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Re St Luke, Heage

Derby Consistory Court: Bullimore Ch, July 2007 Memorials – churchyard regulations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2008

Justin Gau
Affiliation:
Barrister, Deputy Chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln
Ruth Arlow
Affiliation:
Barrister, Deputy Chancellor of the Dioceses of Chichester and Norwich
Will Adam
Affiliation:
Rector of Girton, Ely Diocesan Ecumenical Officer
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Abstract

Type
Case Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2008

A memorial was approved by the incumbent and erected. It did not conform with the design submitted and, had the true design been submitted, the incumbent would not have approved it. The chancellor took the opportunity to review the churchyard regulations and the procedure for the installation of memorials in general. He identified that a parish priest has no power to approve the installation of a memorial that falls outside the regulations. He or she may approach the archdeacon for guidance, who may allow a departure from the strict guidelines where there have been many other such departures, but the priest is not bound to accept the guidance. The family must then seek the permission by petitioning for a faculty. The chancellor may grant permission for the installation on the basis that he is substituting his judgment on the suitability of a proposal that was not within the regulations. He is neither breaking his own regulations nor acting as an appeal court from the decision of the parish priest. [JG]