SC/ADSH 060815
RE-ORDERING AND DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR CHURCH – a practical guide for PCCs about process
Aims and Objectives
It will be important that your aims are aligned with the Vision and Mission of your
church.
Your aims should be reviewed in relation to the Church’s Vision and MissionStatements; then consider how to achieve the overall Vision. Clarify what you want to do and why.
Review your project objectives. Your objectives are the activities you
will carry out to achieve your aim. Think about what your objectives are and
what work you need to carry out to meet your objectives?
A Parish or Community Audit is highly recommended as it explores/informs how the church and its proposedproject can serve its congregation and community
Thorough consultation will include meeting with your congregation, the
local community and may also need to include administrators of local services or service providers, the town or parish council
Developing Plans and Early Consultations
It can be helpful to discuss/explore ideas, in brief initially, with the church’s inspecting architect/surveyor or a project architect to gain an initial understanding of what might be feasible. *(see below)
Let your Archdeacon know about your ideas.
Start thinking about the Statement of Significance and the Statement of Need, both will be required under Faculty – see guidance at
Seek informal advice about your ideas from the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) at an early stage; contact the DAC secretary to arrange this. Draft Statements of Significance and of Need would be helpful at this stage. DAC site visits, when a small delegationfrom the committee will come to your church to discuss/explore your ideas, are very helpful.
*Informal advice should be sought before ideas are finalised, professionally drawn up and specified for Faculty
Under Faculty, the views of statutory consultees will be required about significant changes to a church or churchyard. Statutory consultees may include organisations such as Historic England (formerly English Heritage), relevant amenity bodies and the local authority and it can be helpful to obtain their pre-application advice at an early stage, too. The DAC secretary will be able to advise you about this. It can be helpful to invite these consultees to a DAC site visit, especially if a significant scheme of re-ordering and development is planned.
If your project is likely to include external alteration or extension to the church building or other change/development in the churchyard, local authority planning permission may be required. It is advisable to discuss your ideas with the local planners at an early stage, too.
Temporary change – the opportunity to experiment
To help parishes look at different options when considering re-ordering it is possible for an Archdeacon to grant a licence for temporary re-ordering. This enables a congregation to experiment with a different layout of the church for up to 15 months. Any work under Archdeacon’s Licence for Temporary Re-orderingmust be completely reversible and have the full agreement of the PCC. After 15 months, the church must either be restored to its former arrangement or a faculty must be obtained to enable the new arrangement to be made permanent.
Permissionfor permanent re-ordering and development
Before applying for Faculty permission for your project, the PCC must pass a formal Resolution on the finalised proposals; a copy of the Resolution will be required with the application to the DAC for its formal advice (1st stage of Faculty process).
The application will also need to include the final Statement of Significance and Statement of Need, together with fully detailed supporting papers (there is information about the application papers and process on the DAC pages of the Diocesan website .
The views of the statutory consultees on the final scheme must be included in the application, together with details of local authority planning permission (if required).
The DAC secretary will always be happy to advise you about the application process.
After the DAC’s formal advice (given on a certificate known as a Notification of Advice) has been issued you will then be able to submit a Petition for Faculty to the Diocesan Chancellor (via the Diocesan Registry) for his permission to carry out the works. The petition process includes the need to display Public Notices for 28 days but these Notices, the Petition form and guidance about this 2nd stage of the Faculty procedure will be provided with the DAC’s Notification of Advice.
The Diocesan Registry will always be happy to advise you about the ‘petition’ procedure.