Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (Amendment) Measure

Lord Marlesford Excerpts

Thursday 22nd January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marlesford (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome what has just been described by the right reverend Prelate. I declare two interests. I am a churchwarden of St Andrew’s Church, Marlesford, which is a grade 1 church. Secondly, I am president of the Suffolk Preservation Society. Suffolk is a county which is blessed with an enormous number of extremely beautiful churches.

I am sure that the reform is very sensible and useful but I would just make one or two very small points. Small things can matter greatly. An example that I would give is churchyards and tombstones. If you have an historic, highly listed church and a traditional churchyard, often with very beautiful tombstones with a particular sort of stone generally used, it can be most unfortunate if the wrong sort of stone is put in. I would like the power to intervene, if necessary, to be delegated to the parochial church council and the rector of the church or benefice concerned. I am not suggesting that the consistory court is necessary.

There are other small things. Again, to take my own church, the church wall is made of flint and is in terrible condition. We are hoping to raise some money to repair it. One thing we were told was, “That is going to need a faculty”, and of course getting a faculty is quite an expense. You have to have the diocesan architect and all that, which adds to the cost. I hope that could be an example of where, provided the church wall is repaired in the vernacular style—the same style in which it was built—it could be done without bureaucracy. Having said these things, I welcome what the right reverend Prelate has said.