Diocese of Truro - Future

Future

In 2003 a campaign group was formed called Fry an Spyrys (free the spirit in Cornish) which is dedicated to disestablishing the Church of England in Cornwall and to reconstituting the Diocese of Truro as an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. Its most vociferous member is the founder, the Revd Andy Phillips, who also writes under the pen-name An Bucca. Its chairman is Garry Tregidga of the Institute of Cornish Studies. Phillips states there has been constant speculation that the diocese might be merged back into the Diocese of Exeter for budgetary reasons.

The possibility of a merger was aired unofficially in March 2003, during debate surrounding the formulation of the Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure, which would allow diocesan commissions to make proposals for the reorganisation of dioceses, including their dissolution. However, such a merger has yet to be proposed by any official body within the Church of England. When the possibility was raised by Fry an Spyrys in 2004 it was denied by a Church of England spokesman and also by representatives of the Truro and Exeter dioceses Since then the Diocese of Truro has shown some financial and administrative resilience. Diocesan reorganisation and the 'People of God' campaign rallied human resources and led (by 2007) to a tight but stable financial situation. More recently Lord Lloyd of Berwick, who chairs Parliament's Ecclesiastical Committee, reported to the House of Lords that there are no plans to abolish the Diocese of Truro and to merge it with the Diocese of Exeter.