In May 2021, Jesus College Cambridge submitted to the Diocese of Ely a ‘faculty petition’ – that is, a formal request to alter the fabric of an ecclesiastical building – asking for permission to remove from the west wall of the college chapel a large memorial to Tobias Rustat, ‘because of Rustat's known involvement in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans’. On 23 March 2022, following hearings the month before, Hodge Dep Ch provided a written judgment in which he denied the application. The college, he said, had not provided a convincing case that the removal of the monument was ‘necessary to enable the Chapel to play its proper role in providing a credible Christian ministry and witness to the College community’, and such a case was needed to outweigh the ‘considerable, or notable, harm’ that would result from the removal ‘to the significance of the Chapel as a building of special architectural or historic interest’.

Cathedrals have been described as ‘normative space’ insofar as their regulation both shapes, and is shaped by, their architecture. This article extends that description and applies it, by analogy, to listed Church of England churches and examines how the concept of ‘normative space’ relates to, and informs, their regulation within ecclesiastical and secular systems. The article goes on to outline the implications for (1) architectural and artistic innovation and (2) the worship and mission of the Church.

The origins of this comment lie in Charles George KC's article: ‘Do we still need the faculty system?’1 which came towards the end of his tenure of office as Dean of the Arches and Auditor (2009–2020). George himself acknowledged that his conclusion, namely that a no-holds-barred review of the faculty system would now be appropriate, might come as ‘rather a surprise’ and that some might have expected his answer to his own question to be in the affirmative: namely, that we do still need a faculty system.

The Church of England has committed itself to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. An important element required for success in this aim will be to amend the legislation around the management of church buildings and in particular the operation of the faculty jurisdiction. While aspects of the present system can and do facilitate some necessary change, to achieve the swift and widespread changes required within the timescale envisaged a more radical overhaul is required because the present faculty system favours the status quo, however bad that is from a carbon emissions perspective.

Following a brief history and explanation of the extent and role of the faculty jurisdiction, the article considers various reviews of its working, and that of the ecclesiastical exemption, starting with the Report of the Faculty Jurisdiction Commission in 1984 and the Newman Report in 1997. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport stated in 2005 that the operation of the ecclesiastical exemption would be monitored periodically, and in 2010 that it would be kept under review to ensure the required standards of protection were maintained. The article argues that a no-holds-barred review of the faculty system would now be appropriate, with a view to achieving a less cumbrous structural apparatus, with a markedly less restrictive approach to changes within unlisted churches and a more rigorous and expert approach to changes affecting listed churches.

The faculty jurisdiction of the Church of England pre-dates planning law by several centuries. It is the means by which the diocesan bishop, through his chancellor and in his consistory court, ensures that the sacred buildings of the diocese and their contents are compliant with the canon law, doctrine and ecclesiology of the Church of England. During the latter part of the last century, the effective operation of the faculty jurisdiction contributed to the continuing exclusion of churches of the Church of England from the need for listed building control. The rationale is that the faculty jurisdiction provides a level of protection for the church's built heritage equivalent to local authority protection, but uniquely tailored for the sacred purpose of the buildings and the evolving needs of individual worshipping communities. A balance constantly needs to be struck which respects the rigour required of both ecclesiastical and secular authorities (with their competing but complementary demands), but is not so cumbersome that it deters and frustrates parishes and other interested persons and bodies from engaging with it.