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Sharing of Church Buildings Act 1969

Current text a fecha 2019-03-01

Agreements for sharing church buildings

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and shall also include, in the case of an existing building, the person (if not otherwise a party) in whom the building is vested and any managing trustees thereof, and may also include, in the case of a proposed building, any person in whom it is to be vested or who is to be a managing trustee thereof.

Trusts of shared church buildings

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Financial and management provisions

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shall be applicable in like manner in respect of any church building to which a sharing agreement relates and which, under the agreement, is or is to be owned by that Church or jointly owned by that Church and any other Church or Churches, and any such power to hold church buildings shall include a power to be a trustee (representing that Church) of such a jointly owned church building or, in the case of a corporation aggregate, to be the custodian trustee thereof.

Provided that—

Sharing of church buildings for purposes of worship

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Consecrated churches and parish churches of Church of England

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Solemnization of marriages in shared or other interdenominational buildings

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Sharing of residential buildings

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Application to shared buildings of certain provisions of Charities Act 1960

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Termination of sharing

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and the sharing agreement may make provision for financial adjustments as between the Churches, on such termination or withdrawal, by payments out of moneys held for the purposes of the sharing agreement or of any shared building or by other payments by one Church to another.

Cathedrals, peculiars, extra-diocesan and extra-parochial churches of the Church of England

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Churches to which this Act applies, and appropriate authorities thereof

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and thereupon this Act shall apply to that Church as from that date and shall have effect as if an entry in respect of that Church and the appropriate authority or authorities so specified were made in Schedule 2 thereto.

and thereupon this Act applies to that Church as from that date and has effect as if an entry in respect of that Church and the appropriate authority or authorities so specified were made in Schedule 2.

Interpretation

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Saving for temporary loans of church buildings

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Nothing in this Act shall be taken as affecting any practice of a Church to which this Act applies of lending church buildings temporarily for particular occasions to other religious bodies.

Extent

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Short title

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This Act may be cited as the Sharing of Church Buildings Act 1969.

SCHEDULE 1

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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An application under section 41 of the Marriage Act 1949 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) shall be made by a representative (as hereinafter defined) of a sharing Church other than the Church of England, and, if there are two or more such Churches, the registration shall be deemed to have been made on behalf of the congregations of all those Churches, whether or not their representatives joined in the application.

3

Where a sharing Church other than the Church of England withdraws from the sharing of a registered church buildingwhich is registered under section 41 of the Act, and, which continues to be used by another such Church, the registration shall not be cancelled.

4

An authorisation and certification of a person under section 43(1)or section 43B(1) of the Act to be present at the solemnization of marriages in a church building to which a sharing agreement relates shall be effected by a representative of a sharing Church other than the Church of England, and, if there are two or more such sharing Churches, different persons may be so authorised and certified on behalf of those Churches, but each such person shall be an authorised person for the purposes of the Act in respect of the solemnization of any marriage in that building; and references in the Act to authorised persons and their certification shall be construed accordingly.

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Sections 43(1A) and 43B(3) of the Act, both of which prescribe a period of twelve months before a person may be authorised as aforesaid, shall not apply to any authorisation under this Schedule, and, if a sharing Church withdraws, in the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 3or 3A above, from the sharing of a registered church building, the registration shall, for the purpose of the application of the section 43(1A) or 43B(3) to another building registered on behalf of the congregation of the withdrawing Church, be deemed to have been cancelled at the time of the withdrawal.

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The consent required under the proviso to section 44(1) of the Act shall, if the marriage is to be solemnized according to the rites of a sharing Church, be given by the minister ordinarily responsible for the conduct of worship by the congregation of that Church or, if the sharing Church is not the Roman Catholic Church, by a representative of that sharing Church, and in the case of other marriages shall be given by one of the trustees, owners or managers of the building.

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The appointment of two or more authorised persons in respect of the same building shall not require any additional set or sets of duplicate marriage register books to be supplied for that building, and regulations made under section 74 of the Act may make provision with respect to the custody and use of the register books and the returns to be made by the authorised persons of the entries therein, and may make any necessary modifications of the provisions of the Act relating to those matters.

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Nothing in this Schedule shall affect any registration or authorisation which is in force when a sharing agreement takes effect in respect of the building concerned, and any such registration or authorisation shall continue in force and have effect as if it had been made under this Schedule.

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In this Schedule “representative”, in relation to a Church sharing a church building, means—

SCHEDULE 2

Trusts of shared church buildings.

Cathedrals, peculiars, extra-diocesan and extra-parochial churches of the Church of England.

(a) if the church building or buildings to which the sharing agreement concerned relates is or are or will be vested in a Baptist or Congregational Trust Corporation within the meaning of the Baptist and Congregational Trusts Act 1951, it means that Corporation;

Editorial notes

[^c691232]: Act wholly in force at Royal Assent.

[^c691234]: S. 1(3)(i)(ii) and preceding words inserted (1.5.1996) by 1995 No. 1; Instrument dated 12.1.1996 made by Archbishops of Canterbury and York

[^c691235]: 1968 No. 1.

[^c691238]: 1954 No. 1.

