CofE changes s25 Burial Act 1857 (and 18 other provisions)
This week, the latest Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure completes its final legislative scrutiny by the Houses of Parliament: - 7 May 2014: publication of 232nd Report of the...
View ArticleReligion and law round up – 18th May
A relatively quiet week has given us the opportunity to catch up on a few recent items that we haven’t covered earlier . . . . . . however, we were surprised to see that Frank’s piece Prayers at...
View ArticleReligion and law round up – 25th May
A week dominated by elections and Richard III… Election legal trivia With Parliament prorogued until 4th June, the thoughts of some of our blogging colleagues turned to the present local and European...
View ArticleAnatomical teaching & research and the law
The annual service of thanksgiving to commemorate people who donate their bodies for medical teaching and research took place this year at Southwark Cathedral on 16 May, and the Erasmus blog Anatomy,...
View ArticleHS2, burial grounds, the Church of England and hybrid bills
Today’s Telegraph carries a report under the somewhat sensationalist headline “Church of England to pray that HS2 will be halted”, which states that “The Church of England has announced its opposition...
View ArticleRecent consistory court judgments: exhumation
Both of the following judgments relate to petitions for the exhumation of remains: a straightforward application of Re Blagdon Cemetery in which a request to move remains to a nearby cemetery was...
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Recent consistory court judgments; registry appointments and retirements
The issues raised in the first two of the following judgments are specifically addressed by the Canons of the Church of England: the unsuccessful petition in St Michael and All Angels Uffington, which...
View ArticleReligion and law round up – 31st August
A week that saw Donald Tusk approved as the next EU president, a continuation of the domestic row about the ECHR – and L&RUK passing another milestone… Halal and shechita On Thursday we again...
View ArticleBurial space in London – and elsewhere
Friday in the Commons ended with an adjournment debate on the provision of burial spaces. In a fairly brief speech, Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con) pointed out that in 1997 it had been estimated that...
View ArticleReligion and law round up – 14th September
A mixed week in which same-sex marriage and inter-Church cricket were both in the news… Same-sex marriage and clergy discipline On Monday it was announced that Jeremy Pemberton, who lost his...
View ArticleReligion and Law round-up – 23rd November
Is it really less than a week since the “bishops’ vote” in General Synod? Oxford and freedom of speech The Oxford Student reported on Monday that the Censors (who in other colleges would be called the...
View ArticleBack-garden burials?
On Tuesday in the House of Commons Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (Lab, South Shields) was given leave under the Ten-Minute Rule to introduce her Funeral Services Bill. The Bill (which, it should be said, has no...
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CofE services after suicide
On 4 January 2015, the Mail on Line carried the headline Church of England to ‘legalise’ suicide in historic U-turn on funerals, which continues: “The Church of England is embroiled in a row over...
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Clergy discipline, former clergy and parochial fees
This month, the Church of England issued new guidance, Crematorium funerals and the payment to, and receipt of fees by, the clergy, which seeks to clarify the legal position in relation to crematorium...
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Religion and Law round-up – 1st February
Women as bishops, a Christian law school, kirpans in detention centres, conscientious objection, pagan weddings – and hazelnut & chocolate spread… Rt Revd Libby Lane On Tuesday at York Minster...
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“Freelance clergy”, crematorium funerals and parochial fees
An earlier post reviewed the recent judgment and penalty imposed by a Church Disciplinary Tribunal in Re Hawthorne [2015] which concerned a complaint brought under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003...
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Religion and Law round-up – 15th February
The Muslim Council of GB published a fascinating demographic study, the issue of anti-Semitism was in the news again – and yoga didn’t do too well either… Muslims in Britain The Muslim Council of...
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Consistory court catch-up, February 2015
In addition to the consistory cases summarized in this post come further examples of problems encountered with interments in churchyards. None of these was subject to judicial consideration by the...
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Religion and law round-up – 8th March
A relatively quiet week, although our post on “reasonable accommodation” had a very wide readership Conscientious objection in Ukraine We have commented before on the fact that the ECtHR takes a very...
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Reservation of burial space
In 2013 we noted that in view of the diminishing availability of burial space in England and Wales, the reservation of graves is likely to become an increasingly important issue, Marriage and burial...
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