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Principles of Canon Law
FOREWORD
by
The Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury
Although lawyers are the victims of almost as many unkind jokes as clergy, the truth is that law, properly understood, is not an alien imposition on a grumbling public but a way of securing two things for the common good. The first is consistency: law promises that we shall be treated with equity, not according to someoneโs arbitrary feelings or according to our own individual status and power. It gives to all of us the assurance that we can be heard. The second is clarity about responsibility: we need ways of knowing who is supposed to do this or that and who is entitled to do this or that, so that we can act economically and purposefully, instead of being frustrated by a chaotic variety of expectations and recriminations.
Law in the life of the Church is no different. Canon Law begins from that basic affirmation of equity which is the fact of membership in the Body of Christ – a status deeper and stronger than any civil contract or philosophical argument. And it seeks clarity about who may do what and who is answerable to whom because every Christian has to know how to work out their responsibility to God within the context of the various relationships and obligations they are involved in. Understanding and knowing how to work with Canon Law is a necessary aspect of exercising authority and holding responsibility in the Church; and the Anglican Communion is well served by many distinguished lawyers who understand so well the convergence of law in this sense with discipleship.
As the Preface warns, this survey of the principles of Anglican Canon Law will not solve our contemporary problems overnight, and there will be aspects of its formulations that will not escape controversy. But the excellent quality of what is here presented, the clear and thoughtful analysis of how we do our business in the Communion, gives us a unique resource for thinking more carefully about the sort of unity and coherence we should aspire to in our fellowship of churches. I hope and pray that it will be widely read and
gratefully valued as it deserves.
+ Rowan Cantuar:
Lambeth Palace, London.
Read more:
- Canon Law (normative) governing cases of the sexual abuse of minors by clerics/priests- Vatican Directions-05/06/2022
- Canon Law Book- 1 [Canon 1 to 203]