1 This is a revised and updated version of a paper first given by invitation at a seminar organised by the Consociatio internationalis studio iuris canonici promovendo and held in Rome on 9 April 2010, and subsequently published in (2010) 44 One in Christ 1.

2 In England, for example, a conference on the subject was held at Pusey House, Oxford, on 24 April 2010 entitled ‘Anglicanorum Coetibus: An Exploration of Anglican Patrimony’. See also the excellent study by Bishop Christopher Hill, ‘What is the personal ordinariate? Canonical and liturgical observations’, (2010) 12 Ecc LJ 202.

3 Joint Statement, 20 October 2009. The secular press portrayed the Apostolic Constitution variously as a ‘humiliation’ of the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it is designed to ‘poach Anglican manpower to fill the Pope's depleted ranks’, and that it is ‘damaging to Anglican morale’: see Longley, C, ‘The Church of England is close to the heart of what it means to be English’, The Tablet, 19 Dec. 2009, 7Google Scholar.

4 Greaves, M and Pentin, E, The Catholic Herald, 5 February 2010Google Scholar.

5 The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) was founded in 1991 and it is understood that in 2007 its bishops made a formal request for ‘full, corporate and sacramental union’ with Rome. TAC, which claims to have about half a million members in 44 countries, is not a part of the Anglican Communion but is under the leadership of Archbishop John Hepworth of Australia.

6 See, for example, Bishop Christopher Epting, The Episcopal Church USA, who observed that the constitution ‘may be understood as “pastoral” but is not necessarily very ecumenical… This appears to be a unilateral action on the part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which flies in the face of the slow, but steady progress made in the real ecumenical dialogue of over forty years’: Episcopal Life Online, 16 November 2009: <www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_116893_ENG_HTM.htm>.

7 Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus (hereafter ACAC), Introduction. On the other hand, being about the reception of former Anglicans into the Latin Church, the Constitution may be distinguished from ecumenism: see Unitatis redintegratio, 7 which distinguishes between ecumenism and reception into full catholic communion (SJ, N Tanner (ed), Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, (vol II, London, 1990) 911Google Scholar).

8 Made in L'Osservatore Romano, 15 November 2009; see also Bishop Christopher Hill, ‘What is the personal ordinariate: canonical and liturgical observations’: <www.cofe.anglican.org/news/prguildapcon.html>; see also W Kasper, ‘Still a place for optimism’, The Tablet, 13 February 2010, 8, in which Cardinal Kasper expresses his hopes for the ecumenical enterprise (in edited extracts from his opening address to ‘Harvesting the fruits’, a symposium held in Rome earlier that month). This wholly accords with the Common Declaration 1966 of Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI who spoke of ‘a restoration of complete communion of faith and sacramental life’: see Hill, C and Yarnold, E SJ (eds), Anglicans and Roman Catholics: The Search for Unity (London, 1994) 10Google Scholar.

9 See also the report of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM), Growing Together in Mission and Unity (London, 2007), which incidentally makes no mention of the role of canon law in dialogue.

10 Bishop Christopher Epting, Episcopal Life Online, 16 November 2009.

11 Whalon, Bishop Pierre: Episcopal Life Online, 30 November 2009Google Scholar.

12 Quoted in Williams, LA, ‘Vatican publishes plan for full communion with disaffected Anglicans’, Anglican Journal, 12 November 2009Google Scholar.

13 Bishop Dennis Drainville, Diocese of Quebec, co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Bishops' Dialogue – however, it might affect larger numbers in England ‘because they are just going through their crisis about women in Episcopal orders’: Williams, ‘Vatican publishes plan for full communion with disaffected Anglicans’. See also Combe, V, ‘Living apart together’, The Tablet, 13 February 2010, 6Google Scholar: this carries the opinion that whilst evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are both against women bishops, the former will not join an ordinariate, but the latter might.

14 Trott, S, ‘You don't know what you've got till it's gone’, Church Times, 11 December 2009Google Scholar.

15 Bishop Drainville: ‘So if Anglicans are going to truly be part of this then there are a number of things they are going to have to accept, the Catholic Church's dogma on trans-substantiation is still there, the Petrine doctrine of the supremacy of the Pope and infallibility are central… Whoever is going to make this move is going to have to move accepting all of that’: Williams, ‘Vatican publishes plan for full communion with disaffected Anglicans’.

