“Contested heritage”: further considerations in Re Dorchester St Peter

In addition to developments relating to “contested heritage”* within the Church of England, there have been a number of consistory court judgments in which this has received judicial consideration. On this blog, we have had guest posts by Trevor Cooper and Simon Hunter which reviewed the Church’s guidance on “contested heritage” and explored “the inherent contests of heritage, and on Rustat” respectively.

The judgment in Re Dorchester St Peter, Holy Trinity and All Saints [2022] ECC Sal 4 was the culmination of initiatives within the parish concerning a monument to John Gordon in St Peter’s church, [9] to [17]. Arlow Ch clarified at [9] that:

“Many will assume that this petition is a response to the Black Lives Matter movement which gave rise to global anti-racism protests after the murder of George Floyd…it is clear from the evidence before me that this church community has been considering and working towards some resolution of these issues for much longer.” Continue reading