Bath and Wells Consistory Court; Briden Ch. 29 July 1994

A gift of an electric organ by parishioners to enhance the musical quality of worship in that church prevented them having any legitimate claim for its repossession. They had clearly expressed their intention to give the organ to the church as a gift and it had duly been delivered and installed. Title did not then vest in the donors, who had done everything in their power to transfer title. The chancellor adopted the proposition contained in paragraph 24 at page 377 of Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, 6th edition (1797), as adopted by Calcutt Ch. in re Escot Church [1979] Fam 125 at 127, that 'A person may give or dedicate goods to God's service in such a church, and deliver them into the custody of the churchwardens, and thereby the property is immediately changed. And if a man erect a pew in the church, or hang up a bell in the steeple, they do thereby become church goods (though they are not expressly given to the church), and he may not afterwards remove them; if he does, the churchwardens may sue him.' The application for the return of the organ console was dismissed.

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(1995) 3 Ecc LJ 351