| Church and State in Britain The Church of privilege |  State Church logo |
One religious denomination in the United Kingdom is formally recognised and given a privileged status by the state. It is the "established" church of the nation. That church is the Church of England or Anglican Church. The Anglican Church alone is protected from expressions of contempt for its beliefs. The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel limit free speech only when the Church of England is the subject. The head of state is required to be a member of that church and not marry a Catholic. The head of state is indeed the titular head of the Church of England. She or he has the right, which is exercised through the Prime Minister, to appoint the head of the Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other senior officers of the church. When a new Archbishop is required a Crown Appointments Commission sends two names to the Prime Minister at the end of a secretive process. The Prime Minister then forwards one to the queen for appointment as chief bishop, or refers both back to the Commission. In 2002 a High Court judge was chosen to head the commission in its search for a new archbishop. The Church Commissioners: Church & State United Thirty-three Church Commissioners manage the property and stock market assets of the Church of England. Six of these commissioners who have ex officio membership hold state office. They include the prime minister and the sport & culture minister. All the commissioners are accountable to Parliament, to which they make an annual report, as well as to the General Synod of the Church of England.
The 26 most senior Bishops of the Church of England have by right a seat and a vote in the national legislature, as 'Lords Spiritual' representing 'the episcopate' in the House of Lords. Until recently, however, Anglican clergy were barred by law from sitting in the democratically elected House of Commons. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson once asked: "What good will disestablishment do?" The objections to the mere principle of a legally enshrined national religion and established church are clear. The most salient is that it privileges one part of the population, one institution and one set of beliefs. In denying equal rights to Britons of other beliefs this system of privilege is a denial of civil liberty. In privileging one belief and one religious institution it undermines the idea and practice of pluralism. To say the least this does not fit well in a modern and mature liberal democracy. "I expect the Church of England one day to be disestablished." George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, 2000 It is claimed by those who defend the established church, found most often, but not exclusively, on the political right, that it is one of the 'three great pillars of British society', the other two being no less than the monarchy and Parliament itself. This line of argument can only serve to strengthen the appeal of disestablishment to democrats, especially when another pro-establishment argument, offered by a former Bishop of London Mandell Creighton, is based upon the premise that a national religion constitutes "...a recognition of the supreme law of God. Without the National Church there cannot be that." No Atheists Here! In 1880 Charles Bradlaugh, an atheist elected to the House of Commons, was not allowed to take his seat in Parliament because he refused to swear his loyalty to the Queen by "Almighty God." He was elected again in 1883. Parliament again would not allow him to affirm his loyalty and he was barred from the legislature. Eight years passed before conservative resistance was overcome. Then liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone, a man of deep religious faith, explained his support for civil rights for atheists with the declaration that "I have no fear of Atheism in the House."
The arguments offered by both the current government and reform groups such as Charter 88 against the presence of the hereditary 'Lords Temporal' in the House of Lords, have equal validity in regard to the 26 'Lords Spiritual' who also sit in that House. There is no case for their place in the legislature. They have no more democratic legitimacy than the other Lords and are no more democratically accountable. The case for ending the status of the Church of England as a national church is strengthened by the differences in the jurisdictions of the British state and the Church of England. The state, as expressed in the monarch and the government of Britain, has jurisdiction over the entire United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Yet the Church of England is confined to England, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The anglican Church in Wales is entirely separate from the state. In Scotland the Presbyterian Church of Scotland is the established Church, not the smaller anglican Episcopal Church of Scotland. The anglican Church of Ireland covers both the six counties of Northern Ireland and the rest of the island of Ireland. It has been divorced from the British state since 1869.
The Faithful and the Funding
Forty-three percent of the population of England consider themselves members of the Church of England. Only slightly more than half of these attend their church. Seventy-six percent attend less frequently than monthly. The membership has an ageing profile. The weekly average in contributions is £6.
The Church has assets of more than £4bn, which are managed by the Church Commissioners. The investment fund has its origins in money accrued by hereditary head of state Henry VIII, which was given to the Anglicans in 1704 by the then head of state.
Thirty-two per cent of the fund is invested in property, much more than similar funds. The commissioners provide a sixth of the funds the Church needs. This income pays for some pensions and missionary work, and is also used to support poorer dioceses.
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Thirsty work: cooler water truck outside Church House in London |
In 2004 the return on the Church’s investments was 13.6 per cent, putting it in the top 3 per cent of similar funds. Over ten years the fund has brought in £35m a year more than would have been the case if it had performed at industry average level.
The Church of England is rather like the BBC and the Bank of England in its relationship with the government and its status within the nation, all three being effectively nationalised. Unlike the Bank, however, its services are not considered essential by the majority of the population. And unlike the BBC it has a poor "market share.' Only 1.1m Britons regularly attend its services each week. It can be argued that the continued decline in the Church's attendance rates has been fostered in part by the nature of its relationship with the state. This has perhaps prevented it from appearing modern and in touch with the spiritual needs of the late twentieth century. Weight is given to this by the high attendance rates of church services in the US, a country where church and state are separate. Indeed radical figures in the Church itself, such as Colin Buchanan, the Bishop of Woolwich, and David Jenkins, the former Bishop of Durham seem to have recognised it. So even setting aside the religious or constitutional objections to an established church and a 'national religion' of any kind, the case for disestablishment on this premise alone is as valid as it was a century ago.  Part 2
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