§ 2.47 p.m.
§ THE LORD BISHOP OF LEICESTER rose to move, That this House do direct that, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, the Extra-Parochial Ministry Measure he presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent. The right reverend Prelate said: My Lords, I trust that the two brief spiritual items of business which I have to bring before the House will be received as a short, relaxing interlude before the House later turns to more weighty and material considerations. The first Motion which I have to move concerns the Extra-Parochial Ministry Measure. I do not think your Lordships need be detained for more than a moment over this comparatively simple Measure, which was passed by the Church Assembly without a single vote being registered against it. It is, in fact, something which arises from the long process of Canon Law revision with which the Church of England is concerned, and it deals with two cases in which a clergyman exercises a ministry within the parish of another.
§ The first example is a very straightforward affair. This is where a family is registered on the electoral roll of a church other than the church of the parish in which they live, and the incumbent of 1003 the parish in which they are registered is allowed by this Measure to go into the parish of the other clergyman to perform his spiritual ministrations within that household. I think all will agree that this is perfectly right and reasonable, and it is one way in which under modern conditions the territorial arrangement of the churches and parishes has to be modified to a small degree.
§ The other purpose for which the Bill is specially intended is to allow a Bishop to license a clergyman as the chaplain of an institution, whether or not there is an actual chapel in that institution. By the Private Chapels Act 1871 the Bishop could do this only when there was an actual chapel in the institution concerned. There are many institutions which need pastoral services under modern conditions, but they do not all have chapels, and this Measure makes it possible for spiritual ministrations to be provided by the Bishop according to need, regardless of the existence of a material chapel. My Lords, I beg to move.
§ Moved, That this House do direct that, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, the Extra-Parochial Ministry Measure be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Bishop of Leicester.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to, and ordered accordingly.