Church Times - Diocese of Winchester Synod votes to withdraw chaplaincy funding: "The Diocese of Winchester Synod met today and voted through the budget (See Diocese of Winchester proposes cutting university chaplains for background) that will, among other things, mean that funding for the Southampton University chaplaincy is withdrawn."
what’s really distressing is that the same thing happened to me about 5 years ago. Uni chaplain, diocesan funding; cutbacks -post pulled: redundancy.
What I’m intrigued by is the fact that when it happens in Winchester rather than in Bradford, it hits the news. Is this Southern bias?
So all these arguments have been made before, and some others by myself and others when it first happened. I’m disappointed that we’ve not learned and done something more about it.
I think that an overlooked aspect of this for the CofE is the issue of diocesan reciprocity. By cutting chaplaincy at a university, a diocese is breaking a tacit pact and freeloads off others. The tacit pact is that parents and students can have a sense of security that wherever a student ends up studying, there will be chaplaincy provision, therefore we all do our bit to make sure that such provision is comprehensive -like the parish system. By withdrawing chaplaincy provision for HE a diocese lets others down in the CofE while its own people can enjoy it elsewhere.
My preffered solution to address this would be to have a national HE chaplaincy service (perhaps taking a cue from the Services) with a pooled budget from diocesan and inherited resources; it is becoming clearer that dioceses can’t be trusted, necessarily, with a key, missional, opportunity.
That said, I actually thing the missional issue is the more important: HE chaplaincy is working with an age group which is becoming detached from church, it is often doing so innovatively and credibly.
"Spend and tax" not "tax and spend"
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HE? I'm guessing this is an abbreviation, but I can't puzzle out what it's an abbreviation of.
I understand that funds might be tight and that balances the budget is always difficult for any group or organization. But I think it's truly unfortunate when balancing the budget means cutting programs that minister to people's needs.
Of course, there's also the fact that cutting any programs in order to balance a budget means that the group or organization simply isn't bringing in the money it needs in order to accomplish its goals. And that's a situation that needs to be resolved. After all, there are only so many programs and expenses you can cut before you run out. And long before you run out, you reach a point where you're not really doing anything anyway.
I hope that the Diocese of Winchester finds a way to restore their chaplaincy program and turn around their current financial situation in general.
Jarred, thanks for your thoughts. 'HE' is a fairly standard UK abbreviation for Higher Education -covering degree teaching and awarding institutions. This is distinguishing from FE-'further education' which is (potentially) preparatory to HE and post school.
The funding issue is exacerbated in the CofE by chaplaincy being a ministry working among people, in the case of the student focus, who are living on loans, so there is a moral issue in asking them for money to support ministry. I would argue that morally the money should come from the wider church and if you want ot make a funding case it would be that later giving would recover earlier expenditure, or that parents etc help provide the services at this point in somenoe's life.
I would argue, further, that dioceses should be encouraged to have HE chaplains as part of their clergy allocations with pooled national funding ringfenced to make sure it can happen.
Andii, just in answer to your 'southern bias' point - as far as the CT blog goes I write about things as I become aware of them and even then I have to pick and choose as I can't cover everything. Had I (a) been doing the blog 5 years ago and (b) been aware of your situation (can't remember if I was I'm afraid) I'd have been likely to write about it.
As for the paper - can't speak on its behalf. But sometimes things can go unreported if no-one sends them in.
Hi Dave. I didn't mean to be heard to be making an accusation towards you regarding southern bias; I realised that yu were not in a positin to have reported the Bradford situation five or six years ago, so no offence meant.
With regard to the story being picked up or not.] ... It looks like the story was picked up by the press on the back of a diocesan synod report. The same sort of info was available back in 2003 or 4, the only difference I can see is the size and geopraphy of the respective dioceses, or perhaps the historicalness. It still looks like, given that there's a secular media dimension in this, a bias to the south.
