benefice,church commissioners,dioceses,parish share,save the parish,word of god

STATEMENT FOR LAITY ELECTION GENERAL SYNOD 2026
I BELIEVE THAT IN THE PARISH SYSTEM IS THE BEST FORM OF THE MINISTRATION OF THE WORD OF GOD AND COMMUNAL WORSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
Originally constituted around the time of Alfred the Great in the ninth century, the parish was a collection of three, possibly four or five Manors within a county. Each manor had to contribute to the Parish Church, and there is still only one parish church in each parish, and every single person in England lives within a parish.
So, we find ourselves in a situation where too many parish churches and parishes are grouped together with only one priest. The Benefice can be four, eight, and now in Cornwall and several other Dioceses up to 32 parishes with one ordained Parish Priest, and a system of worship divided amongst lay people, retired clergy, churchwardens taking services and rarely seeing their parish priest for which the long suffering congregations are paying for in the Parish share. This inevitably leads to church closures, what a complete and utter tragedy! This is all so unnecessary when there are potentially very large sums of money to reverse this decline, support them and keep them active and loved. Congregations must be nurtured and inspired. Congregations wither and die when they are not given time and attention.
I wholeheartedly support SAVE THE PARISH, the initiative started five years ago by the Reverend Marcus Walker, Vicar of St Bartholomew’s in the City of London. It is now a thriving entity with many Diocese branches. I started the BATH AND WELLS Diocese branch two years ago and now correspond with over 50 churchwardens and over 100 supporters who agree strongly with our work.
The most important initiative is to have the Church Commissioners release just ONE PER CENT of the Central Fund (1.6 BILLION POUNDS in may 2026), to fund priests in the most hard pressed parishes. This amounts to 100 MILLION pounds, and if a priest costs £55,000 then that is 2000 new priests. Luckily we have a very sympathetic bishop in Bishop Michael who so thoughtfully proposed this motion at Synod last year. It was defeated by a wrecking motion by the Bishop of Sheffield. However, Bishop Michael is very hopeful that it will be proposed again in 2028 and eventually will succeed. This needs your support. Please vote for me and I will represent you at General Synod as best I can. THANK YOU.
Christopher Chanter. Organist and lay Worship Assistant St Peter’s Huish Champflower.