Year: 2008
Type: editorial
Abstract: The Ecclesiastical Law Journal is fortunate to have an Editorial Board with a breadth of practical and academic experience by whom it is loyally served but, with its membership spread throughout the globe, meetings are comparatively rare.It would have been churlish to allow the Journal's twenty-first birthday to pass without a celebration and, to that end, the Board met in March 2008 for a gala dinner at the Inner Temple, preceded by an arduous business meeting and a tour of the Temple Church conducted by its Master in pursuit of the elusive truth of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.Significant birthdays such as these provide occasions for reflection on the journey which has been travelled, and also for plotting a clear course for the way ahead.As for the past, the meeting coincided with the publication of the Consolidated Tables and Index for Volumes 1-8 of the Journal, spanning the first two decades of the Journal's existence.This invaluable research tool is the product of painstaking work on the part of Peter Moore and is testimony to the enthusiasm and dedication of Michael Goodman, who edited the Journal from its inception in 1987 until he stood down in 2002.The Tables and Index reflect both the diversity and the depth of coverage that now exists in the field of ecclesiastical law and copies may be purchased from Canon John Rees, Treasurer of the Ecclesiastical Law Society.Far older than this Journal are the records of the Court of Arches, a significant archive of ecclesiastical law, most of which date from the seventeenth century onwards, the rest having been lost in the Fire of London.On the dissolution of Doctors' Commons, this huge archive was dumped in a well.Having suffered the effects of damp, mould and vermin, the records were recovered and transferred to the registry of the Dean of the Arches at Lambeth Palace, whose Library has been working for decades to conserve this mass of material and to make it accessible.The latest project, concerning the series of libels, begins in April, supported by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust.A range of catalogues describe the records but these guides are difficult to use; thus the Trustees of Lambeth Palace Library are appealing for £357,000 to transfer all of the Library's catalogues to electronic format.This initiative will unlock a wealth of material arising from the court's jurisdiction -from seventeenth-century marriage and divorce to ritualistic controversies of the nineteenth century, extending across probate, defamation, manners and morals of the clergy and laity, and non-conformity.1 In May 2008, 1 Phases One and Two are complete, and the resulting online catalogue is accessible on the Library's website at ,www.lambethpalacelibrary.org.,
Source: Ecclesiastical Law Journal
Author: Mark Hill
Language: Latin
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4234176996