Judgment Search

Downloads

Click on one of the following to view and/or download the relevant document:

Alphabetical Index of all judgments on this web site as at 1 October 2022

Index by Dioceses of 2022 judgments on this web site as at 1 October 2022

Re St. Margaret Rottingdean [2021] ECC Chi 6

The petitioners sought permission "to remove (temporarily) the pews in the south aisle to create space for post-service fellowship and missional/social activities, and to provide a temporary kitchenette pending approval of a future major development project to reorder the church interior and construct an extension". The Victorian Society, Local Planning Authority and Historic England were basically satisfied with the proposals for temporary reordering, subject to them being time-limited. The Chancellor was satisfied with the petitioners' justification for the short term proposals and that the benefits of the proposals would outweigh any harm. He granted a faculty for two years, after which the status quo should be restored, unless at the end of that period there was a petition before the court for more permanent reordering proposals.

Re St. Margaret Rottingdean [2024] ECC Chi 1

The was a petition for internal reordering of the church. An interim faculty had been granted in 2021, authorisng certain works, conditional upon an application being made for a permanent faculty within 24 months. Notwithstanding the reservations of some statutory consultees, the Chancellor was satisfied that the works would improve liturgical use of the building and permit a range of community uses for concerts and events, and that the public benefit in implementing the proposals would outweigh the limited harm that would result.

Re St. Margaret Stoke Golding [2021] ECC Lei 3

The churchwardens sought a  faculty  for  the  relocation  of  the  font  from  its  existing position at the west end of the church to a new position at the east end of the south aisle adjacent to the Lady Chapel.  The rationale for the move was that the existing position of the font meant that the minister had to stand in a cramped and restricted space; the congregation had to turn in their pews to view a baptism; and the proposed new position would allow more space around the font. A former churchwarden objected to the proposal on the grounds that a font should be at the west end of the church, near the entrance, and the position next to the Lady Chapel would cause congestion. The Church Buildings Council also argued that Canon F1 required the font to be near the entrance at the west end of the church. The Chancellor was satisfied that the petitioners had made a good case for the proposal and she granted a faculty.

Re St. Margaret Stratton [2022] ECC Bri 2

The petitioner's father was a Latvian. After release from a German prisoner of war camp, he had not been allowed to return to Latvia (then occupied by Russia), and so he had settled in England. He died in 1995 and his cremated remains were interred in the Lower Stratton Cemetery (owned by the Parish Council) next to St. Margaret's Church. The petitioner's mother died in 2022, and part of her cremated remains had been buried in the same plot as her husband's. The petitioner wished to exhume the ashes of her father, so that part of his ashes could be interred with the retained portion of her mother's ashes in Latvia. The Chancellor refused to grant a faculty: there was no evidence of the father's desire to have his remains interred in Latvia, or any evidence that he wished his remains to be buried with his wife's remains; there was no discussion at the time of his funeral about the possibility of moving his remains in the future; no enquiries had been made about the possibility of exhumation in the 27 years since he had died; there was no intention to create a family grave, but two separate graves; and no effort had been made to identify graves in Latvia.

Re St. Margaret Thornbury [2011] John Walford Ch. (Bradford)

The petitioners wished to exhume the cremated remains of their father and reinter them in a nearby cemetery. Their father had died in 1977, since when the church, church, church hall and vicarage had been demolished and the cremated remains had been moved to a new Garden of Rest, which the petitioners had been unhappy with, in view of the difficult conditions that visitors had to contend with there. The Chancellor was satisfied that there were exceptional circumstances in justifying the grant of a faculty, as an exception to the normal rule that burial should be permanent: "... the fact that the deceased's ashes were moved at the time of the demolition of the church and the associated work in relation to the Garden of Rest, whereby it can be said that his "final resting place" then lost a degree of permanence, which only the grant of this faculty can restore."

Re St. Mark Bilton [2012] Stephen Eyre Ch. (Coventry)

Faculty granted for installation of a mezzanine floor in the north aisle of the church.

Re St. Mark Fairfield [2012] Robert Fookes Dep. Ch. (Worcester)

The petitioner's father had lived in Worcestershire for a short time before his death in 1989. The petitioner's late brother, a priest, had decided as a temporary measure to have his father's ashes interred at Fairfield, with a view to the ashes being reinterred in Great Amwell in Hertfordshire with the ashes of his mother after her death, which in fact occurred in 2011. The ashes of both parents were to be interred in a family grave at Great Amwell. Most of the family lived in or near Great Amwell, and the petitioner's father had lived in a cottage next to the churchyard. The Deputy Chancellor decided that there were exceptional circumstances to justify the exhumation and reinterment in the family grave.

Re St. Mark Haydock [2023] ECC Liv 2

The Parochial Church Council ("PCC") wished to replace the existing heating system with a new condensing boiler and wall-mounted fan convectors and radiators in the ungraded church. The Chancellor granted a faculty, being satisfied that the PCC had considered all alternative options and that the chosen system, "whilst not perfect in terms of carbon emission, was nevertheless a significant stride forward compared to the current system."

Re St. Mark Mitcham [2020] ECC Swk 5

The vicar and churchwardens sought permission to replace the existing gas fuelled heating system with a new one, including a new boiler, pipework, radiators and controls in the unlisted, twentieth century church. The Chancellor granted a faculty. The judgment contains some comments by the Chancellor about the need for churches to work towards carbon neutrality.

Re St. Mark Ocker Hill Tipton [2022] ECC Lic 4

The Deputy Chancellor granted a faculty for the reservation of a grave space for 20 years, rather than for the customary 50 years. In view of the number of spaces available and the rate of interments, the graveyard could be full and closed before a longer reservation would need to be exercised. The Chancellor gave the petitioner leave to apply for an extension of the period of 20 years within six months of its expiry.