Wells next the sea

It sometimes comes to pass that learned canons and doctors of the law in the Grand old Church of England get into a tizzy or a lather about some matter or other which is alleged to be this or that contravention of the anglican communion's codex of canon law. What! everyone screeches? What codex of canon law? If one were to pop into any church of note on the anglican circuit one would find a copy of the canons of the Church of England, B1, B4, B12 and so on which amount to an extension into practice of the Articles of Religion. There all is revealed. Controversy then is sometimes calmed by such canons which soon settle disputes about say what is or is not a contravention. Sometimes this is about the grounds of transfer of a vicar, say for christological doctrine violations or aberrations in ritual or even for lithe and lissom irregularity in conduct unbecoming, and sometimes this is about the law on blasphemy, as per Bath and Wells diocese, though in the latter case the state might conceivably get involved, as my learned colleague Lord Somerset has it on his site, The Rights of the State, at www.blogger.com. Generally though we in the Real Church of England do like to do our laundry in secret, to iron out our squabbles in camera, in private, according to our own juristical rules and regulas. It beats going to the PM's office or his policy unit. God forbid that the Queen, the supreme governor, should get involved too! Constitutionally speaking the country is a christian democratic state, so the blasphemy laws and statutes do obtain for serious infractions of respect to the divine names. But we shall leave that to the Queen to resolve - she has some gravitas in an age lacking thereof.