Centre for Law and Religion cohort attend Colloquium Jubilee in Rome

The Anglican team at the Centre for Law and Religion travelled to Rome this September to attend the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers.

Professor Norman Doe KC FBA, Revd Russell Dewhurst, and Revd Stephen Coleman of the Centre for Law and Religion were part of the event, hosted by the Angelicum Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome, which looked at canon law and synodality.

Synodality is the idea of building a community within the Church where everyone shares their experiences and insights. Synodality is seen as crucial for shaping the future of the Church in a rapidly changing world. The Colloquium explored how ‘synodality’ is present in the laws of the two communions at international, national, regional and local levels, resulting in an Agreed Statement of Principles of Canon Law on Synodality.

On the first evening of the event, in the presence of Cardinal Kurt Koch (Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity), Professor Doe delivered a public lecture entitled ‘Canon Law, Ecumenism, and Synodality’ on the concept of synodality in the Statement of Principles of Christian Law (Rome 2016) and laws within 10 Christian families worldwide. Sister Nathalie Becquart (Under-Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops) responded with insights into the potential value of comparative church law in Catholic debate on synodality.

To celebrate the Jubilee of the Colloquium, Professor Doe’s play Thrice to Rome was performed at the Palazzo della Cancelleria which houses the three highest law courts of the Catholic Church: Penitentiary; Signatura; and Roman Rota. This ‘community play’ is about the three appearances of Gerald of Wales (d. 1223) before the Papal Court of Innocent III (1200-3) to confirm Gerald’s election as Bishop of St Davids and Metropolitan status for St Davids and its freedom from Canterbury. This was its sixth performance. The cast comprised Colloquium members who were joined by Monsignor David-Maria Jaeger OFM (Prelate Auditor of the Roman Rota) who played Innocent III. There was also a jubilee dinner generously hosted by the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Christopher Trott, at the ambassadorial residence near the Vatican.

Pictured in the photograph from left to right are: Robert Ombres OP, Blackfriars, Oxford (Advocate for Gerald); Helen Costigane SHCJ, St Mary’s University, London (Bettina, Canon Law Teacher at Padua); Ben Earl OP, Procurator General, Order of Preachers (Buongiovanni, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Clerk); Stephen Coleman, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff (John of Tynemouth, Canterbury’s Advocate); Monsignor David Jaeger OFM, Prelate Auditor of the Roman Rota (Pope Innocent III); Luke Beckett OSB, Ampleforth Abbey (Reginald Foliot, Canon of St Davids); Mark Hill KC, Chancellor of the Dioceses of Chichester, Leeds, and Gibraltar in Europe (Cardinal Hugolinus); Edward Dobson, Deputy Legal Adviser, Church House, Westminster (Chanter); Morag Ellis KC, Dean of Arches and Auditor (Novella, Canon Law Teacher at Bologna); Russell Dewhurst, Chair, Anglican Communion Legal Advisers Network (William Lyndwood, Bishop of St Davids); Francis Bushell, Director of the Campanile Chamber Choir (Chanter); Norman Doe KC, Professor of Law, Cardiff University (Gerald of Wales). Photograph taken by Revd Tony Bushell.