Speaking as a Rector...

[steepholm]

The house I live in is only six years old, but it was built in an area that was once, before the Reformation, monastic land. After the Dissolution, that land was sold on to private owners, of whom I'm the latest in a long line. But it did not come stringlessly. The monasteries had acquired rectorships to one or more churches, meaning that they were entitled to tithes from the church's parishioners, but also that they were liable to keep the chancel of the church in good repair. (Why just the chancel? I've no idea.) When the land was sold, those rights and liabilities were sold with it.

The right to tithes has long since ceased, but the liability to repair chancels continues, and will do so in perpetuity (or until some future government decides otherwise). In practice, churches seldom call on hapless householders to repair their chancels, but it does happen, and can be ruinously expensive. For this reason, most people (me included) take out a once-and-for-all insurance against that contingency when they buy the property. From memory, it cost me about £120, which seems quite a lot now, but against the background of the many apparently arbitrary sums large and small that one gets stuck with in the course of buying a house, appeared trifling at the time.

Still, it tickles me to think that I'm a rector (even if a lay one). I didn't choose the role - which means I suppose that it must be a vocation - but I'd like to make the most of it now I've got it. What can I do with this title? Will it get me a better seat in a restaurant? Can I administer extreme unction to small mammals? What are the possibilities?

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It's a strange thing having such a title. Being of a sect with a priesthood of all believers I count as a priest for the purposes of things like prison and hospital visiting and that can have its uses.

Tithing isn't quite dead yet btw- the last rites are still being played out to this day!

According to Catholic friends, anyone of any faith can administer the last rites if the need is pressing and no priest is available. I read of a Rabbi doing this for dying Catholic soldiers during WW2 after their own priest had been seriously wounded. Such skills a military chaplain of whatever faith plainly needs!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Tithing isn't quite dead yet btw- the last rites are still being played out to this day!

You mean, if they ask me to repair their chancel I can put in a counterclaim for back-payment of tithes? Cool!

[joyeuce]

I would imagine it's just the chancel because that's the most important bit of the church, as it contains the altar (or high altar).

It might not be in the church's interest to ask you to pay for repairs; I have a vague idea that that would jeopardise their chances of getting funding from some bodies - English Heritage, or the Heritage Lottery Fund, or both.

Anyone can baptise in an emergency as well, so there would be nothing to stop you doing that if you felt so inclined. In fact you could probably do a lot of things that a priest/minister does; not weddings, of course (or not legally), and I'm not sure about funerals. But no one would stop you preaching or visiting the sick ...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I really just want to be able to elbow my way to the front of a crowd, shouting "Let me through, I'm a Rector!"

[joyeuce]

No harm in trying!

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Rector? She was like that when I met 'er.

PS Chancellory repairs are a big deal in the work I am investigating right now. Hence ready fund of puns.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Chancellory repairs are a big deal in the work I am investigating right now

Are there still a lot going on, then? I'd assumed it was a largely vestigial obligation.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I should have said 'Chancel repairs' my brain is not working. People do still get hit by that, but from 2013 it only applies if it is declared in the Land Registry.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I thought you lot called it Meccano over there?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

:)

Had missed this before.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Rectors are responsible for chancel fabric; the parishioners for the rest. That is why so many wool churches, particularly, show stylistic differences due to endowment and renovation. I believe you'll find many examples gone into in Pevsner.

Re: Had missed this before.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Interesting - thank you. It's a long time since I had the pleasure of going round a wool church, but I'll try to make that good soon.