Support for listed places of worship in England

On Thursday, DCMS announced that from the beginning of the new financial year  the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme will be replaced by a new Places of Worship Renewal Fund, the scope of which will be England only. We posted on it here – and revised the post three times in the course of that day as further information became available.

There are about 21,000 listed places of worship in the UK, of which about two-thirds are in England. On that basis, the figures would suggest that the effect of the change for England is broadly neutral; however, Sir Philip Rutnam, Chair of the National Churches Trust, expressed concern that

“in future listed places of worship will have to bear the full cost of VAT on repairs. This brings to an end a system that has operated successfully for over 20 years. It means that in future local people will have to raise money not just to repair roofs and towers but to pay a 20 per cent tax to the Government.”

The precise terms on which the Places of Worship Renewal Fund will operate have not yet been published: we will report on them in detail as and when they become available.

Imam sentenced for conducting under-age wedding

BBC News reports that an imam who conducted an illegal wedding ceremony for two 16-year-olds has been given a suspended prison sentence. Ashraf Osmani told Northampton Crown Court that he had been unaware that the law had changed nine months earlier, raising the minimum marriage age in England to 18. He had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of causing a child to marry at Northampton Central Mosque in November 2023. Choudhury J accepted that there had been no “violence or coercion” involved and that the teenagers had gone to Osmani “entirely of their own volition”, and sentenced him to 15 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months. The Crown Prosecution Service comments here.

John Smyth again

In reply to a written question from Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme, Lab) about lessons the Church of England has learned from the case of John Smyth QC, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Marsha De Cordova, said this:

“The Church of England commissioned the Makin Review into the historic abuse surrounding John Smyth, which was published 7th November 2024 and can be found here.

Following the publication of the Makin Review, a task and finish group was established, which most recently produced a progress report for the February meeting of the General Synod.

The work in this area remains a high priority and is regularly reviewed. It is expected to publish its next progress report ahead of the July 2026 sitting of the General Synod.”

Makin Review: further conclusions

On 21 January, the Church of England issued the Press Release The Makin review: Clergy Discipline Measure outcomes, which stated that allegations of misconduct made under the CDM against two clerics named in the Makin report will not proceed to a tribunal. In the case of the Ven Roger Combes, a former Archdeacon of Horsham, who retired in 2014, the President of Tribunals, Sir Stephen Males, decided that there was “no case for the respondent to answer”; he also declined an application to bring an out-of-time complaint against a former chair of the Titus Trust, the Revd Iain Broomfield. [The CDM Determination on the Ven Roger Combes is here].

Appointment of a Chancellor for the Diocese of Hereford

The Bishop of Hereford is seeking to appoint a new Diocesan Chancellor with effect from July 2026. Further details can be found on the diocesan website.

Quick links

• General Synod Papers – February 2026: Outline of business and agenda, aspects of which will be covered in separate posts.
• Shiranikha Herbert, Church Times: Rector and diocese penalised for deliberately breaching faculty condition: on Re St Mary’s Doverdale [2025] ECC Wor 1, in which Summers Dep Ch pointed out at [22] that “In the most serious of cases, those who are in contempt of the Consistory Court may be referred by that court to the High Court, which may investigate and punish those breaches as if they were a contempt of the High Court, which can result in a fine or imprisonment.” (Note that the Deputy Chancellor, in relation to the Petitioner, an ordained priest, concluded: “what disciplinary steps, if any, should follow, is entirely a matter for the diocesan authorities to consider” [30]).
• Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource: Faith Card: guidance on some of the most commonly-observed aspects of death and dying practices across a range of faiths represented in the UK.