Church of England Debates Parish System, Unity, Clergy Discipline

Anxiety about the future of the Church of England’s parish system, unity across differences over the ordination of women, and the adequacy of its clergy discipline system featured prominently in the latest semiannual session of its General Synod, held online July 9-12.

Parish System

In his opening presidential address, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell thanked church leaders for their faithfulness and perseverance in difficult times, and directly addressed criticisms that the call for 10,000 lay-led church plants by the Vision and Strategy group he chairs would undermine the parish system and sideline ordained ministers.

“Apparently, in some quarters it has been suggested that, somehow, clergy are a limiting factor on church growth. I think I want to agree. A shortage of clergy would really limit us. We need more vocations. That is my prayer: priests to serve a priestly people,” Cottrell said.

Cottrell’s assurances did not allay all concerns. Even before debate of the Vision and Strategy group’s report began on July 12, lay representative Sam Margrave from the Diocese of Coventry sought to adjourn the session. “I am aware the bulldozers are waiting outside many of our parishes, waiting to tear them down physically or spiritually,” he pleaded. “If we pass this report, we are handing a gun to the dioceses to kill off the Church as we know it.” Read More

While clergy may not like hearing it, they can be a limiting factor on church expansion. They may resist efforts to plant new churches in their deanery and may refuse to support new church plants when they are launched. It takes up to four years to train a new member of the clergy and two to three years to ordain them. Once they are ordained and assigned a cure, it may become quickly apparent that they lack the skills and gifts to plant new churches and are ill-equipped to lead others in launching and pioneering a new church. Since they require a stipned for their support, they can assigned only where there is funds available to support them. It is time for the Church of England and other Anglican and Episcopal Churches to start thinking outside of the box. Otherwise, they will keep on going downhill.