This book is an exploration of some aspects of the basis of the legal authority of the Church, as a tool in exploring the relationship of church and State in a post-colonial world. It takes as its particular example the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, but examines issues and concepts which have a much broader, indeed universal, relevance. The Anglican Church in New Zealand is a part of the universal Christian church, and as such the issues which face it, although in some respects unique, are echoed throughout the rest of God's earth, to a greater or lesser degree. The study is especially important at a time when the law may prove of benefit in helping to resolve seeming intractable differences in the Anglican Communion.