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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2025
This article considers the following three matters: first, how every Christian tradition globally has its own system of canon law or other regulatory instruments; second, how these laws contribute to ecumenism as an instrument for greater visible communion between the separated churches of Christianity; and third, how a comparative approach to juridical ecumenism informs our understandings of synodality.
1 See Statement of Principles of Christian Law (2016): I.2: the forms of ecclesial regulation; and, for the law of God, I.3.4: the servant law. See also N Doe, Christian Law: Contemporary Principles (Cambridge, 2013) Ch 1.
2 Second Vatican Council, Decree 1965, Dignitatis humanae, I.3.
3 Code of Canon Law 1983 (CIC): cc.12, 16, 22, 29. The Oriental Catholic Churches also have a Code of Canons (1990).
4 F Morrisey, ‘Papal and curial pronouncements: their canonical significance in the light of the 1983 code of canon law’ (1990) 50 The Jurist 102.
5 N Doe, Canon Law in the Anglican Communion (Oxford, 1998).
6 The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion (2022) (PCLCCAC): Definitions, ‘Law’; and Principle 2.
7 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOAA), Charter, Arts 1, 2 and 22, and Regulations, Art 18.3; Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Statute, III.4 and X.18; GOAA, Regulations, Art. 18.3. See also ROMOC: Statutes, Art 123(9); P Rodopoulos, An Overview of Orthodox Canon Law (Rollinsford, NH, 2007), 3, 17, 21.
8 Free Methodist Church of North America (FMCNA), Book of Discipline, para 112: ‘God’s law’.
9 Methodist Church in Great Britain (MCGB), Constitutional Practice and Discipline, Deed of Union, 25(b); Methodist Church in Ireland (MCI), Constitution, s. 6: ‘Manual of Laws’; s. 5: ‘Rules and Regulations’.
10 Methodist Church of New Zealand (MCNZ), Laws and Regulations, 2.26.1; United Methodist Church – United States of America (UMCUSA), Constitution, Div I, Art III, Div 2.3, Art I: Articles of Religion, etc.
11 Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI), Code, I.I.IV.15.
12 Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (PACNZ), Book of Order, 1.1(2).
13 Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Book of Church Order, Preface, II.3; also II.7.
14 JL Weatherhead (ed), The Constitution and Laws of the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1997), 16; Manual of Practice and Procedure in the United Free Church of Scotland (2011); The Code: The Book of the Constitution and Government of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (2010); The Book of Church Order of the Reformed Church in America (2010).
15 PCI, Code, Constitution and Pt. III.15: Trustees’ Bylaws; e.g. Westminster Confession of Faith, see e.g. PCANZ, Book of Order, 1.1(3)-(4); Reformed Church in America (RCA), Book of Church Order, Preamble: the Doctrinal Standards include the Heidelberg Catechism 1608 and Canons of the Synod of Dort 1619.
16 United Reformed Church (URC): Model Constitution for Local Churches (2010); Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), Book of Church Order, III.58.8: custom; PCW, Employee Safety Handbook (undated).
17 Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB), Constitution, 1.3.1; Model Trusts for Churches 2003, 2.8.1.
18 Ibid, 2.8.1 and 6.1, Constitution, 1.3; Bethel Baptist Church (Choctaw, USA), Constitution, Art VI.
19 National Baptist Convention – USA (NBC-USA): Constitution, Art X.5; American Baptist Churches in the USA (ABC-USA): Bylaws, Prologue; Canadian National Baptist Convention (CNBC), Constitution, 3.
20 Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), Constitution; Baptist Union of Scotland (BUS), Constitution and Bylaws; NBC-USA, Constitution (2002), Preamble: the Convention has ‘constitutions’ and ‘laws’.
21 Baptist Union of Southern Africa (BUSA), Model Constitution for Local Churches, 4: Statement of Faith.
22 BUGB, Model Trusts, 2.12; Riverside Baptist Church (Baltimore): Constitution, Art. IV: ‘Church Covenant’.
23 PCLCCAC, Principle 4.5.
24 CIC, canon 1; canons 11–12.
25 ROC, Statute, VII.8. See also GOAA, Regulations, Art 4.15: the decisions of the Clergy-Laity Congress ‘must be faithfully and firmly adhered to by the Archdiocesan District/Metropolises as well as all Parishes’.
26 LCGB, Rules and Regulations, Congregations, 1: a congregation must ‘accept and uphold the Governing Documents (Constitutions and Rules and Regulations)’.
27 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), Constitution, X.3.
28 PCANZ, Book of Order, 2.2; PCA, Book of Church Order, 5.8.
29 JBU, Constitution, Art V.
30 Doe (note 1), Ch 1.
31 Sacrae disciplinae leges (1983), the Apostolic Constitution by which the Code was promulgated.
32 CIC, c. 1752.
33 L Patsavos, ‘The canonical tradition of the Orthodox Church’, in FK Litsas (ed), A Companion to the Greek Orthodox Church (New York, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, 1984), 137 at p 141 (reproduced in L Patsavos, Manual on Orthodox Canon Law (New York, Hellenic College, Holy Cross Orthodox School of Theology, 1975), Part II (un-numbered page).
34 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC): Constitution, Introduction and Preamble.
35 Weatherhead, Constitution and Laws, 1.
36 United Church of Canada (UCC), Manual, Introduction.
37 BUGB, Model Trusts, Schedule 4.1–4.6.
38 Riverside Baptist Church (Baltimore), Constitution, Preamble.
39 N Doe (ed), Church Laws and Ecumenism: A New Path for Christian Unity (Oxford, 2021), ch. 1.
40 Panel: Response to Common Vision (2013) (December 2015) 3–4.
41 WCC Faith and Order Commission Paper No. 214, The Church: Towards a Common Vision (2013).
42 The paper (with changes) was re-produced as N Doe, ‘The Ecumenical Value of Comparative Church Law: Towards the Category of Christian Law’ (2015) 17 Ecc LJ 135–169.
43 See Common Vision, para 61.
44 Panel: Response (2015), p 5.
45 The candidate principles were those as set out in Doe (note 1), Appendix, 387–398.
46 Of the 250 or so candidate principles considered, 230 were accepted (in a revised or added form).
47 For the statement, see Doe (note 39), 270, Appendix II.
48 Doe (note 39), 256, Appendix I.
49 Doe (note 39), 24.
50 For extracts from the Address (in which the Patriarch also explained his own doctoral work on ‘principles’ of canon law), see N Doe and A Nikiforos (eds), Legal Thought and Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Oxford, 2025), 5–8. The statement, he wrote, was ‘based on the book Christian Law: Contemporary Principles, by Professor Norman Doe’ (published by Cambridge University Press, 2013).
51 He cites N Doe, ‘Juridical Ecumenism’ (2012) 14 Ecc LJ 195–234.
53 Doe (note 39).
54 The Patriarch too welcomed the commendation: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2674314-cardiff-law-initiative-endorsed-at-the-world-council-of-churches-assembly, accessed 26 February 2025.
55 See e.g. CO Brand and RS Norman (eds), Perspectives on Church Government: Five Views of Church Polity (Nashville, TN, 2004).
56 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.1: Church Governance.
57 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.2: International Ecclesial Communities: an international ecclesial institution is composed of such persons on such terms of tenure as are assigned to it in accordance with its own juridical instruments. See N Doe (note 1), 124–130 for the coercive jurisdiction and authority of the Roman Pontiff and College of Bishops in the Catholic Church, and for the (non-coercive) moral authority, over their autonomous churches, exercised by the institutions of the Anglian Communion, Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, World Communion of Reformed Churches, and Baptist World Alliance.
58 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.3: National Church Structures.
59 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.5: The Local Church.
60 Doe (note 1), Ch 4.
61 ROMOC, Statutes, Arts 43–48; PCLCCAC, Principle 21; CIC, cc 374 and 515.
62 LCBG, Rules and Regulations, Definition of a Congregation, 1–2: ‘a community of baptised Christians who meet regularly for the proclamation of the Gospel and administration of the Sacraments’; MCGB, Constitutional Practice and Discipline, Deed of Union, 1(v)–(vi); SO 500–517: a circuit: a unit of one/more local churches and ‘the primary unit in which Local Churches express and experience their interconnexion in the Body of Christ’.
63 RCA, Book of Church Order, Ch 1, Pt I, Arts 1–6: these may also be styled ‘parishes’; PCA, Book of Church Order, 4–5; BUSA, Model Constitution, Art 4: the ‘congregational principle’.
64 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.5: The Local Church.
