ution of parliament. On the assembling of the next convocation of
the province of Canterbury, no royal writ of exoneration having been
sent by the crown to the metropolitan, the sessions of the convocation
were continued for several days; and from this time forth convocation
may be considered to have resumed its action as a consultative body,
whilst it has also been permitted on more than one occasion to exercise
its functions as a deliberative body. In 1865, under licence from the
crown, the Convocations of Canterbury and York framed new canons in
place of the 36th, 37th, 38th and 40th canons of 1603, and amended the
62nd and 102nd canons in 1888. In 1872 convocation was empowered by
letters of business from the crown to frame resolutions on the subject
of public worship, which resolutions were afterwards incorporated in the
Act of Uniformity Amendment Act 1872.

As a deliberative body, convocation has done much useful work, but it
suffers considerably from its unrepresentative nature. The non-beneficed
clergy still remain without the franchise, but the establishment of
Houses of Laymen (see LAYMEN, HOUSES OF) for both provinces has, to a
certain extent, secured the co-operation of the lay element. Several
attempts have been made to promote legislation to enable the
convocations to reform their constitutions and to enable them to unite
for special purposes; in 1905 a bill was introduced into the House of
Lords. It did not, however, get beyond a first reading. In 1896 a
departure was made in holding joint sessions of both convocations, in
conjunction with the two Houses of Laymen, for consultative purposes.
This body is now termed the Representative Church Council, and it
adopted a Constitution in November 1905. All formal business is
transacted in the separate convocations. It is usual for convocation to
meet three times a year.

The order of convening the convocation of the province of Canterbury
is as follows. A writ issues from the crown, addressed to the
metropolitan archbishop of Canterbury, commanding him "by reason of
certain difficult and urgent affairs concerning us, the security and
defence of our Church of England, and the peace and tranquillity,
public good and defence of our kingdom, and our subjects of the same,
to call together with all convenient speed, and in lawful manner, the
several bishops of the province of Canterbury, and deans of the
cathedral churches, and also the archdeacon