The minister and churchwardens of the parish sought a faculty for the sale of a set of four fourteenth-century Italian paintings that had been gifted to the church in 1849. The paintings were provisionally valued at between £1 million and £1.5 million and had been housed at a museum for 14 years. There was little meaningful connection between the paintings and the parish, they were not currently in use and nor was there any realistic prospect of them returning to the church. The sale was commended by both the diocesan advisory committee and the Church Buildings Council. The chancellor summarised the law as expounded in Re St Peter, Draycott [2009] Fam 93, acknowledged that the burden of proof rested on the petitioners and recognised the above factors militating in favour of a faculty. Although there was no dire financial emergency within the parish, the parish only covered its annual expenditure each year by digging progressively more deeply into it reserves. The faculty was granted. [RA]