Members of the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers held a reunion in Rome on Wednesday evening 10th May.  The Bishop of Cork, Dr Paul Colton, and the Reverend Stephen Farrell, Rector of Zion Parish, Rathgar, travelled from Ireland to participate in the gathering which was held at the Venerable English College.

Photographed in the garden of the Venerable English College were (fromt l-r): the Very Rev. Francis Bradley (Diocese of Raphoe), Professor James Conn, S.J. (Boston College), the Reverend Stephen Farrell (Registrar, Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough), the Rev. Justin Wachs (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), Ms Charlotte Miles (PhD Candidate, Cardiff University, School of Law and Politics), Dr Eithne d’Auria, the Rev. Kevin Gillespie (Congregation for the Clergy), Professor Norman Doe (Director, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University), the Rev. Fintan Gavin (Assistant Chancellor, Diocese of Dublin), and Dr Paul Colton (Honorary Research Fellow, School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University). Back (l-r): Professor Mark Hill, QC (Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University), Sion Awen Hughes Carew (Church of England Legal Office), the Reverend Adnrew Co.e (Catholic Church in England and Wales), the Rev. Russell Dewhurst (Church of England), Father Luke Beckett, OSB (Ampleforth Abbey), Stephen Slack (Chief Solicitor, Church of England Legal Office), and Father Aidan McGrath, OFM.

The Colloquium was established in Rome in 1999, and was an initiative of the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, and Duquesne Law School, Pittsburgh, USA. That 1999 meeting is believed to have been the first of its type.

The final meeting of the Colloquium was held in Dublin in 2016.  Over its years of meeting the aim of the Colloquium was to contribute to greater ecumenical understanding between Anglicans and Roman Catholics from the perspective of canon law as a form of applied ecclesiology. The Colloquium explored ways in which the respective laws of each communion either facilitate or inhibit unity.

On the occasion of the reunion this week, the participants heard six papers about bishops: the election of bishops, the functions of bishops, and the discipline of bishops.  Afterwards the members celebrated the reunion at dinner together.