The Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome played host to the twelfth meeting of the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers. The Colloquium has established itself as a regular fixture in the calendar of comparative canon law and the publication of its proceedings has ensured that its work and achievement now reach a wider audience. Public recognition was given to its value as a vehicle of ecumenism when some of its participants were invited to participate in a discussion at Westminster Abbey on 29 November 2010 in honour of Charles Gore. Entitled Anglicans and Roman Catholics: canon law and the path to unity, the event was chaired by Professor Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian, and drew a large and diverse audience despite the vagaries of a tube strike and freezing conditions. The support of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster is warmly acknowledged.

The Twelfth Colloquium fell into two parts. In the first, members contributed their experience and expertise to a detailed discussion of the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, as a legal document and one that lies on a spectrum between a generous instrument of ecumenism at one extreme and an aggressive poaching expedition at the other. This led to an event organised at the Anglican Centre in Rome by its director, Canon David Richardson. Presentations were made by Professor Norman Doe and Anthony Jeremy on the elusive concept of ‘Anglican patrimony’ as used (but never defined) in Anglicanorum Coetibus and its norms. The invited audience included representatives of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, and a vigorous discussion ensued. Further conversations are to take place on other aspects on Anglican patrimony, including one on liturgy in November 2011 to be led by Bishop Stephen Platten.

For its second phase the Colloquium relocated to the General Curia of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) overlooking St Peter's Basilica, hosted by Aidan McGrath OFM, Secretary General of the Order. Here the participants presented and dissected individual papers on particular practical aspects of ecumenism at a dynamic, grass-roots level. Consideration was given to the manner in which the canon law of the respective churches both facilitates and frustrates the process. For the first time, the Colloquium has become engaged in empirical and evaluative study, examining schools, universities, hospitals, military chaplaincies and schemes for the support of mixed marriages. This is very much work in progress, to which the Colloquium will return in 2012, after which its provisional findings and recommendations are to be published.