65 Principles of Christian Law (2016): II.4: Public Ministry Exercised by Lay Persons; public ministry, a gift of God, is the fulfilment of a function assigned in a church to an office or other position exercised under authority on behalf of that church in the service of its mission and witness to the Gospel.
66 CIC: c 374: for common action, neighbouring parishes may be grouped (e.g. in vicariates forane).
67 CIC: c 515; c 518: personal parishes may also be set up according to rite, language or nationality.
68 CIC: cc 532–537, 1220, 1279, 1281–1288.
69 For archdeacons and deaneries see e.g. Ireland: Const., II.42; England: Synodical Government Measure 1969, s. 3: a deanery has a synod (an archdeaconry, divided into deaneries, does not).
70 For example Wales: Con. VI.24: meetings, etc. of the Parochial Church Council.
71 For example Wales: Con. VI.22: mission. See also PCLCCAC, Principle 21.
72 LCGB: RAR, Congregations, 1–2.
73 MCGB: CPD, DU 1; SO 500–517; 501: changes to Circuits are in the keeping of the Conference.
74 MCGB: CPD, DU 1; see also SO 61, 600 and 602.
75 MCGB: CPD, SO 603: duties; 604: committees; 605: formation; 610: members; 621: Meeting.
76 CLCS, 103, Act XVII, 1931: Kirk Session. Ruling elders are ordained by Kirk Session.
77 PCI: Code, paras 25–44; 141–147: transaction of business; 148–155: rules of debate; 156–160: voting; see also PCW: HOR, 3.1: District Meeting.
78 PCI: Code, paras 45–46; 46–52. Church of Scotland: Church Courts Act (Act III 2000) s 37.
79 See P Goodliff, ‘Baptist church polity and practice’ (2012) 168 Law and Justice 3.
80 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.4: Regional Church Structures.
81 CIC: cc 368–369; see also cc 370–371 for e.g. territorial prelatures and vicariates.
82 CIC: c 391; c 381: a bishop has ‘all the ordinary, proper and immediate power required for the exercise of his pastoral office, except in matters which … the Supreme Pontiff reserves to the supreme or to some other ecclesiastical authority’; c 134: an ‘ordinary’ is e.g. a diocesan bishop.
83 CIC: cc 460–468: the bishop determines the manner of election and number of lay members.
84 CIC: cc 469–494: the officers include the Vicar General, Episcopal Vicar, and Chancellor.
85 CIC: cc 495–502: he must consult the Council as to matters prescribed under e.g. cc 461, 515, 1263 and 1742; the College of Consultors has prescribed functions when the diocese is impeded or vacant.
86 CIC: cc 492–494: its members (clerical or lay) must be persons of outstanding integrity and skilled in finance and civil law; the bishop must also appoint a financial administrator: see below chapter 9.
87 CIC: cc 511–514: those ‘outstanding in firm faith, high moral standards and prudence’.
88 PCLCCAC: Principle 20: a diocese consists of the faithful in a territory overseen by a bishop.
89 See e.g. England: Synodical Government Measure 1969, s 4; Scotland: Can 50; Wales: Con IV.
90 PCLCCAC: Principle 20: the bishop may give/withhold consent to proposed legislation if allowed, but may not legislate unilaterally; see e.g. Wales: Con IV.43: Acts of the Diocesan Conference.
91 For executive committees, see e.g. Wales: Con IV.16; for boards, etc., see e.g. England: Diocesan Boards of Finance Measure 1925, ss 1–3: the Board must comply with synod directions.
92 MCGB: CPD, SO 400.
93 URC: Man B.2.3: the District Council (moderator and representatives of local churches) meets annually to discharge tasks under the URC Acts 1972, 1981, 2000; see also B.2.4: the Provincial (or National) Synod.
94 CLCS: 97: Act VIII, 1996: moderator; Act III, 1992: membership.
95 PCI: Code, paras 61–79: it consists of ministers and ruling elders appointed by each Kirk Session, has officers (moderator, clerk), meets four times a year, forms new congregations if authorised by General Assembly, ordains, installs and oversees ministers (e.g. in preaching, doctrine), and enquires into the work of Kirk Sessions and Congregational Meetings; 256: annual report to the General Assembly.
96 See Doe (note 1), 145–146.
97 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.3: National Church Structures.
