A petition was received to introduce a plaque to commemorate a member of the congregation who had given many years of service to the church. The application was first raised within only a few months of his death, and there were several procedural irregularities within the petition, including the apparent objection of one of the petitioners. The proposed situation of the plaque was also described as ‘extraordinarily insensitive’ by the chancellor. The chancellor emphasised that memorials were never a matter of right but of privilege and a privilege that should be sparingly conceded: Re St Margaret, Eartham [1981] 1 WLR 1129. The introduction of such a plaque needed full discussion and careful consideration, there needed to be proof of the ‘exceptionality’ of the person to be commemorated, and there needed to be evidence of wide support for the proposal. The chancellor pointed out that, in some dioceses, no application would be considered until five years had passed since the person died. The petition was refused without prejudice to a new petition being submitted after three years. [JG]