Thursday 21st December 2023
Stone King’s Faith Sector has had a busy year working with many multi-denominational clients on a wide range of matters, while hosting and participating in various online and in-person events.
The year started strong with the national law firm’s first ever Faith Sector Away Day, which marked the official launch of the sector for Stone King. Held at the beautiful Swedish Church in London, the day looked at the expertise held across the firm in this important sector, and the potential for expanding it and helping more clients.
Find out what else the sector has been up this year below.
Ramadan Series
This year, Ramadan ran from 22 March to 20 April. Throughout this period, faith-based organisations were invited to join various Stone King solicitors for the Ramadan Series: four webinars that took attendees through a variety of areas of law, including property, compliance and immigration, safeguarding and governance, and disability discrimination.
The events were learning opportunities, as well as forums for open discussion amongst attendees.
For those who were not able to attend any of this year’s Ramadan Series sessions, or were but would like a reminder of their content, we have provided a helpful summary below.
Session 1: Commercial property
Kiran Ayub is a solicitor working within Stone King’s Commercial Property Team and has extensive experience with leasehold matters, acquisitions, transfers and disposals of property. She used this session to hold a general discussion around commercial property dealings with regard to faith-based organisations, the common pitfalls that can arise and some tips to avoid and deal with these.
The Charities Act outlines some very specific disposal requirements, so Kiran gave an overview of these and also led a dialogue on recent changes to the Charities Act, focussing on impacts to the Commercial Property Sector.
A recording of the webinar can be found here.
Session 2: Compliance and immigration
In this interactive webinar, Julianna Barker discussed compliance as a sponsor licence holder, right-to-work checks, overseas national volunteers and the ins and outs of sponsoring short-term workers.
Julianna is a Chartered Legal Executive in Stone King’s Immigration Team and her particular specialism is in supporting faith-based organisations with immigration matters.
A recording of the webinar can be found here.
Session 3: Safeguarding and governance
As in any charity, company or institution, safeguarding is a vital part of running a faith-based organisation.
In this 30-minute webinar, Helen Tucker, a Stone King Partner in the Independent Schools Team, talked through the correct ways to approach safeguarding within faith-based organisations and ensure appropriate measures are in place. She specifically looked at this topic from a governance perspective.
A recording of the webinar can be found here.
Session 4: Disability discrimination
To round off the 2023 Ramadan Series, Emma Suzuki led a webinar centred around the ever-important subject of disability discrimination.
Emma is an Associate Solicitor and is an expert in employment law, having specialised in it for her entire career.
In this session, she covered the Equality Act’s definition of ‘disability’, as well as an employer’s knowledge of disability and duty to make reasonable adjustments. She also touched on the different types of disability discrimination claims and shared a few pieces of relevant case law.
A recording of the webinar can be found here.
Catholic Charity Conference
The event was for the benefit of Catholic charites, specifically their leaders and decision makers. Topical legal, financial and property issues were covered, as well as relevant regulatory updates.
The 2024 Catholic Charity Conference will be taking place on 1 May.
Find out more about the work that Stone King can do for Roman Catholic organisations.
Association of Provincial Bursars (APB) Conference
Stone King has been working with Catholic organisations since the turn of the 19th century. This type of work is therefore at the heart of much of what we do, so much so that Stone King Partner Tim Rutherford was awarded a Papal Knighthood at the annual Association of Provincial Bursars (APB) Conference, recognising his outstanding contributions to the Catholic Church.
Tim said, “I’m extremely humbled to be granted this honour and am touched and grateful that the Executive Committee at the APB asked the Bishop of Clifton to nominate me for this award. It is a privilege to work with the many members of APB, supporting them to navigate the challenges of operating as charities and through it I have personally learnt a lot, not just in legal context.”
Find out more about Tim's Papal Knighthood.
Mosque Expo
Stone King had a stand at the 2023 Mosque Expo, an annual event dedicated to the leadership of Mosques, Madrassahs and Islamic educational institutes that provides knowledge sharing, networking and professional development opportunities.
Find out more about the work that the national law firm does with Islamic faith-based organisations.
Advent Series
Throughout December, Stone King once again had the pleasure of running an Advent Series.
This year, the series consisted of three webinars that were specifically aimed at our faith-based charity clients. 2023’s key legal developments were examined in detail, with reference to a range of relevant areas, while the webinars also provided spaces for open discussion, reflection and the sharing of thoughts and ideas.
For those who were not able to attend any of this year’s Advent Series sessions, or were but would like a reminder of their content, we have provided a helpful summary below.
Session 1: Coming to the UK as a religious visitor during the festive period
Led by Stone King Partner, Head of Immigration and Head of Faith Sector Julie Moktadir, this webinar focused on religious visitors travelling to the UK over the festive period, which is generally considered to begin in late November and end in early January.
The requirements of the Visitor visa immigration route were studied, as were the permitted and prohibited activities while on a Visitor visa. There are also, of course, occasional instances of failure to comply with the terms of a visa, the consequences of which were dug into by Julie.
For a more in-depth look at this subject, check out this useful tool from Stone King: Visa Route Options: Faith-Based Organisations.
A recording of the webinar can be found here.
Session 2: Churches and charitable giving
Stone King Senior Associate Frances Godden took this webinar, in which she talked about the Code of Fundraising Practice and the reasons churches may have to pay it particular attention at this time of year.
For churches and parishes, Advent means stepping up the Christmas preparations, so it’s a busy period during which nativities are performed, concerts held and fairs delighted in. These activities may include fundraising opportunities and, as PCCs (parochial parish councils) are charities (whether or not they are registered with the Charity Commission), some rules must be adhered to with regard to charitable giving and these were outlined in Frances’ session.
A link to the recording of this webinar will soon be made available.
Session 3: Employment update
Leading this webinar was Harriet Broughton, who is a Stone King Partner and member of the Employment Team, specialising in the charity, faith and education sectors.
Like all charities, churches and other faith-based organisations can find themselves encountering employment issues. In her session, Harriet unpacked a few recent employment cases and discussed legislative changes. She focused on the impact such things can and have had on faith organisations, with a view to helping attendees prepare for and prevent negative outcomes.
A link to the recording of this webinar will soon be made available.
Church of England
The firm works regularly with a wide range of Church of England clients such as clergy, lay officers – such as churchwardens and PCC secretaries – parishes and PCCs, diocesan boards of finance and education, bishops and cathedral deans, and chapters and senior staff.
Lee Coley, who plays an instrumental role in the ecclesiastical law work that Stone King does, was in February of this year interviewed by Chambers about his highly-regarded work in this area.
"In one sense, ecclesiastical law is about governance, about how clergy are authorised and ordained in the Church of England, from a local level up to the diocesan level, and even the General Synod," said Lee. "But it's exceptionally broad, it covers everything from the use of church buildings to clergy discipline and safeguarding." The article can be read in full here.
Further to this, back in August, the Registry team for the Diocese of Leicester – Frances Reynolds, Davinia Davey and Lee Coley – were involved in the appointment of a new judge (Chancellor) for the Diocesan Court, Naomi Gyane.
Naomi is the youngest and the first of African-Caribbean heritage to be appointed Chancellor within the Church of England. Naomi is also a barrister at Pump Court Chambers specialising in employment law.
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