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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2019
This article focuses on the role of private patronage within the Church of England. Private patrons own advowsons. These property rights can no longer be traded but may still be bequeathed or transferred without value. When there is a vacancy in a benefice, a patron has the right to nominate a new incumbent in accordance with the Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986. This article uses contemporary and historical records to define private patronage and analyse the current role of the four broad categories of private patrons: private individuals, educational bodies, guilds and patronage societies. While acknowledging the benefits that patronage can bring, this article advocates substantive reform for the future including a sunset rule for private individual patronage. The article suggests that reform of the law of private patronage will make a positive contribution to other contemporary issues before the Church by promoting diversity in vocations, facilitating necessary pastoral reorganisation and adding to the dialogue about the future of the parish system.
The author is grateful to Dr Mark Davies, Dr Lara Walker and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.
2 See <https://churchofengland.org/about/renewal-reform/simplification>, accessed 30 October 2018.
3 The Archbishops’ Council, ‘Consultation on a legislative reform order to amend the Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, presented to Parliament pursuant to section 4(4) of the Legislative Reform Measure 2018, 1 November 2018’ (hereafter ‘Consultation’).
4 Ibid, para 1. The remit and exceptions to the use of these new type of measures are set out in the Legislative Reform Measure 2018, ss 2–3.
5 ‘Consultation’, para 9.
6 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986.
7 Bourne, J, Patronage and Society in Nineteenth-Century England (London, 1986), p 51Google Scholar.
8 Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, ‘The Taylor Review: sustainability of English churches and cathedrals’, Independent Policy Paper, 2017, available at < https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-taylor-review-sustainability-of-english-churches-and-cathedrals>, accessed 10 June 2019. For the Renewal & Reform initiative, see <https://www.churchofengland.org/about/renewal-reform>, accessed 7 October 2018.
9 Thompson, M and George, M, Thompson's Modern Property Law (sixth edition, Oxford 2017), p 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
10 Dawson, I and Dunn, A, ‘Seeking the principle: chancels, choices and human rights’, (2002) 22 Legal Studies 238–258CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 238.
11 Dixon, M, ‘The organic nature of the law of real property’ in Conway, H and Hickey, R (eds), Modern Studies in Property Law, vol 9 (Oxford, 2018), pp 3–20Google Scholar at p 8.
12 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, s 3. Transfers may also occur in the context of pastoral reorganisation: see Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, s 46 (hereafter ‘2011 Measure’). Church of England, Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011: code of recommended practice. The property nature of the right is reflected in the possibility of exchanging a patronage for one in another benefice in the context of parish reorganisation: see ibid, para 11.14.
13 Doe, N, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion (Oxford, 1998), p 138CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the appointment and functions of faith leaders in the UK, see Doe, N, Comparative Religious Law: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (Cambridge, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ch 3.
14 ‘Consultation’, para 11, states that, across the Church of England as a whole, about 50 per cent of the right of patronage ‘belongs to the bishop of the diocese’ with the other 50 per cent belonging to other patrons, including ‘the Crown, cathedrals, colleges, incumbents, patronage societies and private individuals’.
15 There was extensive reform of the church patronage system in the 1980s, culminating in this Measure.
16 For example, see the June 2018 Diocesan Synod Motion from St Albans noting disruption caused by vacancies and requesting review. Available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/moing/work-general-synod/diocesan-synod-motions>, accessed 8 October 2018.
17 ‘Consultation’, paras 13 and 15.
18 Hill, M, Ecclesiastical Law (fourth edition, Oxford, 2018), pp 107–112Google Scholar; Parrott, D and Field, D, Situations Vacant (Cambridge, 2005)Google Scholar; Parrott, D, ‘The Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986: an analysis of its working in practice’, (2001) 6 Ecc LJ 12–25Google Scholar; and D Parrott, ‘Situations vacant: a consideration of the law of appointment to benefices in the Church of England’, unpublished Masters thesis in Canon Law, University of Cardiff (2001) (kindly provided by its author).
19 Parrott and Field, Situations Vacant, p 4.
20 Ibid, p 7.
21 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, s 8.
22 Ibid, ss 11–12. The PCC may also choose to meet formally with the bishop and patron, receive a statement from the bishop about the vacancy or request the patron to advertise. The PCC may further consider a resolution that they believe themselves to be a parish unable to accept women's ordained ministry under House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests (GS Misc 1076), para 19. See further, Hill, Ecclesiastical Law, para 3.34.
