Wells Cathedral welcomes Law and Religion professors for Bekynton lecture

This July, Mark Hill, QC, Honorary Professor at Cardiff and a leading member of the Centre for Law and Religion at the School of Law and Politics, delivered the second in the series of Bekynton Lectures on Law and Religion at Wells Cathedral.

Professor Hill spoke on Canon Law in the Service of the Church. He provided a magisterial analysis of the role of law in the life of the Church of England and spoke about the value of the Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion (2008), and the significance of the Statement of Principles of Christian Law (Rome, 2016), a document produced by an ecumenical panel of lawyers and theologians to foster greater visible unity among Christians worldwide.

At Choral Evensong, before the lecture, Professor Norman Doe, Director of the Centre for Law and Religion, delivered a sermon on Richard Hooker (1554-1600), author of the influential treatise, The Law of Ecclesiastical Polity, the first ever post-Reformation treatise on the substantive ecclesiastical law of England in its theological and political context. Professor Doe was the first person to deliver the Bekynton Lecture in 2017 when he spoke on the legal architecture of English cathedrals.

The Bekynton lecture, held biannually, is a collaboration between Wells Cathedral, Harris and Harris Solicitors (Wells) and the Centre for Law and Religion at the School of Law and Politics.  Thomas Bekynton (1390-1465) worked in the fields of law and religion and was a notable canon lawyer, Dean of the Court of Arches (1423), and Bishop of Bath and Wells (1443).