January 2025
Up with the parish! Down with the archbishops!
Is it really as simple as that?
The Revd Dr Keith Elford reflects on the direction of the national church after the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury in an article on Substack (13 January 2025).
He says a common theme in the public commentary is that church hierarchy has become too powerful, dominant, and unaccountable and parishes need to be left to get on local ministry work.
While Elford agrees that some rebalancing of power and focus in favour of parishes is justified, he warns against simplistic solutions proposed in social media suggesting that all the Church of England needs to do is leave the parishes to get on with local ministry.
The realities of contemporary society mean there’s no going “back to the good old days when the local vicar was king in his castle.”
Elford maintains that collaboration across parishes must be an essential part of the way forward, noting that the main reason why safeguarding has improved so much at the local level is because new processes led to greater accountability at the diocesan level.
The solution, he says, requires “a deeper conversation about the proper roles of the national, diocesan and parish church”.
The Revd Dr Keith Elford is a visiting scholar at Sarum College. A vicar, consultant, researcher, teacher, Keith wants to help the church to make use of a theologically integrated approach to organisation theory. View his bio
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