Principles of Canon Law and the Mind of the Anglican Communion

A guest post by Professor Mark Hill QC.

The Twittersphere has been much exercised in recent days by a passage in the Lambeth Call on Human Dignity, upon which those bishops who have chosen to attend this year’s Lambeth Conference in Canterbury will be invited to vote. The term ‘resolution’ is not used, but these Calls seem to be resolutions in all but name. The sentence which has animated particular concern, and in many quarters hurt, reads as follows:

“It is the mind of the Anglican Communion as a whole that same-gender marriage is not permissible.”

Somewhat disturbingly, Bishop Kevin Robertson, a member of the Human Dignity Call drafting group, has stated on social media:

“I never agreed to this Call in its current form. At no point in our meetings did we discuss the reaffirmation of Lambeth [1998 resolution] 1.10 at the Conference, and it never appeared in any of the early drafts of our work together. I can confidently say that the Human Dignity Call in its current form does not represent the mind of the drafting group, and I distance myself from the reaffirmation of Lambeth 1.10 in the strongest possible ways. I also unequivocally reject the phrase within the Call, ‘It is the mind of the Anglican Communion as a whole that same-gender marriage is not permissible’. This statement is simply not true.”

Those organizing the Lambeth Conference have carried out a reverse ferret in double quick time. Continue reading