Caring for your church – news, advice and more. Sent to all Clergy, Readers, ALMs, LLMs, Churchwardens, Treasurers and Deanery Lay Chairs.
In this Issue: As we prepare through Advent to celebrate the coming of Christ, it’s also good to be prepared in practical ways in our care of the church buildings that host our worship, celebration and outreach. This Bulletin’s theme is “Be Prepared” and we also offer some information about making processes simpler.
1. Information
- New Additional Matters Orders
- Electric Heating Systems AMO
- Third-party hiring of churches and halls within faculty jurisdiction AMO and Guidance on Hiring
- Scaffolding in churchyards AMO
- St Albans Churchyard Regulations
- Volunteers – stories/photos wanted
- Survey: internet connectivity in churches
- New Faculty Application Fee
2. Training and Resources
- Carbon Literacy Training – One Day Workshop
- Be prepared!
- Churchwardens training – Church Buildings and Churchyards
3. Environment
- Broken Heating?
- New Historic England advice on flooding and historic buildings
4. Maintaining your building
- Recommended monthly tasks
- Damp in churches
- Ecclesiastical Insurance Forensic Marking
5. Grants and Funding
- Quick Wins
- Accessibility Grants
- House of good – local
6. Good news stories
- Meppershall celebrates
- Congratulations to St John, Royston
7. Upcoming Events
- Christmas Tree Festivals
With thanks for all you do to maintain our wonderful churches as places where people can encounter God, parishes can reach out in mission and local communities can be transformed.
The DAC Team
Emma Critchley, DAC Secretary
Ann Wise, Historic Church Buildings Support Officer
Seamus McGibbon, Pastoral and Closed Churches Officer
Tom Abraham, Net Zero Carbon Officer
Mayra Shaw, Team Secretary – Church Buildings
Liz West, Church Buildings Maintenance Officer
Richard Jackson, Local Church Income Support Officer
1. Information
New Additional Matters Orders
You may wonder what an Additional Matters Order is and why you need to know.
The Faculty Rules include national lists of minor matters that don’t need a faculty. These are divided into List A – very minor matters that do not need any ecclesiastical permission, subject to specified conditions; and List B – items which are generally uncontentious but which need light-touch consultation with the DAC to ensure the work is appropriate for a particular church building, and which the Archdeacon then authorises in writing.
These national lists can’t cover everything and diocesan Chancellors have power to issue Additional Matters Orders covering matters that arise in their diocese. We already have several AMOs in the Diocese of St Albans, covering things ranging from replacement vestments and below-ground investigation to filming in churches and churchyards.
We have been working with our Chancellor and the Diocesan Registry team to develop four more AMOs which are all expected to come into effect early next year, subject to the Chancellor’s final approval. Each AMO sets out works that may be undertaken without a faculty provided specified conditions are met. In some cases that may include having written permission from the archdeacon (as for List B), following a template agreement or, in the case of churchyard memorials, seeking permission from the parish priest using the CR1 or CR2 application form.
1. Electric Heating Systems AMO 1-2025
This new AMO simplifies the permissions required for installing electric radiant (infrared) heaters subject to certain considerations, and agreement from your professional advisor. The order also simplifies the permissions for installing heat pump driven fan convector units in churches that already have fan convectors, and the installation of the external elements of heat-pumps on unlisted churches not in a conservation area (but you may still need planning permission for the external units).
2. Third-party hiring of churches and halls within faculty jurisdiction AMO and Guidance on Hiring (coming soon)
This is similar to the much-used AMO on Filming in Churches and Churchyards in offering Guidance on matters the PCC should consider for successful hiring of the church or hall, as well as an AMO that provides a framework allowing scope for many hiring arrangements to be put in place without a faculty. The Guidance covers matters such as safeguarding, licensing and insurance as well as practical matters to prepare a space for hiring, such as providing public Wi-Fi and the option for hirers to play music using a Bluetooth speaker. The Guidance explains when another permission will be needed and includes some examples of third-party hiring activities already taking place in our churches, so if you don’t currently have any hirers of your church or hall, you may like to start a discussion in your PCC. It’s worth noting that permission under the AMO is only needed for third-party hiring – all the brilliant activities you already run as a church (under the control of the PCC) for mission, outreach and community support are simply part of the PCC’s main purposes, but do have a look at the Guidance to check you’re following good practice.
