Church of England bishop calls for disestablishment

The Anglican bishop of Birkenhead, Julie Conalty, has called for the Church of England to be disestablished.

"I personally would favour the Church of England being disestablished", said Conalty (pictured), who is also the Church's deputy lead bishop for safeguarding.

The National Secular Society has long campaigned for disestablishment and recently supported a bill to separate Church and state.

Conalty's comments come as the General Synod voted last week against making safeguarding fully independent from the Church, in the wake of a series of abuse scandals which led to the resignation of archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

The vote dismayed victims and survivors of abuse and went against the recommendations of a report by Professor Alexis Jay, the former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Jay said: "Church safeguarding, as it stands, falls below the standards of secular organisations, and I do not think that can continue when it has also led to such serious weaknesses".

Remarking on the vote, Conalty said: "As a Church we still weren't able to listen to criticism from experts – for example, survivors. The debate and voting exemplified the arrogance of the institution".

"Part of our inherent arrogance comes with our status as the established Church", she added.

Bishop of Newcastle: Church has 'forfeited its right to its special status'

Other bishops and CofE representatives have also questioned the Church's established status.

According to The Times, the bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, believes the Church has "forfeited its right to its special status as the established church in England".

Hartley sits in Parliament as one of the 26 CofE bishops granted automatic seats in the House of Lords.

Hartley said the failure to secure independent safeguarding demonstrated "a fundamental lack of understanding of the depth of the crisis". She said "we have just collectively signed our own death warrant".

Synod member Robert Thompson concurred with calls for disestablishment: "Disestablishment would be a big shake-up symbolically but I don't think it's an enormous shake-up in practice, in terms of how our nation operates. It simply puts the church in its proper place in a society which is more plural and diverse."

The Times also reported that synod members believe bishops have "come to believe they're untouchable, that they can act with impunity because of the special status bestowed upon the institution itself".

Calls for an end to reserved seats for Anglican bishops in the House of Lords have also been repeated.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, emeritus professor of the history of the Church at the University of Oxford, said: "Just chuck 'em out. They've not contributed much in recent years, they don't represent Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. It is well said that only Iran otherwise includes clerics in its legislative bodies."

Thompson added: "a liberal secular democracy shouldn't have bishops automatically sitting in the House of Lords and deciding our laws".

NSS: 'Anglican calls for disestablishment welcome'

National Secular Society spokesperson Alejandro Sanchez said: "We welcome calls from senior Anglican figures for the Church of England to be disestablished.

"Disestablishment would theologically unshackle the Church, and end unjust state sponsored privileges for one denomination of one faith."

"The bishop of Birkenhead is also right to acknowledge the role of establishment in the abuse scandals engulfing the Church.

"Bishops in the House of Lords are accustomed to deference: other peers must, by convention, sit when a bishop wishes to speak, and the Lords Spiritual have historically been granted access to the highest echelons of Government.

"There can be no room for deference in addressing the abuse endemic in the Church."