19.01.2022
The Revd Robert Marshall appointed Diocesan and Provincial Registrar
The Revd Robert Marshall has been appointed Diocesan and Provincial Registrar. He has served as Deputy Diocesan and Provincial Registrar since 2007. He succeeds the Revd Stephen Farrell who has been appointed Dean of Ossory.
Robert Marshall was ordained as a priest in the auxiliary ministry of the Church of Ireland in June 2003 having been made deacon the previous year. Since 2002 he has served in the grouped parishes of Stillorgan and Blackrock. He describes himself as a Solicitor in Holy Orders, although he retired from practice a number of years ago to return to Trinity College and graduated with an MBA. As a solicitor he specialised in commercial property and heritage cases.
An active historian, he is a former president of the Irish Legal History Society and is currently a member of the Historical Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy.
Making the announcement, Archbishop Michael Jackson commented: “The Revd Robert Marshall, as an ordained lawyer, is very well placed to be the Diocesan and Provincial Registrar in succession to the Very Revd Stephen Farrell who has moved from Zion to Kilkenny. Robert has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Ecclesiastical Legal History as readers of The Church Review are well aware.”
“I should like to thank Stephen for everything he has done in this role and to welcome Robert as his successor,” the Archbishop added.
Commenting on the announcement of his appointment, Robert said he looked forward to the “challenge of acting as registrar and particularly to working with the Archbishop on the institution of clergy to parishes, and the authorisation of changes to church buildings”.
The Provincial and Diocesan Registrar is part of the legal team of the Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and of the wider Province of Dublin.
Each diocese has its own tribunal to decide matters of controversy arising under the law of the Church of Ireland, other than doctrinal and ritual matters. Established originally by the Convention in 1870, in the United Dioceses these courts have not been summoned to sit for many years, a sign of the unity of opinion within the United Dioceses. The court comprises the Archbishop as judge, who acts ex officio on the advice of his chancellor.
Once every three years, the clergy and the laity respectively elect their panels for the diocesan courts. In the event of a petition being presented to a diocesan court, a member is chosen from each of the panels to represent the clergy and the laity who will sit with the Archbishop to decide matters of fact. In effect they act as a jury. Matters of church law are reserved to the Archbishop and his Chancellor. The Archbishop appoints the registrar of the courts who becomes responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the courts and the management of their papers.
Aside from contentious matters the court issues ‘faculties’ to authorise the making of changes to churches, a function for which the other ‘judges‘ are not required. The registrar also maintains the roll of the Archbishop recording the declarations required of clergy and laity before taking up formal offices within the church. The registrar of Dublin and Glendalough is also registrar of the Province of Dublin and of the Court of the General Synod should it be convened.
The chancellor of the United Dioceses is Ciarán Toland SC who succeeded the Hon Catherine McGuinness in 2020. The Revd Stephen Farrell has been registrar since he succeeded Canon Victor Stacey upon his election as Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral.