CO885(2-3) — Page 54

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TTITE C.O. 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

Powers of Assem- bly and Com-

mission.

Regulations of Assembly not to affect right of appeal, &c.

Regulations of Assembly not to

い

CHURCH OF ENGLAND AFFAIRS REGULATION, VICTORIA.

4. It shall not be lawful by any regulation, act, or resolution of any such assembly, nor by the sentence of any commission as aforesaid, or any person acting thereunder, to impose any penalty or disability-other than such as may be consequent upon a sentence of suspension from or deprivation of an eccle- siastical office or benefice, or may affect such advowson, right of patronage or property as aforesaid.

5. No regulation of any such assembly which shall affect any right of appeal to Her Majesty in Council, or to the Archbishop of Canterbury, or to the metropolitan of the province, or the subordination of the said bishops, clergy and laity to the metropolitan or to the said archbishop, shall be valid unless the consent of the said archbishop or of the said metropolitan thereto be previously or thereafter signified by him under his hand and seal, nor unless such regula- tion be confirmed by an order of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and no regu- lation, act or resolution made or passed at any assembly shall be valid, which shall alter or be at variance with the authorised standards of faith and doctrine of the United Church of England and Ireland, or shall alter the oaths, declara- tions and subscriptions now by law or canon required to be taken, made, and subscribed by persons to be conseerated, ordainer, instituted, or licensed within the said Church.

6. No regulation, act, or resolution of any such assembly shall be contrary to the statute conferring a Constitution on Victoria, or to any Act of the Legis be contrary to Act lature of Victoria, or have legal force or validity as against any such Act. of Council, &c.

Mode of summon. ing an Assembly.

Chairman to be

elected, &c.

Representatives

to be elected.

Mode of election, &c.

7. Where any bishop of the said United Church in Victoria shall see fit to convene an assembly as aforesaid, such bishop shall at such time as to him muy seem meet previous to the first assembly in his diocese, summon thereto the clergy, being incumbents, or licensed by the bishop within such diocese, and the lay representatives of the diocese, elected as hereinafter provided, and for electing such representatives, shall require each clergyman instituted or liceused to a separate cure of souls to summon a meeting of the laymen of the Church, of the age of 21 years and upwards, resident within his parish, at such time (within limits which may be prescribed by such bishop), and at such place within the parish or district, as to such clergyman may seem convenient, and every such lay member as aforesaid shall be entitled to vote at such election.

8. The said meeting, so soon as five persons at the least are assembled, shalt proceed to elect a chairman by a majority of those present, and the clergyman may be present and qualified to act as such chairman; and the chairman shall cause a li-t.to be made of those who shall be present, and add thereto the names of any who shall subsequently attend before the proceedings are closed, and shall claim to vote thereat. And every such layman present shall, before taking part or voting at such meeting, sign the following declaration:

I, 4. B.. whose name is hereto subscribed, do declare that I am a Member of the United Church of England and Ireland, and belong to no other religious denomination."

Provided that no person shall be entitled to vote at any such meeting who is known to have impugned the doctrines or discipline of the said Church.

9. Every such meeting shall choose as a representative one male person who shall have been a communicant of the said Church for at leas the term of 12 months preceding the day of such meeting; and if more than 50 and less than 100 persons shall'attend and vote, it shall be lawful for such meeting to elect one additional representative, and so for each additional 50 persons attending. and voting as aforesaid: Provided that no parish or district shall return more than four such representatives.

10. In case at any such meeting the number of persons proposed for election exceed the number which the meeting is authorised to elect, the chairman shall take in writing the votes of the qualified persons present, and enumerated as aforesaid, and every such person may give one vote for each of such of the persous proposed not exceeding the number which the meeting is authorised to elect as he may think fit, and the chairman shall declare the number of the votes given for each of the persons proposed; and the chairman, if he he not a clergyman, shall be entitled to vote at and may be elected by such meeting .

and

CHURCH OF ENGLAND AFFAIRS REGULATION, VICTORIA.

7

X

and where the votes of two or more persons are equal, the chairman, if he be not a clergyman, may give a double vote, and if he be a clergyman, may give a casting vote for such person.

any.

11. The chairman shall cause to be delivered to each person elected a certifi- Certificate to he cate of his election, and shall sign the minutes of the meeting in token of their given, &c. correctness; and unless he be the clergyman of the parish or district, shall forward them to such clergyman, together with all certificates, subscriptions, and lists, which had been laid before the sail meeting, and a certificate of the names, callings, and addresses of the persons chosen; and the clergyman shall forward the said documents to the bishop to be laid before the assembly at the meeting thereof.

12. Each lay representative elected as aforesaid shall, before taking part or Declaration to be voting at such assembly, sign and deliver to the president thereof a declaration made, in the form following :

* I, A. B., whose name is hereto subscribed, do declare that I am a communicant of the United Church of England and Ireland, and belong to no other religious denomination.”

13. It shall be lawful for the first or any future assembly.as aforesaid to make Assembly may such regulations, acts, or resolutions as it may deem fit, for altering the con- make regulations, stitution of such assembly with respect to the number, election, and qualification

of the lay members thereof, the manner in which the votes of the clergy and laity may be taken, and the declarations to be signed by the electors or lay members as aforesaid (provided that every such lay member shall declare himself a communicant of such ('hurch), and also for determining the mode in, and the conditions under which such advowson or right of patronage as aforesaid may be exercised, for the licensing of clergymen by the bishop, for the adjourn- ment and prorogation of such assemblies, and the calling of future assemblies, and the mode of election of the lay members thereof, and every such assembly may repeal, alter or vary such regulations, acts, or resolutions.

&c.

14. The provisions of this Act in relation to the first convening and holding Provision for cases an assembly in a diocese, and the election of the lay members thereof, shall not provided for remain in force and be acted on until the first or any other assembly shall regulations, &c. otherwise provide; and in any case not provided for by this Act, or by the regulations for the time being of any assembly, the bishop of the diocese may regulate the convening of any assembly in such diocese, and the form and manner of all proceedings preparatory thereto,

15. A copy of the regulations passed at the first assembly of any dotese to Copy of regula- be called under this Act, and also of the rules framed for any such commission tions to he as aforesaid, and from time to time of any alterations of such regulations and transmitted to

Archbishop. rules, shall be sent by the bishop of such diocese, duly certified under his hand and seal, as testifying his assent thereto, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and also to the metropolitan; and the said archbishop may, within six months of his receipt thereof, submit the same, with such observations thereon as he may see fit to make, for the consideration of Her Majesty in Council; and Her Majesty, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, may allow or disallow the same, is to Her Majesty shall seem fit, and the regulations and rules so allowed, and a notification of such regulations and rules as may be disallowed, shall be forth- with transmitted by the archbishop to the bishop transmitting the same, and shall by such bishop be published in his diocese.

valid;

16. Any regulation or rule disallowed by Her Majesty as aforesaid, after the Provisional Acts notification of the disallowance thereof shall have been received by the bishop, shall cease to be in force; but any act, matter, or thing, done under or in accordance with any such regulation or rule before such receipt of the notifica- tion of the disallowance thereof shall have the same validity and effect as if such regulation or rule had been allowed,

assemblies.

17. So soon as a province shall have been constituted in Victoria, it shall be Provincial lawful for the metropolitan thereof from time to time to convene the bishops thereof, and to require them to convene the members of the several dioccsán assemblies, or such representatives of the same as shall hereafter by any such provincial assemblies be determined, at such time and place as he may deem fit. 2gti,