BENEFICES (SUSPENSION OF PRESENTATION) (CONTINUANCE) MEASURE (Hansard, 8 April 1965)

THE LORD BISHOP OF CHESTER

My Lords, I beg to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper: That this House do direct that the Benefices (Suspension of Presentation) (Continuance) Measure be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent. This is a small and innocuous Measure which I do not think will occupy the time and attention of your Lordships' House for very long, since its sole purport is to give a new lease of life to a piece of machinery for pastoral reorganisation in 180 the Church of England which has been going on since 1946.

Under the Pastoral Measure, 1949, every diocese has a statutory pastoral committee which has the duty of examining the whole diocese from time to time to see how it can be better organised. Obviously, the work of this committee is of especial importance when a benefice becomes vacant, but, equally, after certain statutory conditions have been fulfilled, the patron of that benefice has the right to appoint to the benefice, and if he does not do so within six months the right of patronage lapses elsewhere.

The machinery of consultation about the future of a particular parish may take a little time, and therefore it is highly desirable that there should be some machinery whereby a presentation can be suspended for a certain time. This is for the protection of the rights of a patron, and it is also a help to the parish concerned, because sometimes a parish does not want the more permanent union of benefices with another parish. In such a case it is of great value to be able to suspend the presentation, so that temporary arrangements can be made for the oversight of the parish and we can see how a possible union of benefices might work out at a later date. This machinery is, of course, hedged about with a number of safeguards, because the Bishop must first get permission of the pastoral committee and of the patron, and he must also consult with the parochial church council of the parish concerned before he can issue an order for suspension.

This machinery was first created by a Measure in 1946; it was continued by a Measure in 1949, and by another in 1953, but it is due to come to an end at the end of this year, unless it is renewed. There is now before the Church Assembly a very large and complex new pastoral Measure which is going into the whole machinery of pastoral reorganisation in the Church of England, and undoubtedly that Measure will include the machinery of suspension of presentation. However, that new comprehensive Measure will not have been completed by the end of this year, which, as I say, is the time when the 1953 Suspension Measure comes to an end. The object, therefore, of this small Measure now before your Lordships' House is to extend the life 181 of the Benefices (Suspension of Presentation) Measure 1953 long enough to ensure that there is no gap between its expiring and the coming into force of new legislation. The Measure passed through the Church Assembly without a Division, and I hope that your Lordships will feel that you can rightly pass the Motion which I am now moving. I beg to move.

Moved, That this House do direct that, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, the Benefices (Suspension of Presentation) (Continuance) Measure be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Bishop of Chester.)