24 October 2009

Degsy The Next Roche?

.
Here is some news from a Clifton-based correspondent.

The Bishops' Appointments column in the Catholic Herald doesn't mention it, but on Wednesday, the clergy of the Clifton Diocese will learn how their Bishop intends to "manage decline".

The answer will not be: "by increasing vocations". It will be about increased roles for lay people: ladies in green cardigans to the fore; ever parish has a parish council with a "liturgy committee" which the PP is allowed to be a member of.

It will be about new approaches to parishes; how to cope with a parish structure imposed at a time of lots of priests, when the number of priests will, inexorably, carry on diminishing.

My bet is that rather than try to close parishes - we all know how HORRID people were to +Arthur when he came up with such sensible provisions - +Degsy will come up with a new Deanery-based structure which will leave the Parishes juridically intact, but managed through a new, kewl, team-based structure. It will be the clever version of what happened in Leeds.

It would be awful, though, if people protested. It would be terrible if the news came out in an uncontrolled way.

Dear readers: these people will not admit that they have lost and will keep fighting; and they will be much, much, more vicious than any of you think.
Posted by at

4 comments:

Rita said...

Whilst I was living in Clifton, it was +Declan's dreadful "Seeking the Face of Christ" consultation with parishes that got me into blogging in the first place. This was a document that did not mention sacraments or the Eucharist, it left me wondering how the Bishop intended his flock get closer to "the face of Christ".

It is a pity that +Declan the business manager (Adam Crozier springs to mind)is so completely different from the +Declan you actually meet. I've always found him to be a very gentle and holy Bishop, when he is doing what Bishops are supposed to do.

The tragic similarity between the Post Office and the Portsmouth/Clifton/Plymouth "experiment" is that an uncompromising ideology is being imposed on an institution that predicts and eventually leads to its total demise.

24 October 2009 at 20:45
Dorothy B said...

It was at a parish consultation day for "Seeking the Face of Christ" that a group of us were told by an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion that "Jesus didn't found a Church". "That's right!" said another member of the group, also a prominent parishioner. Both were very nice, good-hearted people. I failed to convince them that their view was mistaken.

When all the groups were gathered together, one person said he wanted solid Catholic teaching, and more of it. He was applauded. His request did not appear in the published version of the parish's response that was sent to the Bishop.

For these reasons, I have not become involved in anything further connected with this programme. My blood pressure would suffer if I did.

24 October 2009 at 22:30
Londiniensis said...

Yours wear green cardigans do they? Ours all wear brightly coloured anoraks and TROUSERS.

25 October 2009 at 01:04
Sixupman said...

My parish priest in the Clifton Diocese preaches: lay equivalence with ordained priesthood; promotion of married clergy; expansion of married diaconate; openly criticises BXVI; refers to Communion, to new communicants, as meal at best table in town; mimics CofE and at one time adopted their prayers for other parishes; yesterday prayers for our "troubled sister churches"; recently locum from Clifton Parish, ex CofE clergyman criticised The Magisterium. Clearly, Clifton, Portsmouth, Plymouth, et al are covert Protestants - not even akin to Anglo-Catholicism. Lord preserve us.

25 October 2009 at 09:10

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)