Lambeth Bishops Review Communion’s Legal Principles

July 26, 2008

The Lambeth Conference communications department released a 111-page booklet titled “The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Church of the Anglican Communion” prior to the start of a press briefing July 26.

The purpose of the book is “to stimulate reflection on what it is to be a Communion of ordered churches seeking to live out the Anglican tradition in a world of intensely rapid communication,” said Canon John Rees, convener of the Anglican Communion Legal Advisors’ Network and legal advisor to the Anglican Communion. Canon Rees responded to questions from the media after the booklets were distributed.

“If we are going to be able to continue to work together in response to God’s call and for the good of God’s world, as those who have taken part in these deliberations passionately hope, then we need to keep faith with out Anglican heritage, doctrinally, liturgically and structurally,” he said, reading from a preface to the booklet. “These principles are an attempt to map out what the main legal themes of that inheritance might look like, when some of the peripheral local detail is stripped away.” the rest