The Church of Ireland Gazette has now completed publication of its three-part series:
What is Canon Law? by Simon Doogan
Canon Law of Communion and Inter-Anglican Relations: the draft Anglican Covenant by Kenyon Homfray
Ecclesiastical courts and disciplinary jurisdiction by Terence Dunlop
‘The Irish Book of Common Prayer of 1878: “What is imperfect with peace, is often better than what is otherwise more excellent, without it”. Amongst its many functions, one function of Canon Law is to give expression to the moral requirements and obligations (and, indeed, the collective moral conscience) of a Church’. (Kenyon Homfray (C. of I.) It seems that, here again, the Church of Ireland is able to point a possible way forward for the Provinces of the Anglican Communion to co-exist – if even in a ‘less excellent’ manner than might otherwise be possible. What has to be… Read more »
Fr. Dunlop’s essay reminds us that policing and punishment in the new fangled conservative covenanted Anglican Church nee Communion may end up being something of a two-edged sword. A good reminder, then. That is: complicated laws and regulations for policing and punishment may discover ambiguities and grey areas in application that did not seem possible, nor were anticipated, in their original drafting. Even Billy Budd innocents may get ground up in those wheels turning. The same conservative Anglican believers who cannot, say, exactly agree on high vs low church rituals as lex orandi, or on womens’ ordination, or on free… Read more »