do we need a faculty?
YOU NEED A FACULTY TO:
Change the use of a building or land;
Alter, add or repair to your church (including decorating, re-decoration, removing from or demolition of the church);
Alter or add to land, including constructing a new building;
Adding, introducing, altering, repairing or repositioning furniture, fittings, murals,
monuments (including gravestones), plate and other precious objects, into, from, or in,
a church or land;
Adding or altering an inscription on a monument or gravestone;
Acquiring the exclusive right of burial in a grave, grave space, tomb or vault;
Removing a corpse or human/cremated remains from an existing plot, grave or tomb
WORKS NOT REQUIRING FACULTY
Movables
Kneelers, hassocks, pew runners and cushions (but not a substantial replacement of them);
Vestments, surplices, albs, cassocks, choir robes and vergers’ robes;
Prayer books, hymn books, song books, bibles and choir and organ music and other printed material used in divine worship (but not disposal of handbound or other valuable books);
Replacement of altar linen in the same design (but not the introduction for the first time of altar frontal or falls, or the replacement of any such item with a different design);
Decorative banners used for displays not lasting more than three months;
Temporary structures of devotional or educational value, such as Christmas cribs and Easter Gardens;
Sanctuary bells, lamps, processional crosses, votive lamps, candlestands, statues, statuettes, icons, thuribles, incense boats, pyxes and tabernacles, provided that these are not to be fixed to the fabric of the church;
Eucharistic vessels, cruets, wafer boxes, lavabos, aspergillas, ewers, alms dishes or vases;
Books of Remembrance;
Fire extinguishers;
Hymn boards;
Collection plates or bags;
Credence tables;
Registers of births, baptisms, banns, marriages, deaths and burials.
Furniture and Fixtures
Unfixed furniture with the consent of the incumbent, cleric-in-charge, or Area Dean and churchwardens;
Furniture and fixtures in detached church halls (except where the church hall is separately listed);
Installation of new portable equipment in kitchens and toilet accommodation;
Installation of telephone lines in vestries, together with any associated equipment, including telephones, faxes and computer terminals;
For a special occasion or other strictly limited period of time, of seating comprising unfixed pews or chairs.;
Garden seats for a churchyard, including any memorial inscription thereon approved by the Chapter or the Incumbent, Cleric-in-Charge or Area Dean.
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Items of Work
You do not need a Faculty to carry out maintenance to keep the church clean and tidy, (which does not involve redecoration, replacement, pointing, repointing or rewiring), or to keep electrical or mechanical items in good working order
This work would include, for example:
Replacement like-for-like of broken roof tiles or slates or clear window glass and cleaning gutters and downpipes, but excludes repairs to broken or cracked quarries in clear glazed windows and tiled floors.
Works of routine maintenance of electrical fittings or other electrical equipment (by approved NICEIC electricians). No addition of any new fitting to an existing electrical system is to be undertaken unless expressly authorised by faculty.
Work consisting of the monitoring of cracks in the fabric of the church provided it is carried out under the supervision of an architect or engineer.
Musical Instruments
Routine tuning of organs, harmoniums and pianos.
Maintenance and repairs to pianos using matching materials.
Bells
1. Repair of rope guides without alteration or provision of guides at upper levels.
2. Bolting or re-bolting of bellframe to beams below frame.
3. Tightening and/or renewal of frame bolts.
4. Repair or renewal of pulleys as existing.
5. Repair or renewal of bellropes.
6. Oiling, greasing, renewal like-for-like of bearings.
7. Repair or renewal of gudgeons, stays or sliders.
8. Repair of conventional two piece or split wheels
9. Repair or replacement like-for-like of broken clappers.
Clocks
Inspection and routine maintenance of clocks and clock faces (excluding repairs and redecoration).
Churchyards/Forecourts
1. Purchase and maintenance of lawnmowers and other churchyard maintenance equipment.
2. Routine maintenance of paths not amounting to resurfacing.
3. Repairs to and repainting in the same colour of a notice-board (but not replacement of a notice-board, which requires a Faculty, even when the replacement is on a like-for-like basis).
4. Resurfacing forecourt (not being part of a churchyard) in the same material.
IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT ABOUT ANY MATTER, CONSULT YOUR ARCHDEACON, THE DIOCESAN REGISTRAR OR THE CARE OF CHURCHES TEAM