CASH-strapped county clergy say the first priority for Hereford's new Bishop is putting a diocese operating at a £200,000 deficit back in the black.

The Rt Rev Anthony Martin Priddis - appointed as the 104th Bishop of Hereford this week - has been warned that the office he takes up later this year could not just 'keep the show on the road' when church attendance was at its lowest in recent memory.

The bishop, most recently Bishop of Warwick, told the Hereford Times that it was too soon for him to talk about the state of diocesan finances.

The last public act of his predecessor, the Rt Rev John Oliver, had been to condemn the paper's coverage of a cash crisis in the parishes - particularly Hereford City Deanery - as alarmist.

But one of those clergy making the claim said that the new Bishop needed to hear what he and his frontline colleagues had to say about the way the diocese managed the ministry.

The Rev Andrew Mottram, of All Saints Church, Hereford, said the outgoing Bishop's response had been met with 'incredulity'.

The diocese, said Mr Mottram, needed to be realistic about the assets and influence it holds.

"With the exception of special events, only around 5% of the diocesan population attend church on a regular basis," he said.

"Numbers are as low as we have known them and ministry is spread thin. It is not enough for a new Bishop to just keep the show on the road."

Mr Mottram spoke out about the state of diocesan finances - and the fear of knock-on effects like funeral backlogs, job losses and shut churches - in the Hereford Times last November.

Bishop John attacked the resulting report as 'negative and profoundly misleading'.

Though he thought it too soon for him to talk in detail about diocesan finances, Bishop Anthony hinted at his favouring parishes taking responsibility for themselves but not 'acting in isolation'.

There was, he said, no room for 'narrow parochialism' in addressing how to solve church management problems.