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Table of Parochial Fees for 2009
The Church of England has legal fees for a variety of services and occasions, including weddings, funerals, burials of bodies and ashes, certificates (i.e. certified copies of entries in registers), permission to introduce monuments into churchyards and to add inscriptions to them, and faculties (i.e. permissions to make changes to church buildings or churchyards). Some of the fees are set by Act of Parliament, and some are set locally by Bradford Diocese or Eccleshill PCC (or the PCC Personnel Committee). The table below sets out the ones we are most commonly asked about. For the Church Commissioners' Table of Fees, click this link.
Fees usually increase annually on 1st January each year, and Parliament usually puts them up more than the rate of inflation. Please allow for an increase if you are planning for next year.
| Weddings Deposit of £100. Note 1 We ask for a deposit of £100 to be paid at the beginning of the year when the wedding will take place (or when the wedding is booked if later). It is in addition to the fees below, and it will be returned on the wedding day after the service provided that there have been no problems. | ||
| £ | ||
| Diocese of Bradford | ||
| Wedding Service | N | 123.00 |
| Publication of Banns of Marriage | N | 15.00 |
| Marriage Certificate Note 2 | N | 4.00 |
| Total | 142.00 | |
| Eccleshill Parochial Church Council | ||
| Wedding Service | N | 131.00 |
| Publication of Banns of Marriage | N | 7.00 |
| Local costs (heat, cleaning, maintenance) | P | 47.00 |
| Total | 185.00 | |
| Verger's Fee | C | 20.00 |
| Clerk's Fee | C | 8.00 |
| Total basic cost of wedding with no extras | 355.00 | |
| Extras: Note 3 | ||
| Organist's Fee | C | 44.00 |
| Choir | C | 36.00 |
| Bellringer | C | 5.00 |
| Total with all these extras | 440.00 | |
| Banns of marriage and certificate of Banns
Note 4 | ||
| Reading the banns - Diocese | N | 15.00 |
| Reading the banns - PCC | N | 7.00 |
| Certificate - Diocese | N | 12.00 |
| Total | 34.00 | |
| Marriage certificate
provided on a later occasion | ||
| Diocese | N | 7.00 |
| Services of Prayer and Dedication following civil marriage Note 5 | ||
| Diocese of Bradford | P | 53.00 |
| Eccleshill Parochial Church Council | ||
| Church Service | P | 131.00 |
| Local costs (heat, cleaning, maintenance) | P | 47.00 |
| Total | 178.00 | |
| Verger's Fee | C | 20.00 |
| Total basic cost of service with no extras | 251.00 | |
| Extras: | ||
| Organist's Fee | C | 44.00 |
| Choir | C | 36.00 |
| Bellringer | C | 5.00 |
| Total with all these extras | 336.00 | |
| Funerals in church | ||
| Diocese of Bradford | N | 54.00 |
| Eccleshill Parochial Church Council | N | 45.00 |
| Local Costs (heat, cleaning, maintenance) | P | 40.00 |
| Organist | C | 44.00 |
| Verger | C | 20.00 |
| Total | 203.00 | |
| | ||
| Funerals at a crematorium | ||
| Diocese of Bradford | N | 99.00 |
| Eccleshill PCC (to cover minister's travel etc.) Note 6 | F | 16.00 |
| Total | 115.00 | |
| | ||
| Certificates
(i.e. Searches of registers) Note 7 | ||
| Diocese of Bradford | N | 12.00 |
| Eccleshill PCC | N | 7.00 |
| Total | 16.00 | |
Notes
N - these fees are set Nationally by Act of Parliament
P - these fees are set by the Parochial Church Council
C - these fees are set by Committee - the PCC's Personnel Committee
F - these fees are set by agreement with local funeral directors
(1) We've run into three sorts of problems which have made it necessary for us to charge a deposit. Some couples book their wedding and then move house and fail to tell us that they've cancelled or postponed it. Some have had guests (particularly "flower girls") which have left the church needing to be cleaned. And some have arrived grossly late for their weddings.
Accordingly, we take a deposit and return it afterwards provided there have been no problems. If we've incurred fees or expense in tracking down a couples who have cancelled their wedding, or the costs of cleaning, we'll deduct these from the deposit. The church council has agreed the following penalties for late weddings: if the bride arrives 15 minutes late, then everyone who has been inconvenienced will receive an extra £5 for their services (this sum to be taken out of the deposit), and if she arrives 30 minutes late then the musicians will all be allowed to go home (but still paid) and the service will be without music.
(2) This takes account of a possible rise on 1st April.
(3) You don't have to have music or a bell for your wedding, but most people like to have them. We do recommend the choir, as although they aren't very numerous they make a big difference to everyone else's confidence in singing the hymns.
(4) If one of you lives in another parish then you will have to get your banns read in the parish church of the parish where you live, and collect a certificate to say they have been read, and bring it to us at St Luke's. There is a legal fee payable to the other church for this, as listed in the table. Also, if you are getting married elsewhere, these are the fees payable to St Luke's for your banns and certificate which you will need to take to the other church.
(5) The fee in the Register office for a civil marriage is £100 plus the cost of a marriage certificate (see their web site, where there's a section about what it costs), so the PCC has decided that the church fee for these services will be reduced by this amount. There are no statutory fees payable, but a sum will still be sent to Bradford Diocese as set out. The Register Office fees are set by a different Act of Parliament from the Church Fees, and they may rise on 1st April each year (in which case ours will reduce by the corresponding amount).
(6) This figure has been agreed by negotiation between the diocese and the local funeral directors.
(7) This is the fee for looking through a register of baptisms or burials and providing one certified copy of an entry if there is one, or a certificate to say there isn't one. Please note that the fee is payable whether or not the search is successful. The fee only covers the first hour of the search - there's a further fee for longer searches (but we've never had to charge that yet!).
Please note that there are other fees for other activities and occasions: the above table only sets out the ones we are most commonly asked about.
Paying the wedding fees. As you will see from the above, when you pay we have to pass on the different amounts of money to different people and bodies. So we ask you to pay for your wedding in cash by putting different amounts of cash in different bank bags, using a set of "tickets" which we will give you when you book your wedding. This means we can check the amounts and pass them on without having to make change. We ask you to pay at your rehearsal, please.
Please also note that there is a legal obligation on you to pay the fees for your wedding, so if we do not receive the fees then your wedding service may be delayed or cancelled. We haven't ever had any trouble about this at St Luke's, but there have been stories of embarrassment elsewhere, and we would hate your wedding service to run into any kind of unfortunate trouble because of the money. If you propose to pay by cheque then we require the payment a fortnight in advance to allow the cheque to clear.
Fees for 2010
Please follow this link.
John Hartley
This web page was last updated on 20th October 2010.