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.
Turkeys never vote for Christmas!
ReplyDeleteWith Caiaphas about to bugger off into the sunset at least there'll be one less turkey in Llandaff this Christmas.
DeleteCaiphas may be about to depart for the dreaming spires, but the Dean she has imported from the same city and will leave behind her may bring far greater reputational damage to the Cathedral and Diocese. The Charity Commissioners have just issed a warning to Christ Church, Oxford (where he has been the Sub-Dean) about widespread financial mismanagement by the trustees, which includes the Canons of Christ Church. This is the first stage of a more lengthy process which could lead to individual trustees being held financially liable and even the subject criminal proceedings.
DeleteAs has been pointed out on a previous thread, the new Dean has been the subject of a Clergy DIscipline Measure complaint for spreading scurrilous gossip about the former Dean of Christ Church, with no indication that the disciplinary process has concluded. Consequently, the Cathedral and Diocese is in the dark about whether RIchard Peers was 'safe to receive' at the time he was appointed. Added to this, given Llandaff's recent history of financial mismanagement and allegations of financial impropriety by the previous Dean, it would be a considerable blow to discover that the new Dean is being pursued from the other side of Offa's Dyke after arriving with a similar cloud hanging over him. How much more media attention can the Catheral bear?
Given Richard Peers's career history (as the headteacher of a failing secondary school put into special measures) and, more recently, his complicity in the financial mismanagement of a registered charity that is the subject of an ongoing stautory investigation, one is left wondering whether Ciaphas's forte is the propensity to reward failure.
I would also alert readers of this esteemed blog to the investigation into events at Christ Church by Dominic Grieve QC due to be published next year.
There's nothing "recent" about Llandaff Cathedral's history of financial mismanagement or financial impropriety, it's been going on for at least two decades since the appointment of John Lewis as Dean.
DeleteThe new lighting scheme was mismanaged and ran over budget which resulted in the Cathedral's reserves being depleted.
The Organ appeal was a swindle (to raise £1.5 million for a £1.1 million instrument) with no separate accounts being kept or published.
John Lewis cashed in all the Cathedral endowments held by the RB without the knowledge of the other Trustees.
The Cathedral Choir Lay Clerks were made redundant on the lie that the Cathedral couldn't afford to pay them when the Cathedral had just banked £1/4 million from the sale of one of its houses to RB at less than the commercial property value.
The Memorial Hall was sold off to the Cathedral school.
The annual accounts are massaged every year by the revaluation of the few remaining properties.
Linda Quinn's suggestion to introduce drop boxes and have all the cash managed by G4S is ignored.
£70k goes missing from the accounts and a new Aga and wood burning stove is discovered in the Deanery.
Mr Toad has benefitted from a £3.5k bonus without the knowledge of the majority of the Trustees.
The Quinquennial reports and communicant numbers have been concealed.
And the Charity Commissioners have done b*gger all about it.
According to the gossip on the Green, Dick the Dean elect, his husband the gardener and Teilo the pooch have already taken up residence in the Deanery and are enjoying the use of the Aga.
DeleteCaiaphas' legacy after five years in post, top ten.
Delete1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Took 30 months to get rid of the dud in the Deanery.
11. Mark Preece was announced as sub Dean this morning.
DeleteA total insult to Mark and a sop to those who responded to the sham consultation that they wanted a "family man" as the new Dean.
Sounds as though Dick the Dean elect isn't trusted either.
Like Graham Holcombe before him, Mark Preece has been overlooked, insulted and side-lined.
DeleteSuch is the thanks for loyalty in the Llandaff Diocese and the Cult in Wales.
One hears the Parish Choir at Llandaff Cathedral has now collapsed too.
DeleteIt never fully recovered from the Morley Lewis debacle but if true it will be the latest disgrace.
Little wonder Caiaphas can't wait to get out of Llandaff.
One suspects the numbers wishing to commit to regular rehearsals and Sunday mornings have dropped off a cliff edge, especially after repeated Covid lockdowns.
