Parochial Fees Order 1988

Made (Sealed by the Church Commissioners): 14th July 1988

Laid before the General Synod in draft: 4th July 1988

Laid before Parliament: 28th July 1988

Coming into force: 1st January 1989

The Church Commissioners for England, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by section 1 of the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986[^f00001], hereby make the following Order, a draft of which has been approved by the General Synod in accordance with section 2(1) of the said Measure:—

1

The Table of Parochial Fees set forth in the Schedule to this Order is hereby established and contains particulars of the parochial fees which, subject to the provisions of section 3 of the said Measure, are to be payable to the persons therein named in relation to the respective matters therein specified.

2

In this Order, unless the context otherwise requires—

• “burial” includes burial in a vault and the interment or deposit of cremated remains;

• “chancellor” means the judge of the consistory or commissary court of the bishop or archbishop of the diocese;

• “incumbent” means the incumbent of any benefice as defined by the Interpretation Measure 1925[^f00002];

• “churchyard” includes the curtilage of a church and a burial ground of a church whether or not immediately adjoining such church;

• “cemetery” means a burial ground maintained by a Burial Authority;

• “monument” includes headstones, crosses, kerbs, borders, vases, chains, railings, tablets, flatstones, tombstones or monuments or tombs of any other kind.

3

The Parochial Fees Order 1986[^f00003] is hereby revoked.

4

This Order may be cited as the Parochial Fees Order 1988, and shall come into operation on the 1st January 1989.

SCHEDULE — TABLE OF PAROCHIAL FEES

PART I

A. Service in church

For funeral service in church

B. No service in church

Service in consecrated part of cemetery

PART II

Clerks and Sextons

1

In certain parishes there will still be a person who

• (i) was employed in a parish immediately before 1st January 1977 (the date on which the Parochial Fees Order 1976[^f00006] came into operation) as a parish clerk or sexton; or

• (ii) under the terms of his or her employment carried out the duties of a clerk or sexton and was entitled to fees payable for such duties.

Burial of still-born infant

2

No fee is payable in respect of the burial of a still-born infant, or for the funeral or burial of an infant dying with the neo-natal period of 28 days after birth.

Cremated remains in churches or closed churchyards

3

Where cremated remains are buried in or under a church or in a closed churchyard, the fees payable to the incumbent and the parochial church council are:

• (i) where burial is authorised by a general faculty, the same as those laid down in Part I of this table for burial in a churchyard;

• (ii) where burial is authorised by a particular faculty, such sums as may be determined by the chancellor.

Monuments in churchyards

4

The fees marked[^f01000]include fees for the original inscription. Where a monument in a churchyard is erected or an additional inscription on a monument is madeunder the authority of a particular faculty the fees payable to the incumbent and the parochial church council or either of them shall be such sums as may be determined by the chancellor who shall specify the persons entitled to receive them.

Monuments in churches

5

Where a faculty is granted in connection with the erection of a monument or tablet in a church or any additional inscription thereon, the fees payable to the incumbent and the parochial church council or either of them shall be determined by the chancellor who shall specify the persons entitled to receive them.

The incumbent's fees

6

The incumbent may direct either generally or in particular cases that any fee which would otherwise be payable to him shall be payable to the minister performing the service or duty.

Reservation of grave space: vaults

7

Payment of any of the fees prescribed by this table does not confer any right to construct a new vault or an exclusive right to a grave or vault. Where a faculty is granted conferring rights for a period specified in the faculty, the fees payable to the incumbent and the parochial church council or either of them shall be determined by the chancellor who shall specify the persons entitled to receive them.

Signed

The draft of this Order was approved by the General Synod of the Church of England the sixth day of July 1988.

W. D. Pattinson — Secretary-General

The COMMON SEAL of the Church Commissioners was hereunto affixed this fourteenth day of July 1988.

J. E. Shelley — Secretary

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Article 1 and the Schedule establish a new table of fees payable for certain matters in connection with baptisms, marriages and burials, for the erection of monuments in churchyards and for other miscellaneous matters. The fees are in substitution for fees prescribed by the Parochial Fees Order 1986.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1986 No. 2.

[^f00002]: 1925 15 & 16 Geo. 5 No. 1.

[^f00003]: S.I. 1986/1148.

[^f00004]: 1961 9 & 10 Eliz. 2 No. 2.

[^f00005]: 1836 c. 71.

[^f00006]: S.I. 1976/1112.