Jargon busting: Church Electoral Roll

There's sometimes a bit of misunderstanding about the church electoral roll - what it is, why it matters and who it applies to. So here goes with an explanation.

The first thing to clarify is that the church electoral roll is nothing to do with the local register of electors compiled by the Borough.

The church electoral role is a list of people who may vote at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM). It's an important part of the procedures for church representation, so its administration is taken very seriously. We have an electoral roll officer in each church to take care of this for us. If your name appears on the roll, you are entitled to attend the APCM, to vote and to stand for office (for example, as a PCC or DCC Representative).

The rules which govern whose name may appear on the church electoral roll are a little complicated. A lay person is entitled to have his or her name included on the church electoral roll, if they fulfill the requirements shown here. In general terms, this includes being baptised, 16 years of age or over, a member of the Church of England, residing in the parish (or if not resident, habitually worshipping in the parish during the previous six months).

The electoral role is also important in the qualification for marriage in a church, following banns of marriage. Everyone is entitled to marry in their parish church, but they may also be entitled to marry after banns in another church, provided that their name is on the electoral roll of that parish.

The Church of England doesn't have a formal membership system as some churches do. In the absence of anything formal, the church electoral roll is sometimes used as a kind of membership list. We encourage everyone who regularly worships at St Paul's to join the electoral roll for the parish as it's part of the way people identify with the church community and vice versa.

At the time of writing, we've just completed a revision of the roll and there are 122 members of St Paul's on the church electoral roll, out of a total of 324 in the parish as a whole.

You can download a copy of the Electoral Roll Application Form in Word format.