. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F9

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F10

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F11

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F12

All enactments in any Act, whether general or local and personal, relating to any powers, duties, or liabilities transferred by this Act to a parish council or parish meeting from justices or the vestry or overseers or church wardens and overseers shall, subject to the provisions of this Act and so far as circumstances admit, be construed as if any reference therein to justices or to the vestry, or to the overseers, or to the churchwardens and overseers, referred to the parish council or parish meeting as the case requires, and the said enactments shall be construed with such modifications as may be necessary for carrying this Act into effect.

All property held by the first authority for the purpose or by virtue of such powers and duties shall pass to and vest in the other authority, subject to all debts and liabilities affecting the same; and

The latter authority shall hold the same for the estate, interest, and purposes, and subject to the covenants, conditions, and restrictions for and subject to which the property would have been held if this Act had not passed, so far as the same are not modified by or in pursuance of this Act; and

All debts and liabilities of the first authority incurred by virtue of such powers and duties shall become debts and liabilities of the latter authority, and be defrayed out of the like property and funds out of which they would have been defrayed if this Act had not passed.

The definition of “parish” in section one hundred of the M1Local Government Act, 1888, shall not apply to this Act, but, save as aforesaid, expressions used in this Act shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the same meaning as in the said Act.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F25

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F26

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F26

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F26

• The expression “ecclesiastical charity” includes a charity, the endowment whereof is held for some one or more of the following purposes:—

  1. a

     for any spiritual purpose which is a legal purpose; or

  2. b

     for the benefit of any spiritual person or ecclesiastical officer as such; or

  3. c

     for use, if a building, as a church, chapel, mission room, or Sunday school, or otherwise by any particular church or denomination; or

  4. d

     for the maintenance, repair, or improvement of any such building as aforesaid, or for the maintenance of divine service therein; or

  5. e

     otherwise for the benefit of any particular church or denomination, or of any members thereof as such.

• Provided that where any endowment of a charity, other than a building held for any of the purposes aforesaid, is held in part only for some of the purposes aforesaid, the charity, so far as that endowment is concerned, shall be an ecclesiastical charity within the meaning of this Act; and the Charity Commissioners shall, on application by any person interested, make such provision for the apportionment and management of that endowment as seems to them necessary or expedient for giving effect to this Act.

• The expression shall also include any building which in the opinion of the Charity Commissioners has been erected or provided within forty years before the passing of this Act mainly by or at the cost of members of any particular church or denomination.

• The expression “affairs of the church” shall include the distribution of offertories or other collections made in any church.

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F26

• The expression “vestry” in relation to a parish means the inhabitants of the parish whether in vestry assembled or not, and includes any select vestry either by statute or at common law.

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F27

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F26

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F26

• The expression “local and personal Act” includes a Provisional Order confirmed by an Act and the Act confirming the Order.

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F26