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Porvoo Communion Church Law Symposium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2024

Russell Dewhurst Open the ORCID record for Russell Dewhurst [Opens in a new window]  and
Andreas Henriksen Aarflot Open the ORCID record for Andreas Henriksen Aarflot [Opens in a new window]
Russell Dewhurst*
Affiliation:
Doctoral Student, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Andreas Henriksen Aarflot
Affiliation:
Deputy Head of the Legal Department of the National Council of the Church of Norway
*
Corresponding author: Russell Dewhurst; Email: DewhurstRJ1@cardiff.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Information

Type
Conference Report
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 2024 , pp. 329 - 331
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Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2024

In recent years, the comparative study of church law – encompassing, in its broadest sense, church order and polity, canon law, and other regulatory instruments – has begun to make a significant contribution to Christian ecumenism. This development has been pioneered by the Centre for Law and Religion at the Cardiff University School of Law and Politics (CLR), and its director, Professor Norman Doe. In particular, the elucidation of legal principles (such as those common to the Anglican churches,Footnote 1 the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches,Footnote 2 and the Christian churchesFootnote 3) has been a characteristic feature of this field of study.

One grouping of churches whose law has not hitherto been studied in this way is the Porvoo Communion, a fellowship of Anglican and Lutheran Churches in Great Britain and Ireland, the Nordic region, Iberia and the Baltic countries.Footnote 4 These churches share many features of considerable legal, ecclesiological, and social interest: they are European, episcopally ordered, catholic and reformed, and in many cases their history includes establishment or very close links with the nation state in which they exist. It seemed, therefore, that the application of the method of juridical ecumenism to the Porvoo communion would promise both to build up mutual understanding and best practice among the member churches and also to advance a burgeoning field of legal scholarship. For this reason, the Porvoo Communion Church Law Symposium was formed at the CLR, consisting of academics, clergy, and lawyers, each with knowledge and experience of the laws and other regulatory systems applicable to one of the Porvoo Communion member churches. The initiative coincides with a call in 2017 from the Dr Erik Eckerdal, now Swedish Bishop of Visby, for a comparative study of church law in the Porvoo Churches.Footnote 5

The topic chosen for the first year was ‘Church and State’. The Symposium met monthly by Zoom. Papers were presented at each meeting, followed by discussion focused on the commonalities and differences between the laws of the churches. The papers were as follows:

  1. i. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark: Associate Professor Niels Valdemar Vinding, University of Copenhagen

  2. ii. The Church of England: The Rev'd Russell Dewhurst, Cardiff University (Anglican co-chair)

  3. iii. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland: Professor Pamela Slotte Russo, Åbo Akademi University

  4. iv. The Church of Iceland: Guðmundur Thor Guðmundsson, Church of Iceland Legal Office

  5. v. The Church of Ireland: The Rev'd Terence Dunlop, Chancellor of Armagh

  6. vi. The Church of Norway: Andreas Henriksen Aarflot, Deputy Head of the Legal Department of the Church of Norway (Lutheran co-chair)

  7. vii. The Scottish Episcopal Church: Alexandra Plumtree, Committee on Canons, Scottish Episcopal Church

  8. viii. The Church of Sweden: Anna Tronêt, Diocesan Lawyer Uppsala, Church of Sweden

  9. ix. The Church in Wales: Charlotte Wright, Lawyer at Hugh James, Cardiff University

  10. x. The Lutheran Church in Great Britain: The Rt Rev'd Tor B. Jørgensen, Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain (until 2024)

Each paper gave a brief summary of the history of church and state in the national context, followed by a snapshot of the relationship between church and state in the present day. There were very many commonalities in that most (although not all) of the churches historically had very close links with the state, but constitutional change, growing religious pluralism, and a renewed theological belief in the right of churches to self-governance have led, in different ways, to a loosening of those links. Today, many of the churches face similar issues, such as developments in marriage law to encompass same-sex couples.

Even in its first year, the Symposium has shown that the work of ecclesiastical lawyers and legal academics across the Porvoo churches can be enriched by the method of juridical ecumenism. In the future, the Symposium hopes to make a contribution to wider ecumenical discourse and legal scholarship. It is also our ambition that in coming years the membership of the Symposium will grow so that the law of all the member churches of the Porvoo Communion can be included in our study together.

References

1 See Anglican Consultative Council, The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion, 2nd edn (London, 2022). In his foreword to the 2022 edition, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby commended The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion, calling them ‘absolutely essential as a point from which there can be greater development and discussion of church order’.

2 See pages 331 to 334 of this Journal and preceding conference reports of the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers in Ecc LJ passim.

3 Doe, N (ed), Church Laws and Ecumenism: A New Path for Christian Unity (Routledge, 2021)Google Scholar.

4 The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark; The Church of England; The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church; The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland; The Church of Iceland; The Church of Ireland; The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania; The Church of Norway; The Lusitanian Church of Portugal; The Scottish Episcopal Church; The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain; The Church of Sweden; The Church in Wales; The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia Abroad; and The Lutheran Church in Great Britain. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia has observer status.

5 Eckerdal, E, Apostolic Succession in the Porvoo Common Statement: Unity Through a Deeper Sense of Apostolicity (Uppsala, 2017)Google Scholar, available at <https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1129750/FULLTEXT01.pdf>, accessed 14 May 2024.