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Canon law (from Ancient Greek: κανών, kanon, a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members.
The canon law of the Catholic Church is articulated in the legal code for the Latin Church [9] as well as a code for the Eastern Catholic Churches. [9] This canon law has principles of legal interpretation, [10] and coercive penalties. [11] It lacks civilly-binding force in most secular jurisdictions.
The ownership of ecclesiastical property in the United States was often an issue of controversy in the early years of the United States, particularly in regard to the Catholic Church. [ 1 ] In the United States the employment of lay trustees was customary in some parts of the country from a very early period.
The relations between the Catholic Church and the state have been constantly evolving with various forms of government, some of them controversial in retrospect. In its history, the Church has had to deal with various concepts and systems of governance, from the Roman Empire to the medieval divine right of kings, from nineteenth- and twentieth-century concepts of democracy and pluralism to the ...
In canon law, the power to govern the church is divided into the power to make laws (legislative), enforce the laws (executive), and to judge based on the law (judicial). [6] An official exercises power to govern either because he holds an office to which the law grants governing power or because someone with governing power has delegated it to ...
Ecclesiastical polity is the government of a church. There are local ( congregational ) forms of organization as well as denominational . A church's polity may describe its ministerial offices or an authority structure between churches.
In canon law, a canon designates some law promulgated by a synod, an ecumenical council, or an individual bishop. [2] The word "canon" comes from the Greek kanon, which in its original usage denoted a straight rod that was later the instrument used by architects and artificers as a measuring stick for making straight lines.
Each of the autonomous member churches of the communion, however, does have a canonical system. Some, such as the Church of England, has an ancient, highly developed canon law while others, such as the Episcopal Church in the United States have more recently developed canonical systems originally based on the English canon law.