Chapter 2

In our canons, which date from 1603, no fewer than eighteen refer to the duties of Churchwardens. One canon enjoins them to present to the ordinary those guilty of notorious crimes and scandals, hinderers of the Word of God, disturbers of Divine Service, and non-communicants at Easter. Other Canons refer to their duties in not allowing loiterers near the Church in time of Divine Service, in providing bread and wine for the Holy Communion, and marking those who present themselves at the Lord's Table. Others enjoin them to take care that no stranger be admitted to preach in Church without showing his licence; to provide a sure coffer for the safe keeping of the registers, and to see that the proper entries are therein made; to provide for the Church service books, font, Communion table, and pulpit, and a chest for alms; and further, to see that the Church is kept in sufficient reparation, that neither the Church or Churchyard be in any way profaned; that the bells be not rung at any time without good cause to be allowed by the minister of the place and by themselves; to see that the parishioners duly resort to their Church upon Sundays and holy days; that none stand idle in the Churchyard, or make any disturbance in the Church or Churchyard during the time of Divine Service; and further, call upon and exhort such as are negligent in resorting to the Church that they fail not to amend their ways; to keep the accounts connected with these matters; and, "last of all, going out of their office they shall truly deliver up to the parishioners whatever money or other things of right belonging to the parish which remaineth in their hands, that they may be delivered over by them to the next Churchwardens by bill indented." {22}

In the fulfilment of these duties it is, in my opinion, difficult to exaggerate the influence for good which a Churchwarden may exercise in the parish in which his lot is cast. Of course it is possible to perform the duties perfunctorily, or to let them slide altogether; but if his heart is really in his work, if he is anxious to do all in his power that the ecclesiastical machinery in the parish should work smoothly, I will undertake to say that he will find plenty of scope for his energies. If lethargic or antagonistic he may greatly hinder the Church's work; but if in a friendly spirit and with words of wisdom he is always ready to meet the Rector and consult as to the advisability of this or that particular course of action, the office becomes neither a surplusage nor a sinecure. There is nothing worse in a parish than either clerical or lay clan-ship. Isolation is good neither for the one nor the other. The interests of both are the same, and surely their hands should be joined together for common action in the common Master's cause.

And as it seems to me this side of his office comes into prominence in connection with the induction of a new Incumbent. For the entering upon a new cure is of undoubtedly great and solemn importance to the Parson himself, but it is hardly less so to the parish. How much depends, as regards the future peace, happiness, and prosperity of the parish, upon the relations existing between Pastor and flock. No doubt the character, zeal, energy, devotion, and even the idiosyncrasies, manner, and general bearing of the Incumbent are of vital importance. Courtesy begets courtesy. Consideration for the feelings of others is met in the same spirit. But sometimes, I fear the Laity suppose that the peace of a parish depends almost entirely upon the Clergyman. He is but a unit in the parochial system. If one thing is more absolutely necessary than another for the harmonious working of Clergy and Laity in a parish, or the welfare of the whole, it is that there should be no suspicions the one of the other. Perfect confidence and a generous trust should be the rule of all dealings between Incumbents and Churchwardens.

It cannot but be expected that an Incumbent on first coming into a parish should find some things which he would prefer otherwise. The special hobbies, so to speak, of his predecessor may not be his. His energies may not be put forth on exactly the same lines as those of the Incumbent whom he succeeds. And then sometimes the staunch friends of the former ministry may look coldly and askant upon the new Rector's labours and think that his very efforts in fresh and hitherto untried fields are reflections upon the past. It should not be so. All men are not cast in the same mould. One branch of ministerial work may be more congenial to one parish priest than another, and it is only natural that he should be more devoted to that particular portion of work in which he seems to be most successful. But changes are not synonymous with reflections upon a former _regime_. A man should not be made an offender for a word. A Churchwarden should be prepared in all good faith to transfer his allegiance, if called upon so to do, from one Incumbent to another. It is no disloyalty to do so. The "King is dead; long live the King" is loyalty alike to the past and to the newly reigning Sovereign. If old customs are changed, old practices discontinued, the Churchwarden should find out by private inquiry from his Rector the why and the wherefore, and if the change is for the better he should not let love of existing practice be stereotyped into a desire of a never changing system, which may perchance easily slide into lethargy and somnolent repose. In these days it does not do merely

"Stare super antiquas vias."

Some persons I know are so constituted that they suspect the existence of a snake under every blade of grass. It is not a happy disposition either for the person who is possessed with this idiosyncrasy, or in its reflex action upon others. True charity thinketh no evil. It is far better to be over sanguine in our charitable estimate of other men's motives, even if we do sometimes ultimately find that our estimate was wrong, than to be constantly living in an atmosphere of suspicion. Suspicion and consequent mistrust often produce the very effects which otherwise would never have had any existence at all.