16 Trott, S, ‘You don't know what you've got till it's gone’, Church Times, 11 December 2009Google Scholar.

17 Bishop Epting: ‘the Vatican may rest assured that there will be no ‘Roman Catholic Ordinariates’ within the Anglican Communion for former, disaffected Roman Catholic converts. We will continue to welcome individuals, from the Roman Catholic Church or any other Christian communion, who desire to be in full communion': Episcopal Life Online, 16 November 2009.

18 Ibid. The Archbishop of York is reported to have said on BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme that people joining an ordinariate would not be ‘proper Catholics’: see Combe, V, ‘Living apart together’, The Tablet, 13 February 2010, 6Google Scholar.

19 Bishop of Ebbsfleet, quoted in Bowder, B, ‘Anglo-Catholics gather to pray over Pope's offer’, Church Times, 26 February 2010Google Scholar.

20 Reader-Moore, A, ‘Anglo-Catholics do have a real patrimony’, The Catholic Herald, 22 January 2010Google Scholar.

21 See, for example, Conger, G, ‘Australians are first to take up Pope's offer’, The Church of England Newspaper, 19 February 2010, 7Google Scholar: this provides the basics of the decisions. See also Forward in Faith Australia, 15 February 2010: <www.forwardinfaith.com/artman/publish/article_501.shtml>

22 Caldwell, S, ‘US Anglicans to convert to Rome en masse’, The Catholic Herald, 12 March 2010Google Scholar: the decision was taken by the House of Bishops of the ACA during a meeting in Orlando, Florida, which was attended by the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Archbishop John Hepworth. The bishops said in a brief statement on their website afterwards that they had agreed formally to ‘request the implementation of the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus in the United States of America by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’. The ACA House of Bishops also proposes to seek guidance from Anglican Use Parishes.

23 Ibid: the report suggests this might involve in the region of 200 Anglican congregations, which would amount to thousands of ‘converts’ (Caldwell, ‘US Anglicans to convert to Rome en masse’). See also Cohen, T, ‘Delay in Vatican vote’, The Church of England Newspaper, 26 February 2010Google Scholar: a decision from Forward in Faith (UK) is likely following the July 2010 meeting of the General Synod (which will consider women bishops).

24 Caldwell, S, ‘US Anglicans to convert to Rome en masse’, The Catholic Herald, 12 March 2010Google Scholar.

25 The leaders of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada – a member of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) – have sent a petition to the Vatican requesting full communion with Rome through the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus: The Catholic Herald, 19 March 2010.

26 For example, in the USA: the parish of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church, Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas (this has no affiliation to the so-called ‘Continuing Anglican Movement’); its Order of Mass, drawing on the 1928 and 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church USA, consists of Rite I (traditional English) and Rite II (contemporary English); Our Lady of Walsingham, Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and the parish of St Thomas More, Fort Worth, Texas.

27 Fr G Ghirlanda, ‘The significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus’, as published on the official website of the Vatican (9 November 2009) and in Osservatore Romano (10 November 2009); see <www.zenit.org>; Fr Ghirlanda also concedes that ‘Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans’ are not envisioned in the Code of Canon Law.

28 The Canon Law: Letter and Spirit, Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Dublin, 1995), para 1112: ‘The armed forces in any country constitute a community with very special needs and problems. The “special laws” mentioned in the canon are contained in ap con Spirituali militum curae of 21 April 1986 and in the statutes approved by the Holy See for each country or region'; see also para 1113:

29 ACAC, I.3: ‘juridically comparable to a diocese’, each ordinariate possesses public juridical personality by the law itself; see also XIII: ‘The Decree establishing an Ordinariate will determine the location of the See and, if appropriate, the principal church’.

30 ACAC, V: bishops have ordinary, proper and immediate power (CIC, c 381.1); they are not ‘vicars’ (representatives) of the pontiff but vicars and legates of Christ (Lumen gentium, 27); a vicar general or episcopal vicar exercises ordinary jurisdiction by delegation (c 131.1 and 2); as do auxiliary or co-adjutor bishops; in an ordinariate, ordinary power is exercised vicariously, not being proper to the office.