Delete@Laughing Gas
DeleteIt took Caiaphas four years to work out that the Capon was lying through his teeth to her never mind his cooking the books with his Aga. 😂
@Simple Simon
DeleteThe demise of the Parish choir may just be the precursor to combining the 9am and 11am Sunday services.
The most recent music scheme available on the Cathedral website is that of March 2020, which suggests a large degree of embarrassment about the dismal state of the music department. The ears in the walls report significantly reduced numbers of boys and girls willing to become choristers, resulting in the boys and girls choirs having to be combined.
A review by the Friends of Llandaff Cathedral of the financial support given to support the choirs is long overdue. What are they getting for their cash? Not value for money for sure!
Here's hoping the installation of Dick the Dean elect will be very poorly attended today. The fewer the better.
DeleteI doubt there's anything to worry about on that score since so few bother going to the Cathedral for any reason nowadays.
DeleteDoes the newly launched "Music Foundation" only apply to certain favoured parts of the music department?
DeleteWhy wasn't a mother of Parish choir choristers appointed to run it or is it only meant to support the poor little rich kids already benefitting from a fee-paying scholarship-subsidised public school education?
One is pleased to note Mr John Pockett is busy writing letters (and copying in Martin Shipton) concerning more profligate but meaningless expenditure on the latest non-job in the RB.
DeleteHowever, one suspects he won't get any meaningful reply.
It seems to me that there are some advantages, but also some unforseen consequences, arising from the establishment of a "Music Foundation", assuming that it had been set up correctly (unlike the Organ appeal) with separate accounts and a Treasurer who can be held responsible for ALL the monies raised.
DeleteFrom now on, anyone who wishes to support the Cathedral music department can make donations, endowments or bequests directly to a restricted fund established for that specific purpose.
Consequently, financial grants to the music department should come only from the Music Foundation.
In addition, nobody needs to give any more monies to the Friends of Llandaff Cathedral to support the music department and the Friends of Llandaff Cathedral can concentrate all their efforts and funds on taking care of the fabric of the buildings (it's not as if they don't already have their work cut out on that front).
But what is defined as the Music Department?
Is it only the Cathedral Choir, Organist and assistant Organist ? Is the Parish Choir included? What about the maintenance and tuning of the two organs, the rehearsal room piano and the grand piano?
Are the bells and bell ringers included?
What about any voluntary groups like the former Merbecke choir who used to help cover for services during school holidays,not to mention the funding for any "outreach" projects?
@Faith Militant
DeleteI am very happy to be able to report that very few Llandaff regulars attended the installation service of Dick the Dean.
Quite a few from Oxford showed up though, just to make sure they were shot of him.
John Pockett might well be interested in this job advert too for another Diocesan pen-pusher.
Deletehttps://jobs.churchtimes.co.uk/jobs/Diocesan-Finance-Advisory-Officer-in-Wales-jn10682
Why does the Diocese need a Finance advisor when the RB is giving away £100 million?
Does the job description of the Diocesan Finance Advisor include administering the Bishop(ette)'s unaudited discretionary and "mission" funds?
DeleteIf only a similar experiment had been conducted with Misery Areas first, before rolling them out across the Province.
ReplyDeleteMisery Areas are a disaster but no such delay or prevarication.
Offa's trench is definitely one of the Turkeys.
It's possibly a little unfair to have expected the Bishop of Monmouth to reply as she wasn't even in Wales in 2012. However one would indeed expect her, and her colleagues, to be "up to speed" on the Review. It does sound - as so often with such things such as "The Gathering" of around the same time - that it was looked at when it was published but slowly forgotten about. Which makes one wonder at the efficacy of such Reviews, Reports and Inquiries (not just in the church community).
ReplyDeleteSir
ReplyDeleteCan't these senior officials concede that it is no use rearranging the deck chairs?
The passengers have jumped overboard.
The lights, on the lower decks, have ceased to function.
The Harries Report, reduce the number of dioceses, back to the number at Disestablishment, absolutely not. Currently, the Representative Body of the Church in Wales has 6 Dioceses acknowledged after Disestablishment. Surely it is time for the (Representative Body of) the Church in Wales, to look over the reasons we Disestablished and returned to our Roots, removing Homosexuals and Lesbians fron Orders
ReplyDeletehttps://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/11-november/news/uk/charity-commission-issues-official-warning-to-christ-church-oxford
ReplyDelete£6.6 million blown on trying to get rid of Martyn Percy!
