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The Interfaith Legal Advisers Network

Inaugural Meeting – December 2007

Membership

The first meeting was attended by seventeen religious legal advisers and administrators: Neil Addison (Barrister); Professor Nikitas Aliprantis (Greek Orthodox); Frank Cranmer (Society of Friends (Quakers)); Eithne D`Auria (Roman Catholic Church); David Gamble (Methodist Church); Nick Grant (Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon)) Professor Mark Hill (Chancellor of Anglican Diocese in Europe); Carole Hope (Church of Scotland); Anthony Jeremy (Church in Wales, and Order of St Lazarus); Samantha Knights (Barrister); Natan Levy (Rabbi); Alexander McGregor (Church of England);Dr Augur Pearce (United Reformed Church); Arthit Satthavorasit (Buddhist); Jaswant Singh (Sikh); Sohan Singh (Sikh); and Emmanuel Stavrianakis (Greek Orthodox).

The meeting was chaired by Norman Doe (Director, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff Law School. The meeting was also attended by Centre members Revd Gareth Powell, Russell Sandberg, and Layla Wilkie-Buckley, as well as Dr Ian Kenway, Director of the Centre for the International Study of Cyberethics and Human Rights at Cardiff University.


ILAN

Agenda

The religious legal advisers and administrators present at the inaugural meeting of the Interfaith Legal Advisers Network welcomed this initiative of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff Law School. Whilst from a very diverse range of religious traditions, the group shared experiences of their own religious legal systems and how they are administered at the interface with the civil law of the State.

A great number of common experiences emerged at the event: how they all use internal rules to run their organisations; how these rules reflect religious beliefs; how there are great similarities in the subjects dealt with by these rules; and their importance in running those organisations. Another common experience is how these groups all face new challenges posed by the considerable increase in State law on religion in recent years.

The network discussed papers by Frank Cranmer (an overview of recent developments in civil law on religion) and Professor Peter Luxton (on the impact of recent changes in charity law and their impact on religion). Members welcomed the opportunity to share their views on these matters, and learnt much from each other about their understandings of and responses to the growing civil law on religion.

So much so, that the network felt it important to meet again in six months, and a second event has been arranged for early June 2008. Topics for discussion will include interfaith marriages as well as the impact of the Equality Act (particularly in the field of discrimination) on religion. It was agreed that the network should become an established feature of the work of the Centre for Law and Religion.


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