§ 7.5 p.m.
§ THE LORD BISHOP OF CHESTER rose to move to resolve, That, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Union of Benefices (Disused Churches) Measure, 1952, be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent. The right reverend Prelate said: My Lords, I need not say that at this hour I have no intention of keeping your Lordships longer than I need. This Measure has received an entirely favourable Report front the Ecclesiastical Committee, and to that Report were attached comments and explanations which I think have made fairly clear the purpose and scope of this Measure. Perhaps I may, for not more than a couple of minutes, fill in the background, so to speak.
§ For nearly a century the Church of England has been faced with the problem of a shifting population from villages to the towns and from the towns to the suburbs or to new housing areas, especially, of course, in the more recent years. Thirty years ago, the Union of Benefices Measure, passed by the Church Assembly, gave powers to demolish and to appropriate to other uses redundant 975 churches. That Measure laid down that the new use should be either educational or charitable in connection with the Church of England. When the war came, and even before the war ended, it was clear that special arrangements ought to be made for places which had suffered from enemy action, and there was passed by the Church Assembly in 1944 a Reorganisation Areas Measure, giving wider scope to deal with redundant churches. Though action was limited by a period of years, those wider powers were confined to the churches in the Reorganisation Areas. It soon became perfectly clear that something of the same nature would be needed for other areas which had not, in fact, been affected by enemy action at all.
§ The Church Assembly appointed a Committee to look into this matter, and in 1947 this Committee, under the chairmanship of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich, made a Report saying that they thought that under the Union of Benefices Measure, a new Measure should be proposed giving the same or even wider scope than had been given to the Church by the Reorganisation Areas Measure. This Measure before your Lordships is an attempt to put into action the recommendations of the Bishop of Norwich's Committee. The procedure is that in each case there shall be a draft scheme drawn by the Church Commissioners. This scheme shall not be drawn until consultation has been taken with the Central Council for the Care of Churches, with the Pastoral Committee of the diocese concerned, with the incumbent concerned and with the parochial church council concerned. That draft scheme is then sent to the patron and the parochial church council, and to the appropriate diocesan committees, and any one of those can make objections to it. Indeed, any interested party can make objections to it. Even if that party has not received the draft. If his objection is overruled, then he or they have the right to appeal to Her Majesty in Council, and the appeal will be heard by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
§ May I refer very briefly to objections which have been raised to this Measure in another place? It was said that the word "appropriation" in the Measure 976 meant that a church could be sold and used for a very undesirable purpose In point of fact, "appropriation" does not mean that at all. That does not come in until the church has actually been demolished. It is also said that a church might be leased to somebody to be used as a museum, or possibly a youth centre, and that if it were found that that use was not very successful, the tenant, so to speak, of the redundant church might change his mind and turn it into a cinema. Such a possibility is completely provided for in the Measure, because if there is any change of the original user or lease the whole procedure has to be begun again from the beginning; if the original purpose is in any way to be changed, a new scheme has to be drafted. Under this Measure, when a church has been pulled down, the land can be sold, leased or exchanged, but no dealings of any sort can be made in land in which there has been burial of the dead. As I have said, those schemes have to be drawn by the Church Commissioners. I happen to have the honour of being a member of the Board of the Church Commissioners and I know what tremendous care the Commissioners take when any such schemes come before them. All interested parties have to be consulted, and that consultation must be real, full and formal.
§ My last word is this. In any case it is true to say that when any such draft schemes are put out, in nine cases out of ten the people behind them are just those parties whom the Measure says should be consulted before such draft schemes are brought forward. There is no fear whatsoever of draft schemes being produced before the Church Commissioners without those people who will be most closely affected by them having been previously consulted and their points of view fully considered. I beg to move.
§ Moved to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Union of Benefices (Disused Churches) Measure, 1952, be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Bishop of Chester.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to, and ordered accordingly.
§ House adjourned at twelve minutes past seven o'clock.