It does not seem economically viable for the CoE to have so many churches which are used for one main service per month. Obviously there are other services which go on in benefice churches but the policy of having one vicar spread over several places is not - IMHO - easily defended. It causes a great deal of work and stress for the incumbent. Each parish/church needs to have a PCC and its own churchwardens. In the old days a priest would have just one PCC to deal with.
If one just considers the organ (as I am an organist), when there was a weekly service (as in my youth) then the instrument was used 52+ times a year (plus wedding, funerals and Easter/Christmas). An annual tuning visit was worth having: in fact there used to be two.
These days I play at my church one a month and the organ has not been tuned since I started there coming up to a year ago.
If income is based entirely upon collections and covenants and congregations are getting both smaller and older, it does not take a genius to work out that some churches will go under.
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