Organisers: National Secular Society
Date: Wednesday 15 February 2023, 6-7pm.
Venue: Online (Zoom)
Fee: FREE event
Details: Christians are now officially a minority in England and Wales for the first time. Yet the Church of England remains our established religion.
The entanglement of church and state has become particularly apparent in discussions surrounding the coronation of King Charles. Despite his stated desire to represent all faiths, he will nevertheless be crowned in an Anglican ceremony where he will swear his allegiance to the Church of England as its Supreme Governor.
The Church's privileges extent far beyond the King. It has 26 seats reserved for its bishops in the House of Lords as of right. Its prayers are said before every sitting in the Houses of Parliament. And it controls over a quarter of all primary schools.
The established church has never looked so out of place. But how can separation of church and state be best achieved?
Join us as we discuss disestablishment with the experts in this free online event. We will explore not only how cutting ties with the Church benefits the state, but also the rarely-heard arguments from those within the Church who support a secular state from a religious perspective.
Speakers:
Dr Martyn Percy is an academic and theologian. Ordained as a priest in the Church of England, in 2022 he announced that he was leaving because of his concerns over the management of safeguarding, as well as bullying and harassment within the church. Dr Percy is generally considered to represent the liberal tradition in the Church of England and has been critical of Justin Welby's leadership as Archbishop of Canterbury. He had been Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, from 2014 to 2022 and principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, from 2004 to 2014.
Dr Katie Edwards is an academic, author, cultural commentator, and broadcaster. She has a first class degree and a PhD in Biblical Studies from the University of Sheffield, where she also worked as an academic teaching and researching the role of religion in contemporary culture. She has written widely for the press, and her work has featured in The New Statesman, The Guardian, The i Paper, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Conversation, The Washington Post and Newsweek.
Dr Jonathan Chaplin is a Fellow of Wesley House, Cambridge where he contributes to the work of the Centre for Faith in Public Life. He was Associate Fellow of the religion and society think-tank Theos from 2020-2022. A political theologian, Jonathan has published widely on the role of faith in liberal democracies. His latest book, Beyond Establishment (2022), argues for an end to the privileged constitutional ties between church and state in England. He is also author of Faith in Democracy (2021), which defends a broader case for a 'Christian democratic pluralism'.
