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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2019
Previous studies of archdeacons in this Journal defended their pastoral hearts in a ministry dominated by law. This article sees the archdeacon's pastoral and priestly ministry as created and enabled by law. It looks at the canonical description of the archdeacon's office before turning to the work of an archdeacon in such areas as visitations, parish and diocesan governance, faculty jurisdiction, care and discipline of clergy, conflict resolution and creative innovation. The article draws on relevant legislative instruments, including Acts, Measures and Codes of Practice; on case law; and on quasi-legislation such as diocesan handbooks. Its conclusions are based not only upon what is set down in these, but also upon what archdeacons actually do. Archdeacons across the Church of England and the Church in Wales, and a Channel Islands dean, responded to a short survey looking at archdeacons’ work in relation to the stipulations of the law. The article concludes that archdeacons occupy a pivotal position in dioceses, both because of what the law requires and because of what it does not prohibit. They play a key role in shaping the church and its ministry. With bishops and others, they delight in its beauty and rejoice in its well-being.
This article is based on research carried out as part of the LLM in Canon Law at Cardiff University. Information on particular diocesan practice has been gathered from the archdeacons of the Church of England and the Church in Wales and the Dean of Guernsey, to all of whom I am very grateful. Earlier research into the archdeacons’ tasks can be found in P Brierley, ‘Archdeacons in the early 21st century’ (2004), available from admin@christian-research.org.uk. Brierley summarises the results of a survey of 2003.
2 For the chicanery behind the medieval question of whether an archdeacon could be saved, see, briefly, McKinley, R, A History of British Surnames (London and New York, 2013), p 136Google Scholar.
3 See, for example, ‘Dick the Knife’(for the late Venerable Richard Ninis), The Telegraph, obituary, 24 November 2014 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11250529/The-Venerable-Richard-Ninis-obituary.html>, accessed 22 January 2018. James, P, Death in Holy Orders (London, 2001), p 200Google Scholar, describes archdeacons as ‘a kind of Rottweiler of the Church’.
4 Fictional archdeacons include: Archdeacon Grantly throughout Trollope's Chronicles of Barset; Archdeacons Castleton and Craggs in Alington, C, Archdeacons Afloat (London, 1946)Google Scholar and Archdeacons Ashore (London, 1947)Google Scholar; and Archdeacon Crampton in James, P, Death in Holy Orders (London, 2001)Google Scholar.
5 Jones, H, ‘Omnis gallia, or the roles of the archdeacon’, (1991) 2:9 Ecc LJ 236–240 at 238Google Scholar.
6 Ravenscroft, R, ‘The role of the archdeacon today’, (1995) 17:3 Ecc LJ 379–392 at 388Google Scholar.
7 Quoted in Buckingham, H, ‘The training of archdeacons’, (1997) 4:21 Ecc LJ 738–743Google Scholar.
8 As shown through the person of Archdeacon Robert. Episodes of the series are available at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0178fhq>, accessed 7 October 2018.
9 Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840, s 27. This contrasts with earlier historic practice. The Canons of Westminster 1102, for example, emphasise that archdeacons are ‘deacons’; they are not priests. See Evans, G, ‘Lanfranc, Anselm and a new consciousness of canon law in England’ in Doe, N (ed), English Canon Law (Cardiff, 1998), pp 1–12 at p 8Google Scholar.
10 Canon C 22(1). Archdeacons may also be in episcopal orders as is the current Bishop and Archdeacon of Ludlow.
11 Elsewhere in the Anglican Communion, for example in Nigeria, the title normally associated with the office of archdeacon, ‘the Venerable’, is also used as an honorific without territorial office. In recent years, English dioceses have appointed archdeacons whose ministry extends more broadly than their obvious archdeaconries. The Diocese of Coventry, for example, has two archdeacons but both work across the entire diocese, one being the Archdeacon Missioner and the other the Archdeacon Pastor.
12 This has not always been so. Archdeacons have historically also held parochial appointments, and may still do so, if they are to receive the temporal benefits of office. See Trollope, A, Clergymen of the Church of England (London, 2010; first published 1866), p 45Google Scholar: ‘An archdeacon … has a great deal to do and very little to get. Indeed, as to that matter of getting, the archdeacon, – as archdeacon, – may be said to get almost nothing.’ The Archdeacon of Llandaff (Church in Wales) is also priest-in-charge of St Fagans and St Michaelston-super-Ely.
