Members of the Colloquium of Anglican and Roman Catholic Canon Lawyers held a reunion in Rome on Wednesday evening 10th May. The Bishop of Cork, Dr Paul Colton, and the Reverend Stephen Farrell, Rector of Zion Parish, Rathgar, travelled from Ireland to participate in the gathering which was held at the Venerable English College.

The Colloquium was established in Rome in 1999, and was an initiative of the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, and Duquesne Law School, Pittsburgh, USA. That 1999 meeting is believed to have been the first of its type.

The final meeting of the Colloquium was held in Dublin in 2016. Over its years of meeting the aim of the Colloquium was to contribute to greater ecumenical understanding between Anglicans and Roman Catholics from the perspective of canon law as a form of applied ecclesiology. The Colloquium explored ways in which the respective laws of each communion either facilitate or inhibit unity.

On the occasion of the reunion this week, the participants heard six papers about bishops: the election of bishops, the functions of bishops, and the discipline of bishops. Afterwards the members celebrated the reunion at dinner together.