Isn't anyone in Llandaff worried about the role of Dick the Dean elect in this scandal?
Dick the Dean elect was obviously desperate for a means of getting out of Oxford, even if only to the cess pit that is Llandaff but the Oxford skeletons may well follow him west along the M4.
DeleteThe figure of £6.6 million doesn't appear to include the seven figure payoff to Percy or his legal costs rumoured to be another £1.5 million!
Deletehttps://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/11-february/news/uk/dean-percy-agrees-to-leave-christ-church-as-dispute-is-ended
The said new archdeacon started work on November 1st!!!
DeleteCounting the days.
I hear that Swansea and Brecon are about to add another archdemon to the list that is growing ever longer, with the appointment of Canon Peter Brooks as Archdemon for Misery Areas. If my facts are correct: that makes 3 in Bangor, 3 in St Asaph, 4 in St Davids, 3 in Swansea and Brecon, 2 in Llandaff, and 3 in Monmouth. So much for implementation of the Harries Report.
ReplyDeleteSeymour
When I first moved to Wales back in the 1960s I remember a young Welsh Anglican telling me that while adherents of the chapels had fallen away hugely in the previous forty years, the statistics for Anglicans in Wales - confirmations, Easter communicants, average Sunday attendances, &c.- were on the rise. I vaguely recall that he was able to point me to the evidence for that assertion, because I know that my immediate scepticism was by some means abated!
DeleteWhen I came to know Welsh Anglicanism rather better - I remained living and working in different parts of Wales for two decades after 1964 - I gradually realized that if what I'd been told in the late sixties was indeed true then, it was unlikely to continue to be the case. Secularism seemed to me to be progressing no less inexorably in Wales than I'd found to be the case when I'd formerly lived in England; and over time - though there were exceptions: Monmouth in the era of Eryl Thomas was one - it seemed to me that the Church in Wales was on the whole lacking any firm and consistent strategy to combat it. Merely 'keeping the (existing!) show on the road' seemed too often to boil down to the driving concern.
Which quite inevitably would never be effective, and now of course has finally come down to the current 'running on the fumes'. Against that backcloth, the recent proliferation of archdeacons to serve a declining church seems quite extraordinary. The example of Irish Anglicanism after the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871 might serve as a relevant example. Shorn of establishment status and privilege, Irish Anglicans steadily and decisively pruned down their structures to reflect their evolving circumstances - uniting not just benefices, but archdeaconries and dioceses too.
Recognizing the sober realities by uniting parishes while proliferating archdeaconries and preserving the old diocesan structures 'in aspic' is truly odd. 'Rearranging deckchairs on the deck of the "Titanic"' comes to mind.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63616908
ReplyDeleteIf the hopeless Bishopette of Monmouth wants to do something useful then she should direct her attention to the local Plod.
The Church-in-Wales lecturing the Police on matter of morals, hate, secret disciplinary inquiries etc. might be akin to the pot calling the kettle black.
ReplyDeleteOld Bill
Hypocrisy has never been a problem for both organisations either!
Delete@ Old Bill
ReplyDeleteSpot on old friend. And if allegations against Gwent Police officers are correct, throw in the idiocy of a C-in-W Bishop directing her attention to matters of 'fraudulent' transfers of money and false-accounting unless her advice will be how to achieve it without leaving a paper-trail. Police investigations into the alleged misconducts come under HQ 'Professional Standards'; something the top brass of the C-in-W has yet to fathom that alone lecture in.
2020 Division might like to re-think the idea. There's still scope for the 'Old Bill' to weed out its own rot. Sadly within the Church-in-Wales, the rot has taken root throughout ad the last thing on its agenda is creation of a 'Professional Standards' department. Even the Vatican has an internal investigation branch.
Plod has had literally decades to weed out its own rot!
DeleteTurkeys don't vote for Christmas as we all know.