IN ALL THINGS LAWFUL AND HONEST
by Alex Quibbler, Parson and Parish ’s legal agony uncle

QUESTION: I am a private patron and, during the present interregnum in the benefice where I have the right of presentation, the diocesan bishop is clearly intent on selling off the parsonage house. Do I have any power to stop this?
In a word, no. In a vacancy the incumbent’s power to dispose of the parsonage (a power only exercisable, of course, with the consent of the Church Commissioners and the Diocesan Parsonages Board) vests in the bishop. Both the patron and the parochial church council have the right to be notified and to make objections (to the Church Commissioners, who are then bound to consider any objections and inform the patron and PCC of their decision): section 3 of the Parsonages Measure 1938. But there is no right of veto and no right of appeal against the Commissioners’ decision to overrule any representations. I don’t want to depress you further, but of additional concern to you may be the possibility that the bishop might also be seeking to suspend your right of presentation in order to dispose of the parsonage. If, as you say, the bishop is intent on selling off the property then this may, indeed, be the only way he could do it, since you are, presumably, talking about replacing the parsonage, and the length of an interregnum may not be sufficient to find alternative—and suitably “downsized”—parsonage accommodation. As you will know, the bishop has the power to suspend for up to a period of five years, and this must be with the prior consent of the diocesan pastoral committee (s.67, Pastoral Measure 1983). It is conceivable, and the current Pastoral Measure 1983 Code of Recommended Practice suggests this as a possibility, that a “minuted decision of the Diocesan Parsonages Board to find an alternative parsonage house might [my emphasis] make it appropriate for the bishop to seek to suspend presentation to the benefice on the basis of providing the person engaged in the cure of souls with ‘appropriate conditions of service’”(para.8.6). “Appropriate conditions of service,” in case it wasn’t at the forefront of your mind, relates to the duty of the diocesan pastoral committee, in s.2(3) of the Measure, to have particular regard to the provision of appropriate spheres of work and conditions of service for all persons engaged in the cure of souls in the diocese. Of course, as I have indicated, this is only a possibility, and in any event is all subject to the statutory duty of the bishop to consult with you and the PCC, and to give his reasons for considering (it can be no more, in theory) suspension. And if your bishop—so “clearly intent on selling off”—ignores these consultations, and the whole plan is clearly “stitched up” in advance, then any such decision to suspend in order to sell off, would be capable of challenge in the courts.
        You may also be interested to know that, in a vacancy, a bishop can also authorise the sequestrators (often, but not necessarily, the churchwardens) to lease (if they think fit) the parsonage for such period as the bishop may authorise, with the Church Commissioners’ consent, but the bishop has no power himself to lease. The Pastoral Measure Code of Practice recommends that the view of the patron be sought and considered before an application is made to the Commissioners for consent to such a lease (para.9.30).

Parson and Parish, the magazine of the English Clergy Association