{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/ecclesiastical-courts-jurisdiction-act-1860/section-2",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/ecclesiastical-courts-jurisdiction-act-1860/section-2.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Vict/23-24/32",
  "legislation_title": "Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/ecclesiastical-courts-jurisdiction-act-1860",
  "path": "section/2",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "2",
  "heading": "Penalty on persons found guilty of making a disturbance in churches, chapels, churchyards, or burial grounds.",
  "text": "Any person who shall be guilty of riotous, violent, or indecent behaviour in England or Ireland in any cathedral church, parish or district church or chapel of the Church of England . . . , or in any chapel of any religious denomination, or in England in any places of religious worship duly certified under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855, whether during the celebration of divine service or at any other time, or in any churchyard or burial ground, or who shall molest, let, disturb, vex, or trouble, or by any other unlawful means disquiet or misuse any preacher duly authorized to preach therein, or any clergyman in holy orders ministering or celebrating any sacrament, or any divine service, rite, or office, in any cathedral, church, or chapel, or in any churchyard or burial ground, shall, on conviction thereof by a magistrates' court, be liable to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scaleor to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two months.",
  "extent": "E+W+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words omitted by virtue of Irish Church Act 1869 (c. 42), s. 69"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in s. 2 substituted (1.4.2005) by Courts Act 2003 (c. 39), s. 110(1), Sch. 8 para. 37(a); S.I. 2005/910, art. 3(y)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words in s. 2 substituted (1.4.2005) by Courts Act 2003 (c. 39), s. 110(1), Sch. 8 para. 37(b); S.I. 2005/910, art. 3(y)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words substituted by virtue of Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48), ss. 38, 46 and (N.I.) by S.I. 1984/703 (N.I. 3), arts. 5, 6"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F5",
      "text": "Words in s. 2 substituted (1.4.2005) by Courts Act 2003 (c. 39), s. 110(1), Sch. 8 para. 37(c); S.I. 2005/910, art. 3(y)"
    },
    {
      "type": "M",
      "label": "M1",
      "text": "1855 c. 81."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "words repealed",
      "affecting": "ukpga/2003/44",
      "affecting_title": "Criminal Justice Act 2003"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/23-24/32/section/2",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T13:12:16.348771+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}