At the time I did consider trying to putting it more into the public domain (ie going to the papers) but didn't want to turn it into a cause celebre with the possible negative ramifications all that could have. I wanted the focus to be on matters of principle and how to avoid further silly decisions about chaplaincy based on financual panics.
However, I think it is the case that there was no 'whistleblowing' in the Winchester case either. So it still looks like the national press is more interested in stuff that happens in the south than in the north: even 'unfashionable' religous news.
Hi Andii,
Just found your comment on the Church Times blog. Re the north/south thing, it could just be that news spreads faster on the internet these days, even than five years ago. It could be that there were more people trying to get publicity in the hope that support wouldn't be withdrawn - I'm not sure if you've looked at the website of the group who are trying to make sure chaplaincy at southampton uni can continue - it's www.savesotonchaplaincy.co.uk
A quick look at Bradford Uni's website shows that there is an Anglican Chaplain listed there (although not you) - do you know what happened in the end?
At the moment, finances etc are still being discussed with other groups who might provide funding so any ideas would be great!
Also, Simon (current chaplain) is blogging about it all (among other things) at darksidechaplaincy.blogspot.com
Thanks
Marianne Boardman
Hi Marianne. THans for the observation about how the connectivity of interested parties may have come on in five years. I think you may have a point: it could be what makes the difference.
As to the situation in Bradford. Interestingly I am listed as Anglican chaplain but in the older pages. But seriously ... when I left the post, a local vicar was appointed Anglican chaplain with a specific remit for the employed staff of the university (and maybe Bradford College -but I suspect not). He was appointed to do this for a couple of sessions a week (if I recall araight) while he continues as vicar of a parish the other side of the city. Meantime a Fresh expressions appointment was made to the city centre. The office holder occupied the chaplaincy centre and part of his brief was students. That appointment has now ceased, I believe. My contacts haven't told me what, if anything, has been done to replace ministry to students. In any case, as you may realise, the time commitment is considerably reduced and the losss of overview between student and institutional aspects may be serious in the longer term.
There are positive things to be said about some of the developments I've mentioned above: connections between fresh expressions, city centre ministry and student work is a good thing to do. Proper recognition of the institutional role of chaplains is another: but I think that abouth the worst way to do that is to do what was done in Bradford. Better to explore those things with a chaplain at the heart of the developments to help an integrated approach.
MY apologies that I gave an impression that there was no named Anglican chaplain in Bradford; what I wanted to convey was that the service provided, with respect to the people put in place, is a shadow of its former self. It is not what most people think of when they think of a chaplain. At best it is likely to be a retreat into a holding operation which I fear may have little capacity to develop innovative and missional approaches such as the ones being developed beforehand. The separation of institutional dimension from student dimensions (and I understand fairly hermetically sealed from one another) cannot but mean that whole swathes of ministry are not possible or available for development and I fear for the loss of effective collaborative opportunities because they depend on availability.
A bit of googling led me to this: http://www.bradfordsoulspace.org/archives/170
which I think is the Fresh Expression you mentioned. it still seems to be alive, in there it's mentioned that the anglican chaplain to the uni is a voluntary position so still unpaid.
Apparently our chaplaincy is not a Fresh Expression because it already exists...
But at least Winchester Diocese have said that they want the position of chaplain to continue (not just a local vicar coming in once a week), and that they will house a chaplain but not pay stipend etc. Slightly better than the situation was in Bradford (from what you've written) but still we're needing to raise quite a lot of money.
Hullo Andii et al!
Good news! A new Press Release has been released. I'm sure you're very excited. You can see it here: http://www.tinyurl.com/usca-pr2
Please?
Cheers!
Very exciting and interesting. It's still a little precarious but definitely a start. The longer term, assuming a successful outcome, would see the challenge of maintaining a level of support and of keeping the thing generally ecumenical. I think too, that the issue of helping a diocese and the wider church not to think solely in terms of the kind of criteria for 'success' that we might apply in many parishes ...
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