Re West Norwood Cemetery

The petitioner sought a faculty for the exhumation of his mother's remains for their re-interment in the same grave at a greater depth. The grave in question contained the remains of four family members and the petitioner wished his remains to be interred in the same grave in due course. A change in practice when the cemetery was acquired by the local authority meant that the petitioner's mother had been interred at a depth that precluded a fifth burial in the grave, despite previous practice allowing five burials. The petitioner had challenged this at the time of his mother's burial but his complaints were rejected. The chancellor acknowledged the norm of permanence in Christian burial but observed that different considerations applied to proposals for exhumation and re-interment in the same grave. Those circumstances did not represent an exhumation to which the presumption of permanence applied. He referred to the Archbishops' Council's approval of the practice of lifting and deepening graves in order to create additional burial space where there is a shortage and granted the faculty. [RA]