Talk:Welsh Church Act 1914

Vesting of assets

@DuncanHill: I have deleted your qualification "as appropriate": all relevant assets vested in the WCC, even those which were eventually to be returned to the Church in Wales: see s4 WCA 1914 as originally enacted. An "ecclesisatical office" would include the incumbency of a parish. The effect of the WCA 1914 was that all "church property" of the Church of England in Wales, which had formerly belonged the Vicar or Rector of a Parish (under the parson's freehold), or been held by a Dean and Chapter, or held by a Bishop (if it had not been already transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners) was vested in the WCC. If it fell within certain categories (outlined in Welsh Church Commissioners) it was transferred to the Representative Body. The Church in Wales, when set up, therefore had much more centralised financial arrangements than did the C of E at the time (or probably still has). Do you agree with this interpretation of s 4 WCA 1914? Under s 4(2) even the chattels used for worship, or otherwise belonging to a church, vested in the RB on disestablishment. (I am unclear whether they vested in the WCC first, and were then technically transferred to the RB: that would require a closer reading of the WCA 1914).Ntmr (talk) 12:28, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

Retention of glebe

I must question the blanket assertion that the WCA 1914 allowed the CinW to retain all glebe. All cathedrals, churches, church halls, parsonages, etc. certainly all vested in the Welsh Church Commissioners and were then transferred by them to the Representative Body of the Church in Wales (see section 8(1) WCA 1914). But s 8(1)(a)(vii) allowed the RB of the CinW to require the CCW to transfer glebe to the RB, but on the basis that they paid the market value for it. How can what is stated in the Article be consistent with the terms of the statute?

Although some land owned by a Vicar or Rector as incumbent might be a private post-1662 benefaction (and thus exempted from disendowment), I would generally think of glebe as land which has belonged to the church since before that date. Historically it was, after all, land which the vicar could farm personally. As a pre-1662 asset it would very much be the sort of property which the proponents of disestablishment thought the Church should lose.

The option to purchase would presumably be because some glebe might be land which was in practice enjoyed with the Church or with the parsonage.

I think the reference to glebe ought to be deleted, unless someone can explain why s 8(1)(a)(vii) of the WCA 1914 does not in fact mean what it appears to say.Ntmr (talk) 16:32, 17 June 2021 (UTC)