their Team page (https://www.stmarkscoventry.org/team) who receives a wage other than the vicar. My diocese estimates that a full time stipendiary minister costs around £55k (stipend, housing,… Read more »
Thanks John T. I’m not familiar with St Mark’s Coventry, but it might be a good example to look at. My guess is their parish share of £63K for 2023 is probably 100% of the cost of one stipendiary (my brief search indicates an official diocesan figure of £58K for the year 2018, and it has presumably gone up since). But the accounts also indicated they received a grant of £34K from Coventry Diocese for that year – which suggests they were a net loss on Diocese funds for that year. Previous years also show considerable grants from the Diocese… Read more »
How are they getting on with the 10,000 house churches they announced?
And I noticed 10000 house churches as a supposed inspiration in the particulars for a clergy job recently. In the same particulars it said the Diocese would assist in closing some of the churches there. The culture that has grown up of planting churches seems potty to me. And wholly unrealistic too.
It’s relevant in this thread, though not necessarily precisely here, so apologies for the clumsy placement:
For anyone who is interested, we publish quite a lot of information about parish finances, including various categories of income and expenditure, in the annual Parish Finance Statistics reports, most recently here: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/parish-finance-statistics-2022.pdf
Across all Church of England parishes, about 31% of expenditure was on “parish share”. There is, of course, a lot of variation hidden beneath this aggregate figure.
As with all of our other work, suggestions for other analysis that would be useful are very welcome.
“Instead, I had, in December, a bizarre meeting with an empty shell of a man. There was no human connection. The most extraordinary thing is that, in a two-hour meeting, Justin did not use my name once. And at the end (I admit, late for another meeting), he just walked out. No handshake. No looking me in the eyes, clasping my hands. No final apology. So, for me, no closure. What a missed opportunity. For him, not me.” The most astonishing thing to me is the absence of an offer to pray together. In 72 years, nearly 40 of them… Read more »
I imagine that ++Welby modelled his approach on that of the masters at Eton. Though as you say dreadful behaviour for someone in Orders. Sadly the man is tin eared as was evidenced by his resignation speech in the House of Lords. The extent of the problem for the CofE manifested in that several of his colleagues (notably the Bishop of Manchester) were chortling away at his lame attempt to justify himself. Only the Bishop of London had her head in her hands.
I hope you decided to share this with his Office before you posted non prayerful enounter here?
Is it really surprising that ‘an empty shell of a man’ has no prayer in him to offer? Graham is describing a man barely functioning personally, pastoral and spiritually. I am distressed for ‘Graham’ who did not receive what he most sought and needed. I am also distressed by the description of a church leader so clearly close to the edge.
That was my reaction too. ‘Graham’ describes someone who is worn down and worn out and himself in need of support. While I suspect he resents being forced to it, the picture painted is that retirement was a blessing for ++Justin too.
I had some compassion for Justin in the immediate aftermath of his resignation announcement and to some extent still do, though it was reduced a bit when I read in Private Eye Ian Hislop’s withering description of encountering him the following day at a drinks reception at the British Museum. As others have said, he has a tin ear.
David, we have ‘Graham’s’ description of how he experienced this meeting but I wonder what ++Justin made of it. What did he think he was being asked to do, how genuinely did he strive to do it, and to what extent did he think he had succeeded or failed? ‘Graham’ believes that the needs he brought to the encounter were straightforward and should have been easy of fulfilment. ‘All I want is honesty, humble, human honesty.’ I know enough about ++Justin to know that he would have done what lay within his character to offer both honesty and humility but… Read more »
This is very perceptive and important reflection Jane. Thank you.
Jane, As someone not ordained and coming from outside the inner circles of the C of E I’m really struggling with your comments. You have always been very clear that you did not think Archbishop Welby should resign, and still see things from that angle. If as you say it is the sober truth that wounds of abuse inflicted during someone’s formative years cannot be healed this side of heaven the only logical conclusion has to be that the Archbishops’ Council et al have been right in not offering them redress all this time, and that death is their only… Read more »
Susanna, for accuracy, I haven’t said that I did not think Archbishop Welby should resign. The only comment I’ve made about that on this blog was soon after it happened when I wrote, ‘I think it was right that Welby resigned when he did. The situation had developed in a way that made it necessary.’ My comment here is simply that his resignation doesn’t seem to have resolved anything for survivors. Again for accuracy, I haven’t said that for survivors ‘death is their only way out’ therefore the Archbishops’ Council have been right in not offering them redress. I do… Read more »
As.a generality, most of the apologies I have heard from senior clerics, both to survivors and LGBT+ Christians, have been expressed in the first person plural. Unsurprisingly they have not typically been followed by any actions consistent with that ‘apology’. What we don’t hear is “I did X and Y wrong. I am sorry. I cannot put it right but I accept responsibility and this is what I am going to change/do.” I haven’t heard a single member of the Archbishops Council for instance apologise for their personal role in the disastrous way the ISB was disbanded. I would also… Read more »
I thought Welby always acknowledged his depression issues? We raise people up only to kick them down.
