Chichester Consistory Court: Edwards Ch, August 1998
The petitioner sought two faculties, (1) for the erection of a memorial stone in honour of her late husband to be situated on a wall of the churchyard alongside an existing memorial to his late mother, and (2) after her death, a third memorial, for herself. The PCC had resolved to support an application for her late husband's name to be inscribed on the existing plaque. The DAC did not recommend approval since the proposals were contrary to the chancellor's general directions that a book of remembrance kept in the church was the appropriate means of recording the names of those whose ashes were interred in the churchyard. The DAC had no objection to additional wording being inscribed on the existing plaque. The petitioner withdrew her second petition but maintained the first. The chancellor considered himself bound by his own decision in Re Cecilia Searight deceased (1991), an unreported case concerning the same churchyard. In 1987 a faculty had been granted setting aside a plot within the churchyard for the interment of created remains and creating and maintaining a book of remembrance recording of the names of those whose cremated remains were so interred. The PCC had thereafter adopted a policy ceasing the practice of erecting memorials on the churchyard wall. The petitioner could show no sufficient grounds for departing from the principle and her application was refused. The chancellor, however, gave leave for the petitioner to amend her petition and apply for the existing stone to be replaced with one commemorating her late husband and his late mother, leaving space for the commemoration of herself in due course.
(1999) 5 Ecc LJ 215-216
