The Church of England must renew its commitment to parish churches and fund frontline ministry or "face a further descent into a spiral of decline”. That's according to Save the Parish (STP), a campaign group set up five years ago in the wake of the pandemic when many churches were forced to close.
Members of STP want money from Church Commissioners to be redirected towards parishes and a Charter of Care to protect clergy from mental and physical exhaustion.
The group launched its manifesto this weekend ahead of elections to the 2026 General Synod later this year.
The manifesto sets out six commitments under the campaign's founding priorities of “parish, priest and people”.
Chair of Save the Parish, Rev Marcus Walker told Premier Christian News why he wants to see the CofE divert more resources into local parishes: “The parish system works. People are drawn to their local parish first, to the church that they walk past, the priest that they know, and that's almost the biggest recruiting 'sergeant' that the church has.
“We also know from the church's own studies that the more churches that a priest has to look after, the more likely those churches are to decline, and the fewer churches that a priest has to look after, encourage people to come to church and to know and love God”.
Rev Marcus said that “over the last 10 to15 years, there's been a huge diversion of money and effort and energy away from that system into almost everything else, and that's been the reason why we've seen such a decline in the parish system and such a decline in the number of priests able to go into it and a decline in numbers attending it”.
Save the Parish said the number of full-time stipendiary parish clergy has decreased by 28% since 2000 – and that only 8% of the Church Commissioners’ endowment fund of £11.6 billion is specifically ring-fenced for parish ministry.
Rev Marcus, who is also rector at St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London, added: “If we want there to be a thriving parish system in a generation’s time, we have to get up and do something. Starving the local church of money has led to a doom spiral of parish mergers, church cuts, clergy depression and volunteers quitting. We need to break this spiral. With prayer and trust in God, and backed by the Church’s own studies, we can hope that putting proper investment back into parishes will give us the chance to thrive and grow again.”
In a statement to Premier a Church of England spokesperson said: "There is no doubt that the parish system is central to the Church of England’s mission and we thank God for the dedication of our clergy, lay leaders and volunteers who do so much to share the love of God for all in our communities.
"We do not recognise the figures on church closures, our own figures show that the rate of closures has slowed significantly in the last fifty years, with closures of around 20 churches a year in the last decade, out of a total of 15,507 churches, according to the latest statistics.
"The Church of England is active in encouraging people to explore whether they have a vocation to follow and serve Jesus through lay and ordained ministry. The numbers entering training for ordained ministry rose last year and we continue to pray for more to come forward. At the same time, we are investing in a major programme of support for the well being of clergy and those in training.
"The investment in mission and ministry for the Church of England, at £3.6 billion over the decade to 2031, is well documented, and although our attendance figures are below pre pandemic levels, church attendance has risen for the fifth year in a row, thanks to the prayers and extraordinary hard work of our parishes."