WALKER v HARDAKER (Chichester Consistory Court: Quentin Edwards Ch., 10 July 1986)

The petitioner sought a faculty authorising the erection in a churchyard of a monument to her son in the form of a Latin cross set upon a plate. The total height of the monument was 2' 9". The incumbent refused permission for a cross and was supported by the Parochial Church Council. Although there was no persuasive evidence that the deceased had wished to have a cross as a memorial, the petitioner had persuaded herself that this was so and her reasons for wanting a cross were honest, sincere and strongly held. A faculty would nonetheless be refused because the incumbent and Parochial Church Council reasonably did not wish further free standing crosses to be erected; the design of the proposed memorial was mediocre; and wanton damage could easily be done to it. Quaere, whether the Court had in any event jurisdiction to grant a faculty where the incumbent and parishioners were reasonably opposed to the erection of a construction in a churchvard.

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(1988) 1:2 Ecc LJ 36-37