As a former group treasurer for an oil company, Justin is aware of numbers – and those in the Church of England pews had been declining for decades before he became Archbishop. Now the finances of many dioceses are visibly failing, hastened by the pandemic. A national Vision and Strategy has now been brought in, with Strategic Development Funding specifically to redirect resources to fresh ideas. Some have seen this as a threat to the parish system, and the priest and polemicist, Giles Fraser recently reflected he was ‘sick of ten years of managerialism’ describing how he felt morale had plummeted.
Some bishops may feel similarly demoralised – the leaked ‘Bishops and their ministries’ paper last year noted the importance of creating a culture where ‘all bishops feel free to express their views in meetings… rather than deferring to those perceived as more senior in the ‘hierarchy’’. If the bishops feel voiceless, or perhaps powerless, it is difficult to see where the next Archbishop might come from. In Justin’s book on reconciliation he says ‘the use of power almost always leads to the abuse of power’, and he think he has ‘influence, but not power’. Who has the power at present in our Church, and who will have it next? That leaked bishops paper commented that the selection and formation process for bishops was ‘not robust or transparent and is therefore open to ‘political’ manoeuvring’ adding that it ‘may not produce the candidates best equipped for visionary national leadership if such candidates are chosen based on local needs’. Our bench of bishops has changed dramatically over the last decade, as they tend to; what will the next generation of bishops to lead us be like?
With plans to create a centralised body that will concentrate power further, will the bishops have the power to lead like they have in the past? A Church of England National Services (CENS) is planned to support the strategic vision of the national church, support national policy development and engagement, via a single governance board structure. When you centralise governance, you centralise power. In a Church of England that has a devolved and non-centralised ecclesiology, this will be interesting. How will checks and balances be built in, where will thorough scrutiny be seen? Few would doubt that a nettle of needed grasping, to bring efficiency and greater transparency, but will these internal reforms get it right?
As we count down the weeks until the coronation, the Makin review into allegations of abuse carried out by the late John Smyth is now 147 weeks overdue….
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