Why do evangelical churches leaving the Church of England due to its revisionist direction of travel have to seek out recent venues and their ministers should move out of their vicarages?
Ian Blaney, solicitor and partner at Westminster-based law firm, Lee Bolton Monier-Williams, explains the legal position: “Clergy and congregations wishing to depart the Church of England will struggle to take the land and buildings of their church with them. The church constructing of a parish church and any churchyard may be very prone to be vested within the vicar or rector, but in a way that doesn’t allow the vicar or rector to transfer the property or to take it with her or him.
“These are normally consecrated which, moreover, means they’re held under a good leash under ecclesiastical law. That much shouldn’t be prone to cause an excessive amount of surprise. Parsonage houses – vicarages and rectories – are also held by the vicar or rector but, again, with very limited powers of disposal. No disposal can happen without various consents, equivalent to from the bishop, having been obtained.”
He says church halls are in a special category. They are normally “parish” property entrusted within the Parochial Church Council (PCC) or the vicar and churchwardens.
“However,” he says, “the custody of the land is with the relevant diocesan board of finance. Funds and movable property is perhaps easier to transfer, but will either be held by the churchwardens or the PCC on trust for Church of England purposes, which implies that a churchwarden or PCC trustee might find themselves personally liable in the event that they transfer assets out to a body which is disaffiliated with the Church of England.”
He concludes: “All in all of the situation may be very different to that which prevails within the United States where there was much litigation around ownership of church property between bodies disaffiliating with the Episcopal Church.
“In England, ecclesiastical and charity law is prone to make transfers out very difficult. That doesn’t prevent clergy, churchwardens and PCC members staying in Church of England structures in name only while subscribing to a special polity, but disciplinary and other systems are prone to be enforced against them eventually, depending on the appetite of the diocese to accomplish that.”
London Diocese recently did have such an appetite, getting an eviction order to remove Rev Paul Williamson from his vicarage after he stayed in it six years beyond his retirement age.
These legal realities were why a conservative evangelical minister and members of his congregation in Cornwall had to depart their constructing once they decided to depart the C of E. In 2019 a bunch from Fowey Parish Church, led by their vicar Philip de Grey-Warter, formed Anchor Anglican Church under the auspices of the worldwide orthodox network, GAFCON.
This was after the C of E’s House of Bishops in 2018 issued ‘pastoral guidance’ allowing clergy to make use of baptism liturgy when “approached by transgender people requesting a way of marking this transition of their lives”. According to its website, Anchor meets within the Fowey Gallants Sailing Club.
Philip de Grey-Warter says: “We know the church is people, not buildings or institutions. We know this from the Scriptures, from our heritage within the 39 Articles (of Religion – the Anglican doctrinal standards) and within the experience of church planting lately. Buildings could also be useful, but they don’t seem to be essential. God’s people will all the time find ways to collect and we have now proved the Lord’s faithfulness in his provision of places to fulfill.”
He and his wife were in a position to buy a house in Fowey: “We bought a house in October 2019 at the highest of the town – actually significantly better positioned than the vicarage, since it’s in amongst people within the new-build housing estate. We had sought to depart well and the diocese had offered us six months within the Vicarage if required but, because it transpired, we only needed three weeks beyond our resignation.”
He adds: “Like many clergy, we had some savings for retirement housing which we were in a position to use, and we were helped by a generous donation too.”
Susie Leafe, director of Anglican Futures, the orthodox think tank and support network, was a member of Fowey Parish Church. She is now a member of Anchor, whose church office is positioned in the identical constructing in Fowey as Anglican Futures.
She says of her former church: “The church constructing stays the parish church, with a congregation and a recent vicar, and the vicarage stays the vicarage, though within the case of Fowey it’ll be rented out by the diocese as the brand new vicar has her own house in Fowey. “
The financial resources of evangelical ministers and congregations who may determine to depart the C of E in the approaching years vary but sacrificing their buildings is actually a part of the fee for orthodox Anglicans who take that call.
Julian Mann is a former Church of England vicar, now an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire. From 2017 to 2019 Lee Bolton Monier-Williams acted for the PCC he chaired.
