Talk:Major Churches Network

sources

Google finds no mention of this group except as in "x is a member of the...", and various pages copied from Wikipedia, except for "The Church of England Yearbook 1999 lists a ‘Greater Churches Group’ which aims inter alia “to provide help and mutual support in dealing with the special problems of running a ‘cathedral-like’ church within the organisation and financial structure of a parish church”. Its relevance to the issues discussed in this study could not be investigated in the time available for this study." in a footnote to http://www.britarch.ac.uk/adca/chrrep.pdf (page 16). I'm sure it exists but it would be nice to have a source. PamD (talk) 13:37, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Still exists?

Does this network still exist? Is there a list of members, or does every member listed in the template include a sourced statement of its membership? If not, perhaps the template should be deleted. Doncaster Minster brings me here: I can't find a source to support it, beyond the capitalisation of "Major Parish Church" in https://www.doncasterminster.co.uk/restoration/. Any thoughts?

Also posted at Template talk:Major Churches Network, but discussion here is probably better. PamD 09:56, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

Major Parish Churches

I have satisfied my curiosity. There appears to be no published list of the membership of the Major Churches Network, which is described by the CofE as "an independently run network that all Major Churches are eligible to join". What there is, available online, is the listing of the churches designated as Major Parish Churches (includes various Minsters), here in the Church Heritage Record. For each one there is a multi-tab record page giving a lot of information about the building (eg Doncaster Minster). Seems a classic example of a useful External Link for an article: perhaps we ought to have a template to make it easier to cite a record? Curiously, the id number in the database is not the same as the church's unique code number - so not as tidy as the NHLE list, for example. There are 312 of these churches: it might be interesting to know how many have Wikipedia articles / sections in the town article with incoming redirects / aren't mentioned. Hmm: there are real life things I ought to be getting done (Christmas cards, decluttering, etc) but I perhaps feel a Project coming on.

It seems to me that {{Major Churches Network}} is problematic: we do not know whether all 312 churches which we can find listed as Major Parish Churches are members of this network. It might be better to rename the template "Major Parish Churches". Or create a category Category:Major Parish Church?

I think I might start by taking a sample of the list and looking at their articles.

Any thoughts? PamD 17:16, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

I now find there is Category:Major Churches Network with 65 members. PamD 17:35, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

Quick survey: Picked 10 starting from the first letter "P" - so Patrington to Ramsgate.

• 7 have articles. One was not linked from the article on its village: it is now.
• Only one, Pershore Abbey, is in the template {{Major Churches Network}}, and that was the only article which included the template.
• Only one, Pershore Abbey, is in the category Category:Major Churches Network
• 3 had no article of their own: they had a substantial paragraph, a two-sentence paragraph, and a brief mention in their location articles. They are listed in appropriate list articles ("Grade II* listed buildings in x", "List of churches in Y" etc).

Obviously very unscientific but probably fairly random (though over-representing PLYMmouth/pton area!). I don't know which of the designated "Major Parish Churches" opt to be part of the "Major Churches Network", but we seem to have no source for the membership of that network, while we have a reliable source, and a reservoir of useful "External links", for the 312 designated "Major Parish Churches". I'm not sure where we should go from here (except that I need to go and cook a meal right now, so that's that for today). Any thoughts, anyone? PamD 18:15, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

The network has such a low public profile, being an internal support group that meets once a year, that it might fail to meet the notability standard. Meanwhile the Church Heritage Record ID (wider in scope) should be added to Wikidata; this was already done for the Welsh equivalent Church Heritage Cymru ID although I only find six churches with it populated. Wire723 (talk) 19:18, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

• I've added a section at Church_of_England#Online_church_directories which describes Major Parish Church status with sources. PamD 09:05, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Churches outside England?

The {{Major Churches Network}} template includes 3 churches in Wales and 1 in Scotland. Are these actually part of the group, and (if so) is there any verifiable evidence of this? I don't know the answer to either question.

I have found a statement that (as an example) St Giles in Wrexham was part of the Greater Churches Network, but a press release about the establishment of the Major Churches Network states that churches in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were only offered "associate membership" of the new group (I don't know if this is still the case), and the only things the Church Heritage Records list are in England, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. Aoeuidhtns (talk) 02:15, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

References