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Re St Mary the Virgin, Wimbledon

Southwark Consistory Court: Petchey Ch, February 2012 Ornament – superstition – votive candle stand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2012

Ruth Arlow
Affiliation:
Barrister, Deputy Chancellor of the Dioceses of Chichester and Norwich
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Abstract

Type
Case Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2012

The rector and churchwardens petitioned for a faculty authorising the introduction of a votive candle stand. The PCC unanimously supported the proposal. One parishioner objected to the proposals (without becoming a party opponent) on the grounds that the use of such candles smacked of superstition and should be discouraged rather than encouraged. Following In re St John the Evangelist, Chopwell [1995] Fam 254, the chancellor held that votive candle stands were lawful in principle and that their use was not necessarily, or likely to be, superstitious. Accepting that there was a pastoral case for the provision of a candle stand and that there was overwhelming support for it in the parish, the chancellor directed that a faculty should issue. [Alexander McGregor]