This study explores juridical aspects of the ecclesiology presented in the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission Paper, The Church: Towards a Common Vision (2013). It does so in the context of systems of church law, order and polity in eight church families worldwide: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian and Baptist. Common Vision does not explicitly consider church law, order and polity or its role in ecumenism. However, many themes treated in Common Vision surface in church regulatory systems. This study examines how these instruments articulate the ecclesiology found in Common Vision (which as such, de facto, offers juridical as well as theological principles), translate these into norms of conduct and, in turn, generate unity in common action across the church families. Juridical similarities indicate that the churches share common principles and that their existence suggests the category ‘Christian law’. While dogmas may divide the churches of global Christianity, the profound similarities between their norms of conduct reveal that the laws of the faithful, whatever their various denominational affiliations, link Christians through common forms of action. For this reason, comparative church law should have a greater profile in ecumenism today.1

Norman Doe's book Christian Law compares and contrasts the internal regulations of churches and seeks to identify principles common to churches across the denominational spectrum. This response to Doe's work reviews the religious questions that have come before the House of Lords and Supreme Court since 2004 and seeks to identify the principles governing the secular courts' approach to religious questions. The relationship between those principles and the principles outlined in Christian Law is far from clear. While an understanding of the rules of particular religious bodies is sometimes necessary for secular judges deciding civil rights in a religious context, in most cases the courts are not concerned with the conformity of religious beliefs with religious laws, but simply with protecting the freedom to hold and manifest those beliefs.

This article is a reflection on Norman Doe's book Christian Law: contemporary principles (2013) from a Protestant and Continental perspective. Against the background of the self-evident impact of ecumenical progress in terms of church polity, it explores the relation between ecumenism and church polity from the opposite perspective: can the academic discipline of church polity foster ecumenism, as Doe suggests in his statement that ‘whilst doctrines divide, laws link Christians in common action’? After stating that a more nuanced understanding of the concept of ‘normativity’ is of fundamental importance in this respect, the article then indicates the possible risk of an ideological use of church law. Five reasons are given as to why church polity often hampers rather than fosters ecumenical progress, even if traditional doctrinal issues have been resolved. Finally, the fundamental category of divine law is explored, and its impact on ecumenical progress.

In August 2014 the Court of Appeal for Ontario handed down two decisions concerned with the constitutional status of the Crown in Canada in relation to freedom of conscience and religion pursuant to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In one decision, Teskey v Canada (Attorney General), the court denied that the UK legislative changes to the succession rules to which Canada agreed constituted an infringement of the religious equality rights of a Canadian Roman Catholic pursuant to section 15 (the equality provision) of the Charter. In the other decision, McAteer v Canada (Attorney General) the court denied that the statutory requirement that a person take an oath to Her Majesty as Queen of Canada to obtain Canadian citizenship constituted an infringement of the freedoms of conscience, religion and expression provisions in sections 2(a) and 2(b) of the Charter of persons who regarded her as an ‘Anglican Queen’.

The House of Commons starts each day with Prayers given by the Speaker's Chaplain, beginning with Psalm 67:

As noted in the report for June–September 2014, in the wake of the ‘No’ vote in the Scottish independence referendum the Prime Minister appointed Lord Smith of Kelvin to lead a commission to put together an agreed package for further devolution. In October the Westminster Government issued The parties' published proposals on further devolution for Scotland (Cm 8946) and in January followed this with the necessary draft legislation: Scotland in the United Kingdom: An enduring settlement. Perhaps the most important outcome for the Churches of the inter-party settlement is that the Equality Act 2010 will remain a matter reserved to Westminster.