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Ecclesiastical Case Reports
Re Holy Cross, Greenford Magna
(London Consistory: Seed Ch, September 2005)
Memorial - legality
The petitioner sought to replace an existing memorial in the churchyard by the church door with one of identical size and shape reading "In everlasting loving memory of my dear parents, Eva Mary Molloy and William John Molloy, The Rt. Hon. Lord Molloy of Ealing. Parted April 12, 1980 reunited May 26, 2001". The PCC objected. They pointed out that Eva Molloy's ashes were interred in the garden of remembrance, and that Lord Molloy's ashes were scattered in Wales. The chancellor observed in passing that the Petitioner's mother had in fact predeceased her late husband's elevation to the peerage and that he had spent his last years with another lady who might have been an interested party to this application. The chancellor did not make his judgement based on those matters of accuracy, however, but on the basis that a signed statement from the previous incumbent indicated that he had never given oral or written permission for the original memorial to be erected. It was erected without authority after the previous incumbent had ceased to be rector. The chancellor concluded that the original memorial was erected without authority, not in a part of the churchyard where the commemorated remains were interred and where there were no other recent memorials. The incumbent and the PCC were unanimously opposed to the proposal. The chancellor dismissed both the petition and the return of the original memorial stone which had been removed prior to the issue of the petition.
[JG]
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