3. Scaffolding in churchyards AMO 2-2025
This AMO provides a light-touch process for allowing a neighbour to have scaffolding erected on the churchyard for a limited period to do work to their own property.
4. St Albans Churchyard Regulations (coming soon)
As you may have read, Diocesan Chancellors have been reviewing the legal framework for each diocese’s churchyard regulations and the range of provisions made by existing regulations. They have recommended that each Chancellor re-issues churchyard regulations under an AMO and they have provided template regulations which Chancellors may choose to follow.
In this diocese, we undertook a comprehensive review of the churchyard regulations from 2015-2019, including consultation with Rural/Area Deans, parish clergy, funeral directors and monumental masons. Our Chancellor issued revised Regulations in 2020 and we published the Churchyards Handbook – Guide for Families in 2021. The Chancellor therefore wishes to republish the Churchyard Regulations, Handbook and forms CR1 and CR1 with only minor changes for clarity or consistency with the national template.
Volunteers – stories/photos wanted
Steppingley – volunteers serving at community
Each and every church volunteer is a hero. But we need to do more to celebrate the volunteers who look after church buildings, help in the kitchen at events, clean the silver candlesticks, create stunning floral displays, decorate the Christmas tree or clear the gutters and drains. In order to do this we need YOUR help! Please send Ann photographs of your volunteers in action, tell her (and the rest of the DAC team) about how crucial volunteers are to your church; why do they turn up every week in all weathers – a few sentences in their own words would be very welcome!
Survey: internet connectivity in churches
The Church of England’s Digital team is gathering data on how many churches don’t yet have an internet connection. Please consider taking five minutes to complete a short survey by 30 November. Your feedback is essential to help build a national picture. Thank you for your support!
New Faculty Application Fee
Please note that from the 1 January 2026 the current statutory Faculty application fee will be changing from £342.60 to £362.40. This fee is payable by the applicant for private applications e.g. for a non standard churchyard memorial. The statutory application fee continues to be paid by the DBF through the Common Fund for PCC applications for proposed works to the church and churchyard.
You can find the updated forms in the website:
2. Training Resources
Carbon Literacy Training – One Day Workshop: Monday 15 December
Places are still available for our free one day workshop on Monday 15 December!
Spend the day with Emma and Tom at the Knebworth Parish Rooms and learn about the practical steps you can take to implement change individually and with your church community. The day will equip each participant to understand the issues and ideas on how to present the need for action to people with differing awareness and views. The workshop begins at 9.15am and will end around 4.40pm. Hot drinks will be available, please bring your own mug and packed lunch. You will be sent some pre-workshop reading the week before. This course is accredited by the Carbon Literacy Trust.
Churchwardens training – Church Buildings and Churchyards
Resources from the recent churchwardens training sessions led by Archdeacon Janet with members of the DAC team will shortly be available on our website at:
Be prepared!
We hope it never happens but what if there was an emergency at your church? What if the church flooded, or a storm damaged the roof and everything below? Ann is once again running her online Emergency Planning sessions. The weather isn’t nice at the moment and rumour has it that its not going to be hot and sunny over the winter so more sessions are available and usually last around 50 minutes.
The dates and times are:
Monday 1 December – 2pm
Thursday 4 December – 7pm
Friday 5 December – 10am
Saturday 6 December – 10am
Monday 8 December – 2pm
Thursday 11 December – 10am
To book please email Ann and select which one you’d like to attend. Once booked you will receive a link to your chosen session. Places are limited for each date so that the sessions are informal and gives everyone the chance to contribute to the discussion.
3. Environment
Broken Heating?
Please let us know if your heating system breaks down as we may be able to help with advice and/or temporary heating. Also have a look at our advice, Help! Our boiler has broken down!
New Historic England advice on flooding and historic buildings
Historic England recently published advice on flooding and traditional buildings. The advice is available see link below. A reminder that further advice is available on the climate resilient church pages of the Church of England website.
