Tags: Disestablishment
The Church shouldn’t have a privileged platform in political debate
Posted: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 by Stephen Evans
Following the furore over the archbishop of Canterbury's latest political intervention, Stephen Evans argues Justin Welby should be free to speak, but his words shouldn't carry the constitutional weight they do. Read More »
Appointments of future archbishops shouldn’t be the state’s business
Posted: Thu, 27 Jan 2022 by Stephen Evans
Church of England plans to give Anglican church leaders from around the world greater power in choosing future archbishops of Canterbury are a reminder of the need to separate church and state, argues Stephen Evans. Read More »
The PM's Catholic wedding shows the need for a church-state divorce
Posted: Wed, 09 Jun 2021 by Megan Manson
In light of his Catholic wedding, Boris Johnson has handed over the duty of advising on the appointment of bishops. Megan Manson asks why the prime minister should have any business in church affairs in the first place. Read More »
Church and state should be separate
Posted: Tue, 03 Nov 2020 by Stephen Evans
Ahead of the NSS's 2020 Bradlaugh Lecture on the subject, Stephen Evans says the disestablishment of the Church of England is right in principle and could benefit church and state alike. Read More »
Bishop Rachel’s prejudiced thinking highlights the problem of state-sponsored religion
Posted: Wed, 13 Jun 2018 by Stephen Evans
The bishop of Gloucester is entitled to question whether atheists can truly have deep love or hope, writes Stephen Evans. But the state shouldn't indulge the view that the religious are morally superior to others.
The bishop of Gloucester drew criticism this... Read More »
It's time to disestablish the Church of England
Posted: Tue, 02 Jan 2018 by Prof. Steven Kettell
As the National Secular Society prepares to send a major report on the subject to MPs, Prof. Steven Kettell says the establishment of the Church of England is incongruous with the beliefs and attitudes of the people it affects.
In the past few decades the landscape... Read More »
Bishops show why Church and State should split
Posted: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 by GP Taylor
The Church of England is now widely regarded as irrelevant in the political and secular society that it seeks to minister and its bishops have no right to be part of our legislature, argues best-selling author and former Anglican priest GP Taylor.
I am not... Read More »
Rendering unto Caesar
Posted: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 by Alistair McBay
The established Church throws stones from inside its Government-subsidised glass cathedral, argues Alistair McBay.
The Church of England was in the news again last week as it tried to prove its relevance to 21st century Britain.
After the embarrassing PR fiasco... Read More »
Change is overdue to our sectarian coronation – even the heir to the throne seems to think so
Posted: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 by Terry Sanderson
The day after we announced that we were seeking lawyers' opinions on the Human Rights implications of the coronation and accession oaths, one of which, for example, requires the monarch to uphold the "Protestant religion as established by law", the Daily Telegraph... Read More »
The issue of disestablishment won’t go away
Posted: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 by Terry Sanderson
The influential international business magazine The Economist carried an editorial last week calling for the Church of England to be disestablished – and for the influence of religion on the state to be reduced. The editorial said:
Most European countries... Read More »
Unsatisfactory answers about Establishment
Posted: Fri, 10 May 2013 by Keith Porteous Wood
Keith Porteous Wood reports on Lord MacKay of Clashfern's Richard O'Sullivan Memorial Lecture on the subject "Does Establishment have a Future?" at the Middle Temple this week.
Richard O'Sullivan was a Middle Temple lawyer who took his Catholicism very seriously.... Read More »
Constitution Unit says disestablishment will have to be achieved piecemeal
Posted: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 by Terry Sanderson
By Terry Sanderson
The Constitution Unit's latest newsletter recounts several events over the past few months that have strengthened the argument for a change in the relationship between the church and the state in this country. The National Secular Society... Read More »