Introduction  In JR87, Application for Judicial Review [2024] NICA 34, the applicants argued that the mandatory Christian religious education (“RE”) and collective worship (“CW”) in controlled primary schools in Northern Ireland was contrary to the religious freedom provisions of the ECHR. The Northern Ireland Department of Education contested that view; but in July 2022, Colton J decided in favour of the applicants: see JR87, Re Application for Judicial Review (Rev1) [2022] NIQB 53. In brief, he found that RE and CW were not conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralist manner in Nort ..read more

Since 2017, church pipe organs have featured in fewer than 2% of the total number of consistory court judgments reviewed in L&RUK[*], many of which have considered their replacement by digital or hybrid instruments. The circumstances of the recent judgment, Re St. Anne Stanley [2024] ECC Liv 2, are notable in that this is the third occasion on which a tuba rank from another church has been installed in the church. The original organ, “an attractive three manual instrument with some 1810 pipes”, was built by the well-known Liverpool firm of Rushworth and Dreaper in 1916, but without a tuba ..read more

On 1 May 2024, the Department for Education and The Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP  issued the Press Release Government to lift cap on faith school places, extracts of which are reproduced below. Government to lift cap on faith school places Government to launch consultation on lifting the 50% cap alongside proposals on opening special faith-based academies. Proposals to create more good school places through lifting the faith cap will be unveiled today (Wednesday 1 May), as new data shows over half of schools are now academies. A consultation on lifting the 50% cap, which applies to ..read more

Background In Ghaoui v London Borough of Waltham Forest [2024] EWCA Civ 405, Mr Ghaoui, his wife and two young children lived in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. They were rendered homeless in April 2019 and Mr Ghaoui applied to the local authority for assistance with accommodation. In September 2019, he sent his older child to a fee-paying Muslim nursery in Waltham Forest [2]. The family was evicted in March 2020 and Waltham Forest LBC provided temporary accommodation in the Harlow area, some 20 miles from their previous address, which made it harder for the parents to get to work in Lon ..read more

Review of the ecclesiastical court judgments during April 2024 The thirteen consistory court judgments circulated in April included: Reordering, extensions and other building works  Exhumation Churchyards and burials Organs Fonts Also included are: CDM Decisions and Safeguarding; Reports from the Independent Reviewer; Privy Council Business; Other legal issues; CFCE Determinations; and Links to other posts relating to ecclesiastical law. Reordering, extensions and other building works Other building works, including re-roofing Re St. Ia the Virgin St. Ives ..read more

A Happy “Ed Balls Day” to our readers Whilst not featuring in the Church’s Liturgical Calendar, Ed Balls Day serves as a reminder to users of Twitter/X (by whatever name called) of the perils faced by internet users, for which the “Liking” of a Tweet may lead to a CDM Tribunal.  Sikh tribunal opens in London The Times reports that a group of Sikh lawyers have opened a Sikh forum for alternative dispute resolution, with the aim of providing a mechanism for dealing sensitively with civil and family matters within the Sikh community. Sikhism does not have its own legal code; and Baldip Singh ..read more

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York and Bishop of Southwark have joined with leaders of the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches in England and issued a joint statement; the Church’s Press Release is reproduced below. After Rwanda: Church leaders speak out over hostility to refugees 23/04/2024 Kindness of churches and charities to those fleeing war, persecution and violence has been ‘unjustly maligned by some for political reasons’ The Archbishops of Canterbury and York and Bishop of Southwark have joined with leaders of other churches in England to renew their co ..read more

In a guest post, Russell Sandberg is critical of the recent judgment in Michaela School… The media reports of the last few months highlight how controversial and charged the decision in R (on the Application of TTT) v Michaela School [2024] EWHC 843 (Admin) is. There is much to unpack and debate about the High Court’s 83-page judgment, not least how the secular approach held to be lawful in the judgment sits with a legal framework that continues to favour Christianity in terms of laws on collective worship and the teaching of religion in school. Frank Cranmer’s case note on the decision superb ..read more

In Re St. Mary Stalbridge [2024] EC Sal 1, Willink Dep. Ch. set out the circumstances in which an oil-fired boiler was installed in the church without a faculty; explained his decision to grant a confirmatory faculty; and the conditions under which this was granted. In the same judgment, the Deputy Chancellor gave directions requiring the provision of further evidence on the circumstances in which the boiler was unlawfully installed. Those directions are included as an annex to the subsequent judgment Re St. Mary Stalbridge [2024] EC Sal 2 which considers how the illegal act occurred ..read more

The Civil Tribunal of Lorient ruled on 3 April that the exclaustration imposed on Sabine de la Valette, formerly Mother Marie Ferréol, from the Congregation of Dominicans of the Holy Spirit signed by Cardinal Ouellet in 2020, at the time Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, had amounted to her wrongful dismissal. During the hearing on 4 October 2023, the President of Lorient’s First Civil Chamber noted that the letter from Cardinal Marc Ouellet given to the nun during her exclusion had accused her of “systematic criticism, a partisan spirit, public demonstrations of resistance or disagreement ..read more