Trustee Churches (Ireland) Act, 1884

TRUSTEE CHURCHES (IRELAND) ACT 1884

CHAPTER X.

An Act to amend the Irish Church Act, 1869; and for other purposes. [28th April 1884.]

32 & 33 Vict. c. 42.

WHEREAS by the Irish Church Act, 1869, section seventy, it is enacted as follows: “Nothing in this Act contained shall affect the patronage and right of presentation to any proprietary or district parochial church or endowed chapel of ease which has been endowed out of private funds, or affect the property in any such church or chapel or the property held for the purposes of or appropriated to the use of the same, or affect the continuance of the trust relating thereto as originally constituted”:

And whereas divers churches and chapels of ease had been from time to time, prior to the passing of the said Act, erected in Ireland either in accordance with certain private trusts or under the provisions of the several Church Building Acts for the time being in force in that behalf, and certain parishes or parochial districts had been assigned or annexed to certain of such churches, or were at the time of the passing of the said Irish Church Act, 1869, connected therewith:

And whereas the bishops, clergy, and laity of the said Irish Church assembled as in said Act mentioned are thereby authorised “to frame constitutions and regulations for the general management and good government of the said church and property and affairs thereof,” and they have in pursuance of such authority made divers provisions for regulating the patronage and right of presentation to parishes and ecclesiastical benefices, and for assigning or annexing parochial districts to churches previously non-parochial, and for altering the boundaries of parishes, and for the due management and control of the property and affairs thereof:

And whereas it is desirable that the trustees and patrons of such churches and chapels as aforesaid should be authorised to adopt and apply to such churches and chapels respectively, and the patronage and property thereof, such of the aforesaid provisions and regulations as may in their opinion be best adapted to carry out the original intention of the trusts of such churches or chapels, having regard to the altered circumstances of the said Irish Church, notwithstanding that other provisions may have been made for the like purposes in the said Church Building Acts, or some of them, or in the instruments governing the trusts relating to such churches or chapels respectively; but doubts have arisen whether such provisions and regulations, or any of them, can be made to apply to such churches and chapels, or any of them, or the patronage or property thereof, or to any of the districts which were at the time of the passing of the said Irish Church Act, 1869, thereto respectively assigned or annexed, or therewith respectively connected, and it is expedient to remove such doubts: