Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-13T02:56:29.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Re Unnamed Burial Ground

Chichester Consistory Court: Hill Ch, 8 December 2023[2023] ECC Chi 2Exhumation – exceptional circumstances – medical grounds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2024

Frank Cranmer*
Affiliation:
Fellow, St Chad's College, Durham, UK Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Extract

The petitioner sought a faculty for the exhumation of her mother's body from a consecrated burial ground, where she had recently been buried, in order to re-inter her in another consecrated burial ground, within the same diocese. The general rule enunciated by the Court of Arches in Re Blagdon Cemetery is that because of the theological principle that Christian burial is final, a faculty for exhumation will only be granted in exceptional circumstances. In this case, however, the petition was brought because of the proximity of the mother's grave to those of close family members of the petitioner's ex-husband, who had been violent and abusive towards her and her children over a period of some eight years. Neither the petitioner nor her children could visit her mother's grave because it caused them flashbacks, and the petitioner's GP confirmed that she was having nightmares and panic attacks and was suffering from anxiety and depression.

Type
Case Note
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)