At its last meeting, the General Synod of the Church of England gave First Consideration to the draft Legislative Reform Measure (GS 2027), the basic provisions of which are reproduced below.

The purpose of the draft Measure

The draft Measure would enable the General Synod to tidy up the Church of England’s statute law. Briefly, Clause 1 empowers the Archbishops’ Council to make orders removing or reducing “legislative burdens”. However, that power is subjected to a series of complex conditions, including a list of statutes that are excluded from the scope of the order-making power and, as we shall see, a special procedure in Synod.

The initial proposal came in for a degree of criticism. Continue reading →