[^c691240]: Words substituted by virtue of Synodical Government Measure 1969 (No. 2), s. 2(1)

[^c691241]: 1968 No. 1.

[^c691242]: Words substituted by virtue of Synodical Government Measure 1969 (No. 2), s. 2(1)

[^c691243]: 1855 c. 81.

[^c691244]: 1949 c. 76.

[^c691245]: Words repealed by Marriage (Registration of Buildings) Act 1990 (c. 33, SIF 49:1), s. 1(2)(a)

[^c691246]: 1949 c. 76.

[^c691247]: 1968 No. 1.

[^c691248]: Words substituted by virtue of Synodical Government Measure 1969 (No. 2), s. 2(1)

[^c691259]: 1925 No. 3.

[^c691260]: 1955 No. 1 (4 & 5 Eliz. 2).

[^c691261]: Sch. 1 para. 1 repealed by Marriage (Registration of Buildings) Act 1990 (c. 33, SIF 49:1), s. 1(2)(a)

[^c691262]: Words substituted by Marriage (Registration of Buildings) Act 1990 (c. 33, SIF 49:1), s. 1(2)(b)

[^c691264]: Words substituted by United Reformed Church Act 1972 (c. xviii)

[^c691266]: 1951 c. xvii.

[^key-53f2a457d3cf78346732b0ea1ae6e15b]: Words in s. 2(4) substituted (14.3.2012) by Charities Act 2011 (c. 25), s. 355, Sch. 7 para. 19 (with s. 20(2), Sch. 8)

[^key-b5ba0452abdc96cfd4d1885e12c721b1]: Words in s. 8(1) substituted (14.3.2012) by Charities Act 2011 (c. 25), s. 355, Sch. 7 para. 20(1) (with s. 20(2), Sch. 8)

[^key-d15556e96ee96f8fb6e38a84dab9c7fe]: Words in s. 8(2) substituted (14.3.2012) by Charities Act 2011 (c. 25), s. 355, Sch. 7 para. 20(2) (with s. 20(2), Sch. 8)

[^key-21df39118ecf856ec6202d334fce9de5]: Words in s. 8(3) substituted (14.3.2012) by Charities Act 2011 (c. 25), s. 355, Sch. 7 para. 20(3) (with s. 20(2), Sch. 8)

[^key-60ea7f0446b10b1fa7a5f49fe8688647]: Sch. 1 para. 3A inserted (13.3.2014) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/560), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 11(3)

[^key-8bbe7d1a96b85b2189d1e8d26ff43994]: Words in Sch. 1 para. 3 inserted (13.3.2014) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/560), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 11(2)

[^key-bd56479d6865f56398c1529e472100ed]: Words in Sch. 1 para. 4 inserted (13.3.2014) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/560), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 11(4)

[^key-d00a5ce4cadbb100cce357cf02cabfd3]: Words in Sch. 1 para. 5 substituted (13.3.2014) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/560), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 11(5)(a)

[^key-ff27cdebdcd4e3c29fcbbdc10009cd24]: Words in Sch. 1 para. 5 inserted (13.3.2014) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/560), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 11(5)(b)

[^key-c6fc8402fbd9094ed0fba26ceb939307]: Words in Sch. 1 para. 5 substituted (13.3.2014) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/560), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 11(5)(c)

[^key-d8ccceee582a8f3264b446bd40f5658c]: Words in Sch. 2 repealed (E.) (19.5.2014) by Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 2014 (No. 1), s. 21(2), Sch. 2 para. 5(5); S.I. 2014/1369, art. 2

[^key-f4ae11e12e296d0e720e28ecc4668155]: Words in Sch. 2 added (E.) (19.5.2014) by Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 2014 (No. 1), s. 21(2), Sch. 2 para. 5(3), Sch. 2 para. 5(4), Sch. 3; S.I. 2014/1369, art. 2

[^key-d564b11cec56391f57f3f6e81344a6ed]: S. 11(3)-(5) substituted (E.) (19.5.2014) for s. 11(3) by Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 2014 (No. 1), s. 21(2), Sch. 2 para. 5(2); S.I. 2014/1369, art. 2

[^key-4895be1aa8fcf80d51540cf6f591ece0]: Words in s. 3(3) omitted (E.) (1.3.2019) by virtue of Church Property Measure 2018 (No. 8), s. 53(2), Sch. 1 para. 10(a), Sch. 3 (with Sch. 2); S.I. 2019/97, art. 2

[^key-2e5316696afb9812922f7a1a4959d850]: Words in s. 3(3) substituted (E.) (1.3.2019) by Church Property Measure 2018 (No. 8), s. 53(2), Sch. 1 para. 10(b); S.I. 2019/97, art. 2

3A

Subject to the provision made by sections 44A to 44C of the Act and any regulations made under those sections, where a sharing Church withdraws from the sharing of a registered church building which is registered under section 43A of the Act, and which continues to be used by another Church other than the Church of England, the registration shall not be cancelled.

Saving for temporary loans of church buildings.

(a) if the church building or buildings to which the sharing agreement concerned relates is or are or will be vested in a Baptist or Congregational Trust Corporation within the meaning of the Baptist and Congregational Trusts Act 1951, it means that Corporation;