Question

do you have to have a vice chair on the Parish Church Council

Answer 1

If you have a Parish Council (nothing to do with the church). And your standing orders require one then you should appoint one. However, you can amend your standing orders to remove the role. However depending on the work your council does, it is typically useful to share the workload.

Answer 2

The only legal requirement is to appoint a Chairman and this has to be undertaken in May each year.  The appointment of a Vice Chair is casual but a good idea to cover instances where the Chair is absent.

Comments

Even if the Chair is absent and no Vice Chair is appointed then the first order of business would be to appoint a Chair for that meeting. So having a Vice Chair is really irrelevant.

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It just makes it easier to know in advance who would be chair, especially if you have an issue with power struggles and political one-up-manship or alternatively no-one offering to take the chair.  But you are right that it is not required.