31 The ordinariates for Anglicans are personal structures in so far as the jurisdiction of the ordinary and of parish priests ‘is not geographically defined within the territory of an Episcopal Conference like a particular territorial Church, but is exercised “over all who belong to the Ordinariate”’: Ghirlanda (citing ACAC, V); see also ACAC, I. 2; for personal parishes see CIC, c 518.

32 Ghirlanda: the personal prelatures model (c 294–297) was not followed; under c 294 personal prelatures are composed of secular priests and deacons and (under c 296) lay people may simply dedicate themselves to the apostolic works of personal prelatures by agreement.

33 See Doe, N, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion (Oxford, 1998) p 123–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 This observation is based on personal conversations with many. See also the Anglican Communion in America (ACA) website for Frequently Asked Questions, ACA House of Bishops Endorsement of Apostolic Constitution, 8: ‘“united, but not absorbed” will be the guiding principle of our relationship’.

35 ACAC, Introduction and I.1 and I.4.

36 ACAC, VI.1.

37 CN, Art 4.2.

38 Ghirlanda, ‘The significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus’: namely, those ‘who have repeatedly petitioned the Holy See to be received into full Catholic Communion’; this suggests that the scheme is for currently practising Anglicans who are still members of their own respective churches. The erection of an ordinariate is ‘[t]he juridical means by which the Holy Father has decided to receive these Anglicans into full Catholic communion’.

39 Ibid: this may be compared with the scheme in Pastoral Provision adopted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by John Paul II 20 June 1980, under which the faithful coming from Anglicanism were members of the diocese in which they were domiciled receiving special care from the diocesan bishop.

40 Ibid (there is something here of Anglican polity in which parochial electoral rolls or other registers are used); ordinariates are designed to enable reception ‘corporately’ ‘for groups composed of people in various states of life’ (lay, clerical and religious). The ordinary ‘enjoys legitimate autonomy with respect to the jurisdiction of the Diocesan Bishop in which the faithful of the Ordinariate have their domicile and is, therefore, better able to ensure that those faithful are not simply assimilated into the local Dioceses in a way which would lead to the loss of the richness of their Anglican tradition’ but the ordinary must ensure the ordinariate ‘does not evolve into an isolated community’; see also ACAC, IX: those seeking admission ‘must manifest this desire in writing’; CN, Art 5.1 (the register).

41 ACAC, I.5 (the catechism is ‘the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith professed by the members of the Ordinariate’); CN, Art 5.1 (profession of faith).

42 CN, Art 5.1 (under CIC, c 845), ie baptism and confirmation. Former Anglicans must therefore undergo confirmation.

43 ACAC, VI.1; CN, Art 6.1.

44 ACAC, I.2.

45 ACAC, V; CN, Art 5.2.

46 CN, Art 2: and the ordinary will be obliged to follow its directives unless incompatible with the Apostolic Constitution.

47 ACAC, VI.5; CN Art 10.2.

48 CN, Art 6.2.

49 CN, Art 11.1.

50 CN, Art 4.2.

51 ACAC, VIII.2; CN, Art 14.2.

52 CN, Art 8.1 and 8.2.

53 ACAC, VIII.1; see also CN, Art 14.

54 CN, Art 14.3; see CIC, can. 516.1.

55 Its competent tribunal is that for the diocese if the ordinariate has not constituted its own (ACAC, XII).

56 Ghirlanda, ‘The significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus’: ordinariates respond to two needs: the need ‘to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared’ (ACAC III); and the need to integrate fully into the life of the Catholic Church groups of faithful, or individuals, coming from Anglicanism; the enrichment is mutual: the faithful coming from Anglicanism receive the richness of the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral tradition of the Latin Roman Church ‘in order to integrate it into their own tradition, which integration will in itself enrich the Latin Roman Church. On the other hand, exactly this Anglican tradition – which will be received in its authenticity in the Latin Roman Church – has constituted within Anglicanism precisely one of those gifts of the Church of Christ, which has moved these faithful towards Catholic unity’; to protect and nourish the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral tradition developed within Anglicanism ‘and recognised as authentic by the Catholic Church’.

57 See N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion, p 162: ‘received members’ are those who, after appropriate instruction, and a mature public declaration of their faith, are received by a bishop into the institutional church in question; see also Principle 99 of the Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion (Anglican Communion Office, London, 2008).