98 CIC: cc 435–446: neighbouring particular churches may be grouped into provinces to promote inter-diocesan relations; provinces are established, altered or suppressed by the pope; the provincial council and metropolitan oversee the province; its council may legislate by decrees sent to Rome for approval.
99 CIC: cc 447–449; c 459: relations between Conferences; c 753: the Conference as teacher.
100 CIC: cc 450–454; c 456: the president must send the minutes of plenary meetings to Rome; c 457: the permanent committee prepares the agenda and ensures decisions are executed; c 458: secretary.
101 CIC: c 455: Conference decides the manner of promulgation and the time decrees come into force.
102 For example England: Synodical Government Measure 1969: General Synod has three Houses: bishops, clergy, and laity.
103 For example Wales: Con II.20: the archbishop presides; Ireland: Standing Orders of General Synod.
104 For example Ireland: Con Preamble, Declaration IV: General Synod has ‘chief legislative power … and such administrative power as may be necessary for the Church and consistent with its episcopal constitution’.
105 See also PCLCCAC: Part III.
106 MCI: Con s 6; RDG, 6: Conference composition, functions, constitutional amendment, procedure, quorum, rules of debate, and president; RDG, 8: General Committee.
107 MCGB: CPD, SO 003: Church Courts and Jurisdictions; DU 18–21: powers; DU 11, 13–14: membership; DU 19: Standing Orders; 21: officers and committees; 23: ordination; DU 26–29 and SO 110–111: President; SO 210–216: Methodist Council and Executive (and Audit Committee); SO 230–232: other committees; SO 302: General Secretary or ‘executive officer’; SO 338 for the Committee on Methodist Law and Polity.
108 MCGB: CPD, DU 26. The Vice-President is a lay member and is elected similarly (ibid, 27).
109 MCGB: CPD, DU 28–29.
110 MCGB: CPD, SO 110.
111 MCGB: CPD, SO 111.
112 URC: Man B.2.6; 3.1; C: Rules of Procedure; G: Committees: e.g. Mission Council, and Ministries Committee.
113 URC: Man C.3; see c 4 for the General Secretary and 5 for the Clerk of Assembly.
114 PCW: HOR, 1.2; 3.4–5.
115 PCW: HOR, 3.4.3.5: the Moderator is elected from the association in three provinces and admitted at a service for installation (at which the person is given the Assembly Bible ‘as sign of [his] authority’); App. A: the Moderator holds office for one year; chairs meetings of the General Assembly and directs its proceedings; is member of every Board; and visits Presbyteries and Associations by invitation; see also PCI: Code, paras 99–100; UFCS: MPP, Ch 5, s 2.
116 BUGB: Con I.5–9; II.1–10.
117 BUGB: Con 2.3: the Vice President is elected annually, becomes President Elect for one year and takes office as President at the annual Assembly; BUS: Con IX: Core Leaders include the General Director, Ministry Advisor and Mission Advisor; BL VIII: their functions are agreed by Council.
118 Principles of Christian Law (2016): IV.2: International Ecclesial Communities: see Doe (note 1), 124–130 for the coercive jurisdiction and authority of the Roman Pontiff and College of Bishops in the Catholic Church, and for the (non-coercive) moral authority, over their autonomous churches, exercised by the institutions of the Anglian Communion, Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, World Communion of Reformed Churches, and Baptist World Alliance.
119 SPCL III.4.3–7.
120 CIC, cc 336–348, 360–361 and 754.
121 Rodopoulos (note 7), 213–221; ROMOC, Statutes, Arts 1–9: the Holy Synod is the ‘highest authority’.
122 PCLCCAC, Principle 13: ‘A church shall respect the autonomy of each church’; 11: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth Conference, Primates Meeting and Anglican Consultative Council do not represent a ‘central legislative, executive or judicial authority’; LWF, Constitution, Art IV: the Federation is ‘an instrument of its autonomous member churches’; Arts VI–VIII: bodies; WCRC, Constitution, Arts VII–IX: General Council is ‘the main governing body’; its decisions ‘concerning its organization and institutional activities shall be binding’ but its decisions ‘involving the life and witness of the member churches are advisory in character’; BWA, Constitution, Preamble: it ‘recognises the traditional autonomy and independence of Baptist Churches’.
123 cf. N Doe, ‘Christian Law Panel of Experts’ (2018) 20 Ecc LJ 342–344.