After constitutional government had been granted to a colony, the Crown, by letters patent appointing a bishop, could no longer grant any coercive ecclesiastical jurisdiction to him. The church could be nothing more than a voluntary association.
The Church of England when not established in the colonies, is in the same position there as any other religious body and rules of discipline adopted by members will be binding on all who expressly or by implication have assented to them. If the religious body constitute a tribunal to determine disputes as to such rules, the decision of such tribunal will be binding when it has acted within the scope of its authority, has observed such forms as the rules require, if any forms be prescribed and, if not has proceeded in a manner consonant with the principles of justice. But such tribunal is not in any sense a court and the civil courts will give effect to its decisions as they give effect to the decisions of arbitrators whose jurisdiction rests entirely upon the agreement of the parties.
Sentences of suspension and deprivation pronounced by the Bishop of Cape Town against an Incumbent within his Diocese for refusing to give notice in his Church for the election of lay Delegates to a Synod of the Diocese, in conformity with the provisions of certain printed regulations purporting to be Acts and Constitutions passed at a previous Synod, and transmitted to the Incumbent in a letter from the Bishop, reversed; such refusal on the part of the Incumbent not being an offence, for which by the laws of the Church of England his suspension and deprivation would have been warranted
Citations:
[1863] EngR 277, (1863) 1 Moo PC NS 411, (1863) 15 ER 756
Links:
Cited by:
Cited – Shergill and Others v Khaira and Others SC 11-Jun-2014
The parties disputed the trusts upon which three Gurdwaras (Sikh Temples) were held. The Court of Appeal had held that the issues underlying the dispute were to be found in matters of the faith of the Sikh parties, and had ordered a permanent stay. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical, Equity, Constitutional
Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.282932