The Canons of the Church of England

by The Church of England

It is ten years since the last edition of this comprehensive guide to the canon law of the Church of England was published. Since then, a number of supplements have been produced, but now this fully updated 7th edition provides a comprehensive and essential guide to all the legal aspects of running a church, including:the approved forms of services and service books,Orders of ministry,doctrines of the Church of England,government of the Church of England,legal requirements relating to baptism, marriage and funerals,the role and responsibilities of Churchwardens and PCCs,Church property maintenance,record keeping,other uses of church buildings e.g. for entertainment,the admission of children to communion,Synods,the Ecclesiastical courts,Clergy housing,the admission and licensing of lay workers,..and more.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2011

About the author

The roots of the Church of England go back to the time of the Roman Empire when Christianity entered the Roman province of Britain. Through the influences of St Alban, St Illtud, St Ninian, St Patrick and, later, St Augustine, St Aidan and St Cuthbert, the Church of England developed, acknowledging the authority of the Pope until the Reformation in the 16th century.

The religious settlement that eventually emerged in the reign of Elizabeth I gave the Church of England the distinctive identity that it has retained to this day. It resulted in a Church that consciously retained a large amount of continuity with the Church of the Patristic and Medieval periods in terms of its use of the catholic creeds, its pattern of ministry, its buildings and aspects of its liturgy, but which also embodied Protestant insights in its theology and in the overall shape of its liturgical practice. The way that this is often expressed is by saying that the Church of England is both 'catholic and reformed.'

The changes that have taken place in the Church of England over the centuries have been many and various. What has remained constant, however, has been the Church's commitment to the faith 'uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds,' its maintenance of the traditional three fold order of ministry, and its determination to bring the grace of God to the whole nation through word and sacrament in the power of the Holy Spirit.