Durham Consistory Court: Bursell Ch, November 2005
The church was due to be demolished and individuals whose parents had given a chalice and paten to the church as a thanksgiving for sixty years marriage asked that it be transferred to another church. The prescribed procedures in such circumstances were that first consideration of transferring the chalice and paten would be to a church in the immediate area. The family were unhappy that the chalice and paten should be removed to the proposed church in the immediate area as, inter alia, former worshippers from St Margaret's did not worship at that church. The chancellor noted that the relevant provisions of the Pastoral Measure 1983 (as amended) did not yet apply to but observed that section 64(1) of the Measure directs that the font, communion table and plate should be transferred to a church in the area of the benefice of any church that is to be demolished. Section 64(2) of the Measure underlines that commemoration to a deceased person (although excluding church plate) may be relevant when reaching any decision. Bearing in mind those considerations and the representations made, the chancellor directed that the chalice and paten should be removed from the church in the immediate area (where they had been placed as a place of safety) and introduced to the church that the family had identified.
(2006) 8 Ecc LJ 496