23 Mission and Pastoral etc. (Amendment) Measure 2018, s 12.
24 Parrott and Field, Situations Vacant, p 5.
25 Ibid, p 9.
26 Ibid.
27 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986 Code of Practice: Exercise of Rights of Presentation. See also Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011: code of recommended practice (revised October 2018), ch 11, and House of Bishops, ‘Patronage and appointment of clergy office holders: a guide to good practice’ (2015). Most dioceses also issue their own guidance. Further discussion in Parrott, ‘The Patronage (Benefices) Measure’, p 19.
28 For viewing aspects of the parish clergy role as public in nature, see below n 124.
29 ‘Exercising patronage in the Church of England: notes prepared and revised by the Private Patrons Consultative Group’, 2000, para. 9.1, <http://www.clergyassoc.co.uk/content/docs/Patronage%20Guide.pdf>, accessed 18 November 2017.
30 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, s 13(1). Under s 13(2) and (3), no reply is deemed approval.
31 Ibid, s 13(4). The Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011 Code, para 11.1, describes this consent, and the need for the parish statement as ‘effectively’ giving ‘the bishop and each parish a right to refuse any individual candidate’, meaning that patrons do not have ‘an unfettered choice in making a presentation’.
32 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, s 13(5). Alternatively, the patron may make another choice if time permits, or put forward the same name again.
33 Ibid, s 2(1)(b). Canon C 9, para 2, also provides for 28 days’ space for the bishop to ‘inform himself of the sufficiency and qualities of every minister’ presented for institution.
34 ’Consultation’, paras 20–48.
35 Ibid, paras 49–56.
36 Ibid, paras 57–59.
37 Ibid, para 68.
38 Ibid, paras 1–7.
39 Addleshaw, G, Rectors, Vicars and Patrons in Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Century Canon Law (London, 1956), p 17Google Scholar. See also Saul, N, Lordship and Faith: the English gentry and the parish church in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gemmill, E, The nobility and ecclesiastical patronage in thirteenth-century England (Woodbridge, 2013)Google Scholar; Smith, P, ‘The advowson: the history and development of a most peculiar property’, (2000) 5 Ecc LJ 320–339Google Scholar; Roberts, M, ‘Private patronage and the Church of England 1800–1900’, (1981) 32 Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 199–223CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 ‘Exercising patronage in the Church of England’, p 3.
41 Brown, C, Religion and Society in Twentieth-Century Britain (Harlow, 2006), p 52Google Scholar.
42 Parrott and Field, Situations Vacant, p 3.
43 Diocese of Ely, ‘Ely Diocesan Board of Patronage’, <http://elydiocese.org/about/synods-boards-and-council/ely-diocesan-board-patronage>, accessed 11 September 2017.
44 Church Society Trust, ‘Clergy appointments: why patronage?’, 2010, <http://www.churchsociety.org/cstrust/appointments/whypatronage.asp>, accessed 8 October 2018.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 A Plaisted, ‘Patrons of parishes in the Church of England c. 1950’, Bodleian Library Special Collections, MSS Top. Eccles. D. 21–3.
48 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, s 1(1) and s 1(5).
49 Available at <http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk>, accessed 3 September 2018.
50 Diocese of Peterborough, ‘Patronage’, <http://www.peterboroughdiocesanregistry.co.uk/patronage.html>, accessed 11 October 2017.
51 List of Patrons and Benefices, provided by Lichfield Diocesan Registry.
52 Schedule of Register, provided by Norwich Diocesan Registry.
53 Diocese of London Directory 2017.
54 Diocese of Truro, ‘Directory live’, <https://www.trurodiocese.org.uk/directory-live/>, accessed across November 2017.
55 Crockford's Clerical Directory 2018–2019: a directory of the clergy of the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of Ireland (105th edition, London, 2017), pp 1076–1245.
56 W Evershed, ‘Party patronage in the Church of England 1800–1945: a study of patronage trusts and patronage reform’, unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Oxford (1985), p 34.
57 Durey, J, ‘Ecclesiastical patronage in Trollope's novels and Victoria's England’, (1995) 109 Churchman 250–270Google Scholar. Advowsons in Austen's novels reflect family experience: see Jones, A, A Thousand Years of the English Parish (Moreton-in-Marsh, 2000), p 321Google Scholar.
