His Majesty’s Stationery Office
Church of Æfira Act 2008
1 & 2 Max. c. 8
An Act to End the Establishment of the Church of Æfira, and for Related Purposes.
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Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal and Spiritual and Commons in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1. The Church of Æfira shall henceforth cease to be established by law.
2. His Majesty shall cease to be Supreme Governor of the Church of Æfira, and shall not appoint any person to any Archbishopric, Bishopric or other office of or in the Church of Æfira, except as provided for in this Act.
3. No Archbishop or Bishop of the Church of Æfira shall be summoned to, or sit or vote in, the House of Lords, by virtue of his or her ecclesiastical office.
4. The courts of the Church of Æfira shall cease to exercise any temporal or coercive jurisdiction; and the ecclesiastical law of the Church shall cease to be of force and effect in law; but the ecclesiastical law, doctrines, rites, worship and discipline of the Church shall remain binding upon its members for the time being as if by contract and mutual agreement.
5. This Act does not affect the existence of any ecclesiastical corporation, nor the ownership or status of any property vested in the same.
6. The Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of Æfira for the time being shall constitute a body corporate by the name of the Episcopal Council of the Church of Æfira; and all powers, duties and functions heretofore vested in His Majesty as Supreme Governor of the Church shall be vested in the Episcopal Council; and if at any time the Archbishops and Bishops number fewer than three, His Majesty shall, by letters patent under His Sign Manual, appoint sufficient Archbishops and Bishops so that they may number three.
7. The Episcopal Council shall have full power and authority to promulgate rules, ordinances and canons for the governance of the Church of Æfira, and to amend the constitution and the ecclesiastical law, doctrines, rites, worship and discipline of the Church; and this power shall extend to the amendment of the constitution of the Episcopal Council, the delegation or transferral of its powers, duties and functions under section 6 of this Act, the alteration or revocation of the functions conferred on His Majesty by that section, and the dissolution of the Episcopal Council.
8. This Act may be cited as the Church of Æfira Act 2008.