The Court of Arches granted leave to appeal the above decision. The appeal had ‘real prospects of success’ in that, in the absence of objective evidence, the chancellor's rationale that:
i. The inscription would be ‘incomprehensible’ to almost all its readers in English-speaking Coventry or to persons who did not know the deceased;
ii. The inscription was a ‘message which will be unintelligible to all but a small minority of readers’, which necessarily meant that the proposed inscription was ‘inappropriate’ unless translated; and
iii. There would be a risk of the proposed words being regarded as ‘some form of slogan or that its inclusion without translation would of itself be seen as a political statement’
could have amounted to an unjustifiable exercise of his discretion and/or been unfair. The applicant would be free to address the court as to whether her rights under Articles 8, 9, 10 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights were engaged.
Further, there were compelling reasons for granting permission to appeal:
i. The subject of non-English inscriptions on memorials has not been considered by the Arches Court or the Chancery Court;
ii. England is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society. For a significant minority of families who choose burial in an Anglican churchyard, the English language may not be the natural or complete form of expression and/or of ceremonial expression;
iii. The issue of non-English words on memorials is therefore likely to arise in future cases;
iv. Questions of the approach to intelligibility and suitability of a Christian memorial in a Church of England churchyard are important matters of principle which the Court of Arches should consider, including in relation to the European Convention on Human Rights.
An amicus curiae would be appointed to enable the court to benefit from a full exposition of the arguments.
For the avoidance of doubt, the court agreed with the court below that subsequent comment in the press and elsewhere about a judgment was not a compelling reason for granting permission to appeal and it had not been taken into account. [DW]
