CofE change experiment in Wigan fails to halt decline
Transforming Wigan, a seven-year project 2014-21 to build church membership and secure finances in Liverpool’s biggest deanery, has failed to halt the decline in church attendance or to increase giving. A report from the Diocese of Liverpool explains that 29 old parishes ceased to exist, and a new team benefice called Church Wigan was established with seven new parishes, 13 stipendiary clergy and a new charitable trust overseeing core admin tasks including finance. Existing PCCs were dissolved and it had been more difficult to recruit people as church wardens and treasurers to the new PCCs. The report found there was a loss of regular income as some people disaffected by Transforming Wigan either withheld their giving or transferred it elsewhere and there was tension with a feeling that traditional church had been neglected. Attendance declined by 8.8 per cent up to the pandemic, after which there was steep decline when churches closed. On the positive side, the project established new worship communities, engaged 12,656 people in “missional activities” and trained up 200 lay people as leaders. The report concludes: “There is a major challenge in transforming members of new congregations into committed and regular givers. Nobody seems yet to have cracked this problem”. Executive Summary here, Full report here
Church abuse survivors say Archbishops’ Council inflicting more distress
Church Times publishes a letter from ten survivors of church-based abuse to the Archbishops’ Council criticising their treatment since June when the Independent Safeguarding Board was disbanded. They object to the process of appointing Kevin Crompton as an interim commissioner of independent reviews, say they have no forum to raise concerns and believe the council’s actions have caused further harm and distress. Church Times report and letter here
Online sessions with tips for Jewish communities on climate change
The Board of Deputies has announced online sessions on how families and communities can take action to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Board’s Climate Emergency Committee has partnered with EcoJudaism to run two sessions on 28 September and 26 October, when communities will describe how they installed energy saving devices, initiated recycling programmes and adapted buildings to cut carbon emissions. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg from EcoSynagogue’s rabbinic team will speak on faith motivation to tackle the climate emergency. He has criticised the prime minister for increasing the timescale for carbon reduction measures saying: “I don’t understand why our Prime Minister has no conscience about short-term selfish decisions which help destroy our children’s future.”
Islamic Uyghur scholar sentenced to life in prison
An internationally known Uyghur Islamic scholar, Rahile Dawut, has lost her appeal against a life sentence imposed in 2018 for “endangering state security”. Before her conviction, she was a professor at Xinjiang University and founder of the school’s Ethnic Minorities Folklore Research Centre. The Independent reports that she was internationally renowned for her work studying sacred Islamic sites and lectured abroad. Rahile Dawut, aged 57, disappeared in December 2017 as the government cracked down on the mainly Muslim Uyghurs in the northwest Xinjiang. The human rights Dui Hua Foundation said the announcement of her appeal was the first time that a reliable source in the Chinese government had confirmed the sentence.
Methodists and Anglicans mourn sudden death of bishop
The Bishop of Argyll and The Isles, Dr Keith Riglin, has died after a short illness, at the age of 66. He was a minister in the Baptist and United Reformed churches before being ordained in the CofE and spent nine years as chaplain at King’s college London. His wife is Canon Dr Jennifer Smith, the superintendent minister at Wesley’s Chapel, London, the mother church of world Methodism.
New stained glass windows about racial justice at Washington Cathedral
Washington National Cathedral, landmark of the Episcopal Church of the USA, has unveiled new stained-glass windows depicting a march for justice by African Americans carrying signs calling for “Fairness” and “No Foul Play”. They replace four windows honouring the Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The cathedral says that it hopes to tell a broader, more inclusive story of American history.
German church admits mistakes handling abuse accusations against cardinal
The bishop of Essen in Germany has apologised by letter to all parishes, for mistakes handling allegations of sex abuse against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach, who died in 1991. The claims of abuse against a 16-year-old girl in the 1950s were deemed “not plausible” by the Vatican, so nothing further was done and in the letter, Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck admitted this reaction was misjudged. A German news agency reports that further accusations have now been made, including abuse against a woman in 1967. A statue of the Cardinal has been removed from a position outside Essen Cathedral. The Associated Press reports that in 2018, a church-commissioned report concluded that at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. More than half of the victims were 13 or younger, and nearly a third served as altar boys.
Methodist bishop cleared after church trial
The United Methodist Church’s first female Latina bishop in the United States has been found not guilty on four charges of harassment, fiscal wrongdoing and a general charge of disobedience. Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, of the California-Nevada Conference, had been suspended for 18 months but is now free to return to her role. The Associated Press reports that in a livestreamed four-day church trial, she faced allegations including nepotism through encouraging the employment of her daughter as an administrative assistant, providing her rent-free housing in a San Francisco parsonage and then using a conference fund to renovate it. In another charge, she was accused of not providing a clergywoman the full 12-weeks of maternity leave. It was the first known trial of a bishop since 1928.
Kidnapped Catholic priest freed in Nigeria
Catholic priest Father Marcellinus Obioma Okide has been freed after being kidnapped for four days in Nigeria. The Catholic Diocese of Enugu said it was grateful he was alive and thanked people for prayers “in this difficult period”. It’s the latest in a series of kidnappings and murders in Nigeria involving members of the clergy, seminarians, and other Christians. In August, a priest and seminarian from the Missionaries of Africa were released after three weeks in captivity.