I have ventured to say these few words because I feel very strongly how much the ecclesiastical peace of a parish depends upon the harmonious action of the Incumbent and Churchwardens. It is not often that the case is otherwise. Generally speaking they work zealously and actively together, ready as occasion may arise to adopt, if necessary, new methods of warfare in the conflict against sin and evil as fellow-workers with the Clergy in the great work of the Church on earth.

Let me then state, as briefly as I can, some of a Churchwarden's duties.

I suppose him to be duly elected, and to have taken the declaration at the visitation either of the Bishop, the Chancellor, or the Archdeacon. It would be well that the first step should be to look to the fences of the Churchyard and the general state of the fabric of the Church--the roof, the tiles, the tower or spire, and the general fittings of the Church. If any of these are found to be seriously out of order, counsel should be at once taken with the Incumbent as to the proper course to be adopted. In these matters a stitch in time often saves nine, and though we have now no compulsory Church-rate to fall back upon for Church expenses, yet in an harmoniously worked parish there really ought to be no insurmountable difficulty in raising the sum necessary for the due repairs of the Church and for the services of the Sanctuary. Offertories and subscriptions can be made to supplement one another, and if what is necessary in the way of repair is really honestly done year by year, it will be much easier to raise the funds wanted than if by neglect and postponement a large outlay is suddenly found to be absolutely necessary in order to avoid some dreadful catastrophe.

In this general preliminary survey the state of the Churchyard will naturally come under his notice. The Churchyard is the freehold of the Incumbent, which he holds in trust for the service which it is intended to subserve. Sometimes an arrangement is made by him with the Churchwardens as to the keeping the Churchyard tidy. No doubt the Churchwardens are bound to see that the proper measures for this purpose are taken by themselves or the Incumbent. But although our Churches, speaking generally, are in good repair, yet it seems to me that in many cases sufficient attention is not paid to the keeping of the Churchyard in proper order. The days are gone by when horned cattle were allowed to find sweet pasture in the resting-place of the dead, but sheep still linger in some country districts. And there is often a temptation not always successfully resisted--when the Churchyard is large--that the crop of grass during the summer months should be allowed to grow without interference by scythe or machine, until fit to be cut for hay. But I do feel strongly that the temptation _should be_ resisted. Nothing so quickly awakens doubtful feelings in the breast of a passer-by as to the zeal, energy and devotion of the Incumbent, as a Churchyard untidy and unkempt, paths full of weeds, hedges untrimmed, grass long and straggling. Nothing, on the other hand, is so grateful to all the parishioners of a particular parish as the Churchyard well kept and looked after, the graves neat and trimmed, the whole place by its very appearance asserting its right to the title of God's Acre. I do not like to see the Parsonage garden filled with lovely flowers, and in beautiful order, while the adjoining Churchyard is starved. Let each receive the attention which is its proper due.

With regard to closed Churchyards the obligations of the Churchwardens in rural parishes with respect to maintaining and repairing closed Churchyards, wherever the expenses of such maintenance and repair are repayable out of the Poor Rate under the Burial Act, 1855, {30a} are transferred to the Parish Council. Provided that such obligations shall not in the case of any particular parish be deemed to attach, unless or until the Churchwardens subsequent to the passing of this Act shall give a certificate as in the Burial Act, 1855, provided, in order to obtain the repayment of such expenses out of the Poor Rate (sec. 6, II, _b_).

It has been decided that {30b} if a Churchyard is closed by order in Council it must be kept in order by the Churchwardens, and if it be a Cemetery formed by a Burial Board, then by the Burial Board. In the former case the expenses would, under the Local Government Act, be repaid to the Churchwardens in rural parishes by the Parish Council, on presentation of the proper certificate as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

If the Churchyard requires enlargement, and an adjoining piece of ground can be obtained, it is well to remember that a special Act has been passed (30 and 31 Vict., c. 133) for diminishing the expense connected with the consecration of ground so added to an old Churchyard. The form of conveyance is given in the Act; the powers given in the School Sites' Act "to persons being seised in fee simple, fee tail, or for life of and in any manor or lands of freehold, copyhold or customary tenure, and having the beneficial interest therein, to grant, convey, or enfranchise by way of gift, sale or exchange in fee simple, or for term of years, any quantity not exceeding one acre of such land as a site for a school" are "deemed to apply to all persons desirous of granting land for the purpose of such enlargement" (of an existing Churchyard) "in the same way as if the said land had been granted as a site for a school."

