A new MA in Church Law

The Ecclesiastical Law Society has announced the inauguration of a new postgraduate canon law programme with an Anglican focus following the demise of the Cardiff LLM. St Padarn’s Institute in Cardiff will offer an MA in Church Law validated by Durham University, for which teaching will begin this September. This follows an initial transitional period during the current academic year in which a Durham MA in Theology has been taught with a canon law focus.

Teaching will take place at three residential sessions per year, and for the full MA, the course will last three years. The Society says that the programme is

“suitable for clergy, lawyers, church administrators and others wishing to develop their ministry or professional practice in the field of canon law or to deepen their understanding of the way in which church communities are regulated. Although the main focus of the teaching is Anglican canon law, this is delivered alongside a comparative element, and students wishing to write on the law of other churches in their assessed essays and dissertation are encouraged to do so”.

More information here. The closing date for applications is the end of July.

Bishops in the House of Lords

One we missed, but it was covered last week by the Church Times. On 12 March 2025, the House of Lords debated further Amendments to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, four of which related to the presence of the Lords Spiritual in the Upper House. The Amendments, one of which was withdrawn and the others not moved, were addressed by the Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox.

Freedom of religion or freedom to scam?

On 11 March, The Guardian reported that Ofcom had fined Word Network Operating Company, the owner of a religious TV channel, £150,000 for giving UK airtime to a US tele-evangelist, one Peter Popoff, who sold “Miracle Spring Water” that was claimed to cure illnesses such as lung cancer and diabetes.

Announcing its decision, Ofcom said:

“While having regard to the broadcaster’s and audience’s rights to freedom of expression and religion, we considered the claims that contacting the ministry or using its ‘Miracle Spring Water’ were effective ways to improve serious medical illnesses or financial difficulties went beyond proclamations of faith and religious teachings and practice. We considered these claims improperly exploited the susceptibilities of viewers and had the potential to cause harm without the Licensee providing adequate protection (e.g. by not including information on the importance of seeking advice from qualified professionals).”

According to the Guardian report, the channel initially argued that its audience was predominantly in the US and that it had a “limited understanding” of Ofcom’s concerns – which it attributed to a “matter of cultural or market difference”. Its parent company subsequently said that it would no longer air the channel in the UK – so, presumably, off it’s popped. Ignorantia iuris…

And talking of scams…

… the Charity Commission has warned charities about fake messages supposedly sent on its behalf. They typically request action to be taken, such as removing a trustee or chief executive, releasing funds as part of a grant, or supplying documents such as a passport or utility bill. They may be signed as coming from “the Commission”, the Commission CEO and/or from its Directors.  The Commission says this:

“It’s not always easy to tell if correspondence is real or fake, however please note we:

• • will only send you a letter just by post only if we do not have your current email address;
  • rarely address letters generically, for example, ‘to whom it may concern’;
  • do not write letters or emails of certification on behalf of UK charities regarding tax exemption or any other matters;
  • do not issue requests to authenticate an account online by supplying personal identity documents; and
  • will not ask you to provide banking information.”

Worth a careful look: churches and faith groups are just as likely to be targeted as secular charities.

True or bluff?

In the debate on the Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill on Wednesday, Lord True (Con) noted that:

“In her letter to all Peers of 5 March 2025, the noble Baroness the Lord Privy Seal wrote that the Government were considering how to address historic restrictions on Roman Catholics and Jews advising the Crown on appointments in the Anglican [sic] Church”.

Replying to the debate, the Leader of the House, Baroness Smith of Basildon, did not pick up his point. Perhaps people need reminding – as Ben Philips noted inter alia in a post on X/Twitter – that the four home nations each have a separate Anglican jurisdiction with varying relationships with the state, and there are also Anglican jurisdictions operating within England that are not in communion with the Church of England.

Ritual slaughter again

Also on Wednesday, Daniel Zeichner, Minister of State at Defra, answered a written question from Rupert Lowe (Ind, Great Yarmouth) asking the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs “if he will bring forward legislation to prohibit the slaughter of animals without being stunned for Halal meat” as follows:

“The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter and would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter, but we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs. There are no plans to bring forward legislation to prohibit the slaughter of animals without prior stunning when slaughtered in accordance with religious rites.

Existing legislation sets out the main requirements to protect the welfare of animals when being slaughtered and there are additional rules that apply when animals are slaughtered by either the Jewish or Muslim method without prior stunning to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, suffering, or distress during the slaughter process.”

Which sounds like a pretty definitive “No”.

75th anniversary of the ECHR

On Thursday, there was a debate in the House of Lords on a motion moved by Lord Alton of Liverpool to take note of the 75th anniversary of the ECHR. For now, the takeaway was the declaration by Baroness Chapman of Darlington, Minister of State for International Development, that “this Government are firmly committed to the European Convention on Human Rights and we will never leave it”.

Compare and contrast

A recent Comment in the Church Time opined the Faculty system is failing to serve communities and suggested that “a radical solution to this problem would be to transfer responsibility for changes from chancellors advised by diocesan advisory committees (DACs) to local planning authorities (LPAs)”. Apart from the ambit of the faculty jurisdiction going far wider than planning considerations, we suspect that that in the present financial climate, local authorities would run a mile from any suggestion that their planning departments should take on yet more work.

Furthermore, in a recent consistory court judgment, Re All Saints Feathertone [2025] ECC Lee 1, Hill Ch, commented: concluded “it is appropriate to grant a confirmatory faculty in this instance. I do so despite my concerns about the Council’s widespread and institutional ignorance of the relevant law and procedure concerning works affecting trees in closed churchyards”.

And finally…

In a comment on Bluesky about David’s post on fonts, someone said, “One of my churches has the former font in the porch, planted up with bulbs. As it has for probably 50 years”.