In the course of its consideration of a petition for a faculty for a significant re-ordering project, the court commented on the proper approach to such petitions in order to assist their progress through the faculty process.

Pursuant to a 2013 faculty, the interior of this mediaeval church was painted in 2014. Instead of the specified limewash paint, the architect selected an alternative paint, which proved to be inappropriate: it was impermeable, damaging the wall fabric and causing the paint to flake off. Following a consistory court hearing in 2017 (reported at [2017] ECC SEI 6), the PCC was ordered to remove the paint, and repaint using the originally specified limewash, the cost to be borne by the architect.

This petition concerned proposals for major re-ordering works to this Grade II listed church, consecrated in 1933. Of particular interest was the fate of two substantial paintings based on Pilgrim's Progress by Norman Adams, installed in 1972, whose removal was required by the main works proposed. Each painting covered a substantial part of one side of the church above the nave arcades. They were described as being of national importance.

During the course of a judgment in which the court granted a faculty for the introduction of a memorial outside the Churchyard Regulations, the court made the following observation concerning the legal basis of such Regulations:

Adjacent to, and connected to, the churchyard was an area known as the ‘church garden’. The land had been given to the church in 1960 for the purpose of adding to the churchyard, the deed of gift conforming with the formula set out in section 5 of the Consecration of Churchyards Act 1867. After a long period of disuse, the land was used to create a garden, separated from the churchyard by a hedge. The garden was never consecrated. As well as containing amenities such as a lawn, trees, flower beds, benches and a ‘fairy grotto’, the garden had been the site of various scatterings and interments of cremated remains. No authority had ever been sought for such interments.

The church has a growing reputation as a safe place for LGBTQIA+ people of faith. In September 2022 it received a gift of an altar frontal in the form of the Progress Pride flag, which had been removed following a complaint from outside the diocese; the present petition was for a faculty to authorise its introduction.

As part of a petition for a wider faculty, the court considered proposals concerning a font. The Saxon stone font had originally been in Old St Bartholemew's Church, Lower Sapey, which was now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was proposed to move it back to that church, because its location was said to limit the flexibility of the west end of the church and was a trip hazard. Its removal would cause serious harm to the significance of the church as a building of special architectural or historic interest.

This unopposed petition was for the removal of a commemorative plaque, installed without a faculty, on the windowsill of the south wall of the nave of the Grade II* listed church. In order to protect the privacy of any person affected by the judgment, the names of the church and the people involved were anonymised.

The petitioners sought permission to carry out major re-ordering works including the erection of a new thatched pavilion building. Many aspects of the works, including the creation of the single storey thatched building, had also been the subject of a successful planning application to the local planning authority.

Before the July 2022 amendment to the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules which removed a like-for-like replacement of an oil-fired boiler from List B, the PCC resolved on such a replacement for their church's defunct boiler. However, before the work was undertaken, the Rules were amended to require a faculty for such a replacement, and to require the Diocesan Advisory Committee to advise the court on whether the petitioners’ explanation of how they have had due regard to the Church Buildings Council's net zero guidance was adequate. While the petitioners had taken some steps to justify the decision they had taken by reference to the net-zero guidance, the DAC's pre-petition advice was that the petitioners’ explanation was not adequate, and the grant of a faculty was not recommended. Nevertheless, the petitioners issued the petition; but before the petition could be considered, and in the knowledge that such a course was unlawful, the petitioners procured the installation of the new boiler.

In April 2023, the House of Bishops of the Province of the Church of Uganda elected Canon Godfrey Kasana as Bishop of Luwero. Before his consecration could take place, however, a member of the church submitted a petition alleging that he was unsuitable for consecration on grounds of adultery – and in June the House of Bishops revoked his nomination. The respondents, in effect, sought judicial review of that decision, while the Archbishop argued that the claim was brought against the wrong party and was frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process.

Mr Reid died in March 2023. He had been an avowed atheist all his life and was resolutely opposed to the practice of burial; but because he had lost touch with his family, those responsible for his funeral mistakenly arranged for him to be buried in the area of Bognor Regis Town Cemetery consecrated for the rites of the Church of England. When his family learned what had happened, they petitioned for a faculty for his exhumation.

Michaela School is avowedly secular and operates under a very disciplined regime. It has a high proportion of Muslim pupils, and in 2023 the school's governing body decided to prohibit pupils from performing prayer rituals on its premises – regardless of religion – after the Headteacher had banned prayer rituals as an interim measure. Muslims are required to pray five times a day; and while TTT, a Muslim, accepted that the requirements of the school day meant that she could not always pray during the appropriate period, she wanted to perform the midday prayer (Duhr) in autumn and winter during the school lunch break – which, she argued, was ‘free time’. It was argued for TTT that the school's refusal violated her rights under Article 9 ECHR (Ground 1); that the policy discriminated indirectly against Muslims, contrary to section 85(2)(d) and/or (f) of the Equality Act 2010 read with section 19 (Ground 2); and that in introducing the policy the school had failed to have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, contrary to the public sector equality duty in section 149 of the 2010 Act (Ground 3). She also claimed to have been subject to two procedurally unfair ‘fixed terms of exclusion’ because she had not been allowed to respond to the allegations against her before her exclusions (Ground 4).

The petitioners, who were resident within the parish, applied for a faculty for the reservation of a grave plot. The incumbent did not consent to the petition; the policy of the PCC was not to support new applications for reservation as the churchyard would be full in less than ten years.