CANON 23: OF PASTORAL CHARGES Amended Provincial Synod 2019 1. Units of Pastoral Charge 1 A Diocese shall be divided into such Parishes, or other units of Pastoral Charge such as Parochial or Mission Districts as shall be ordered by the Diocesan Synod; it being recognized that more than one type of Pastoral Charge, which need not be territorially exclusive, may exist within the same Diocese if the Diocesan Synod so direct. 2. Incumbent Each unit of Pastoral Charge shall be under the care of an Incumbent duly licensed by the Bishop. 3. Schedule of Pastoral Charges Each Diocesan Synod shall compile and publish a schedule of all duly constituted units of Pastoral Charge. 4. Establishment of Chapelries 4 The Incumbent licensed to any Pastoral Charge shall have power, if the Bishop approves, to establish Chapeiries within the Charge, where separate congregations assemble for Divine Worship; such Chapelries remaining under the jurisdiction of the incumbent, saving all ordinary rights of the Bishop. 5 (a) Constitution and Alteration of Pastoral Charges The power of constituting new Pastoral Charges, and of altering the limits of such Pastoral Charges as already exist, and of designating the nomenclature and defining the status of such Pastoral Charges or of any other pastoral work to which a Cleric may be licensed, shall rest in the Diocesan Bishop, subject to such rules as the Diocesan Synod may lay down goveming the process. (b) Abolishing Pastoral Charges The power of abolishing Pastoral Charges shall rest in the Diocesan Bishop, subject to the concurrence of the Diocesan Synod or Diocesan Council (or its equivalent body). 6. Extra-Parochial Ministers No public ministrations shall be conducted by any Clericof the Church within the limits of a Pastoral Charge without the consent of the Incumbent licensed to the same, save in the following cases : (a) Extra-parochial Churches, or Colleges, Schools or Hostel Chapels to which no district is assigned. (b) Religious Houses, Naval, Military or Air Force (Chaplaincies, or Chaplaincies to penal institutions, hospitals or universities. (c) Missions to railway workers, seafarers, environmentalists or other special classes of people where the Bishop thinks fit to provide for them apart from the jurisdiction of the Incumbent licensed to the Pastoral Charge in which they are territorially situated or with which they are territorially coincident. In all these cases the Bishop’s licence to the Cleric who officiates sufficient. 7. Definition For the purposes of these Canons: (a) the word “Parish” shalt be deemed to include any duly constituted unit of Pastoral Charge, by whatever name it may be known, and (b) a Parish Church in a Pastoral Charge in addition to being the Parish Church of the Pastoral Charge may itself be established as a Chapetry in terms of section 4 of this Canon, with the rights and duties provided in these Canons.
