The right to freedom of religion, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights has been frequently tested, both in UK courts and in the European Court of Human Rights, where successive decisions over a number of years led to the establishment of several well-known principles. However, in recent years religious extremism has brought into focus a tension between the right of freedom of religious expression and the well-being of individuals (not least children) and society. The Strasbourg court requires neutrality on the part of the state and its courts. However, unlike the European Court of Human Rights, the domestic courts have had to face situations where religious observance can be seen to be causing serious harm and where interference in religious freedom and family life has been shown to be justified.

In the New South Wales Supreme Court decision of Anglican Development Fund Diocese of Bathurst v Palmer in December 2015, a single judge of the court held that a large amount of money which had been lent to institutions in the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst, and guaranteed by a letter of comfort issued by the then bishop of the diocese, had to be repaid by the bishop-in-council, including (should it be necessary) levying the necessary funds from the parishes. The lengthy judgment contains a number of interesting comments on the legal personality of church entities and may have long-term implications (and not merely in Australia) for unincorporated, mainstream denominations and their contractual and tortious liability to meet orders for payment of damages. The article discusses the decision and some of those implications.

The theme of the Ecclesiastical Law Society's 2016 Day Conference, ‘Freedom of/from religion’, reflects the growing interest in the idea that, in addition to a right to freedom of religion, there is a right to ‘freedom from’ religion. In recent years, there has been a trend towards increased use of the language of freedom from religion in academic literature and in material produced by practitioners, organisations and activists in discussions of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

I should make plain at the beginning that I am neither a theologian nor a church historian, and I do not represent the Catholic Church. What follows is merely my understanding of the key documents and some of the key interventions by the Church on the topic of religious freedom over the last fifty years. In writing this comment, I have used a collection of the Church's statements on religious freedom published by the Caritas in Veritate Foundation in Geneva. This foundation is concerned with the social doctrine of the Church and seeks to support the work of the Holy See and other Roman Catholic bodies at the United Nations. Anybody interested in the Church's position on this and related issues will find some useful material on the foundation's website.

This report covers the first three groups of sessions of the new General Synod elected in 2015. The previous Synod having completed its legislative business and the inaugural group of sessions of a new Synod customarily being short, legislative business only really got under way at the February 2016 group of sessions.

The General Assembly met in Edinburgh from 21 to 27 May with the Rt Revd Dr G Russell Barr BA BD MTh DMin, Minister of Cramond in the Presbytery of Edinburgh, installed as Moderator. This year's Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly was again Lord Hope of Craighead KT PC. Lord Hope served as Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General and was subsequently Deputy President of the Supreme Court. The most significant piece of business relating to the interface between church and civil law again related to same-sex relationships, as outlined below.

In his address to the April meeting, the archbishop raised questions about the high business rates placed on the steel industry in the UK and the crisis faced by Welsh steelworkers, the elections for members of the Welsh Assembly and the forthcoming referendum on Europe. He reminded the Governing Body that the right to vote was won at a price and that, as Christians, we had a moral duty to exercise that right. The archbishop, considering the recent death of his wife, Hilary, also spoke of bereavement and dying in general. Palliative care and the hospice movement had come a long way in fifty years; if he had not already been persuaded by the arguments against assisted dying, watching the care and the gentleness of hospice nurses, for whom nothing was too much trouble, would have convinced him.

This year's General Synod, the second meeting of the triennium, was held in Dún Laoghaire, to the south of Dublin. It was a hotel conference venue, albeit one new to the Synod meeting. The Synod passed Bills relating to the areas of episcopal election and part-time ministry, as well as the ongoing areas of charity legislation and pensions. A Bill relating to diocesan boundaries was withdrawn.

The General Synod met at St Paul's and St George's Church in Edinburgh from 9 to 11 June 2016. In his charge to Synod, the Primus, the Most Revd David Chillingworth, reflected on the injunction of St Paul to ‘please God, who tests our hearts’. As the Synod prepared to consider canonical change in relation to marriage, he asked how the Church was to continue to express the love and unity to which it was called by God. During the preceding year, deep pain in relationships had been experienced both in the Anglican Communion and with the Church of Scotland and Church of England – and there was a need to explore whether the Scottish Episcopal Church itself might have contributed to that distress and to shape a response that ‘pleased God, who tests our hearts'. In the light of the (then) forthcoming referendum on the European Union, the Primus suggested that it was not the wish of many in Scotland to use national borders to protect economic privilege. If the referendum took the UK out of the European Union, it could have profound effects on the unfolding story of the new Scotland and of the UK as a whole.

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada normally meets every three years for a session lasting several days. It held its 41st session from 7 to 12 July 2016 in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Although much media attention focused on one particular motion, a lot of other work was accomplished during the session.