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Church may allow gravestones with foreign wording

Gravestones could feature foreign inscriptions without English translations   - www.alamy.com
Gravestones could feature foreign inscriptions without English translations - www.alamy.com

Gravestones could feature foreign inscriptions without English translations under proposals being considered by the Church of England.

A senior judge in the Church has granted an appeal which could allow non-English transcriptions on memorials to reflect England's "multiethnic and multicultural society".

Morag Ellis QC, Dean of the Arches, granted an appeal lodged on behalf of the family of Margaret Keane who passed away two years ago.

Her children wanted their mother's headstone to read "in our hearts forever" in Irish Gaelic. But a judge rejected the request, ruling that the untranslated inscription may "be seen as a political statement". Ms Ellis QC has now granted the family a right to appeal because it has "real prospects of success" and that the original ruling may have been "unfair".

Mrs Keane's family said the process has delayed a proper burial for their mother and has "denied them closure".

Bez Killeen, Mrs Keane's daughter, told The Daily Telegraph: "It is particularly important for my father. To be able to stand at his wife's grave is a matter of pride. We felt a moral obligation to challenge the decision.

"What those words mean to us is not controversial in any language. It is loving. We were floored when they told us we could not have them without an English translation on our mother's gravestone".

Individual dioceses across England and Wales are currently allowed to approach gravestone inscriptions with their own rules, with many refusing to allow non-English inscriptions without a translation. But Mrs Keane's case, which will not carry a legally binding precedent, will likely have wider implications across the Church, lawyers said.

"I think they are going to be looking at wider Church of England policy in light of this case," Caroline Brogan, the family's solicitor, said.

In a written order handed down on Aug 22, Ms Ellis QC conceded that a further legal hearing is necessary because the issue of non-English inscriptions on memorials has not been considered by the courts and is "likely" to arise again in the future.

If the appeal is successful, gravestones with inscriptions in a foreign language without an English translation could become more common.

In the order, Ms Ellis QC wrote: "[For] a significant minority of families, the English language may not be the natural form of expression."

A hearing is expected to take place near the end of the year or early 2021.