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TheChurch Union is anAnglo-Catholicadvocacy group within theChurch of England.
The organisation was founded as theChurch of England Protection Society on 12 May 1859 to challenge the authority of theEnglish civil courts to determine questions of doctrine. It changed its name to theEnglish Church Union in May 1860.
In particular, it was active in defendingAnglo-Catholic priests such asArthur Tooth,Sidney Faithorn Green andRichard William Enraght against legal action brought under thePublic Worship Regulation Act 1874. The passage of this law was secured byArchbishop of CanterburyArchibald Campbell Tait to restrict the growingOxford Movement and had the support of then-Prime MinisterBenjamin Disraeli.
One of the most famous attempts at prosecution under the 1874 act began in 1888. It was aimed against theBishop of LincolnEdward King, but the Archbishop of CanterburyEdward Benson revived his own archiepiscopal court (inactive since 1699) to avoid the prosecution of the saintly King in a lay court.[1]
Such prosecutions ended in 1906 after aRoyal Commission recognized pluralism in worship, but the act was not repealed until theEcclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963. In 1933, the English Church Union merged with the Anglo-Catholic Congress to form the present organisation. The Church Union publishes a magazine called theChurch Observer.[2]
