Meeting with Bishop Trevor Willmott -June 2009

Notes from the Hampshire Rural Group Meeting held 30 June 2009 at Crawley Church Rooms, near Winchester

Pastoral reorganisation – why is this viewed negatively, asked the Bishop? Churches need to be revivified, not stultified. It is a challenge, not a regrettable lapse. There can be huge gains.

In response to HRG Paper on Mega-Parish Benefices,  Bp Trevor argued:-

1.    There is not one model for pastoral reorganisation. Linking rural and urban parishes can be revivifying. Mega-parish benefices can work and can produce life.

2.    History can freeze present life, but rural life has never been static. Mary and George Sumner started very badly at Old Alresford when they reduced servants from 37 to 18. The walls and fences of North Hampshire ... There needs to be a healing of memory.

3.    Takes points made about the inadequacy of the concept of sustainability. It is really about ‘critical mass’. No one church, no one ministry can provide all that is needed. The churches of Itchen Abbas were saying in interregnum, “We don’t need a vicar.” A critical mass is needed so that church can be experienced in all its fullness.

4.    There is a seeking of colleagueship and companionship in ministry and the new configurations offer better opportunities for this.

February 2009 - Mega-Parish Benefices

Our Spring 2009 Meeting was on ...

Wednesday 18th February 2009, 11.30am to 3.00pm at Weston Patrick Village Hall, near Basingstoke RG25 2NT by kind invitation of the Revd Peter Dyson, the Rector.

Mega-Parish Benefices – A Review

We discussed, with particular reference to the North Hampshire Downs benefice (in which we were meeting), the theology, progress and policy of bringing together large clusters of parishes to form a benefice.

What does it do for clergy and people? What does it cost? What does it require of them? Can it ‘work’? Is it sustainable – and over what sort of period?

Hampshire Rural Group is an Open Group, affiliated to the Rural Theology Association, which keeps an eye on rural issues and how they affect the churches of Hampshire.

Not a happy topic ...

but it's very much one of the moment. I have been told that there is much angst and pain in the towns and suburbs as reorganisation bites. But there is an impression that it is the rural areas (again) that are being asked to lead the way.