UPDATE CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF MINLEY PARISH AND ST ANDREW’S CHURCH, MINLEY

The Church Commissioners have prepared a draft Scheme in respect of proposals sent to them by the Bishop of Guildford providing for: (i) terminating the plurality established for the benefice of Hawley and the benefice of St Andrew, Minley; (ii) uniting the above two benefices and their constituent parishes, for the appointment of the first incumbent and for his parsonage house to be that of the benefice of Hawley and for the future patronage arrangements for the new benefice; and (iii) the church of St Andrew, being the parish church of the parish of St Andrew, Minley, to be declared closed for regular public worship and appropriated to use as an event space, for social, cultural and community purposes, and for occasional Christian worship, and for purposes ancillary thereto.

A copy of the draft Scheme may be inspected at the churches of: (i) St Andrew Minley; and (ii) Holy Trinity, Hawley; and also at: (iii) The Crown and Cushion, Minley Road, GU17 9UA.

The draft Scheme is on our website www.churchofengland.org/consultation or you may obtain a copy from me. Large print and/or audio copies are available on request. Anyone may make representations for or against all or any part of the draft Scheme (please include the reasons for your views) by post or, preferably, by email to reach me no later than midnight on Monday 14 October 2024. If I have not acknowledged its receipt, please ring or e-mail me. For administrative purposes, a petition will be classed as a single representation and we will only correspond with the sender of the petition, if known, or otherwise the first signatory for whom we can identify an address – “the primary petitioner”.

When making a representation, please indicate the nature of your interest in the proposals (e.g. parishioner, member of parochial church council, etc) and whether you would like an opportunity to speak to the Commissioners regarding your representation if they decide a hearing should be held regarding the case. Please ensure we have contact information so that we can be in touch with you regarding later stages of the process. If we receive representations against the draft Scheme, we will send them, and any representations supporting the draft Scheme, to the Bishop whose views will be sought. Individual representors and the primary petitioner will then receive copies of the correspondence with the Bishop (including copies of all the representations) and will be told whether a hearing is to be held. They and individual petitioners may comment further to the Commissioners. Copies of all of the representations received (which will include your name but not your contact details) and associated correspondence will be published on the Commissioners’ website if the matter needs to be considered by the Commissioners. If a hearing is held, anyone may attend the meeting of the Commissioners’ Committee that considers the case and representors may have an opportunity to speak to it. Otherwise, if a hearing is not to be held, the case will be considered in private and you will be informed accordingly. When we acknowledge representations we will let individual representors (and the primary petitioner) know the next few dates of our Committee’s meetings. We will confirm the actual date if a hearing is to be held nearer the time. The Committee will decide if the draft Scheme should proceed when it considers all the representations on the basis of a paper prepared by the Commissioners’ staff and any points raised at the meeting. The Commissioners will notify all representors of their decision and give a statement of the reasons for it. Please see www.churchofengland.org/consultation for further information about the procedure.

Rex Andrew

Email address: [email protected] Tel: 020 7898 1743

Church Commissioners, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