58 ACAC, III.

59 CN, Art 11.1; former Anglican bishops may also be called upon to assist the ordinary in administration of the ordinariate (11.2); invited to participate in meetings of the Episcopal Conference (with the status of a ‘retired bishop’: 11.3); and may request permission from the Holy See ‘to use the ensignia of the episcopal office’: 11.4.

60 ACAC, VI.5; CN, 10.2 and 4.

61 ACAC, VI.1; they may be ordained priests according to the norms of the Encyclical Letter of Paul VI Sacerdotalis coelibatus, n 42.

62 ACAC, VI.2 (ie as a derogation of CIC, c 227.1).

63 ACAC, VIII.1; this is possible under CIC, c 518.

64 ACAC, VII: the ordinary may erect new institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life.

65 Ghirlanda, ‘The significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus’; ACAC, X: governing council of six priests (to assist the ordinary); finance council; and pastoral council which includes laity (for consultation); see also CN, Art 12.

66 Epting, Bishop, Episcopal Life Online, 16 November 2009Google Scholar. The use of ‘convert’ here is not in line with the canonical position of Rome in so far as converts are those from faiths other than Christianity.

67 The provisions are of course based on the position of Rome on Anglican orders, and many appreciate them in that light: Bishop Christopher Hill, ‘What is the personal ordinariate?’.

68 For the position in the Latin Church, see CIC, c 129; for the Anglican position, see Principles of Canon Law, Principles 15.9 and 25.3.

69 Ibid, Principle 94 and N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion, p 364ff.

70 Principles of Canon Law.

71 ACAC, I.4, and IX.

72 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 10.1: ‘The Anglican Communion is a fellowship of churches within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, characterised by their historic relationship of communion with the See of Canterbury’; the Communion consists of ‘duly constituted national, regional, provincial churches and dioceses’. See also the Anglican Communion Covenant, 4.1.1.

73 ACAC, III (Anglican tradition); VI.5 (Anglican patrimony); Anglicans have been much exercised by the latter category: see, typically, Trott, S, ‘You don't know what you've got till it's gone’, Church Times, 11 December 2009Google Scholar.

74 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 8.4 (interpretation of law may in cases of doubt have recourse to, inter alia, ‘practice and tradition’); Principle 9.2 (catholic tradition).

75 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 54.5 and 8 and 55 (however, see 55.8 for ‘liturgical text’).

76 Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are the traditional canonical categories: see N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion, p 234.

77 ACAC, III; see above n 72 for Principles of Canon Law, Principle 10.1.

78 ACAC, Introduction; Principles of Canon Law, Principle 1.2: ‘A church needs within it laws to order, and so facilitate, its public life and to regulate its own affairs for the common good’.

79 ACAC, Introduction: ‘In the light of these ecclesiological principles, the Apostolic Constitution provides the general normative structure for regulating the institution and life of Personal Ordinariates’; Principles of Canon Law, Principle, 2.3: ‘Law has a historical and a theological foundation, rationale and end’; 2.4: ‘Law is intended to express publicly the theological self-understanding and practical policies of a church’.

80 ACAC, V; Principles of Canon Law, Principle 38.4: ‘An assistant bishop is subject to the ordinary jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop’.

81 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 32.3.

82 ACAC, Introduction; Principles of Canon Law, Principle 93.1: ‘The church universal is indivisible and it is the will of God that separated churches should share a more visible communion than exists one with another’.

83 CN, Art 7.1 and 2; Principles of Canon Law, Principle 91.1: ‘A church should provide for the financial maintenance of ministry, both lay and ordained’; 91.2: ‘Ministers in full-time ministry have a legitimate expectation to a stipend or other remuneration payable by virtue of the office or other position held by them’.

84 CN, Art 7.3; Principles of Canon Law, Principle, 41.4: ‘Clergy must not engage in any secular employment or other occupation outside their ministry without consultation with, or as the case may be permission from, the diocesan bishop or other relevant church authority’.

85 CN, Art 8.1; Principles of Canon Law, Principle 27.

86 Such as the notion of norms, rights and duties: Principles of Canon Law, Principle 4.

87 See, for example, Principles of Canon Law, Principle 3: ‘Historical sources recognised as such in the canonical tradition, including custom, have such status within a church as may be prescribed by law’.

