Parliament (United Kingdom) Correspondence about the possible revival of convocation

The petition of the Irish church for the revival of synodical government, 1843

In presenting this petition to the house of lords and for subsequent publication, Archbishop Richard Whately of Dublin remarked that it was virtually identical to a petition which had been submitted to him from the diocese ofKildare in 1833.

To the lords spiritual and temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in parliament assembled, the humble petition of the members of the United Church of England and Ireland whose names and addresses are hereunto subscribed, showeth:

That your petitioners - aware that all human arrangements, however originally excellent, are liable to be affected by change of circumstances, so as to require measures to be adopted for their adjustment - feel deeply that the United Church of England and Ireland has suffered disadvantage from a similar cause, operating upon her position as connected with the civil legislature of this country.

That the Church of England and Ireland, viewed as an important part of the church of Christ, ought, as such, to enjoy the privilege permitted to other churches and religious bodies, of possessing within herself, such a power of regulation in her distinctly spiritual affairs, as may best promote the due discharge of the sacred duties required of her ministers, and provide for the religious discipline of her own members.

That for the attainment of this, there is required the establishment of some deliberative ecclesiastical body, having authority to frame regulations, and to decide in questions of doubt and difficulty, respecting all such matters.

That the convocation, supposing it adapted, not only to former times, but to all times, is fallen into desuetude; and that neither to revive that, nor to make any provision for supplying its place, is clearly at variance with the design of our reformers.

That the two houses of parliament were not originally designed, and were never considered as adapted, to be the sole legislative authority for the church in spiritual matters, and that if they ever had been so adapted, the recent changes in the constitution of those houses - admitting without distinction, to seats in the legislature,