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Ecclesiastical Case Reports
Re Mary Wood, deceased
(Sheffield Consistory Court: McClean Ch, June 2002)
Exhumation–cremated remain - exceptional circumstances
The petitioners sought a faculty for the removal of the cremated remains of W from the graveyard of St Michael’s Church, Rossington for re-burial in Fort William. Burial in Scotland had been the wish of the deceased although her family had opted to bury her remains in Rossington for ease of visiting. The family were now moving to the north of Scotland and wished to move the remains with them. The chancellor deferred his decision until the handing down of the Court of Arches judgment in Re Blagdon Cemetery [2002] 3 WLR 603, (2002) 6 Ecc LJ 420. The chancellor read the Blagdon judgment as not departing from the guidance set out in Re Christ Church, Alsager [1999] Fam 142 that a good and proper reason needed to be shown for any exhumation; that a mistake is likely to be a good and proper reason but that a change of mind on behalf of relatives is not. He drew on a theological statement by the Bishop of Stafford quoted in the Blagdon judgment and stated that theology and law…both require me to allow exhumation only in exceptional circumstances. He found no such circumstances in this case and the petition was refused.
[WA]
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