88 ACAC, III: though the spiritual and pastoral traditions are nowhere defined.

89 Ghirlanda, ‘The significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus’.

90 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 18.1: ‘Representative government is fundamental to church polity, and in matters which touch all, all should have a voice’; however, see also above n 68.

91 See generally Fox, J (ed), Render Unto Caesar: Church Property in Roman Catholic and Anglican Canon Law (Rome, 2000)Google Scholar.

92 Hill, M (ed), Clergy Discipline in Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Law (Cardiff and Rome, 2001)Google Scholar.

93 Conn, J, Doe, N and Fox, J (eds), Initiation, Membership and Authority in Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Law (Rome, 2005)Google Scholar.

94 Doe, N (ed), The Formation and Ordination of Clergy in Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Law (Cardiff, 2009)Google Scholar.

95 Doe, N (ed), Marriage in Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Law (Cardiff, 2009)Google Scholar.

96 ‘A Decade of Ecumenical Dialogue in Canon Law’, Report of the Proceedings of the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers 1999–2009 (2009) 11 Ecc LJ, 284.

97 This is the work of the Anglican Communion Legal Advisers Network. For background see N Doe ‘The contribution of common principles of canon law to ecclesial communion in Anglicanism’, (2008) 10 Ecc LJ 71–91. Under the presidency of Archbishop Carey, in 2001 the Primates' Meeting discussed (for the first time) the contribution (or not) made by the laws of the churches to global communion in Anglicanism. At the request of the Primates, an Anglican Communion Legal Advisers Consultation met at Canterbury in 2002 (a first for such a meeting) and proposed that there are principles of canon law common to the churches of the Communion. The Primates in 2002 recognised that ‘the unwritten law common of the Churches of the Communion and expressed as shared principles of canon law may be understood to constitute a fifth “instrument of unity”’ (alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth Conference, Anglican Consultative Council and Primate Meeting). The ACC at Hong Kong then established a Network of Legal Advisers to produce a statement of the principles. In 2003, the Primates urged completion of the work, as did the Lambeth Commission in its Windsor Report (2004). The Network launched its work at the Lambeth Conference in 2008.

98 ‘A Decade of Ecumenical Dialogue in Canon Law’, (2009) 11 Ecc LJ 284 at 296.

99 Cardinal Kasper has also recognised the significance of canon law in shared dialogue; see: Kasper, W, ‘Canon law and ecumenism’, (2009) 69 The Jurist, 171–189CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

100 Ghirlanda, ‘The significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus’; he also observes that personal ordinariates for Anglicans ‘cannot be considered as Particular Ritual Churches since the Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral tradition is a particular reality within the Latin Church’; the creation of a Ritual Church might have created ‘ecumenical difficulties’.

101 The initiative also raises the question of whether the ordinariate system is intended (a) for current Anglicans who since and because of promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution now wish to leave their institutional (Anglican) churches and enter full communion with Rome, or (b) for Anglicans who had left their churches before its promulgation. If the former, the Apostolic Constitution may be understood to incite schism – see below – or, more benignly, simply as an outworking of the canonical duty of all the faithful ‘to promote the growth of the Church’ (CIC, c 210).

102 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 25.4 (as to the laity); for the clergy, see Principles 41 and 47.

103 N Doe, ‘Termination of membership in Anglican canon law’, in J Conn, N Doe and J Fox (eds), Initiation, Membership and Authority in Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Law, p 109: it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether loss of a particular status terminates membership of the institutional church itself, as for the most part loss of status results simply in exclusion from aspects of church life and the enjoyment of rights belonging to the relevant ecclesial status or class. For example, in churches in which baptism effects membership of the institutional church (as well as the church universal), given the indelibility of baptism, this form of membership would seem incapable of termination: see, for example, The Episcopal Church USA, Can I.17(1)(a).

104 See, for example, Church in Wales, Const, I.7: ‘communicant’ means ‘a person who has lawfully received Holy Communion in the Church in Wales or some other Church in communion with it and is entitled to receive Holy Communion in the Church in Wales’; for three occasions see, for example, West Indies, Const Art 6.1 and Can 26.2; see also Principles of Canon Law, Principle 27.4.

105 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 69.2; for schism, see, for example, West Indies, Can 26; see also below n 109.

