The Charles Gore Lecture 2010

The key role that Canon Law has to play in ecumenism is often overlooked. For Anglicans and Roman Catholics, especially since Vatican II (1962-5), there are special provisions in Canon Law to promote ecumenism. What can Canon Lawyers do to ensure we have the structures we need to take us forward on the path to unity? What are the obstacles they face? Will Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Apostolic Constitution which offers a new way for Anglicans to enter communion with the Bishop of Rome, prove a help or a hindrance ecumenically? How can Canon Lawyers work in harmony with ARCIC (the Anglican Roman-Catholic International Commission) and other ecumenical bodies? Four leading Roman Catholic and Anglican Canon Lawyers will be discussing these questions.

Eithne D’Auria is a Defender of the Bond for the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Second Instance of Southwark. She is a Professional Associate of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University and is a regular contributor on Roman Catholic issues on Cardiff Law School’s LLM in Canon Law. She has published articles on Catholic Canon Law in leading periodicals and is currently a part-time PhD student.

Norman Doe is Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University. His publications include Canon Law in the Anglican Communion and Anglican Covenant: Theological and Legal Considerations for a Global Debate, and he is currently working on a monograph, Contemporary Principles of Christian Law. He was a member of the Lambeth Commission which produced the Windsor Report and has recently published a detailed critique of Anglicanorum Coetibus. 

Mark Hill QC, Honorary Professor of Law at Cardiff University, is a practising barrister and Chancellor of the Diocese of Chichester and the Diocese in Europe. He is the author of Ecclesiastical Law (now in its third edition) and editor of Religious Liberty and Human Rights. He chairs the editorial board of the Ecclesiastical Law Journal and is a member of the European Consortium for Church and State Research.

Aidan McGrath OFM, formerly a Judge and Judicial Vicar of the Dublin Regional Marriage Tribunal (1984-2009), past-President of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, is Secretary General of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), author of several canonical publications, and Professor Invitatus of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Nicholas Sagovsky is the Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey.  He was a member of ARCIC II and continues to be actively involved in Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenism, especially as a Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University, which is an Anglican-Roman Catholic joint foundation.

In honour of Charles Gore, Canon of Westminster (1894-1902)