In cases in which it is wished to provide a burial ground under a burial board, the first step to be taken is for a vestry to be summoned _seven_ days before the holding of such meeting, to take the subject into consideration, and if it is agreed to proceed in the matter, a requisition to that effect must be sent to the Home Secretary, and the officials of the Home Office will send down full directions as to the mode of procedure. {32}

The following general information on this subject may be found of use:--

The enlargement of a Churchyard sometimes makes it necessary that graves should be built over, or the bodies therein contained removed to another part of the Churchyard, and it occasionally happens that the parties interested object to the former but are prepared to agree to the latter. It is well, therefore, to know that this removal can take place by faculty granted by the ordinary for that purpose without application to the Home Secretary (20 and 21 Vict., cap. 81, s. 25). When a Churchyard is closed and a cemetery has been provided under a burial board to be used for interments, the custody of the old registers belongs to the Incumbent, and he is entitled to the fees for certificates of burial previous to the closing of the Churchyard, but the custody of the registers of interments in the cemetery belongs to the chaplain or officer of the burial board. The Act 52 Geo. III., cap. 146, s. 4, requiring certificates of burials in any other place than the Churchyard of the Parish Church to be sent to the Incumbent, has been repealed as far as burials are concerned in grounds provided by the Burial Acts (20 and 21 Vict., cap. 81, s. 15).

Then I wish that it were universally acknowledged that the next step should be for a new Churchwarden to inspect the Church goods which are placed under his charge; to see that they tally accurately with the list which ought to be kept in the iron chest of all movable articles belonging to the Church in that parish. {34a} If this were universally done we should not hear, as we do now unfortunately hear from time to time, of Church goods having disappeared during a vacancy, or of registers being missing which may be absolutely invaluable. Legally speaking, the safe custody of the furniture of the Church rests upon the Churchwardens. {34b} This list should be signed by the Incumbent and Churchwardens, and kept in the parish chest, and include all movable articles of Church furniture and belongings.

There should also be a report on the fabric of the Church, mentioning the character, date, and cost of alterations made, the date of consecration; if a modern Church the Act under which built. Any specially characteristic features of the Church should be mentioned.

The inventory of Church furniture should include Church plate, with copies of inscriptions and dates, Church linen, Service books of all kinds, furniture of the vestry, ornaments for the Holy Table, special gifts, brasses, lectern, everything in short that is moveable, the bells, with inscriptions, if any, and the rules for ringers, the parish register books, with dates carefully made of the first entry in each book. If there are any gaps in the registers it is well to mention them. Benefactions should be noted; also the nature of the tenure of the parish school, with an intimation as to where the trust deed is kept. A terrier of glebe lands, with any exchange noted, should be made. There should be a table of the customary fees charged, {35} and of any payments due to the Ecclesiastical Commission or to Queen Anne's Bounty, with the amount of any receipts due from any public body. It is clear that the more complete such a list can be made the more valuable will it be for future generations.

It would also be very useful to keep in connection with this inventory a complete list of the various services held, with the amount of the offertories and the purposes to which they are devoted.

Then with regard to insurance of the fabric. It is most important that this should be looked into. There is no excuse for any Church to remain uninsured. The premium for insurance is now fixed at such a low rate that the expense is really very small, and the Churchwardens should do all in their power to persuade the Vestry, if persuasion is necessary, to sanction the insurance of the Church for a proper sum. I have sometimes found, after making enquiries on the subject and having ascertained either that the Church was not insured, or, if insured, only for a very small sum, that the churchwardens always supposed it was "all right." Very seldom have any held back from doing their duty when it has been quietly pointed out to them. An Ecclesiastical Buildings Fire Office has been established on a sound basis, the offices of which are in Norfolk Street, Strand, London. It is doing a very large business, and whatever surplus profits accrue are appropriated to the support of Church work in the various Dioceses in proportion to the amount of insurances in each, and to such special objects as are recommended by the Bishop and Archdeacons. I may also mention Mutual Fire Insurance Offices, such as the Hand-in-Hand (New Bridge Street, London, E.C.) and the County Fire (Regent Street), which are old-established offices, and which periodically return to insurers a certain amount of the premiums paid on their policies in cases in which no fire has taken place during the preceding few years. Of this I am quite certain, that if an uninsured Church were unfortunately burned down, those in the parish interested in the erection of a new Church would have the greatest possible difficulty in raising the necessary funds, in the face of such a manifest want of due caution and forethought on the part of the proper authorities in past years.

It is, perhaps, hardly necessary for me to say that a strictly accurate record of every sixpence that is spent upon these and such like matters must be kept by the Churchwardens, so that at the close of their year, when they pass on the parish books to their successors, they may be enabled to lay before them a clear and detailed account of all the receipts and expenses of the preceding year, with vouchers for all payments, and to hand over the actual balance remaining after all liabilities have been met.

