Letters to the Editor

Parishes and the Commissioners

From Mr Malcolm Dixon

Madam, — I was struck by the disparity between the Gospel of the day for Trinity 7 and your comprehensive report on the General Synod’s debate on diocesan funding (Synod, 1 August), in which a proposal from the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson, that the Church Commissioners should allocate one per cent of their endowment annually direct to diocesan stipend funds was dismissed.

Adam Spiers (Comment, 25 July) has already eloquently expressed his outrage on behalf of poor parishes in your previous issue at the Bishop of Blackburn’s view that such a no-strings subsidy would encourage “torpor”. So it might in a few instances, but the alternatives are much worse.

The reality is that thousands of parishes are “on their knees”, made unviable by the arrival of the long-forecast demographic cliff-edge, their own endowments having long since been appropriated by the centre, and their disposable income further diminished since 1998 by the requirement to fund clergy pensions, as a consequence of the Commissioners’ disastrous investment mistakes in the 1990s.

They need support desperately, but the current proposal is only to allocate extra “transitional” funding to dioceses for the next few years to allow them to reorganise so as to be able to live within a lower budget than before. What else can dioceses do in this period but accelerate the process of parish closure and amalgamation which has already taken away our Church’s claim to be the national Church, with a presence in every community?

Even more deplorable is the suggestion that to give this one per cent annually would be ruinous to the Commissioners; discretionary spending ability would require the setting aside of £3.5 billion (almost one third of their total endowment) to make it possible. This is unbelievable when the Commissioners have made annual returns of many times one per cent for many years past. This is not responsible stewardship: it is ‘building bigger barns’ (see the Gospel of the day).

We have now had more than a decade’s experience of the Welby/Spence spending-allocation regime, and it has proved disastrous, only accelerating the rate of decline. Yes, there have been some successes with strategic funding, mainly in urban and suburban environments, but gains there have been largely offset by abstracting people from surrounding parishes, only exacerbating their problems. We need a more even-handed and fairer approach, and we need it now.

MALCOLM DIXON
26 Tubbenden Drive
Orpington BR6 9PA

From the Revd Ulric Gerry

Madam, — We all get Adam Spiers’s cry for more funding for resources for poorer parishes. There seems, however, little genuine heart for the Kingdom of God here.

His anger seems more neo-Marxist rage and general offence-taking against authority figures and institutions, and envy at the success of others, including the low-hanging fruit of Evangelicalism generally and Holy Trinity, Brompton, in particular. The cry of victimhood is a claim to power, but leaves claimants perpetual victims, dependent on the charity of others.

Early Methodism’s work with poorer communities did not leave them as they were, but transformed them, as they met Christ. Contrast this with the current Church of Scotland’s identity-politics-driven bias to the poor, funding dying churches in deprived areas by closing and merging viable churches in other areas. The result? Over the past two decades, membership has halved, hundreds of church buildings have been sold, and the Church is in financial crisis. Today, Generation Z are going back to church because they know the answer is not socialist utopianism, but to experience God.

ULRIC GERRY
The Vicarage
Ryefield Avenue
Uxbridge UB10 9BT

Open the wells: request for vigils and fasting

From Dr Jonathan Oloyede

Madam, — What a joy it was to hear the Bishop of Lancaster, the Rt Revd Jill Duff, tell the General Synod that the College of Bishops had devised a rota of fervent prayer and fasting among themselves from January to Easter this year; and, further, that she was asking the Business Committee to schedule a half-night of prayer at a future group of sessions

The Bishops of Manchester and Lancaster are to be commended for setting up a doodle poll so that bishops could commit themselves to praying and fasting for one day. Such was the enthusiasm that they ran out of space. Bishop Duff asked the Synod: “What if at this moment in time, in our nation and in our world, where there are many strongholds that need to be brought down, [God] is actually inviting us to pray using an ancient network that he has given us and pray for world revival?”

The National Day of Prayer and Worship has been partnering Thy Kingdom Come for many years. Only last month, I shared a vision to reinstate the ancient practice of night vigils. I believe that parish churches in every community can be at the centre of this clarion call to prayer.

In the quiet hours of the night, when the world sleeps, in times past, church halls across England echoed to the sound of earnest intercession through the night. Bonfires of prayer lit up our spiritual landscape. The early Methodists, the Moravians, and the Welsh revivalists all knew this holy secret: the power of night-vigil prayer. Now, the time is right to reopen the wells once again.

I echo Bishop Duff’s call and shall be meeting with her shortly to discuss further partnership possibilities. In the mean time, may I encourage every vicar and churchwarden to consider reopening their doors through the night, several times a year, and to reopen the well of fasting. As Bishop Duff told the Synod, “Prayer has the power to break strongholds.”

