by Charles Wide, Telegraph
The Church of England and its parishes are in a mess. So why is it persisting with the unwarranted £100m Project Spire scheme?
Leaking roofs. Rusty drawing pins in last year’s Christian Aid posters. Not enough vicars. Churches lumped together in huge “mission communities”. Demoralised churchwardens who cannot pay the “parish share”. As a Reader (an Anglican lay minister) for 20 years, in rural parish churches, I have seen it on the inside. Of course, some parishes are flourishing but there is no hiding it: the Church of England is in a mess.
While congregations struggle to keep open the sermons in stone in their care, the Church Commissioners sits on £11.6bn of assets.
Where does all the money go? For many, the alienation from the leadership is exemplified by Project Spire, the Church Commissioners’ decision to commit £100m to a “fund for healing, repair, and justice” in repentance for their predecessors’ “links” to slavery.
My experience of the hostility towards this scheme was confirmed by an opinion poll which found that more than 80 per cent of churchgoers expect the Church of England to support local churches rather than such programmes.
The cautious optimism which greeted the new Archbishop of Canterbury seemed justified, in particular, her recognition of the need to recruit and retain more clergy and revisit the funding model. However, in relation to Project Spire, exemplifying for many the flaws of the Welby years, she has doubled down, here and in Africa.
Read also: The Church of England’s ruinous reparations racket by Ameer Koticha, spiked