106 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 27.7: names may be removed from a parish roll or other register in accordance with the law and observing the principles of justice and equity; see, for example, Australia, Const. XII.74.1, and Wales, Const. IV.5: a name shall be removed from the roll if a person ‘becomes, without the written permission of the Bishop, a member of any religious body which is not in communion with the Church in Wales’. However, some churches give communicant status to members of other non-Anglican churches when these are in good standing in that other church: Doe (2005) at 118–119.

107 See, for example, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, Can 25.7: a registered member of a parish is a Christian who is at least 18, baptised, confirmed, a regular communicant, and ‘is making monthly contributions to the parish concerned’.

108 In the same way a Roman Catholic who commits schism (see CIC, c 751: ‘Schism is the withdrawal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him’), may be subject to penalties (see CIC, c 1364). There is no obvious offence in the Latin Code for members of the Catholic faithful to incite schism in another ecclesial community; and in any event, the Holy See may be judged by no one (CIC, c 1404; see also c 333.3: there is no appeal against a judgment or decree of the Roman Pontiff). Quaere: is such a principle at least implicit in the norms of the Roman Catholic Ecumenical Directory 1993? If not, should it be?

109 See, for example, Southern Africa, Can. 37.1(g): ‘schism, that is to say, acceptance of membership in any religious body not in communion with the Church of this Province’; see also eg West Africa, Const. Art XXXII.6(d)–(f); the Church of England too provides in Canon A8 Of Schisms that: ‘it is the duty of clergy and people to do their utmost not only to avoid occasions of strife but also to seek in penitence and brotherly charity to heal such divisions’.

110 See N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion, p 84.

111 See, for example, Canada, Can XIX; see also The Episcopal Church USA, Cans IV.10, followed generally in Chile, Cans B.7b; Brazil, Cans IV.5,6; Mexico, Cans IV.43–44.

112 Southern Africa, Can 19: ‘If any person in Holy Orders shall without consent from the Bishop abandon the exercise of his ordained ministry, or shall forsake the Communion of the Church, he shall not be allowed to resume the exercise of any Ministerial Office in this Church, until he shall have given to the proper authority evidence of the sincerity of his repentance for the fault which he has committed’.

113 Porter, M, ‘Bishop of the Murray faces long list of charges’, Church Times, 12 March 2010Google Scholar.

114 That is, under ACAC, III.

115 Church property is held on trust for the purposes of worship: Principles of Canon Law, Principle 80; in the Church of England, for example, the parish church is vested in the incumbent (and responsibility for its maintenance in a Parochial Church Council): see Hill, M, Ecclesiastical Law (third edition, Oxford, 2007)Google Scholar 3.74; in the Church in Wales, ownership vests in provincial trustees, the Representative Body: see Doe, N, The Law of the Church in Wales (Cardiff, 2002) 302Google Scholar, 318ff; for other Anglican churches, see N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion, p 308ff.

116 The civil law would of course be relevant here: see for example the recent case of Bentley v Anglican Synod of the Diocese of New Westminster, heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, in which four parishes sought to leave the diocese with parish property: (2009) BCSC 1608. In the USA, judicial decisions in litigation concerning parishes seeking to secede from dioceses of The Episcopal Church USA have gone either way, depending on the precise terms of the trust instruments and State laws involved: for a brief overview of recent events, see, for example, Conger, G, ‘Legal battle looms as US church secedes’, The Church of England Newspaper, 1 April 2010, 7Google Scholar.

117 However, see below for liturgical ecumenism.

118 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 56.1; see generally, N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion, p 223ff.

119 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 55 (especially 55.4–9); see also 55.10: ‘No minister in a parish or other local unit may formulate or use a form of service for which no provision exists in authorised service books without lawful authority.’ This authority would probably not extend to services approved by Rome.

120 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 21.2 (dissolution of parishes); Principle 80 (sale, etc).

121 ACAC, III.

122 Principles of Canon Law, 55.1: ‘The Book of Common Prayer 1662 is the normative standard for liturgy’.

123 Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988; hereafter CPDA. I am very grateful to the Revd Simon Stokes for help with this paragraph. See generally S Stokes, ‘Intellectual Property and the Church’, LLM in Canon Law, Dissertation 1996, Cardiff, University of Wales.