58 Benefices Act 1898 (Amendment) Measure 1923.
59 ‘West Grinstead churches’, Victoria County History, <http://british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt2/pp100-102>, accessed 25 September 2017; ‘West Grinstead manors and other estates’, Victoria County History, <http://british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt2/pp89-94>, accessed 2 January 2018; N Court, ‘The Hornung papers’, <https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/features/hornungpapers/>, accessed 10 June 2019; ‘A brief history of the shrine of our Lady of Consolation West Grinstead’, <http://www.consolation.org.uk/about>, accessed 2 January 2018. The Hornung Trust fund still exists to benefit the work of the Church of England in the parish, including the upkeep of the church.
60 In one window the life story and family connections of Pitt and his wife, Laura de Paiva Rapoza, are intertwined with symbols of the earlier history of the parish.
61 In London there was less private lay individual patronage, with only 12 individuals listed.
62 Jones, A Thousand Years of the English Parish, p 235.
63 A benefice may have more than one patron and they may be joint or alternate patrons. The value 63 refers to the number of benefices where a private individual patron will be involved at some point. The number of separate individuals involved in patronage is therefore higher.
64 In Truro there were 107 benefices, 24 of which had the involvement of one or more private individual patrons, including 8 with a titled male patron.
65 Bruce, S, ‘Patronage and secularization: social obligation and church support’, (2012) 63 British Journal of Sociology 533–552CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.
66 Ibid, p 534.
67 Ibid.
68 Ibid, p 546.
69 Paul, L, The Deployment and Payment of the Clergy (Chatham, 1964), p 286Google Scholar; McQueen, M, Parson, Parish and Patron: appointments to benefices in the Church of England (Abingdon, 1968), p 32Google Scholar.
70 Examples of former theological colleges include St Chad's College, Durham, whose patronages include benefices in Toxteth Park, Stourhead and Pontesbury. Grammar schools include the Governors of King Edward VI Grammar School in Norwich and the Governors of Queen Elizabeth School in Wimborne Minister. Eton and Winchester are examples of public schools acting as patrons.
71 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, s 8(7)(f) and (g).
72 A copy of the deed of patronage can be seen at <http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/images/patronageexhibition/08text.jpg>, accessed 3 September 2018.
73 Examples include Samuel Cooke (CCEd Person ID 10356) and John Besley (CCEd Person ID 22634): Clergy of the Church of England Database, <http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk>, accessed 3 September 2018.
74 Copy of the trust deed dated 11 August 1887 between Charles Barring and Francis Jeune, Hertford College, Oxford, Archive 17/3/1.
75 See <http://www.etoncollege.com/summaryofpublicbenefit.aspx>, accessed 30 October 2018.
76 For example, letter of thanks from the Joint PCC of Codford St Mary with St Peter and Upton Lovell to the Bursar of Pembroke, Oxford, 28 January, 1953, Pembroke College, Oxford, Archive PMB/G/4/12/3/28(32).
77 Evershed, ‘Party patronage’, p 321.
78 Balliol College, ‘Ecclesiastical patronage’, <http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Exhibitions/exhib11.asp>, accessed 17 January 2018.
79 For example, in London Diocese the Mercers’ Company, the Drapers’ Company, the Merchant Taylors’ Company and the Haberdashers’ Company all hold one patronage and the Grocers’ Company holds six; in Lichfield Diocese the Haberdasher's Company holds a further two patronages.
80 For example, the Society of Merchant Venturers (Bristol) holds a patronage in Peterborough Diocese.
81 See <http://grocershall.co.uk/the-charity/church-patronage/>, accessed 21 May 2018.
82 See <http://mercers.co.uk/location-mercers-company-churches>, accessed 14 August 2018; <https://haberdashers.co.uk/church-patronages-0>, accessed 11 June 2019.
83 ‘The parish church of Saint Michael, Cornhill: statement concerning the conditions, needs and traditions of the parish’, May 2012 (published during the last vacancy), pp 3 and 10.
84 The Church of England Yearbook 2018 (London, 2018) p 242.
85 The Wagner Trust used to have a much larger Anglo-Catholic influence within the city: see Evershed, ‘Party patronage’, p 184; Hedley, G, Free Seats for All: the boom in church building after Waterloo (London, 2018), p 174Google Scholar.
