Re St Mary, Westham

The petitioner sought a faculty for the erection of a headstone over her mother's grave which would include in the inscription the word ‘Mummy’. The deceased was the mother of eleven children. The headstone sought was to be erected in the separate new part of the churchyard. The chancellor raised the concern that the term ‘Mummy’ appeared to exclude other familial relationships and might cause legitimate upset to friends and more distant relatives of the deceased. He further noted that the granting of the application might cause pastoral difficulties in the parish as there had been previous applications seeking similar inscriptions which had (like this application) been properly refused by the incumbent. The chancellor observed that none of those previous applicants had sought a faculty and that his discretion could not be fettered by the decision of such applicants not to petition the consistory court. The chancellor, after encouraging the petitioner to reconsider her choice of words, noted the exceptional nature of the case and granted the faculty sought should the petitioner pursue it. The faculty was subject to the lodging at the registry of the signatures of all of the deceased's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and siblings signifying their consent. The chancellor made plain that no precedent for such an inscription was being established either within the particular churchyard or in the diocese or generally. [RA]