13 Canon C 22(2), C 22(3); in some dioceses, ‘area dean’.
14 Church of England Miscellaneous Provisions Measure 1983, s 9.
15 Canon C 22(4).
16 Ibid.
17 Archbishops and bishops also have this power under Canon G 5.
18 Legal Opinions Concerning the Church of England (eighth edition, London, 2007), p 93Google Scholar.
19 Hill, M, Ecclesiastical Law (fourth edition, Oxford, 2018), para 4.59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Church Representation Rules (London, 2017). The Rules as originally enacted constitute Schedule 1 of the Synodical Government Measure 1969 and have been repeatedly amended. In July 2018, the General Synod gave final approval to their complete revision and they now stand committed to the Steering Committee in respect of their final drafting.
21 Rule 23(1).
22 Church Representation Rules, Appendix II, Rule [13] (12)(e). The reference should be to Rule 15 rather than 13; this error is noted in the text.
23 Rule 8(1).
24 For example, the Archdeacon of Lambeth (Diocese of Southwark) is currently also priest-in-charge of the parish of St Margaret the Queen, Streatham, in the Lambeth archdeaconry.
25 ‘Legal responsibilities of an archdeacon’, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/Statutory%20Duties%20of%20an%20Archdeacon.pdf>, accessed 31 August 2018.
26 Diocesan Boards of Finance Measure 1925; Synodical Government Measure 1969; Repair of Benefice Buildings Measure 1972.
27 Boards are established by scheme. If the diocesan scheme designates the board of finance, the scheme ‘shall provide for the delegation of the Board's functions under this Measure to a committee or committees of the Board constituted in accordance with the scheme, and regard shall be had in prescribing the membership of the committee or committees’. Repair of Benefice Buildings Measure 1972, s 1(9)(a).
28 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, s 2.
29 The college ‘shall perform the functions conferred by the Appointment of Bishops Act 1533 on the dean and chapter’. The college also receives and considers the annual report and audited accounts, discusses any matter concerning the cathedral raised by the college and may perform other functions. Cathedrals Measure 1999, s 5.
30 See, for example, the ‘Constitution and statutes for Southwark Cathedral 2000, amended 2013’, p 26, where the order of procession is specified, and p 9, which accords archdeacons a seat in the chancel; available at <https://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/media/1702/cathedral-constitution-and-statutes-2013-final.pdf>, accessed 22 September 2018.
31 No archdeacon is listed as a member in the Diocese in Europe: see <https://europe.anglican.org/people/bishops-council>, accessed 28 September 2018. In Canterbury and York, the council is the archbishop's.
32 Church Representation Rules, Rule 34(1)(k).
33 Ibid, Rule 30(4)(a)(iii), stipulates that the archdeacons shall be among the members of the House of Clergy of the Diocesan Synod. Rule 34(1)(k) requires that ‘there shall be a bishop's council and standing committee of diocesan synod with such membership as may be provided by standing orders’. Standing orders may well include the archdeacons as members.
34 Synodical Government Measure 1969, s 4(2); Synodical Government (Amendment) Measure 2003, s 1(1).
35 Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, s 27.
36 Diocesan, and sometimes episcopal area practice, varies but, in the majority of dioceses, archdeacons are involved in parochial appointments although they have no statutory role in the process as set down by the Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986, ss 11 and 12.
37 In Peterborough the archdeacon chairs; in Rochester the bishop meets a preferred candidate. This is similar to the arrangement in Guernsey, where the dean leads the appointment process, the bishop offering episcopal care meets the preferred candidate and the dean then nominates to the Crown through the lieutenant governor.
38 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, s 2.
39 Ibid, Part 5.
40 Ibid, s 2(3)(a) and (b): ‘It shall be the duty of the mission and pastoral committee (a) to make or assist in making better provision for the cure of souls in the diocese as a whole and, to the extent that the committee thinks appropriate, in particular parts of the diocese or in particular parishes; (b) from time to time, as the bishop may direct, or as the committee thinks fit, to review arrangements for pastoral supervision and care in the diocese as a whole and, to the extent that the committee thinks appropriate, in particular parts of the diocese or in particular parishes (including sharing agreements in respect of a church or parsonage house and any proposals for sharing agreements)’; other provisions follow. Section 3 also gives the committee duties in relation to its own strategic functions and to church buildings, including those listed or in conservation areas. Proposals for parish boundary changes must be submitted by the committee to the bishop of the diocese, whose approval is necessary for a pastoral scheme or order to be made (ibid, ss 6 and 7).
41 Ibid, ss 1, 3(1) and 3(2)(a).
42 See the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, Schedule 1, paras 2 and 5, for membership; para 2 enables, but does not require, the bishop to be a member.
43 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, s 21(2)(e).
