Second Edition
The second edition of The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion was launched at the Lambeth Conference 2022. The revision process was organized and supported by the Ecclesiastical Law Society and the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University.
• Buy hard copy here.
• PDF download
This edition includes a Foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby; a Preface by the Revd Dr Will Adam, the Revd Russell Dewhurst, and Darren Oliver; and a Reflection by the Bishop of Lesotho, the Rt Revd Dr Vicentia Kgabe.
Previous Edition
Download 2008 Principles (1st edition)
This edition, launched at the Lambeth Conference 2008, includes a Foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Dr Rowan Williams; a Preface by Canon John Rees; and “The Contribution of Common Principles of Canon Law to Ecclesial Communion in Anglicanism”, an essay by Professor Norman Doe.
Resources
The resources in each of the following sections are listed in chronological order.
Church Resolutions, Meetings, Ecumenical Statements etc.
2002 Meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion. [See especially paragraph 6.]
The Lambeth Commission on Communion (The Windsor Report) 2004. [See especially paragraphs 113-4.]
Anglican Consultative Council (2002), Resolution 12.13: Legal Advisors Network
Anglican Consultative Council (2009), Resolution 14.20: Anglican Communion Legal Advisers’ Network (ACLAN).
Anglican Consultative Council (2023), Resolution 18.3(d): Legal Advisors’ Network
Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission III. “Walking Together on the Way: Learning to be the Church – Local, Regional, Universal” (Erfurt, Germany, 2 July 2018). Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue. [See especially paragraphs 145 and 158.]
Canon 50 of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
Cases
Bentley v Anglican Synod of the Diocese of New Westminster, 2010 BCCA 506. See case note: Arlow, R., & Adam, W. (2010). Bentley v Anglican Synod of the Diocese of New Westminster: Supreme Court of British Columbia: Kelleher J, November 2009 Canada – same-sex unions – doctrine – property dispute. Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 12(3), 402-403. doi:10.1017/S0956618X10000566
Re Wangaratta Blessing Service – Reference 5 September 2019, Appellate Tribunal of the Anglican Church of Australia. [See page 110ff of the “Wangaratta Blessing Service Opinion – 11 November 2020“]
Selected Academic Articles, Books, Lectures – 2008 Edition
Doe, N. Canon Law in the Anglican Communion: A Worldwide Perspective (Oxford, 1998)
Doe, N. (1999). “The Principles of Canon Law: A Focus of Legal Unity in Anglican-Roman Catholic Relations.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 5(25), 221-240. doi:10.1017/S0956618X00003586
Doe, N. (2002). “Canon Law and Communion.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 6(30), 241-263. doi:10.1017/S0956618X0000449X
Rees, J. (2002). “Anglican Communion Legal Advisers’ Consultation.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 6(31), 399-401. doi:10.1017/S0956618X00004786
Doe, N. (2003). “The Common Law of the Anglican Communion.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 7(32), 4-16. doi:10.1017/S0956618X00004907
Doe, N. (2008). “The Contribution of Common Principles of Canon Law to Ecclesial Communion in Anglicanism.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 10(1), 71-91. doi:10.1017/S0956618X08000902
Hill, M. “Droit Canonique Anglican” in Messner, F. (ed.) Dictionnaire du droit des religions (Paris, 2011).
Podmore, C. (2011). Two Streams Mingling: The American Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion. Journal of Anglican Studies, 9(1), 12-37. doi:10.1017/S1740355310000045
Hill, C. (2012). “Ecclesiological and Canonical Observations on The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 14(3), 400-407. doi:10.1017/S0956618X12000373
Hill, M. “Anglican Canon Law: Instrument of Unity, Mission and Ecumenism.” Lecture given to the Canon Law Council of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Grahamstown, 13-14 January 2014.
Dewhurst, R. “Episcopal Functions in Anglican Canon Law” in Doe, N. (ed.) Bishops in Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Law, being the Acts of the Seventeenth Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers (Cardiff, 2018).
Hill, M. “Anglican Canon Law: Identity, Ecclesiology and Ecumenism.” The Second Sharwood Lecture in Church Law, delivered at Trinity College, University of Melbourne, February 2019.
Hill, M. “The Anglican Canonical Tradition” in Doe, N. (ed.) Church Laws and Ecumenism: A New Path for Christian Unity (Abingdon, 2021).
Witte, J. (2022). “Law at the Backbone: The Christian Legal Ecumenism of Norman Doe.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 24(2), 192-208. doi:10.1017/S0956618X22000047
Blake, G. (2022). “The Constitutionality of Diocesan Legislation Relating to Same-Sex Blessings and Marriage in the Anglican Church of Australia: A Case Note.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 24(2), 209-232. doi:10.1017/S0956618X21000624 [NB This article relates to a case which cites the Principles.]
Selected Academic Articles, Books, Lectures – 2022 Edition
2022
Goddard, A. “Lambeth ‘Calls’, Lambeth I.10, and the nature of the Anglican Communion (2): the future” in
Psephizo, July 2022.
Hill, C. (2022). The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion (London: Anglican Consultative Council, 2nd edn, 2022), pp. 167. ISBN 978-1911007364. Journal of Anglican Studies, 1-3. doi:10.1017/S174035532200033X
Hill, M. “Principles of Canon Law and the Mind of the Anglican Communion” in Law & Religion UK, 26 July 2022.
2023
Billings, B. (2023). “A Limited Episcopacy? Canon Law and the Ministry of the ‘Episcopal Assistant’ in the Anglican Communion.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 25(3), 359-373. doi:10.1017/S0956618X23000261
Deadman, R. (2023). “Confession in the Anglican Church – Breaking the Seal?” Law & Justice, 189, 126. [Discusses inter alia the changes between editions on the Seal of the Confessional.]
Dewhurst, R. (2023). The 2022 Revision of The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion.” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 25(1), 60-65. doi:10.1017/S0956618X22000643 [Open Access]
Hill, M. “Non-Justiciability of Religious Disputes: A Ugandan Case Note.” in Law & Religion UK, 21 November 2023. [Cites the Principles.]
2024
Ellis, M. (2024). “‘Juristecture’ and the regulation of normative space” Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 26(2), 129-146. doi:10.1017/S0956618X24000012 [Cites the Principles.]
Hill, M. “Church Laws as a Means of Ecumenical Dialogue” in Domingo, R., Hauk, G. and Jackson, T. (eds) Faith in Law, Law in Faith: Reflecting and Building on the Work of John Witte, Jr. (Leiden, 2024).