Graves

The petitioners, residents of the parish for 58 years and with many relatives buried in the churchyard, wished to reserve a grave space for 25 years. In 2022 the Parochial Church Council had made a decision not to support any more reservations of graves, in view of the small number of empty grave spaces remaining. The Deputy Chancellor concluded that there was no sufficient justification for the Court to take the exceptional course of allowing a reservation when there was only space for burials for an estimated period of 18 to 24 months.

The Petitioner, Mrs Stella Yiasimi, sought a Faculty to reserve a double grave space in Tolleshunt Knights Cemetery for herself and her husband, citing long-standing connections with the adjacent Eastern Orthodox Monastery of St John the Baptist. She was not resident in the parish, had no link with its parish churches, and therefore had no legal right of burial. The Team Rector and Parochial Church Council (PCC) opposed the application, relying on a policy limiting grave reservations to parish residents or those connected with the parish churches. The policy aimed to preserve limited burial space for parishioners and to avoid the cemetery becoming filled by visitors to the monastery, whose own burial ground is reserved for resident members only. The Chancellor, though sympathetic, found the PCC’s policy reasonable and justified. She doubted whether a Faculty could lawfully be granted without the Team Rector’s consent, and held that, even if such power existed, exceptional circumstances would be required to override the policy, and none had been shown. The petition was therefore refused.

In 2000 a churchyard closing order had been made by Order in Council. Notwithstanding the Order, burials of coffins and cremated remains had continued until 2019. There was a further Order in 2019 modifying the original Order. The upshot of the two Orders was that no further burials were allowed except (i) in an unused grave reserved by faculty; (ii) in an existing vault or walled grave; or (iii) in the existing grave of a family member. The judgment contains a detailed discussion concerning rights of burial and also as to whether both the original churchyard and the large churchyard extension had both been closed by the closing order, or just the extension. The Chancellor had before him four faculty applications for the interment of ashes in existing graves of relatives in the churchyard extension, which he was satisfied was covered by the closing order (as amended). He determined that the petitions were unnecessary, because the amending closing order allowed interments in existing family graves. He therefore dismissed the petitions.