86 See <http://www.cpas.org.uk/advice-and-support/patronage>, accessed 20 March 2017.
87 See <http://churchsociety.org/society/page/about_us/>, accessed 11 June 2019.
88 See <http://www.simeons.org.uk>, accessed 30 August 2018.
89 See <http://www.smftrust.org.uk/archive.php?month=January&year=2017>, accessed 11 June 2019; <http://www.guildofallsouls.org.uk/patronage.html>, accessed 20 March 2017.
90 There was a similar pattern elsewhere. For example, six trusts represented in Truro, ten in London, eight in Peterborough.
91 ‘Rev. Charles Simeon’, Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review (July 1856–May 1868), February 1837, p 207.
92 Evershed, ‘Party patronage’, p 164.
93 Benton, J, Cameron, J and Rees, M, Charles Simeon of Cambridge: silhouettes and skeletons (Didasko, 2013), p 33Google Scholar.
94 See <https://churchsociety.org/aboutus/OurWork/Ourwork.asp>, accessed 30 October 2018
95 Patronage has been given or bequeathed but was never purchased. The Society for the Maintenance of the Faith, ‘Keeping the faith: a brief introduction to the SMF’, 2017, <http://www.smftrust.org.uk/fullposts.php?id=113>, accessed 30 October 2018.
96 Paul, Deployment and Payment of the Clergy.
97 Paul, Deployment and Payment of the Clergy, p 196.
98 The Society for the Maintenance of the Faith, ‘Whither patronage?’, 2014, <http://www.smftrust.org.uk/fullposts.php?id=112>, accessed 23 October 2018.
99 House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests (GS Misc 1076). See also Hill, Ecclesiastical Law, p 61.
100 2011 Measure, s 46. Appeal lies to the Church Commissioners. The Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011: code of recommended practice (revised October 2018), paras 11.16 and 11.17, notes that proposals must ‘pay due regard’ to the current arrangements and emphasises the need for consultation, ‘fair play’ and ‘reasonable proportionality’. See more generally paras 11.2–11.21.
101 For the pastoral challenges of multi-parish ministry, see Martin, J, ‘The priest attends seven fetes: multi-parish ministry’ in Martin, J and Coakley, S (eds), For God's Sake: re-imagining priesthood and prayer in a changing church (Norwich, 2016), p 20Google Scholar.
102 Church of England, Resource, Strategy and Development Unit, ‘Amalgamating parishes and declining clergy numbers: consequences and causes’, 2016, <http://www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk/UserFiles/File/Amalgamating_parishes_and_declining_clergy_numbers_Final.pdf>, accessed 5 November 2018. Comparison of modern records with Plaisted's ‘Patrons of parishes’ also reflects the change.
103 ‘Consultation’, para 54. The most likely result of this change is that private lay patrons who hold jointly with a bishop will delegate to the bishop.
104 Erpingham with Calthorpe, Ingworth, Aldborough with Thurgarton and Alby with Thwaite.
105 The Upper Tas Valley Benefice.
106 For example, Harris, J, ‘Living in suspense: problems and solutions with the suspension of the right of presentation’, (2002) 6 Ecc LJ 199–207Google Scholar. This article and some complaints noted below pre-date the 2011 Measure and Code and recent updates but remain relevant for patronage.
107 2011 Measure, ss85(1)(a)–(c). There are also rights to restrict presentation under s 87 in relation to pastoral reorganisation. The bishop is required to have consulted the patron. Prior to the Pastoral Measure 1968 the patron's consent was needed.
108 Ibid, s 85(5) and (6).
109 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011: code of recommended practice (revised October 2018), para 11.25. The current ‘Consultation’, para 25, advises that, if there are ‘special reasons in relation in a particular benefice, in the light of which a delay in starting the formal [appointment] process would be advisable’, a bishop should use suspension.
110 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011: code of recommended practice (revised October 2018), para 11.25. Similar provisions were included in a previous edition of the Code.
111 New compensation provisions for dispossessed clergy remove one driving force for suspensions in the future. See Mission and Pastoral etc. (Amendment) Measure 2018, s 6; Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011: code of recommended practice (revised October 2018), para 11.25.