JONATHAN OLOYEDE
Convener, The National Day of Prayer and Worship
c/o 43 High Road, Cotton End
Bedford MK45 3AA

Sacramental confession now a ‘fresh expression’

From the Revd John-Francis Friendship

Madam, — Despite the many good things about the Church of England, I was recently reminded of the sad consequences of ignoring the place of the sacrament of reconciliation in Christian life. In my experience, it is rare to hear a sermon on the subject, and the confessional where I first and regularly opened my heart to Christ was swept away to make room for a coffee area.

How many churches or cathedrals advertise times when it is offered — or that it is available? Or why it is of importance? Is it part of confirmation preparation? Are ordinands taught about the sacrament? Or should we add a further clause to that Anglican dictum “All may; none must; some should — don’t bother. . .”

Once I realised the onerous responsibility that I bore as a priest in being expected to grant blanket absolution for any sins through the general confession at the eucharist, I began using the formula “May almighty God forgive you . . .”. The 19th-century Anglo-Catholic Revival may have left us with much now taken for granted, but this sacrament seems sadly absent — even in those churches with the outward trappings of Catholicism.

At a time when many are wondering what the Church offers society, this important and intimate aspect of healing and eucharistic life which Jesus left us as a means of cleansing and purifying the heart and reconciling humankind must surely be now ranked as a “Fresh Expression” that we should teach, proclaim, and celebrate.

JOHN-FRANCIS FRIENDSHIP
22 The Old Fire Station
1 Eaglesfield Road
London SE18 3BT
 

House-for-duty conditions could be more flexible

From Canon Richard Suffern

Madam, — I will soon be retiring after a fulfilling few years in a part-time position as priest-in-charge of two rural churches since my retirement from full-time stipendiary ministry.

Our children and young grandchildren live about 150 miles from us in different directions. Part of the reason for retiring is so that we can have more time with them. Weekends would be the best time. As far as Sundays are concerned, my post is full-time, as in most part-time and house-for-duty positions.

Given the increase in the number of such posts being advertised, I wonder whether more applications would be received if there was greater flexibility in Sunday duties.

I would have considered staying in post for longer if I had known that I could have, say, a Sunday free each month to visit our families when they are not working or at school. I would have been willing to minister in the parishes for an extra day in the week in such circumstances.

With such an arrangement, I would be more available for local ministry and have the benefit of also being more available to family. A win-win situation? “Investing” in family feels the right thing to be doing in this later chapter of my life.

RICHARD SUFFERN
The Vicarage
Leamington Road
Long Itchington
Warwickshire CV47 9PL
 

Palestinian recognition and the two-state solution

From the Revd Dr Ian Paul

Madam, — In 1947, Chaim Weizmann emphasised the recognition of the rights of Arab residents of the region of Palestine, and Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948 did the same.

Israel continued to recognise the possibility of a “two-state solution” in Ehud Olmert’s detailed proposal of specific borders in 2008 — a proposal that Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, didn’t even bother looking at. Hamas continues to reject such a possibility, and its goal remains the elimination of Israel.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of the Hamas, has described the recognition of Palestine by the UK and others as “the harvest” of the 7 October atrocities. Sir Keir Starmer’s statement (News, 1 August) seems entirely ignorant of the history of the region, and is a reward for the use of extreme sexual violence.

For the Archbishop of York to ally the Church of England with such ignorance and collusion is not a good look, and it will not end well.

IAN PAUL
102 Cator Lane, Chilwell
Nottingham NG9 4BB

Too many presuppositions in Leadbeater motion

From the Revd Dr Stephen Brian

Madam, — The heavily loaded wording of the motion referring to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Synod, 1 August) made it impossible for supporters of the Bill to vote against the motion without branding themselves as not valuing persons, not wanting to improve palliative care, and being willing to put the most vulnerable at risk. No supporter of the Bill would accept that self-description.

The voting figures are, therefore, meaningless, as experienced parliamentarians will see. The motion should have been a short and simple: “This Synod opposes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill,” and left all the presuppositions within the debate.

STEPHEN BRIAN
27 Percy Avenue, Ashford
Middlesex TW15 2PB

A further example of long service by the laity 

From Professor Andrew Bradstock

Madam, — Your heart-warming story about Pam Knowles, a Sunday-school teacher at the same institution for more than 73 years (News, 25 July), prompts me to wonder whether a member of a congregation in our benefice might also claim a record.

John Cheverton has just retired as Secretary of the PCC at St Peter’s, Seaview, on the Isle of Wight, having held the post continuously since 1955: a total of 70 years. For the past 62 years, John has also been the church’s organist and choirmaster, and he retains this position. Since he joined the church choir at the age of seven, his association with the music at St Peter’s spans an astonishing 84 years, a commitment recently recognised by the RSCM.

ANDREW BRADSTOCK
Fairport, Station Road
St Helens, IOW PO33 1YF