Question

To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to the Answer of 28 March 2022 to Question 145801, on Church of England, and the official document, Governance: simple, fruitful and sustainable, published by the Diocese of Truro in April 2021, which states that in a multi-parish benefice a pastoral scheme may unite several parishes to become a single parish with one PCC, whether the Church Commissioners have made an assessment of the consistency of that scheme with the definition of a parish.

The document Governance: simple, fruitful and sustainable summarises the Diocese of Truro’s approach to mission and pastoral planning and is consistent with the requirements of the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, which provides the legal framework for the local organisation of worship, mission and ministry. Under the terms of the Mission and Pastoral Measure several parishes can be united to become a single parish with a single PCC, or variations of that model.