The petitioners, who were the Team Rector, Team Vicar, Vice-Chair of the Parochial Church Council and a Churchwarden, sought a faculty to install a wall-mounted monument commemorating the Hoare Family of Barn Elms on the north wall of the Langton Chapel in the church. This was to replace a previous Hoare family memorial commemorating sixteen members of the Hoare family whose remains were buried in the vault of the church. The former memorial had been destroyed by a fire in the church in 1978. The Hoare family had for three centuries been benefactors of the church. However, although there were no objections to the proposal, the Chancellor felt that, in the current climate of "public interest in contested heritage issues", he had to address the issue of the connection of the Hoare family with the slave trade in the early 18th century. Having considered any potential arguments which could be raised, he decided to grant a faculty. None of the family members to be commemorated had links to the slave trade, but only a member of the family two generations earlier than the oldest of those to be commemorated.