It may soon be possible, courtesy Cameron Ch as she then was, not only to lunch (as many already do) but also to dine at the crypt restaurant below St Mary-le-Bow, and to enjoy beer, cider or wine with your meal. That is a thoroughly secular use of part of a church; and it is something which would not have been permitted until relatively recent times. To Cock burn CJ in 1869 there was a self-evident distinction between ‘purposes purely secular’ and ‘those of an ecclesiastical character’, and ‘nothing short of an Act of Parliament can authorise the conversion of consecrated ground to secular purposes’. In one of his early judgments, sitting as Deputy-Chancellor, George Newsom QC declined to allow the use of consecrated land for an NCP car park, referring to consecration as ‘this special status [which] has been a striking privilege of the Church of England. It is no part of the duty of this court to seek to whittle it away’. The aim of this Paper is to explore the erosion of the divide between ‘secular’ and ‘ecclesiastical’ purposes, and to suggest that it offers a novel role for the Church both in the countryside and in towns and cities. I also touch briefly on some of the problems of rating, planning and listed building law which arise.

Discipline of the clergy is a subject of perennial interest—both in the popular press whenever something sensational takes place, and among the clergy and thoughtful lawyers when they are confronted either with the general problem of how best to fashion the church's law or the more immediate problem of how to deal with offenders against the church's law. The subject also has a long history. The purpose of this article is to bring to light a chapter from the century or so before the Reformation. Evidence taken from the medieval canon law and from the court records of the later Middle Ages may be of interest—and perhaps even relevance—to members of the Ecclesiastical Law Society. It has been my pleasure and good fortune to discover that many of them are not immune to the claims of history.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century there were attempts to unite the various bodies which had split off from the Church of Scotland in the previous hundred years. In particular, there were great hopes for a union between the United Presbyterian Church [UPC] and the Free Church of Scotland [FC].

For some, the possibility of women bishops in the Church of England is to be resisted. For others, it would be a natural progression from women's ordination, first as deacons and then as priests. Last year, General Synod called on the House of Bishops to initiate further theological study on the episcopate in preparation for a debate on the ordination of women as bishops. The resulting working party, which I am to chair, will report during 2002. But what are the theological issues with which we have to grapple?

Placing Richard Hooker (d 1600) within the history of European thought has never been easy. The work of this Elizabethan defender of the English Church seems to defy exact categorisation. Publication in the Folger Library Edition of Hooker's complete works has, however, made knowledge about him easier to acquire than it once was, and in particular it makes possible a more accurate assessment of a question of interest to readers of this Journal. How much did he know about the ius commune, the amalgam of Roman and canon laws that governed practice in the tribunals of the Church? More than that, because the Folger Edition includes all Hooker's surviving writing—even his sermons and autograph notes—it is possible to discover more about the ways in which Hooker made use of the legal sources at his disposal, including those from the Roman and canon laws.

Although it is indisputable that Muslims have been in Britain for centuries now, it is the events of the recent past that has increasingly focussed attention on the presence of what is now one of Britain's largest minorities. Like numerous other religious minorities in the United Kingdom, Muslims have established themselves and largely conduct their religious and cultural practices within the confines of English law. The aim of this article is to investigate how English law deals with Islam and the regulation, recognition and accommodation, if any, of certain Muslim practices, such as religious divorces and marriages and the establishment of places of worship. The article does not aim to be comprehensive in its coverage of all the issues raised by the Muslim population in the United Kingdom, especially the criminalisation of certain political activities which some Muslims consider to be religious obligations, but simply attempts to analyse how in some respects British Muslims regulate their activities and how a parallel but non-recognised legal system is now in operation and the extent to which English law makes provision for British Muslims and their practices, beliefs and needs.

To those familiar with the practice of suspension of the right of presentation this theme may be a sensitive one, arousing perhaps fierce passions. To those unfamiliar it may simply sound like a technical abstraction. I hope that the former, out of consideration for the latter, will allow me the indulgence of setting the scene for this subject by drawing upon the true circumstances of one benefice in a diocese in the southern Province.

In an article in this Journal recently Peter Smith set out the history of what he called a most peculiar property, the advowson. He finished by mentioning the introduction of the current legislation, the Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986. This article seeks to take up where he finished by reviewing the practice of appointments under the 1986 Measure, and considering some of the lessons of the last few years. I shall also argue that the time is right to review the Patronage (Benefices) Measure Code of Practice, in the light of some of the legal issues I highlight.

The Churchwardens Measure is concerned with the number of churchwardens in a parish, the qualifications to be a churchwarden, how they are appointed, and how they may cease to hold office. Nowhere does the Measure state anything about what a churchwarden actually does. For this you must look elsewhere. Two useful guides are A Handbook for Churchwardens and Parochial Church Councillors by Kenneth Macmorran and Timothy Briden (Mowbray, 2000), and Practical Church Management by James Behrens (Gracewing, 1998).

Being given a title is like being given a very broad question in an examination paper. At first sight it seems obvious what should be put forward by way of answer and on closer inspection one becomes less sure! So I tender my thoughts for inspection, conscious that some will feel there are gaps and perhaps others who will think I am stating too much of the obvious.

This paper is intended to point to some major concepts and features in Anglican ecclesiology and to mention some significant moments or phases that have shaped it. It will also reflect briefly on the direction that our ecclesiology is taking, as the Churches of the Anglican Communion face challenges, both positive and negative.

This evening I propose to offer you some of the results of my research for a book I have recently completed. I examined the work of canonists, in the Eastern and Western parts of the Christian community. I explained what they did and indicated the contribution they made to the development of canon law in the first millennium of Christianity. The book deals primarily with Rome and Constantinople, though there is an excursus into Methodius and the Slavs and into the Churches in Syria and Persia. What binds the chapters together, and makes them more than a collection of disparate essays, is the parallel discussion of three issues. These are: the constitution and governance of the Church (monarchical, patriarchal/imperial, synodal), the discipline of the clergy (married or celibate) and the question of re-marriage in church after divorce

In any discussion of church-state relations in the United Kingdom, it should be remembered that there are four national Churches: the Church of England, the (Reformed) Church of Scotland, the Church in Wales (disestablished in 1920 as a result of the Welsh Church Act 1914) and the Church of Ireland (disestablished by the Irish Church Act 1869). The result is that two Churches are established by law (the Church of England and the Church of Scotland) and enjoy a particular constitutional relationship with the state, while the other Churches and faith-communities (the Roman Catholics, the Free Churches, the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others) have particular rights and privileges in particular circumstances.