44 ‘Legal responsibilities of an archdeacon’, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/Statutory%20Duties%20of%20an%20Archdeacon.pdf>, accessed 22 September 2018.
45 Repair of Benefice Buildings Measure 1972, s 1. Since, however, Southwark brings its parsonages board together with its DBF, DMPC, and bishop's council under the umbrella of the Diocesan Council of Trustees, the archdeacons arguably achieve membership by multiple instruments.
46 The exceptions are Durham and Southwell & Nottingham, although in both cases archdeacons are on the DBF and, in Durham's case, arrangements are being considered. In the Diocese of Europe, parsonage housing is a parish responsibility. Archdeaconry committees exist in Oxford and Salisbury dioceses.
47 Repair of Benefice Buildings Measure 1972, s 5. In the case of the alternate committees of the DBF, the board carries this responsibility – but, as all, one or some archdeacons are involved in the board of finance of every diocese, the substantive point above stands.
48 See <https://www.blackburn.anglican.org/diocesan-accounts>, accessed 22 September 2018.
49 Truro has similar arrangements but with a separate DMPC; see <https://www.trurodiocese.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Section-Y-current-copy.pdf>, accessed 23 September 2018.
50 For the Diocese of London's arrangements, see <https://www.london.anglican.org/directory/diocesan-finance-committee/>, accessed 22 September 2018. London is not atypical in having archdeacons as members of its principal subcommittees, although full research into this is beyond the scope of this article.
51 This practice is common across dioceses with multipartite meetings.
52 The Church in Wales has fewer combined bodies, which may be different from those of English and other Welsh dioceses. Archdeacons are, however, generally conspicuous by their membership of these bodies, not by their exclusion. Different circumstances pertain in the Channel Islands but the Deanery of Jersey has a finance board and that of Guernsey meets in October 2018 to consider making such provision.
53 Research among archdeacons suggests that only in the Diocese of Winchester are archdeacons without a vote on the DBF.
54 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, Code of Recommended Practice, available at: <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-10/mission_and_pastoral_measure_2011_-_volume_1.pdf>, accessed 12 October 2018, p 11, concerning patronage boards, where the potential conflict is deemed as no conflict given the ‘wider diocesan role’ of both bishops and archdeacons.
55 Canon C 22(5).
56 Principally by the Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1991, the Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (Amendment) Measure 2015 and the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure 2018.
57 The 1955 Measure ss 2(1) and (2) still confers the power for an archdeacon to ensure that a five-yearly survey of a church by a qualified person is undertaken; this is repeated in the 2018 Measure. The Cathedrals Measure 1999 imposes this duty upon the chapter rather than the archdeacon; Cathedrals Measure 1999, s 20. In the Diocese of London, the archdeacon always instructs the quinquennial inspector and receives the report; anecdotal evidence suggests that this is unique to London.
58 The Canons of 1603 (Canon 86) required three yearly inspection by the archdeacon or others ‘which have authority to hold Ecclesiastical Visitations’, but this may have been more honoured in the breach. See The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical (Made in the Year 1603 and amended in the years 1865, 1887, 1936, and 1946) (SPCK 1960), p 37. What the Bishop actually said, in keeping with the times, was, ‘because a man exchanges a pair of trousers for a pair of gaiters, it does not mean that his archidiaconal legs are thereby endowed with the necessary agility and balance to run up and down ladders or to go scrambling over roofs’. See HL Deb 24 February 1955 vol 191 col 454; available at <https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1955/feb/24/inspection-of-churches-measure-1955#column_454>, accessed 23 September 2018.
59 On this, see <https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1955/feb/24/inspection-of-churches-measure-1955#column_454>, accessed 23 September 2018.
60 Canon F 17, Of keeping a record of the property of churches. For the bishop's duty, see F 17(1); for the archdeacon's, see F 17(2): the archdeacon shall ‘at least once in three years, either in person or by the rural dean, satisfy himself that the directions of the preceding paragraph of this Canon have been carried out’.
61 This is the case in the Diocese of Southwark, where inspections are shared (usually with the area dean but sometimes with deanery lay chairs); the archdeacon generally visits every three years, with others doing so in the intervening two.
62 In the Diocese of Truro, archdeacons do their own annual inspections; Carlisle archdeacons inspect triennially; Coventry rural deans do this; Lichfield involves lay chairs; Hereford inspections are quinquennial. Several dioceses, including Derby and Ely, are reviewing their practice.
63 Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1991. Schedule 1 concerns membership; Schedule 2 sets out the functions of the committee.
