The long grass

One of four questions asked at the last meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales was:

 "Following the recommendation in the Harries Report, Ministry Areas have been introduced across the Province. Also in the report was the recommendation to reduce the number of Dioceses. What progress has been made with this?"

Answer given by the Bishop of Monmouth 

"Thank you for this question, Cathryn.  The Harries Review report does indeed make reference to the number of dioceses, but its references to the reduction in their number are predicated on an initial period of closer working together, amalgamation of committees and a move to three administrative centres.  Only when that has been operating for some years (the report suggests three) should a judgement be made as to whether or not to reduce the number of dioceses. 

The Harries report also makes the good point that any move to reduce the number of dioceses would consume a lot of time and energy when we should, arguably, be occupied with more important matters.  The Church in Wales Review Implementation Group, which advised on the implementation of the Harries report’s recommendations, also considered this not to be an area of high priority. 

But, your question Cathryn is a very helpful prompt to remind us about the Harries report’s recommendations about closer diocesan and provincial working and the streamlining of structural administration.  We are considering this in our discussions relating to the 10-year plan, but I think it is fair to say that we could have made more progress in this area over the last ten years.  There are some instances of good inter-diocesan working and sharing of resources but, of course, more could be done.  I would hope that your question will encourage us at both provincial and diocesan levels to look more urgently at what resources can be pooled and administrative functions shared.  It is, after all, a matter of exercising good stewardship and making the best use of the resources God has given us.

So, basically Cathryn, no substantive work has been undertaken to reduce the number of dioceses, but I am hopeful that we can strive for more progress on the integration of administrative structures and operations.  Whether this leads us towards a reduction in the number of dioceses is something we will discover."

This recommendation was referred to in Area Ministry: the Business Solution dated 24 September 2012.

From Section 15 of the Church in Wales Review:

"The present number and shape of dioceses may not be ideal. If we

were starting again we would have three. However, the present number and

configuration works and we think that the Church should continue, at least for the

next four years, with the present six dioceses. ... These recommendations should be reviewed after three years, with a view to evaluating the effectiveness of the change. At that point a judgement should be made about whether or not the church is best served by six dioceses with three administrative centres, or three dioceses. If the latter, we believe there should still be the same number of bishops as at present, namely seven."

Ten years later another punt into the long grass with senior and administrative staff increasing to minister to less and less members.