THE Consistory Court of the diocese of Sodor & Man has granted a retrospective faculty giving permission for the installation of a series of sculptures in the grounds of St German’s Cathedral, Peel, on the Isle of Man, including some that depicted an identifiable living individual.

St German’s Cathedral is both the diocesan cathedral and the parish church of the cathedral parish. The petitioners applying for the retrospective faculty were the Dean, the Very Revd Nigel Godfrey, and two wardens of the parish.

In 2012, a faculty had been granted for the landscaping of the cathedral grounds, including 14 gardens depicting developments in the island’s history from the time of St German (fifth century) to the 20th century. Although the 2012 faculty authorised the landscaping of all the gardens, it did not permit the erection of sculptures.

The sculptures were introduced during the last decade and were visited by the Princess Royal in 2019 in her capacity as patron of the development of the cathedral. The installation of the sculptures came to the notice of the Registrar, who was based in York, only when a post appeared on Facebook in July 2022.

That Facebook post was by a young man who had been the model for sculptures commemorating the development of education in the Isle of Man. He posted photographs of him with two sculptures of his head. The Registrar then invited Dean Godfrey to apply for a retrospective faculty.

The Worshipful W. Howard Connell, Vicar-General and Chancellor of the diocese of Sodor & Man, asked the Dean, as the lead applicant for the retrospective faculty, to explain why the application was being made retrospectively, and why the sculptures included a representation of a living person.

Dean Godfrey made several points about religious art generally. He pointed out that in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo had used real people as models, and had included some who had been still alive. He also referred to Stanley Spencer’s Last Supper, which was commissioned for a private chapel in Bourne End, but a copy of it had hung for many years in the church of Holy Trinity, Cookham, in Berkshire. The graveyard of Holy Trinity, Cookham featured in Spencer’s The Cookham Resurrection.

The first question for determination by the Consistory Court was whether the introduction of the sculptures would cause harm to the cathedral as a listed building. On that issue, the Vicar-General decided that the inclusion of the sculptures and other structures in the cathedral grounds did not adversely affect the setting of the cathedral. The Department of Food and Agriculture had already approved the installation of the statues and other structures before their installation, and the “ecclesiastical exemption” did not apply in the Isle of Man.

The Vicar-General said that he, too, was satisfied that the introduction of the sculptures enhanced the setting of the cathedral. He said that “in an increasingly secular society”, the sculptures helped “visitors to understand the evolution of Christianity in the Island and the role of the church both in proclaiming the good news and in addressing the atrocities of the 20th century, including the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide”.

On the question of the depiction of living individuals, the Vicar-General accepted that there were instances of their depiction in Anglican buildings. The display of Spencer’s Last Supper in Holy Trinity, Cookham was one of them.

On the other hand, there were instances of congregations and their officers objecting to depictions of living individuals. For example, in the 18th century, the wardens of St Stephen Walbrook objected to the placing in the church by the Rector, Dr Thomas Wilson, of a statue of his friend the celebrated historian, Catherine Macauley; one of the grounds of objection was that she was still alive.

It was evident, the Vicar-General said, “that there was a significant body of opinion that depicting a living individual in a consecrated place in order to commemorate them was inappropriate.”

In considering whether to refuse to allow the sculptures of the boy’s head as a living individual, however, the Vicar-General was “satisfied that they were not intended to commemorate him as an individual but rather use his head as representative of a typical Manx schoolchild”.

On the question of retrospection, the Vicar-General found it “particularly regrettable that the Dean, who was involved in the application for the 2012 faculty, did not see fit to seek approval for the . . . statuary before undertaking” them. But the Vicar-General said that that should not influence his decision.

There was a clear case for the approval of the installation of the sculptures within the consecrated part of the cathedral grounds, he said, and a faculty was issued to authorise them.

It was ordered that the petitioners, rather than the Diocesan Board of Finance, must bear the costs of the application for the retrospective faculty. The Registry’s cost of £256.76 including VAT was to be paid by the petitioners within 28 days.