A WOMAN whose deceased husband was born into the Jewish faith has been refused a faculty to introduce a Star of David on his memorial within a Church of England churchyard.

While people of any faith may be buried in a Christian churchyard, provided they lived in the parish at the time of their death or had obtained permission from the incumbent, the PCC, or the court, the only symbol that was permitted in a Christian churchyard was a Christian symbol.

The right to burial of a parishioner should not be confused with an untrammelled right to any sort of memorial or inscription on it. That supposed right did not exist, the Consistory Court of the diocese of Norwich ruled, when refusing to grant a faculty to permit a Star of David to be introduced on top of a memorial stone in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Shotesham.

The petition for a faculty was brought by Laura Wollacott, whose husband, Raz, died of motor-neurone disease (MND). He was born into the Jewish faith, but not brought up strictly within it. The family, however, celebrated Jewish customs and traditions. A menorah had always been displayed in his home, and it had eventually been handed down to him and held a special place and meaning to his family.

He joined a kibbutz as a young man, and, for a time after he returned, he began attending synagogue, becoming a significant figure who carried the scrolls. Subsequently, he became attracted to the Quaker faith and was a campaigner against nuclear armament, landmines, and other causes. But he retained his links to his Jewish identity, and his Jewish descent was well known.

After considerable thought during his struggle with MND, he came to the conclusion that he wished to have a Christian funeral service, and expressed views about how he wished it to be conducted. The funeral service was held at St Mary’s, Shotesham, and it fully celebrated his life and background.

The Chancellor, the Worshipful David Etherington, said that he appreciated the significance given to the Star of David and the interfaith emphasis that formed part of the funeral. But the Chancellor said that, unfortunately, that did not mean that those of other faiths, or whose ancestry or culture involved other faiths, were able to display those symbols in a Christian churchyard.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all monotheistic religions worshipping one God, but their specific beliefs were different, the Chancellor said. A Christian cross on a headstone in a Jewish cemetery or the Jewish section of a cemetery, might well be viewed as improper, whatever its motivation.

The Jewish religion and Christianity were intimately connected, but they were not the same religion, and they had conflicting beliefs. The fact that the Star of David featured sometimes in churches and cathedrals, often in stained glass, was testament to that shared history, and part of the telling of that story. A religious symbol on a tombstone was understood to be there to declare the deceased’s faith. Symbols for other purposes, religious or secular, were not ordinarily permitted in memorials.

The Chancellor also referred to another case ([2017] ECC SEI 3) in which a Jewish RAF pilot, Harold Rosofsky, who was killed in September 1939 when his plane crashed due to mechanical failure, was buried in a churchyard, and a standard War Graves memorial was erected with an engraved cross. The confusion had occurred because the RAF pilot officer had been carrying a card identifying him as a Christian. That was because it had been intended that he should fly over Germany. The reason for having been given a Christian card to fly over Germany at that time “does not require explanation”, the Chancellor said.

In that case, a faculty was granted in March 2017 for the Christian cross to be replaced by a Star of David, owing to the very exceptional circumstances, including the fact that Rosofsky died in the service of this country. That case was “on any view highly exceptional”, the Chancellor said.

In the present case, there was no exceptional reason for departing from the normal rules, and the faculty was refused. The Chancellor hoped that some other way could be found, such as an appropriate verse from the Old Testament, to convey the deceased’s Jewish descent and identity.