THE General Synod voted overwhelmingly to accept the Parochial Fees Order 2026 and keep burial fees as they stood at present. A series of amendments had enabled the Synod to reject a proposed one-off increase of £1000 in burial fees.
The vote came after an almost three-hour debate on the Friday morning, in which 20 pages of amendments were considered. The proposal arose out of a fringe meeting at the Synod last July, at which it was suggested that parochial fees relating to a body or cremated remains in a churchyard were out of line with the fees charged for woodland burials. Archbishops’ Council staff researched a range of fees for these and for local-authority burials.
It consequently proposed a Parochial Fees Order for the next five years, to help many rural churches with open churchyards, and to bring Church of England burial fees more in line with those in other settings. Under the new order, burial of a body in a churchyard immediately after a service in church would be £1390; the cost of burial on a separate occasion would be £1425.
CHURCH HOUSE YOUTUBEAmanda Robbie (Lichfield)
The Archbishops’ Council had an open mind on the matter, Carl Hughes, who chairs the Finance Committee, said. Introducing the motion, he said that he would like the Synod to come to a decision that day. He reiterated later the “slight irony” that there was “no pressure from the Archbishops’ Council to increase burial fees. . . Not increasing would be no problem to us.”
The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, straightaway asked for an adjournment. There was an intense debate to be had about the level of fees, the philosophical questions about how fees should be set, and deeper issues about the accessibility of occasional offices to low-income communities; but this was not the way to do it.
“I do not believe that we will resolve these issues by countless amendments on the floor of the Synod,” he said. “All that will do is take all day, push important matters of business out of the Synod and result in the most terrible mess.”
His procedural motion was lost.
Amanda Robbie (Lichfield) said that the rise in fees would be “embarrassing, indefensible. . . It’s a holy calling, an opportunity to stand alongside the grieving. It would decimate our ministry. It’s a really bad idea.”
Canon Ian Flintoft (Newcastle) said that much church growth had come from funerals. How was he to face longstanding members of his congregation?
In a maiden speech, Canon Amanda Barraclough (Sheffield) believed that this would make the pastoral burden much heavier. She did not think that the presumption of equivalence in fees was accurate. “The gospel is free, isn’t it?” asked Sandra Turner (Chelmsford).
The first of a series of amendments from the Revd Jonathan Macy (Southwark), seeking to limit the terms of the Fees Order for one year, to allow time to gather data, was lost.
An amendment by Robin Lunn (Worcester) sought a compromise in an annual £200 increase for the five-year period instead of a single £1000 increase. “We are better than this,” he said. “We are in danger here of a cost-of-dying crisis. It’s morally wrong.” The amendment lapsed.
An amendment by John Mason (Chester), which sought to ensure that when there was a decrease in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), there would be a corresponding decrease in the amount of the base figure or fee rather than a freeze, was also lost.
The complex series of grouped amendments that followed, brought by Mr Macy, Mrs Robbie, Canon Nick Moir (Ely), Nigel Bacon (Lincoln), the Archdeacon of London, the Ven. Luke Miller (London), and Dr Ian Johnston (Portsmouth), in principal subtracted £1000 from each of the base burial fees in the Order as they applied to variations in burials or lawful disposal of cremated remains, and substituted the new figure, and were methodically voted on in turn.
Speakers throughout the long debate were exercised about the proposed rise. The Revd Paul Benfield (Blackburn) had had more responses to this issue than to any other other issue ever, “even Living in Love and Faith. It’s pastorally inept and would cause great damage to our work in the parishes of this land,” he said.
Michaela Suckling (Sheffield), a parish nurse, warned of the ongoing consequences of not supporting people’s needs and suggested that the Church “look creatively at ways to look after churchyards”. Canon Vincent Whitworth (Manchester) reflected:, “It costs money to look after churchyards. It costs pain if we don’t. We have the largest graveyard in Bolton. It’s a huge undertaking to maintain it. We do need money to look after graveyards.”
Clive Scowen (London) was not alone in saying that the matter was bigger than the Fees Order. “Synod should debate what it actually wants. It should look at the legislation and see whether fees were even appropriate.”
The Revd Dr Catherine Shelley (Leeds) is the vicar of a town parish with four churchyards. “The majority of a funeral cost was for the funeral director, and the matter should also be considered in that context,” she said. “Keep the fees low, but look longer-term at how we maintain our churchyards.”
Canon Andrew Dotchin (St Edmundsbury & Ipswich) believed grief to be “stolen” when people opted for direct cremation. “I wish we could do this for free,” he said. “People during Covid-19 couldn’t attend them. Now, we don’t bother.” He urged the Synod to “vote for all amendments which will keep fees as they are or abolish them altogether”.
So much happened in a churchyard space, where many people, not all churchgoers, found a place for spiritual reflection, the Revd Andrew Yates (Truro) said. The Revd Dr Ruth Howlett-Shipley (Salisbury) had 14 rural churchyards, 13 of them open. “Funeral ministry is a very significant ministry opportunity, which we would hate to lose. Everyone who lives and dies in my parish has the right to be buried in the churchyard.”
The funeral business was now a crowded market, and the C of E was not the only place to go, the Revd Joy Mawdesley (Oxford) said. She mentioned the big rise in direct cremations and reminded the Synod: “Cost often dictates choices.”
The Revd Dr Jo Kershaw (Universities and TEIs) observed that the Church of Scotland did not charge funeral fees. “I’m rather tired of being ashamed about [charging],” she said.
The Archbishop of York was pleased with and supportive of the amendments: “The time has come for us at the very least to step back and do a rethink of these things.”
The Bishop of Birkenhead, the Rt Revd Julie Conalty (Northern Suffragans), was prepared to “support any amendment if it will keep the fee down. Support this amendment,” she urged Synod in the latter stages. “[Otherwise] I may be forced to sell indulgences.”
At 85, David Ashton (Leeds) admitted “a keen interest in what we’re debating”.
In light of the strength of feeling about fees, a need was expressed for legislative changes to the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986 itself. The Synod voted in favour of the amended Order by 262-3 with five recorded abstentions. The draft order would now be referred to the Archbishops’ Council.
Mr Hughes praised the Synod for its “patience and perseverance”.
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