[Bell Historians] Peculiar Churches.

[John Camp]

At 16:02 on 26 December 2006, David Bryant wrote:
> From Wikipedia:

<snip>

These are all said to be royal peculiars (though I actually have doubts
about some of them, despite 'Wikipedia' and other sources). There are
other sorts of peculiar, also. There was an article on the subject by
Paul Barber (the lawyer, not the retired bishop) in the 'Journal of the
Ecclesiastical Law Society' in 1995, but I can't lay my hands on it at
present.

I did some research on the subject while trying to ascertain the status
of the chapel of St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton (where I was then
chaplain), which my predecessor had always claimed was a peculiar. I
concluded (with the agreement of the Diocesan Registrar) that it was an
extra-parochial place, though, as it seemed that no-one had ever got
round to consecrating it, it wasn't a peculiar. Still, it did enable me
to tell the bishop (who was, I have to say, a good bloke) that he
couldn't tell me what to do. But I think he knew that anyway.

John Camp