Chancellor's guidelines for proposed exhumations

Once a body or ashes have been interred in consecrated ground, whether in a churchyard or in a consecrated section of a municipal cemetery, there should be no disturbance of the remains save for good and proper reason.
The petitioners must provide a case showing good and proper reason for the exhumation taking place, e.g.:-
1. A mistake by the applicant or by a third party such as the Incumbent, churchwarden, next of kin, an undertaker or some other person as to locality.
2. Medical reasons relating to the applicant.
3. Unsuitability of the site adopted for the grave.
Note that a change of mind on the part of the deceased's relatives, or that the spouse or another close relative of the deceased has subsequently been buried elsewhere, is unlikely to be a sufficient reason.
Factors likely to lead to an unsuccessful application are:-
1. Passage of a substantial period of time.
2. Public health factors and improper motives, e.g. serious unreasonableness or family feuds.
3. The applicant moving to a new area and wishing the remains to be moved to that area.
4. No intention to re-inter remains in consecrated ground.
5. If removal would be contrary to the intentions and wishes of the deceased.
6. Reasonable opposition from other family members, from the Incumbent, or from the PCC.
7. A risk of affecting the sensibilities of the congregation or the neighbourhood.

July 2001

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