124 Crown Privilege subsists independently from the CDPA – see s 171(1)(b) CDPA; see Stokes (1996) for the background, history and the rationale for this. There is very little modern law on this area – the only recent case was the New English Bible case where the Crown Patentee – the Queen's Printer Eyre and Spottiswoode – were held to only have rights to the Authorised Version (of the Bible) and not the New English Bible: see Universities of Oxford and Cambridge v Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd [1964] 1 Ch 736 at 748 for a discussion of the right.

125 Printing was historically controlled by the Crown which is where the practice as regards the Book of Common Prayer and the Authorised Version originated. The privilege/words used in the grant of the patent for the Authorised Version (and hence the Book of Common Prayer) were discussed in the New English Bible case cited in n 124 above.

126 A Brief Guide to Liturgical Copyright, Archbishops' Council (third edition, London, 2000) p 13: ‘Applications for permission for single use are not required for extracts of up to 500 words. Permission for other uses must be obtained’ from Cambridge University Press.

127 In order to be sure not to infringe, a request would be made to the copyright owner/crown patentee to grant a licence to cover the acts that would otherwise infringe; this is a voluntary licence (ie not statutory) – simply a matter of contract law – and a royalty might be requested. A licence may be refused in which case if publication/infringement goes ahead then the owner could seek an injunction as well as damages. The Copyright Guidance of the Church of England (see n 126 above) indicates the current approach of the owners to granting licences. It can also be debated whether the privilege applies to electronic rights – clearly not contemplated by the Crown in the 17th century.

128 See A Brief Guide to Liturgical Copyright (2000) p 13. The copyright of the Alternative Service Book (1980), discontinued in 2000, which vested in the Central Board of Finance, would qualify for copyright under CDPA like any other literary work and usual publishing practice would apply to getting permission: see A Brief Guide to Liturgical Copyright: the Archbishops' Council acquired title to it. The Book of Common Prayer 1984 of the Church in Wales vests in Church in Wales Publications; material in this was reproduced from the Book of Common Prayer 1662 with permission on the basis that the BCP 1662 is ‘Crown copyright’.

129 It is to be noted however that Anglican laws are generally not discriminatory in this regard, and that former Anglicans who are members of a Roman ordinariate do not enjoy greater entitlements (qua ordinariate members) than any other member of the Roman Catholic Church or indeed the faithful of any other church with which the Anglican church in question is not in full communion.

130 Doe, N, The Legal Framework of the Church of England (Oxford, 1996) 358CrossRefGoogle Scholar (right to worship: see Cole v Police Constable 443A [1937] 1 KB 316); for marriage and burial, see ibid, chs 13 and 14.

131 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 44.1.

132 See, for example, Church of England, Canon B 43: ministers in good standing in their own church may be invited to perform certain duties within Church of England services if they are authorised to perform similar functions in their own church; the incumbent invites, and the bishop and/or parochial church council approves; joint worship might also occur as might worship in accordance with the forms of service of the other church.

133 Principles of Canon Law, Principle 97.3: ‘A parish may enter a local ecumenical project to provide for shared ministerial, liturgical or sacramental communion or other form of reciprocity agreed by the participant churches, in the manner and to the extent authorised by law’.

134 Ie: a church other than the Church in Wales or a church in communion with the Church in Wales.

135 Church in Wales, Canon 26 September 1991; see also Church of England, Canon B 44 and Church of Ireland, Const IX.11.

136 Sharing of Church Buildings Act 1969; this also applies to the Church in Wales. The position of the Church of England under a sharing agreement is also governed by Canon B 44 (see above).

137 See generally N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion.

138 The idea was proposed in the Lambeth Commission on Communion, The Windsor Report (London, 2004) paras 113–120; see generally, Doe, N, An Anglican Covenant: Theological and Legal Considerations for a Global Debate (London, 2008)Google Scholar. For the idea that ‘‘covenant’ does not introduce an alien notion into Anglicanism', see Wright, NT, ‘A scripture-formed Communion? Possibilities and prospects after Lambeth, ACC and General Convention’, 7 Journal of Anglican Studies (2009) 163 at 179CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

139 Anglican Communion Covenant, 4.1.3.

140 Anglican Communion Covenant, 4.1.5.