Amen. Few people understand clinical depression, then again how could they? I certainly could not have done Abp Justin’s job, in those circumstances. I mean he could have reported this disaster earlier and he should indeed have resigned, but stop the blame at ‘he didn’t shake my hand, didn’t feel like praying with me or looking me in the eye.’ The measure you mete out and all that.
An acquaintance of mine also knows Mr Welby personally, and told me, well before the resignation issues, that he was ‘a broken man’. He had the misfortune of holding office at a time when the institution gives every sign of falling apart and, despite all his efforts, there is nothing he could do to prevent it. Maybe Froghole can correct me if necessary, but I can’t think of any of his recent predecessors – say over my lifetime of 71 years – who have had to cope with a similar series of disasters. I’m also depressive; I can understand something… Read more »
Just reading the Papers online I see that on Monday his final day as Archbishop of Canterbury he is to celebrate a Eucharist in Lambeth Palace Chapel and finally he will make his last appearance as Archbishop of Canterbury at Evensong also in Lambeth Palace Chapel, where at the end of the Service he will formally lay down his Crozier (probably the Canterbury Diocesan Crozier) on the Altar of the Chapel as a sign of formally demitting office as Archbishop, the I expect on the quiet he will be given an unofficial informal Farewell with a small presentation by his… Read more »
I am sorry to read of your difficulties, and hope that you are able to establish a workable equilibrium, for your own peace of mind. Going back to 1954, I suspect the only comparable period which comes to mind was 1986-91, which was marred by three major events: (i) the personal attack upon Runcie by Bennett in the 1986 Crockford’s preface; (ii) the collapse in the financial standing of the Church Commissioners in the wake of the property slump after 1988; and (iii) the increasingly intense internal warfare between the supporters and opponents of female ordination, which threatened to break… Read more »
Froghole, could I question one statement in your otherwise very helpful summary. You state “There was also a pervasive sense of malaise throughout much of the Church and it was, of course, the period during which some of the most egregious abuse occurred: indeed, that abuse may well have occurred in part because of that atmosphere of disintegration and disillusionment.” It is a common discourse in conservative circles that such widespread sexual abuse only started in about the 1960s, and was triggered by the collapse in sexual morals in society at that time. The unstated assumption here is that before… Read more »
I agree with you completely. The abuse occurred well before, and well after, that turbulent period. However – and this is mere speculation – there was a sense of both national and local decay, or incipient rot, which may have amplified impunity in certain quarters as the 1980s progressed. That was certainly my own impression at the time, especially in certain specific areas, such as East Sussex, which was then local to me. The second half of the 1980s seemed to be a nadir period for the Church, although in political terms it saw the emergence of certain tropes and… Read more »
Thanks for the clarification, which I agree with. As with many things to do with sexuality, and especially homosexuality, one must always be aware of the difference between what actually happened in private, and what was perceived to be happening, or was recorded as happening, in public debate. I think it’s hard to argue that things did happen. One of my favourite bits of evidence is in a book of courtly gossip by Walter Mapp – De Nugis Curialium – a secular clerk from the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire area in the late 12th Century. “So also, two white abbots were conversing about… Read more »
Not surprising at all, and I have been concerned for Welby for several years. But, if Welby had agreed to meet with Graham in 2013, possibly he would have been in a better state to offer what Graham needed, and Graham in a better state to receive it. The delay in meeting Smyth survivors is inexcusable.
Rouch offers one of the most perceptive comments on the Archbishop’s resignation Dr. Alec Ryrie observes that ‘the archbishop’s decision was actually a testament to the progress Welby had made in creating new protections. “The fact that he has changed the culture sufficiently that it’s reached the point that he himself could be forced to step down is, in a bitterly ironic way, a kind of achievement,” I think he is right and I while acknowledging much more still needs to be done, I am grateful.
A little statistical interjection, if I may (I am the person who has the job of for collecting, checking, collating, analysing, and publishing Church of England attendance statistics): Abigail Freemann Rouch writes: “Welby has been criticized for failing to reverse the decline in church attendance (though it has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels)” Martyn Percy writes: “the number of paid-up members of the church has effectively fallen off the cliff edge—and there is no sign that this decline is temporary.” The figures are available in the latest Statistics for Mission publication here: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/statisticsformission2023.pdf The precise number depends on which measure… Read more »
(Sorry for the typos – I was sharing the computer with an unexpectedly-awake two-year-old and a Lego cat)
Thanks for that dose of reality, Ken Eames. “In October 2023 in-person attendance was 19% below what it was in 2019″. That’s certainly not a return to pre-pandemic levels. Not quite falling off a cliff, either, but the trend is very clear and surely calls for a massive re-direction of thinking? Heads out of the sand. Is the overwhelming focus on safeguarding driving everything else out of consideration? To someone looking in from the outside it does seem a bit like the only show in town.
Could I ask what ‘other’ issues should be taking up the space? What sort of ‘massive redirection of thinking’? The continuing shambles of safeguarding practices in the CofE may well make victims and others think it should be the only show in town. There was a comment elsewhere on this blog about a nativity play which had prompted the remark that the shepherds were probably ‘rehabilitated paedophiles’. I’m not surprised. The cynicism prompted by safeguarding failures in the CofE is there. I’m sure you aren’t suggesting that the institution must take priority. But I doubt whether ‘move on, that’s quite… Read more »