Consistory Court

Each diocese has a court which exercises control over any changes to certain types of church land and buildings, including many churches and churchyards. This is known as the 'consistory court' (or, in Canterbury diocese, the 'commissary court'). Its principal day-to-day function is issuing faculties — the permissions required for physical and other changes to consecrated buildings and land.

The court is headed by a judge called the chancellor. Each consistory court is presided over by a judge known as the 'chancellor' who is appointed by the diocesan Bishop, having been approved by the Lord Chancellor. Chancellors are part-time judges, paid at statutory rates, and are required to meet broadly the same eligibility criteria as circuit judges in the secular courts. A chancellor must by law be a communicant member of the Church of England, and on appointment takes both the ordinary judicial oath and an additional oath confirming belief in the Christian faith as set out in Church formularies.

Appeals from the consistory court are heard, depending on the subject matter, by the Court of Arches (Province of Canterbury) or the Chancery Court (Province of York), with matters of doctrine, ritual or ceremonial going instead to the rarely-convened Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved. Allegations of clergy misconduct are handled separately, through bishops' disciplinary tribunals rather than the consistory court itself.