Law and religion round-up – 7th November

Words without action, without deeds are absolutely pointless

A B deP Johnson at COP26

We couldn’t summarize COP 26 better, however…

COVID-19 and the Church of England

On 2 November, the Church of England updated its guidance to note:

“vaccination cannot be the sole means of containing the spread of the virus: hand and respiratory hygiene, social distancing, face-coverings and good ventilation are also important factors in lessening the spread of the disease. While these are not mandatory, they are still important public health mitigations and can help to minimise risk when planning public worship and other church activities”.

It subsequently issued a revision of Opening and managing church buildings, V2.1 (“the Guidance”) which revised the section relating to the administration of Holy Communion. Whilst the Church should be applauded for taking some action in the present situation, these modifications address only one aspect of the transmission of coronavirus. As we have indicated earlier, perhaps the most important element of the Guidance is “Who make [sic] the decision on what happens in church settings and at events held in church buildings?”, which states:

“The responsibility for making decisions about how to proceed lies with the incumbent. This applies to acts of worship, to events run by the PCC or church community, and to decisions on whether to hire out spaces or allow other events to proceed. Incumbents should feel empowered to make locally appropriate decisions, including taking different approaches to different types of services and events where the risks may vary. Your Archdeacon may be able to help if you would appreciate support with this.”

Meanwhile, for the meeting of General Synod on 16-17 November, The Times reports that a “traffic-light” system of lanyards is to be used: “A green lanyard means you are open for a hug. A yellow one asks others not to come too close. And a red one requests full social distancing”. The musical equivalent of these appear to be: “Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me” (Janet, Rocky Horror Picture Show); “Vorrei, e non vorrei”, Zerlina, Don Giovanni ; and the “Noli me tangere” attitude of Mrs Beamish.

Hijabs and the Council of Europe

The BBC reports that the Council of Europe has taken down posters from a campaign that was intended to promote respect for Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab after they provoked opposition from some French politicians. The Minister for Youth,  Sarah El Haïry, told a television interviewer that she was shocked by the poster that showed a split image of one woman wearing a hijab and another not. She suggested the poster was encouraging women to wear hijabs and that that was incompatible with the secular values of France, which had expressed disapproval of the campaign.

Scallops but only three kisses

In Re St Paul Foxdale [2021] EC Sodor 3, the Vicar General & Chancellor granted a faculty for a memorial with a curved top and eccentric scalloped sides. Although the design was outside the churchyards regulations, he considered that the design was both tasteful and appropriate. He stated:

“[5]. A faculty will issue to authorise the erection of the proposed memorial with either version of the inscription proposed by the Diocesan Advisory Committee and subject to there being no more than three kisses*. The dates of birth and death are to be placed below the inscription and the kisses, all of which are to be centrally justified on the stone”.

*The petitioner had sought four kisses on the inscription.

Law and History Network webinar

The Law and History Network is a new collaboration between the legal historians at Bristol, Exeter and Cardiff Law Schools. Its next webinar will be on 2 December and will feature Professor Rebecca Probert talking about her new book on the history of marriage law.

To book your place, sign up here. The webinars are free to attend, run on Zoom and are open to all.

Call for papers: ICLARS Conference 2022

The 6th ICLARS Conference will be held in Córdoba from 19 to 21 September 2022. The general theme of the conference is Human Dignity, Law, and Religious Diversity: Designing the Future of Inter-Cultural Societies and the conference organisers have issued a Call for Papers, closing on 30 November 2021. Further details here.

L&RUK’s “top ten” posts

As we have indicated earlier, the topics covered tend to be issue-driven; with regard to the readership of our posts, statistics are available from WordPress; the latest data indicate that as at 6 November 2021 at 15:20, the most-read posts over the last week were:

  1. Church of England Parochial Fees 2021, 25 November 2020.
  2. Law and religion round-up – 31st October, 31 October 2021.
  3. Ecclesiastical court judgments – October (I), 2 November 2021.
  4. Church of England – Carbon reduction, 1 November 2021.
  5. COVID-19: legislation and guidance, update, 3 November 2021.
  6. Electronic registration of births and deaths, England & Wales, 5 November 2021.
  7. Churchyard Regulations – practicalities of enforcement, 16 June 2016.
  8. Church of England Parochial Fees – 2020 to 2024, 21 February 2019.
  9. JWs, blood transfusions and capacity: PW, 19 October 2021.
  10. Church of England Parochial Fees 2020, 5 November 2020.

Over the past three months, they were:

  1. Church of England Parochial Fees 2021, 25 November 2020.
  2. Church bells and the law, 13 February 2018.
  3. Churchyard Regulations – practicalities of enforcement, 16 June 2016.
  4. Vaccines and religion, 16 December 2020.
  5. Consultation for vaccine passports  – England, 28 September 2021.
  6. Churchyard access and prescriptive rights of way: Hughes, 10 August 2021.
  7. Churches as charities: some basics, 4 September 2015.
  8. JWs, blood transfusions and capacity: PW, 19 October 2021.
  9. R (Khalsa Academies Trust Ltd), 7 October 2021.
  10. Churches, Minsters and Cathedrals, 17 November 2016.

And the ten most-read “all-time” posts (i.e. from 2012) were:

  1. Churches as charities: some basics, 4 September 2015.
  2. “Religious” content of civil marriage ceremonies, 5 July 2013.
  3. Sharia and the English legal system: the Government’s view, 29 April 2013.
  4. Churchyard Regulations – practicalities of enforcement, 16 June 2016.
  5. Chaplin, Eweida, Ladele and McFarlane: the judgment, 17 January 2013.
  6.  Church bells and the law, 13 February 2018.
  7. Registration of marriage from end-2019 – Faculty Office, 8 August 2019
  8. Naming Children: England and Wales, 2013, 15 August 2014.
  9. Marriage and burial obligations: Church of England, 10 December 2013.
  10. Church and State – an idiot’s guide, 14 December 2012.

Quick links 

And finally…

Or as it’s known to some, “East Glasgow”.

7 thoughts on “Law and religion round-up – 7th November

  1. I think you are a bit harsh on Wolf Blitzer. He really was in Edinburgh, as the picture shows, and I took it that his ‘where’ referred to Scotland, rather than Edinburgh. I note that he wasn’t the only one unable to find space in Glasgow — some of the Israeli delegation also had to make the daily trek from one city to the other.

    • Maybe I was (that was one of my bits) – but he was there on behalf of CNN, which one might have expected to have been rather better organised and found him somewhere in Glasgow.

      • The problem was that he stated that COP was taking place in Embra rather than Weegie-Land, which all other outlets manged to work out.

        As for accommodation, whenever we went to the Party Conference, my colleagues and I made a point of never staying at the location conference venue, but within an easy train ride away, Fleetwood for Blackpool, Poole for Bournemouth,&c.

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