64 The importance of archdeacons in the faculty process is attested to in Newsom, G H and Newsom, G L, The Faculty Jurisdiction of the Church of England (second edition, London, 1993), pp 43–44Google Scholar and passim. See also Mynors, C, Changing Churches (London, 2016), especially pp 43–44Google Scholar on the role of the archdeacon. It should also be said that good relationships between archdeacons and diocesan chancellors are immensely important in the smooth operation of the faculty jurisdiction.
65 See Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015, Statutory Instrument 2015 No 1568, for example at Rule 11(1)(7)(c): directions of the consistory court given without a hearing must be sent by the registrar to the archdeacon; 11(3)(2)(b): directions as to the date, time and place for a consistory court hearing must be served by the registrar on the archdeacon; 3(3)(2)(5) prescribes that an archdeacon declining ‘to give notice that a proposal may be undertaken without a faculty … must inform the applicants that they may, if they wish, petition the court for a faculty to authorise the proposal’; 3(3)(2)(a): the archdeacon ‘must seek the advice of the Diocesan Advisory Committee or such of its members or officers as the archdeacon thinks fit before deciding whether to give notice that it may be undertaken without a faculty’.
66 The amended 1991 Measure allows archdeacons to exercise ‘the jurisdiction of the consistory court of the diocese in such faculty matters relating to the archdeaconry, to such extent and in such manner as may be prescribed’; the 2015 Rules make no such provision.
67 Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015. Temporary minor re-ordering for a prescribed period is permitted under the Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Amendment Measure 2015 s 2(3)(7); the 2015 Rules prescribe a maximum period of 15 months at Part 88(8)(1)(1).
68 Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 8(1), 5(2), 10(1); Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1991 as amended, s 14(5). For a restoration order sought under the 2015 Rules by an archdeacon, see [2016] ECC SEI 1. See also Hill, Ecclesiastical Law, p 225, on the nature of the archdeacon's role in faculty hearings. See Legal Opinions, p 184, on the possibility of an archdeacon applying for judicial review if the PCC and churchwardens are unwilling to commence proceedings for the recovery of church property disposed of improperly.
69 Re St Peter's, Draycott [2009] Fam 93.
70 Re St Mary, Barnes [1982] 1 WLR 531 at 532. The first faculty effectively sanctioned contravention of the Burial Act 1857, s 25, under which it is offence for a body or any human remains which have been interred in a place of burial to be removed unless in compliance with certain stated conditions.
71 The Canon F 17 inspection of the records of the church should have included the faculty and enabled the archdeacon to have perceived its inadequacies, which clearly were not apparent or not discerned, earlier in the process. Newsom and Newsom also draw attention to the duty to survey under Canon C 22 and indicate the archdeacon's importance to the chancellor if churches and their churchyards are to be cared for properly: ‘the parish officers below him and the chancellor above him reply on his knowledge and judgment’. See Newsom and Newsom, Faculty Jurisdiction, pp 97–98.
72 Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015, s 3(3)(6), ‘if the archdeacon is the incumbent or priest in charge of a benefice where it is proposed to undertake a matter that is prescribed in List B, references in this rule to the archdeacon are to be read as if they were references to the chancellor’. A comparable separation of roles is apparent in Canon B 20(1): the minister, with the agreement of the PCC, may appoint or terminate the appointment of the organist, choirmaster or director of music save that the agreement of the PCC may be dispensed with, if the archdeacon so directs; where, however, ‘the minister is also the archdeacon of the archdeaconry concerned, the function of the archdeacon under this paragraph shall be exercisable by the bishop of the diocese’.
73 Code of Practice: Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 (London, 2014), p 3. The archdeacon was the complainant in 15 of the 23 tribunal cases recorded at <https://www.churchofengland.org/about/leadership-and-governance/legal-services/clergy-discipline/tribunal-decisions>, accessed 1 September 2018.
74 Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Regulations 2009: Capability Procedure Code of Practice, s 4(1). Section 4(3) recommends that the archdeacon should not then be on the capability panel deciding the outcome.
75 Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Regulations 2009: Grievance Procedure Code of Practice.
76 See ‘Report of the Simplification Task Group’, GS 1980, throughout but especially, for instance, p 25, para 71; available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2018-01/GS%201980%20Report%20of%20the%20Simplification%20Task%20Group.pdf>, accessed 1 September 2018.
77 See, for example, Diocese of Chelmsford, A Handbook for Ecclesiastical Office Holders, p 10, available at <https://www.chelmsford.anglican.org/uploads-new/publications/Ecclesiastical_Office_Holders_Handbook_v1_April_2018.pdf>, accessed 31 August 2018; Diocese of Southwark, Guidelines for Clergy and Conditions of Service 2018, p 9, available at <http://southwark.anglican.org/downloads/resources/clergyandconditions2018.pdf>, accessed 1 September 2018.
