THE Governing Body voted, with one abstention, to allow mission and ministry areas to register as charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs). Becoming a CIO would allow an area to write contracts in its own name, and mean, crucially, that trustees would not be automatically liable for debts.

Tim Llewelyn (St Davids) acknowledged that that might be a theoretical risk to trustees, but those risks were getting more real. The proposal had been first mooted two years previously (News, 23 Aprll 2021), and there had been painstaking work on a template for a constitution approved by the Charity Commission.

The Dean of Newport, the Very Revd Ian Black (Elected Deans), said that his cathedral had been a CIO since April. The move had brought “protections we do not currently have”. Adopting the constitution was “a no-brainer”.

Bob Evans (Monmouth) also considered it a really important development. “We have moved on from the Vicar of Dibley to a mission-and-ministry-area structure, where a number of parishes have considerable assets and liabilities,” he said.