{"id":143105,"date":"2026-02-06T17:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143105"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:25:44","slug":"church-times-new-10-million-plan-to-double-church-attendance-in-plymouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143105","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) New \u00a310-million plan to \u2018double\u2019 church attendance in Plymouth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A \u201cBOLD reshaping of the Church in Plymouth\u201d, intended to help to double church attendance in the city, is among the initiatives to be funded by a new \u00a310-million\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/strategic-mission-and-ministry-investment-smmi\">Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board<\/a>\u00a0(SMMIB)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/finance-money\">grant<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/diocese-of-exeter\">diocese of Exeter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plymouth, the largest urban centre in Devon, with a population of about 270,000, and higher than average levels of deprivation, had been identified as an \u201carea of concern\u201d by the national Church, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/bishop-of-plymouth\">Suffragan Bishop of Plymouth<\/a>, the Rt Revd James Grier, has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are \u201cwhole communities in the city that have never been reached by their parish church\u201d, diocesan recruitment material says. Amid \u201cdeclining attendance, leadership gaps, and financial pressures\u201d, the clergy vacancy rate (one third, amounting to ten posts) has created \u201ca rare opportunity to shape a new culture: one that\u2019s rooted in mission, built on collaboration, and open to growth\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bishop Grier, who was born in Plymouth, said that an audit of the city had been expected to recommend significant pastoral reorganisation, given the ratio of clergy to congregation size. \u201cIn practice, what the review said was, \u2018There is no excuse for these churches not to be growing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/articles\/2026\/6-february\/news\/uk\/new-10-million-plan-to-double-church-attendance-in-plymouth\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Plymouth, the largest urban centre in Devon, with higher than average levels of deprivation, has been identified as an \u2018area of concern\u2019 by the national Church <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mUglWQBXUK\">https:\/\/t.co\/mUglWQBXUK<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Church Times (@ChurchTimes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChurchTimes\/status\/2019575617230942339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 6, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A \u201cBOLD reshaping of the Church in Plymouth\u201d, intended to help to double church attendance in the city, is among the initiatives to be funded by a new \u00a310-million\u00a0Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board\u00a0(SMMIB)\u00a0grant\u00a0for the\u00a0diocese of Exeter. Plymouth, the largest<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143105\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[389,199,440,184,441,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-england-coe","category-england-uk","category-evangelism-and-church-growth","category-parish-ministry","category-stewardship","category-urbancity-life-and-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143108,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143105\/revisions\/143108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}