1. Insert the full name by which the congregation knows the building.

2. Please give the precise address of the building. You should state whether the building has a number as well as a name.

3. Please insert the registration district where the building is located.

4. Please insert the congregation’s faith and the denomination of this faith if applicable. This should be different to the name of the building given at question 1.

5. and 6. This information can be found on the certificate issued by the Superintendent Registrar when the building was originally registered for the solemnization of marriages.

7., 8. and 8a. If your building holds marriage registers, they may need to be recalled and closed by the General Register Office. Providing this information will allow us to more easily locate the marriage registers, close them and return them to the governing body.

9. This information is required to establish that the applicant represents the congregation. You may only apply for the registration to be cancelled if you are a trustee or the proprietor of the building. In the case of a shared building, you may also apply for the registration to be cancelled if you are the relevant governing authority of one of the sharing churches (please see notes 12 and 13 below)

10. and 11. The declaration of disuse must be signed and dated by the applicant and then countersigned by the Superintendent Registrar of the registration district in which the building is situated. The additional declaration should only be completed if you are the relevant governing authority of one of the qualifying sharing churches.

Relevant governing authority means the person or persons recognised by the members of the relevant religious organisation as competent for the purpose of giving consent for the solemnization of marriages of same sex couples within the building.

Relevant religious organisation means the religious organisation for whose religious purposes the building is being used.

12. and 13. An application for cancellation by a relevant governing authority in relation to a shared church building may only be made if either:

1. the sharing church has been party to a sharing agreement or used the building as mentioned in section 6(4) of the 1969 Act for a period of not less than two years prior to the date when the application is made; or

2. the building is held on trust by the trustee for that sharing church; or

3. there is no sharing agreement under the 1969 Act and the sharing church has used the building for (public) religious worship:

   (i)   for a period of not less than two years prior to the date on which the application is made; and

   (ii)   on two or more occasions (each of which has lasted for not less than 30 minutes) in:

   (a)   each calendar month of the six calendar month period ending immediately prior to the month in which the relevant governing authority’s notice of the intention to cancel the building’s registration for the solemnization of marriages is sent to the proprietor or trustee; or

   (b)   nine of the 12 calendar months ending immediately prior to the month in which the relevant governing authority’s notice of the intention to cancel the building’s registration for the solemnization of marriages is sent to the proprietor or trustee.