![handle is hein.journals/ecclej9 and id is 1 raw text is:
(2007) 9 Ecc LJ 1-4 © The Ecclesiastical Law Society
doi: 10.1017/So956618XO700004
EDITORIAL
MARK HILL
The legal status of the Church of England, and its idiosyncratic relationship with
the state, is anomalous not merely in a global perspective but in relation to other
churches in the United Kingdom, including autonomous provinces of the
Anglican Communion in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But the
nature of establishment and its wider consequences are not fully understood.
It will be recalled that the Court of Appeal fell into error in the Aston Cantlow
litigation in finding that a parochial church council was a public authority for
the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998, basing its assessment principally
upon the fact that the Church of England is an established church.' The House
of Lords (Lord Scott of Foscote dissenting in part) unanimously rejected both the
reasoning and conclusions of the Court of Appeal.2 This is how Lord Nicholls of
Birkenhead put it:
Historically the Church of England has discharged an important and influ-
ential role in the life of this country. As the established church it still has
special links with central government. But the Church of England remains
essentially a religious organization. This is so even though some of the
emanations of the church discharge functions which may qualify as gov-
ernmental. Church schools and the conduct of marriage services are two
instances. The legislative powers of the General Synod of the Church of
England are another. This should not be regarded as infecting the
Church of England as a whole, or its emanations in general, with the char-
acter of a governmental organization.3
Lord Hope of Craighead recognised that the Church of England as a whole has
no legal status or personality, but that its relationship with the state is one of rec-
ognition, not the devolution to it of any of the powers or functions of govern-
ment. Lord Rodger of Earlsferry stated that 'the juridical nature of the Church
is, notoriously, somewhat amorphous' but considered that the mission of the
Church is a religious mission, distinct from the secular mission of the
1 Aston Cantlow Parochial Church Council v Wallbank [2001] 2 All ER 363, CA.
2 Parochial Church Council ofAston Cantlow v Wallbank [2004] 1 AC 546; [2003] 3 All ER 1213; (2004) 7
Ecc LJ 364, HL.
3 Per Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead at para 13.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ecclej9&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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