4. Maintaining your building
Recommended monthly tasks
Major restoration and improvement projects are important but routine checks and maintenance with small ‘stitch in time’ repairs are equally vital. They have proved excellent value for money, preventing much greater damage and costs in the future.
The tasks for the next few months, taken from SPAB’s maintenance calendar are on our website check the link below.
Damp in churches
We have undertaken some research into the causes of damp in churches and to understand whether the type of heating system makes any difference to the prevalence of damp (spoiler alert: it doesn’t). You can read more about the findings in this blog post from the Net Zero Carbon Officer.
Ecclesiastical Insurance Forensic Marking
Ecclesiastical Insurance have asked us to publicise their policy and guidance on forensic marking (e.g. SmartWater).
“Our stance on SmartWater can be summarised as follows:
- Cover is subject to external metal being protected and registered by SmartWater or an alternative forensic marking system that has been approved by us.
- It is a policy condition of Ecclesiastical for theft of metal cover that:
- SmartWater (or an acceptable alternative forensic marking solution) is applied to all external metals
- It is registered with the supplier – Ecclesiastical will meet the registration fee for SmartWater as part of our partnership with the company
- Accompanying signage is displayed prominently to act as a deterrent to thieves
If this policy condition is not met, churches are not covered for theft or attempted theft of metal or the damage caused by metal theft.
It is important to note that there is no cover for theft or attempted theft of metal and the subsequent damage whilst scaffolding is erected at your premises unless agreed by us.”
Relevant guidance from Ecclesiastical can be found at the links below:
SmartWater for churches | Risk Management | Ecclesiastical
Theft of metal | Church guidance note | Ecclesiastical
Theft of metal checklist for churches | Church security guidance | Ecclesiastical
Church security | Church guidance | Ecclesiastical
5. Grants and Funding
Quick Wins Grant
We’re pleased to share that the Net Zero Quick Wins Grant scheme funded by the National Church has been rolled over into the next triennium. The remaining funds are now limited, but additional funding from the National Church is expected to be available in the new year. You can complete your expression of interest to start your application here:
Applications will then be assessed based on available funds.
Accessibility Grants
Following the sale of the Alban Neve Centre, formerly a centre for deaf people, which closed a number of years ago, part of the sale proceeds has been allocated to provide new Accessibility Grants to parishes. The application form and guidelines for Accessibility Grants are now available on the diocesan website.
These grants are designed to support projects in parishes to provide adjustments to facilitate leadership by those who are deaf and disabled. It is a requirement that all those making an application have first discussed the proposed project with the DAC team and the relevant Archdeacon.
The House of Good – Local
The National Churches Trust has developed the House of Good – Local calculator. This tool can highlight the crucial role your church plays in supporting local people as well as strengthen your case for fundraising, motivate volunteers, and contribute to the future planning of your church’s mission.
The calculator works out the social, economic and wellbeing value of your church by using information taken from nine questions about activities at your building. Once you have the data, you should be able to complete The House of Good: Local calculator in under 30 minutes. Fuller explanation and examples on link below:
6. Good news stories
Meppershall celebrates
We mentioned in the September Bulletin that the congregation of St Mary’s, Meppershall planned to hold a special service to celebrate the completion of the church’s big restoration project. For a write up and some fantastic photographs of the project go to:
Congratulations to St John, Royston
After years of hard work to recover from the terrible fire that destroyed the interior of the church we are thrilled that St John’s has finally been removed from the Heritage At Risk Register. You may have seen coverage on local television if not read the full story here:
7. Upcoming Events
Christmas Tree Festivals
It’s that time of year when we wish good luck to all the churches within the Diocese that will be holding a Christmas Tree Festival at some point leading up to Christmas. Some are well established and now an integral part of their community’s festivities; for others it may be for the first time they are being held. The main thing is to have fun – go mad with the tinsel, over cater the mince pies, turn on the fairy lights and welcome your visitors! Don’t forget to keep everyone safe including remembering to cover trailing leads, securing the trees to stop them falling over, and making sure all homemade cakes and biscuits are clearly labelled that they weren’t made in allergen free kitchens. Good luck – please send us (via Ann) photographs!
Best wishes for Advent, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
