by Ian Paul, Pseohizo
Why was a faculty application for a portable baptismal pool in a church in Southwell and Nottingham rejected? What does that tell us about processes in the Church of England—and are they fit for purpose?
It is not often that a consistory court judgment makes the national press, and when it does it is usually because of a disputed churchyard memorial or a row about a nightclub partnership. So it was something of a surprise to see headlines last month announcing that a judge had thrown out a church’s plans for a ‘baptism pool’ because it would be a ‘needless waste of water’. It was doubling surprising for me, since this was in my own diocese (Southwell and Nottingham).
The headlines were, as usual, misleading. The water point was explicitly not the basis of the decision, as Law & Religion UK quickly pointed out. But the actual reasons for the decision are in some ways more striking than the press reports, and they deserve closer attention than they have so far received.
The case is Re St Mary, Radcliffe-on-Trent [2026] ECC S&N 1, decided by Christopher Ockelton, Chancellor of the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, and dated 24 August. In refusing a faculty for a portable immersion baptistery, the chancellor concluded that the claimed need for baptism by immersion ‘has no theological basis’ (para 16), and that in the Church of England there is ‘never any need’ for immersion where another lawful mode is available.
It is worth considering this judgment seriously, because it is, in some respects, learned, carefully argued and clearly written. The chancellor has done real work here, including in the Greek and the Latin. But I think it is mistaken at several key points—historically, liturgically, theologically and (I suspect) legally. And since it is the only recent reasoned judgment on the question, it is likely to be cited well beyond the borders of our diocese. That matters for every parish that is seeing adults come to faith and asking to be baptised in a way that expresses what is happening to them.