Online Faculty Applications

Applying for a faculty or authorisation of matters not requiring a faculty: 

This is done through the Online Faculty System (OFS). If you are a member of clergy or DCC/PCC Officer and have not already registered for the Church of England Portal and access to the Diocesan Database (CMS), please do so by following the link. You will need to register both for the Portal and then request access to the Diocesan Database (CMS). You can also link to the Online Faculty System (OFS) through the Portal so that all your resources are in one place.

To do this, you will need to: –

1. Read the Introduction, which explains the OFS

2. Register as an applicant – use the guide below to help you – Please remember to select both a Diocese and at least one church or the churches for which the PCC has authorised you make applications

N.B. Applications on the OFS are logged by church and not by applicant. Consequently, the dashboard will show all the applications made against the church and not just the ones that you have created. If you see an application that you do not recognise, it may be that a local authority with responsibility for maintaining a closed churchyard has also made an application. Equally, if you are a local authority applicant, you will see applications that the PCC has made. Therefore, please do not abandon cases that you don’t recognise without checking with the DAC Secretary first. If a request has to be made for an application to be restored, because it has been abandoned in error, a charge is incurred.

3. Once you have registered, apply using the guide produced by the Church Buildings Council.

4. Please check to see if there is already an application running for your proposals. If so, please amend that application rather than generating a new application.


If you need to change your details, you can do this through the OFS, just log on using the old details and go to My Account and update the details.


If you need to hand-on your responsibilities: –

  1. Please don’t just add a new user as this will clog the system

  2. INSTEAD contact the DAC Secretary with the name and email address of both the old and the new users. The account will then be changed and given a temporary password that will need to be changed when you login for the first time.

N.B. Before you try to use the Online Faculty System (OFS), please make sure that you have the latest version of the Java software on your computer – if you try to use an out-of-date version it will cause errors on the pages to occur. You download the lastest version here.


Download: Online Faculty System - An Introduction

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