Following our review 2024 “top ten” posts, we have looked at the most-viewed “named posts” in the first four months of 2025[1]; those listed below are summarized at the end of this post, here.
Comment
The above posts reflect the current interests of readers, the majority of these being published after January 2025. Whilst information on “Parochial Fees” and “Churches, Minsters and Cathedrals” is frequently sought, a surprise was the peaks in readership for the 2017 post on the funeral arrangements for the “Moors Murderer” Ian Brady [2].
Nevertheless, the “top ten” posts, which attracted between 500 and 1,799 views, represent only about 20% of the total for this time period. Overall, interest was shown in 493 individual posts [3] which suggests the use of the blog as a general resource for information in this area.
At the time of posting, Law and Religion UK had been viewed 68,900 times during 2025 and we expect the 3 million page-read milestone to be reached by mid-August 2025.
Wheat bread and fermented wine at Holy Communion? The origins of Canon B17, In a guest post, the Revd Professor Andrew Atherstone, a member of the General Synod’s House of Clergy, reviews the origins of Canon B17 and summarises the Convocation debates of the 1940s and 1950s which led to its current framing; he concludes by proposing that Synod should look again at this question for the changed world of the 2020s, (17 February 2025).
Makin Review: Summary of Recommendations, The independent review led by Keith Makin into the Church of England’s handling of allegations of serious abuse by the late John Smyth was published on 7 November 2024. The 253-page Review includes eight Key Recommendations [Review paragraph numbers in black] and twenty seven Specific Recommendations directed at particular concerns [numbered in blue], (13 November 2024).
A heckler’s veto on Christian street preaching in the UK, a guest post by Kelly-Ann Cannon, Senior Lecturer in Law at Northampton University, looks at some recent cases on street preaching, (29 February 2025).
When executors disagree on funeral arrangements: Patel, a dispute between his children about the funeral arrangements for Bhikhubhai Rambhai Patel, a widower who died in December 2024. At a subsequent hearing, HHJ Matthews refused permission to appeal: Patel v Patel [2025] EWHC 620 (Ch), (14 March 2025).
Churches, Minsters and Cathedrals, Legal distinctions between the designation of Church of England churches: during his visit to Hull on 7 November, the then Archbishop of York announced that Holy Trinity church would be re-dedicated as a Minster “in recognition of its inspiring regeneration, physically and spiritually”. To many Anglicans as well as non-Anglicans, the “Minster” designation is confusing, since it is applied to a range of buildings from some of smallest places of worship, such as St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, N Yorks, to York Minster, the largest gothic cathedral in northern Europe, (17 November 2016).
Church of England Parochial Fees 2025, the annual summary of parochial fees for the forthcoming year, (5 December 2024).
Withdrawal of candidate for Durham See: the Crown Nominations Commission for Durham met and nominated a candidate for the See of Durham, with interviews taking place in November 2024; however, the candidate decided to withdraw from the nomination. (17 February 2025).
Scattering Ian Brady’s ashes (updated): the inquest into the death of the remaining “Moors Murderer”, Ian Brady, commenced on 16 May 2017 and the BBC reported that his ashes would not to be scattered at Saddleworth Moor, the burial place of many of their victims. Senior coroner Christopher Sumner is reported as saying that “he knew he did not have the legal power to make such a request but believed it was the ‘correct moral judgement’”, (17 May 2017).
Clergy Discipline Measure – Index: coverage of the CDM by L&RUK, (25 February 2025).
Unprofessional conduct vs freedom of religious expression: Leger: in R (Leger) v Secretary of State for Education [2025] EWHC 665 (Admin), Ms Gladwys Leger was a teacher at Bishop Justus Church of England School [5]. She is “a born-again ‘conservative’ Roman Catholic” who believes that biological sex is immutable and should not be tampered with and that sexual relationships should only exist within a marriage between a man and a woman [8]. She brought a claim arising from her dismissal from the school, (24 March 2025).
[1] i.e. those other than the “Home Page”, “Archives”, and “Index”.
[2] Two peaks: March (250 views) and April (204 views).
[3] The average readership for these posts was 123.
I am surprised to see the popularity (if you can call it that) of the post about the ashes of Ian Brady. Could it be the result of enthusiastic searches for the name Makin, associated with the John Smyth scandal?
So was I!