The petitioner sought a faculty for the erection of a substantial pearl-blue polished granite headstone, with a sentimental eight-line poem, over the grave of her husband, who had died aged 44. The memorial fell substantially outside the guidance given in the churchyard regulations. The churchyard of the Grade II* listed church already contained several memorials that breached the regulations, including headstones that featured a photograph of the deceased, dice and the word ‘Guinness’ with a toucan. The petition was supported by the Parochial Church Council, who suggested that the memorial would make the churchyard more interesting. The chancellor stayed the petition, allowing two months for the petitioner to agree with the incumbent a more suitable design and wording for the memorial. He also considered his powers to order the removal of all of the headstones that breached the churchyard regulations. Although the chancellor concluded that to order wholesale removal would be pastorally insensitive, taking account of the length of time that the memorials had been in place, he made clear that he expected incumbents, memorial masons and others with stewardship of churchyards to ensure that the regulations were observed, remarking that the setting of a churchyard differed from that of a municipal cemetery. He indicated that while incumbents risked being fined for failing to ensure compliance with the churchyard regulations, the faculty system could lend support to incumbents providing pastoral care to angry and frustrated families. [Catherine Shelley]