An Act to remove Disabilities affecting the Bishops and Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland.
[29th July 1864]
WHEREAS an [32 G. 3. c. 63.] Act was passed in the Thirty-second Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act for granting Relief to Pastors, Ministers, and Lay Persons of the Episcopal Communion in Scotland : And whereas by the Ninth Section of the said Act it is provided and declared that " no Person exercising the Function or assuming the Office and Character of a Pastor or Minister of any Order in the Episcopal Communion in Scotland as aforesaid shall be capable of taking any Benefice, Curacy, or other Spiritual Promotion within that Part of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, or the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or of officiating in any Church or Chapel within the same, where the Liturgy of the Church of England as now by Law established is used, unless he shall have been lawfully ordained by some Bishop of the Church of England or of Ireland :" And whereas an [3 & 4 Vict. c. 33.] Act was passed in the Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Her present Majesty Queen Victoria, intituled An Act to make certain Provisions and Regulations in respect to the Exercise within England and Ireland of their Office by the Bishops and Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland ; and also to extend such Provisions and Regulations to the Bishops and Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America ; and also to make further Regulations in respect to Bishops and Clergy other than those of the United Church of England and Ireland, by which Act the Provisions in the said Ninth Section of the said first-recited Act were altered, extended, and amended : And whereas it is expedient that the Disabilities affecting the Bishops and Clergy of the said Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland imposed by the said recited Acts should be removed, and for . that Purpose that the said recited Acts should be in part repealed : And whereas by an [59 G. 3. c. 60.] Act passed in the Fifty-ninth Year of the Reign of His said late Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act to permit the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishop of London for the Time being to admit Persons into Holy Orders specially for the Colonies, it is enacted that "no Person who shall have been admitted into Holy Orders by the Bishops of Quebec, Nova Scotia, or Calcutta, or. by, any other " Bishop or Archbishop than those of England or Ireland, shall " be capable of officiating in any Church or Chapel of England or " Ireland, without special Permission from the Archbishop of the Province in which he proposes to officiate, or of having, holding, " or enjoying, or of being admitted, to, any. Parsonage. or other " Ecclesiastical Preferment in England or Ireland, or of acting as Curate therein, without the Consent and Approbation of : the " Archbishop .of the Province and also of the Bishop .of the. Diocese in which any such Parsonage or Ecclesiastical Preferment or Curacy may be situated :" And whereas Doubts may arise after the passing of this Act whether the, Provisions of the said last-recited Act would apply to Persons admitted into Holy Orders by Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland, and it is expedient that such Doubts should be removed :
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by, and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament, assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows :
The said Ninth Section of the said first-recited Act is hereby repealed.
The Words " Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland " shall, for the Purposes of this Act, mean the Episcopal Communion in Scotland as mentioned in the said first-recited Act.
The said second-recited Act, so far only as it relates to the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland, or the Bishops and Clergy thereof, is hereby repealed.
The Provisions and Enactments of the said last-recited Act shall not be or be held to be applicable to any Person admitted into Holy Orders by a Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland.
No Person admitted into Holy Orders by any Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland shall be entitled to be admitted or instituted to any Benefice or other Ecclesiastical Preferment in England or Ireland, without the Consent and Approbation of the Bishop of the Diocese in which such Benefice or other Ecclesiastical Preferment may be situated; and any such Bishop shall be entitled to refuse such Consent and Approbation without assigning Reason for such Refusal, any Law or Practice to the contrary notwithstanding; and every such Person seeking to be admitted or instituted to such Benefice or other Ecclesiastical Preferment, or to be licensed to any Curacy, shall, before being admitted, instituted, or licensed, make and subscribe before such Bishop every such Declaration and Subscription as he would by Law have been required to make and subscribe at his Ordination if he had been ordained by a Bishop of the United Church of England or Ireland: Provided always, that the Provisions of this Section shall not apply to any such Person who shall hold or shall have held any Benefice or Ecclesiastical Preferment in England or Ireland.
Any Person admitted into Holy Orders by any Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland, and who does not hold or who has not held any Benefice or Ecclesiastical Preferment in England or Ireland, who shall knowingly officiate on more than One Day within Three Months in any Church or Chapel in any Diocese in England or Ireland, without notifying the same to the Bishop of the Diocese in which such Church or Chapel is situate, or who shall officiate contrary to any Injunction of the Bishop of the Diocese under his Hand and Seal, shall for every such Offence forfeit and pay the Sum of Ten Pounds to the Governor of Queen Anne's Bounty, to be recovered by Action of Debt, brought in the Name of the Treasurer of the said Bounty, in any of Her Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, or in the Court of Session in Scotland at the Suit of the Public Prosecutor, or in Ireland in any Court of Common Law in the Name of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.