It is often supposed that Church Rates are abolished. But such is not the case. _Compulsory_ Church Rates are done away with by 31 and 32 Vict., cap. 109, except in cases where the rates have been legally mortgaged, or are subject to private Acts of Parliament. Section 6, however, of the above Act states distinctly that "this Act shall not affect vestries, or the making, assessing, receiving, or otherwise dealing with any Church Rate, save in so far as relates to the recovery thereof"; and Section 9 authorises the appointment of trustees, the Incumbent, and two householders or owners or occupiers of land in the parish, to be nominated, one by the patron, the other by the Bishop of the Diocese in which the parish is situate. These trustees form a body corporate, and may, as circumstances require, pay to the Churchwardens any funds in their hands for the building, rebuilding, enlargement, and repair of any Church or Chapel, and any purpose to which, as before defined in the Act, Church Rates may be applied.

Questions are so often put to me as to the relation existing between district parishes and the mother Church, that it may be useful if a few points are mentioned with respect to which difficulties occasionally arise. The preliminaries of marriage and the solemnization of the rite itself are a fruitful source of difficulty. They have however, as a matter of fact, been set at rest by a decision in the Court of Queen's Bench, in the case of Fuller _v._ Alford, before Mr. Justice Cave and Mr. Justice Day, which affects all new parishes hitherto created, or that may hereafter be created, under the Peel and Blandford Acts. The question at issue was as to the right of the inhabitants of a district parish to have their banns published and to be married in the Church of the mother parish, and as to the right of the Incumbent of the mother parish to publish the banns, solemnise the marriage, and receive the fees for the same in the case of residents in the district parish. The case is fully reported in the _Times_ of March 9th, 1883. Mr. Justice Cave, in giving judgment for the Plaintiff, said that the Act of 1843 as well as that of 1856 (the words of the latter being clearer than those of the former) made the district a new parish for all ecclesiastical purposes, and banns of marriage might be published and marriages solemnized, and all the laws and customs then relating to them would apply to the new parish, the effect of which was that the banns must be published in the Church of the new parish. Though recent legislation had brought into prominence the civil character of the marriage contract, and had enabled it to be entered into before a Registrar, still he had no doubt that the solemnization of matrimony in a Church was within the words "ecclesiastical purposes." The inhabitants therefore of a district parish have no more right to have their banns asked or their marriage solemnised in the mother Church than they have in any other Church in England, so long as they reside in that district.

District parishes, it will be observed, are separate parishes _for Ecclesiastical purposes_. These words affect the question as to the right of the ratepaying parishioners of a new district voting for the Churchwardens of the old parish. This they have a right to do on the following ground:--The Churchwardens of an old parish have functions to perform which are rather secular than ecclesiastical. They are in some cases _ex-officio_ Overseers, and in many cases officially concerned in the management of endowed charities. The creation therefore of a district for ecclesiastical purposes does not deprive the inhabitants of the new district of the right which they had before of voting for Churchwardens in the old civil parish of which they continue to be ratepayers. The ratepayers of the _whole_ of the old parish have consequently a right to vote in vestry at the election of the Churchwardens in the old parish. The privilege, however, is not reciprocal, for the ratepayers in the old parish have no similar right of attending at the vestry and voting for Churchwardens in the new district, because they are elected "for ecclesiastical purposes" only.

It would be impossible to speak of the duties of Churchwardens without touching upon the vexed questions of pews. I suppose that if we could turn the hands of the clock back for some centuries, and were then legislating for the future of the Church with our experience of the pew system by a prophetic anachronism clearly present in our minds, we should hardly suggest for legislation such laws as would bring about the existing state of things. With the Epistle of St. James in our thoughts there are some points in our present legal system which most persons find it difficult to justify. But it is a thorny subject, and I do not want to dogmatise. It is, perhaps, just the one very point with respect to which great caution is needed, much charity, much forbearance. You cannot ride rough-shod over old prejudices, or if you do you are sure sooner or later to suffer for it. No doubt in theory (to use the words of the Bishop of Carlisle) the Churchwardens, as the officers of the ordinary, have, subject to him, the sole appointment and arrangement of the seats. They are to act to the best of their judgment, and without favour, to the best advantage of all. {43} And for the most part, in new Churches, this arrangement works well. Either by agreement of the heads of the parish the Church is declared to be in the popular sense of the term "free and open," which is perhaps on the whole the best of all or else by mutual forbearance and general co-operation an arrangement is arrived at by which the worshippers in Church have from time to time seats allotted to them.