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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. Mary Offton [2018] ECC SEI 2

The petitioner wished to have inscriptions on both sides of a memorial headstone on the grave of her late son. This was not permitted by the Diocesan Churchyard Regulations, but the Chancellor considered that there were sufficient exceptional circumstances to allow the general prohibition on inscriptions on both sides of a memorial to be relaxed in this case.

Re St. Mary Oxted [2020] ECC Swk 2

The petitioners wished to install glass doors in a wooden frame to the outer archway of the church porch. The Diocesan Advisory Committee supported the proposal. Of the amenity societies notified of the proposal, only the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings objected. The Chancellor was satisfied that a convincing case had been made for the proposal and that public benefit would outweigh any harm. He therefore granted a faculty.

Re St. Mary Oxted [2021] ECC Swk 1

The Chancellor granted an interim faculty for a new church boiler, in view of the urgent need to replace the old boiler. The Chancellor had reservations about approving a gas-fired boiler, bearing in mind the policy of the Church of England to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. However, a new gas-fired boiler would have an estimated life of 15 years, at the expiration of which period new carbon neutral options may be available and affordable. The evidence was that the current annual cost of running an electric boiler would be over four times the annual cost of running a new gas-fired boiler.

Re St. Mary Patshull [2013] Stephen Eyre Ch. (Lichfield)

The Chancellor granted a faculty to permit the opening of a grave and the opening of a casket, in order to permit the petitioners' mother's wedding ring to be placed with the ashes of the petitioners' parents, which had been interred six weeks previously.

Re St. Mary Penwortham [2020] ECC Bla 2

The petitioners wished to carry out works of repair to the parapet of the tower, by re-bedding masonry and laying new lead, and also repairs to the west window, which had suffered heavy erosion. There were no objections to the work on the parapet, but the Society for the Protection of Ancent Buiildings objected to the proposed work to the west window, saying that the amount of the proposed replacement stonework was excessive and without justification. The Chancellor took the view that the petitioners had established that far-reaching repairs were needed to the window and he accordingly granted a faculty.

Re St. Mary Piercebridge [2023] ECC Dur 3

The petition proposed several items of reordering, in order to adapt the church for both sacred and community use. The items included: replacement of the pews with chairs; replacement of the stone font with a moveable wooden font; removal of an old reed organ; creation of a lobby at the west end of the church, and kitchen, toilet and storage facilities; electrical wiring and light fittings; and water and space heating. The Chancellor was satisfied that the community would benefit from the new proposals and he granted a faculty.

Re St. Mary Polstead [2017] ECC SEI 2

The cremated remains of a member of the family concerned in this matter had recently been interred in her parents' grave. The interment had been arranged by certain members of the family, who did not discuss the location of the interment with other members of the family, who, as it turned out, objected to the last deceased being interred in her parents' grave, and they applied for a faculty for exhumation. The Chancellor ruled that the interment should not have taken place in the parents' grave without the agreement of all of the next of kin, and accordingly granted a faculty for exhumation and reinterment elsewhere.

Re St. Mary Prestwich [2016] ECC Man 1

The Chancellor refused to grant a faculty to allow kerbs to be placed around a grave. Kerbs were not permitted under the Diocesan Churchyards Regulations, and the Chancellor could find no strong reason to depart from that policy in relation to this particular application.

Re St. Mary Redcliffe [2023] ECC Bri 1


In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd on 25 May 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests around the world, a statue of Edward Colston, who had been involved in the slave trade in the seventeenth century, was pulled down by protestors from its pedestal in Bristol and thrown into the harbour. The church of St. Mary Redcliffe contains four tall windows in the north transept. The illustrations in the stained glass depict the Corporal Acts of Mercy and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The panels at the bottom of the four windows showed that the windows were dedicated to Edward Colston. There was concern at the church that protestors might try to damage the windows, and it was decided to remove the commemorative panels, with a view to replacing them with stained glass images which would not connect the windows with Colston. They applied for a confirmatory faculty, which the Chancellor granted: " ... the contrast between [Colston's] own life and the seven Corporal Acts of Mercy is too jarring to be acceptable in a church."

Re St. Mary Reepham [2023] ECC Nor 2

The local branch of the Royal British legion wished to place a war memorial in the churchyard at its own expense. There were two objectors (neither of them a party opponent), one objecting to the proposed type of stone, and the other objecting to the proposed location of the memorial, the colour of it and the lettering. The Chancellor granted a faculty.