112 Notes from address at the 2003 annual meeting of the English Clergy Association, published as ‘Churchwardens and patronage’, (2003) Parson and Parish 10; D Phillips, ‘Patronage: what's wrong’, (2002) 84 Crossway, available at <http://archive.churchsociety.org/crossway/documents/Cway_084_PatronProbs.pdf>, accessed 11 June 2019; Church Society, ‘Clergy appointments: suspensions (of a benefice and of the patron's rights of presentation)’, 2008, <http://archive.churchsociety.org/cstrust/documents/Appt03-Suspensions.pdf> and <https://churchsociety.org/cstrust/appointments/suspensions.asp>, both accessed 2 November 2018.
113 R v Bishop of Southwark, ex parte the PCC and the Churchwardens of St Luke, Kingston, 13 November 1995 (unreported) (CO/2119/95).
114 Antoniades v UK App no 15434/89 (ECHR, 15 February 1990); S v UK App no 10741/84 (ECHR, 13 December 1984).
115 Sporrong and Lonnroth v Sweden (1982) 5 EHRR 35.
116 James v UK (1986) 8 EHRR 123.
117 ‘Taylor Review’, pp 10–11. Church of England attendance has dropped by 11 per cent in the last decade.
118 Ibid, p 11. This money is in addition to the money spent by the Church and the local parish church communities, where the main obligations and burden of repair costs lie.
119 Ibid, p 31. St Martin, Brighton, one of the original Wagner Trust churches previously referred to, is an example of a church seeking innovative re-use: see <https://www.colander.co.uk/architectural-competitions/colander-competitions/st-martins-church-brighton-1>, accessed 1 September 2018. For use of Victorian churches today, see W. Whyte, Unlocking the Church: the lost secrets of Victorian sacred space (Oxford, 2017), ch 5.
120 See <https://www.churchofengland.org/about/renewal-reform/growing-vocations-0>, accessed 1 October 2018.
121 Bishops’ Advisory Panel, Renewal and Reform, ‘Growing vocations, future clergy’, p 15, <https://www.churchofengland.org/about/renewal-reform/growing-vocations>, accessed 1 October 2018. A bishops’ advisory panel (BAP) serves as a point of recommendation to bishops about the suitability of an individual to begin training for ordination.
122 Paul, Deployment and Payment of the Clergy, p 114.
123 Parrott and Field, Situations Vacant, p 23.
124 In Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley Parochial Church Council v Wallbank and Another [2003] UKHL 37, the House of Lords treated the Church of England as an essentially religious organisation but referred to some aspects of the role of the clergy such as marriages and burials as being public in nature. For the continued significance of occasional offices in the work of the Church, see Sandberg, R, Religion, Law and Society (Cambridge, 2014), p 142CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
125 Day, A, Religious Lives of Older Laywomen: the last active Anglican generation (Oxford, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
126 Ibid, p 8.
127 See, for example, ‘HTB reopens church in Bristol’, Church Times, 2 November 2018, p 8; ‘HTB planters seek to bless the west’, Church Times, 10 August 2018, p 3, and Church Times, 28 September 2018, p 5; ‘Go forth and plant, says House of Bishops’, Church Times, 29 June 2018, p 8; Moynagh, M, Being Church, Doing Life: creating gospel communities where life happens (Oxford, 2014), p 15Google Scholar; Church of England Growth Research Programme, ‘From anecdote to evidence: findings from the Church Growth Research Programme 2011–2013’, <http://www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk/report>, accessed 30 October 2018.
128 ‘What future does the parish have in the 21st Century?’, Church Times, 13 October 2017; Davidson, A and Milbank, A, For the Parish: a critique of Fresh Expressions (London, 2010)Google Scholar; Rumsey, A, Parish: an Anglican theology of place (London, 2017)Google Scholar; Percy, M, The Future Shapes of Anglicanism: currents, contours, charts (Abingdon, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spencer, N, Parochial Vision: the future of the English parish (Carlisle, 2004)Google Scholar; Barlow, R, ‘Travelling congregations or fixed provision? Assessing models of rural ministry’, (2018) 16 Rural Theology 3–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
129 House of Bishops, Code of Practice on Mission Initiatives 2018, issued under s 84 of the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011.
130 For example, a church sending a congregation to renew an older church assuming the joint patronage of the parish church into which they have planted.
