An Anglican church in Nottinghamshire has been refused permission to install a 940-litre portable immersion baptistery, with a diocesan judge ruling that the proposal would result in a needless waste of water.

According to The Telegraph, the ruling was issued by Christopher Ockelton, chancellor of the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, who said St Mary’s Radcliffe-on-Trent should "take a lead in the stewardship of natural resources".

The church argued that a larger baptistery was needed to meet a pastoral need for full-body baptism, but it's been reported the chancellor said that immersion has no theological basis.

Ockelton reportedly acknowledged that baptism in running water was familiar, referring to Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan. However, he said the widespread use of church fonts throughout history demonstrated that baptism had long been practised in other ways.

He warned that each baptism could use thousands of times more water than a baptism in the existing font and potentially as much as ten times the amount used in a domestic bath, with the water drained away after the service.

The Telegrpah reports that the church was told that even if the church had established a theological or legal basis for immersion, the application could still have been refused because of the environmental impact.

“If doctrine and the law had been on the side of the petitioners, the court might well have felt nevertheless that its discretion should not be exercised in such a way as to endorse needless waste of water,” Ockelton said.

The Church of England has an aim to achieve net zero carbon by 2030. The 2020 General Synod vote recognised that "the global climate emergency is a crisis for God’s creation and a fundamental injustice."

Premier Christian News has contacted the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham for a response.