This excludes Church of England churches or chapels, unless the building is shared with a different religious faith.
Register a place of worship
The person who acts as 'minister', 'proprietor' or 'Trustee' at the place of worship has to complete form 76. This form is to certify a place of meeting for religious worship under the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855).
The completed form should be sent to the registration office with:
- a sketch of the floor plan to show the rooms that will be used for worship;
- an average weekly timetable of how the building will be used;
- a cheque or postal order made payable to CMBC for the statutory fee of £29.
Register a place of worship for marriages
If a congregation wants a place of worship to become registered for marriages, they must complete form 78. This certificate and application for the solemnization of marriages under the Marriage Act 1949 (Section 41).
The form must have 20 householders' signatures who:
- confirm that the building is their usual place of worship;
- and that they want it to be registered for the solemnization for marriages.
A statutory fee of £123 can be paid by cheque or postal order and made payable to CMBC.
When we get the completed form, the information is sent to the General Register Office (GRO) for authorisation.
When the GRO certify a building, we must advertise this in the local newspaper.
Register disuse of a place of worship or change of religion
A form 77 (Notice of disuse) must be completed, if the place of worship is:
- disused;
- or another religion takes over the place of worship.
The above process to register a place of worship must also be done again.
If a building is demolished and rebuilt on the same site there is no need to register again.
Forms
To get any of the above forms, please contact: Calderdale Registration Service.