78 The Administration of Holy Communion Regulations 2015, Reg 2(2), permit a bishop to designate an archdeacon to exercise power under the regulation on the bishop's behalf; see <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-10/holy%20communion%20regulations%20-%20july%202015%20approved.pdf>, accessed 12 October 2018.
79 Sample from the diocesan handbooks of the dioceses of Carlisle, Chelmsford, Lichfield, Newcastle, Portsmouth, St Albans, Southwark and York.
80 Canon C 3(3). Canon C 7 suggests that the bishop should ‘call to his assistance the archdeacons and other ministers appointed for purpose’ to examine those to be ordained. In practice, archdeacons are only called upon to exercise this function in the Diocese of Guildford. Many archdeacons, however, are expected to testify to the suitability of candidates for ordination in the ordination service. In some dioceses, including some Welsh dioceses, archdeacons may meet with ordinands on retreat or in some other informal or occasional way.
81 Canons C 11, C 22(5). The archdeacon may also be appointed as the bishop's commissary for institution; see Canon C 10(7), although there is considerable variation in diocesan practice here.
82 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, s 6.
83 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011 Schedule 4; see also Mission and Pastoral etc. (Amendment) Measure 2018, which significantly changed compensation levels for parish clergy and extended the new arrangements to those not holding office under Common Tenure, but which continued to include archdeacons in the same manner as parish clergy. The Mission and Pastoral Measure Code of Recommended Practice, I, sets out an appropriate consultation structure at Appendix 1.6, ‘Notes on dispossession of clergy and payment of compensation’.
84 The Mission and Pastoral Measure Code of Recommended Practice, I, p 34.
85 Ibid, p 58.
86 Some, such as the archdeacons of the Diocese of Worcester, intentionally meet and admit wardens on several occasions; others, including the Southwark archdeacons, each hold one annual visitation service, although those who cannot attend are admitted on another occasion.
87 Archdeacons relate to and work closely with diocesan secretaries, directors of finance, directors of property and the PAs which many are fortunate enough to have or to share, as well as with those named previously: bishops, chancellors, rural deans and churchwardens.
88 W Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, scene 4.
89 Canon G 6.
90 This was abundantly apparent in the Churchwardens Measure 2001, which gave no power to anyone to discipline a churchwarden; this has been corrected by s 2 of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016, whereby a person may be disqualified from standing as churchwarden or a churchwarden may be suspended by the bishop if specified conditions in relation to safeguarding apply. See also Jones, Clerk v Ellis and Others [3 May 1828] 148 ER 918 on powers of entry to churches or chapels possessed by ecclesiastical persons.
91 This was arguably at the heart of Sharpe v Worcester Diocesan Board of Finance Ltd and another [2015] ICR 1250. Bland v the Archdeacon of Cheltenham [1972] Fam 159 should caution any archdeacon against heavy-handedness.
92 Hart, H, The Concept of Law (Oxford, 2012), pp 98 and 89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
93 Doe, N Christian Law (Cambridge, 2013), p 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
94 Shelley, C, ‘Sharpe v Worcester’, (2015) 17 Ecc LJ 398–399 at 399Google Scholar.
95 Percy, Martyn, ‘Archidiaconal ministry: a theological reflection’, in Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology, Sustaining Leaders in Mission and Change: the continuing ministerial development of archdeacons in the Church of England (Oxford, 2011), pp 35–46 at pp 35–36Google Scholar. The national Church provides a three-day induction programme for new archdeacons. Thereafter, a part-time officer, paid for by dioceses at the request of the archdeacons, oversees their continuing ministerial development. For this, and for other matters, archdeacons meet nationally every two years and regionally annually. There are also more frequent meetings between archdeacons of adjacent dioceses. As the part-time officer's appointment is time-limited, and there is no national funding stream for archdeacons’ training, the archdeacons are considering how their ministry continues to be resourced with the support of dioceses.
96 Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, Part 7, Mission Initiatives Code of Practice, incorporating the approved House of Bishops’ Code of Practice, p 4, available at <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/Working%202012%20text%20BMO%20CoP.pdf>, accessed 23 September 2018.
97 ‘The ordination of priests, also called presbyters’, in Common Worship Ordination Services: study edition (London, 2007), p 37Google Scholar.
98 Percy, ‘Sustaining leaders’, p 37.
99 ‘The ordination of priests’, p 32.