While granting a faculty for various works of re-ordering, the court considered the scope of the phrase ‘public benefit’ in the Duffield framework, and noted that the examples given therein were not exhaustive. s35 of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure 2018 provided:
A person carrying out functions of care and conservation under this Measure, or under any other enactment or any rule of law relating to churches, must have due regard to the role of a church as a local centre of worship and mission.
The church in question was a Resourcing Church, assisting others in the area and becoming a beacon. The court took the view that s35 should be read expansively, and the term ‘centre of … mission’ should be read in the context of radiating outwards and conferring missional benefits upon neighbouring parishes and the deanery and diocese more widely. If that was wrong, and a more narrow reading of s35 was called for, the public benefit of a resourcing church might nonetheless constitute a justification: the generous sharing of resources with other churches (such as in training, events, support and mission teams) and the gracious sending of people to revitalise nearby congregations. [DW]
