THE
P RTAL
May 2019
Page 11
Church & State Anglican
– how it works News
The Revd Paul Benfield
2 019 sees
the centenary of the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, often known as the
Enabling Act which established the Church Assembly and enabled it to legislate by Measure (a legislative
power which has since passed to the General Synod). As part of the celebrations to mark this significant
event, the Ecclesiastical Law Society held a conference at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, under the
title ‘Church and State in the Twenty-first Century.’
In the first session, Professor Norman Doe, a
professor of law at Cardiff University, spoke of the
disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales
and the passing of the Welsh Church Act 1914, (which
did not come into force until 1920 because of the
Great War).
He considered the legal vestiges of former
establishment with regard to marriages and burials and
the competence of the Welsh Assembly over aspects
of the life of the Church in Wales. He compared the
Welsh Church and Church of England in areas such as
governance, ministry, liturgy and ecumenism.
He was followed by Dr Colin Podmore, former
Clerk of the General Synod, who traced the history of
the formation of the Church Assembly and how the
1919 Act operates. After final approval of a Measure
by the General Synod, the matter stands committed to
the Legislative Committee which prepares comments
and explanations for the Ecclesiastical Committee of
Parliament.
the way it embodies a theology of power’. He went on
to say that an established church’s concern to be the
church for the whole nation offers a better approach
to addressing the cultural divisions revealed in the
Brexit referendum than ‘the modernist alternatives
which treat majoritarianism and the cash nexus as the
preferred mechanisms for resolving difference’.
Professor Robert Blackburn QC, Professor of
Constitutional Law at Kings College London, spoke
on the constitutional considerations of Church-State
relations that concern the monarchy and parliament,
including the Roman Catholic disqualification, royal
marriages, the coronation oath and bishops in the
House of Lords.
Sir William Fittall, former secretary General of
the Church of England, gave an account of relations
between the Church of England, Parliament and
successive governments over the past two decades. He
said that after the failure in General Synod in 2012 of
the first legislation to permit women bishops, the idea
that parliament should legislate on the matter for the
This body has to prepare a report on the Measure Church of England was very quickly dropped, it being
and in particular report on whether the Measure is realised that this would have provoked a constitutional
expedient especially in relation to the constitutional crisis between Church and state.
rights of Her Majesty’s subjects. The Measure is then
debated by each House of Parliament on a motion that
Other speakers gave ecumenical, other faith and
it should be presented to her Majesty for royal assent. sociological views. Many of the papers given will
be published in future editions the Ecclesiastical
Dr Podmore considered parliament’s refusal to Law Journal which is published three times a year.
approve the 1928 Prayer Book and the passing of the Members of the ELS receive the journal for an annual
Worship and Doctrine Measure 1974, which secured membership fee of only £40 a year (less for certain
legislative autonomy for the Church for its liturgy and categories). Details can be found at www.ecclawsoc.
doctrine, despite its continued establishment.
org.uk/membership/join-the-society/
The Revd Dr Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission
and Public Affairs on the Archbishops’ Council,
argued that establishment embodies ‘a number of
theologically important virtues in the way that it
expresses the stance of the state towards religion in
Conference participants were privileged to join Great
Park residents and workers at a Service of Readings
and Music for Passiontide in the Royal Chapel of
All Saints, in the presence of her Majesty the Queen,
Supreme Governor of the Church of England.