Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963

2 Judge of consistory court.E

(1)Subject to the following provisions of this Measure, the consistory court of a diocese shall be presided over by a single judge who shall be styled the chancellor of the diocese or, in the case of the diocese of Canterbury, the commissary general, and appointed by the bishop thereof by letters patent.

[F1(1A)Before appointing a person to be chancellor of a diocese the bishop shall consult the Lord Chancellor and the Dean of the Arches and Auditor.]

(2)A person appointed to be chancellor of a diocese shall be at least thirty years old and either a [F2person who has a 7 year general qualification, within the meaning of section 71 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990,]or a person who has held high judicial office, and, before appointing a layman, the bishop shall satisfy himself that the person to be appointed is a communicant.

F3(3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(4)Subject to the provisions of [F4subsections (3) and (4A) of this section], the appointment of a person to be chancellor of a diocese shall be [F5for the period beginning with the date of the appointment and ending with the date on which he attains the age [F6at which a Circuit judge is obliged to vacate that office]], but he—

(a)may resign his office by instrument in writing under his hand addressed to, and served on, the bishop of the diocese;

(b)may be removed by that bishop if the Upper House of the Convocation of the relevant province resolves that he is incapable of acting or unfit to act.

[F7(c)may continue to act as chancellor for the purpose of any proceedings or cause of faculty in the consistory court of the diocese during the course of which he attains the age [F6at which a Circuit judge is obliged to vacate that office] as if the date of the conclusion in that court of those proceedings or that cause, as the case may be, were the date on which he attains that age.]

[F8(4A)Where the bishop of a diocese considers it desirable in the interests of the diocese to retain the chancellor of the diocese in office after the time at which he would otherwise retire in accordance with subsection (4) above, he may from time to time authorise the continuance in office of the chancellor until such date, not being later than the date on which the chancellor attains the age at which a puisne judge of the High Court is obliged to vacate that office, as he thinks fit.]

(5)The chancellor of a diocese shall, before he enters on the execution of his office,—

(a)take and subscribe, either before the bishop of the diocese in the presence of the diocesan registrar, or in open court in the presence of that registrar, the oaths set out in Part I of the First Schedule to this Measure; . . . F9

(b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F10

and the diocesan registrar shall record the taking and subscription of the said oaths . . . F9