Bishop: Disestablish Church of England

The Sunday Times reports that bishops are openly talking about disestablishment of the Church of England in the wake of the child sexual abuse scandal which led to the resignation of Archbishop Justin Welby – along with calls for his successor, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, to do the same.

According to the article, the mood within the Church of England is seen as one of ‘breaking point’ following a vote by the Church of England’s General Synod not to approve independent safeguarding – meaning the Church will continue to privately handle allegations of child sexual abuse without external oversight, which was seen as a major cause of the Church’s failings under Welby.

Mounting internal criticisms

Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley said the vote means the Church has ‘lost credibility in safeguarding… we have just collectively signed our institutional death warrant’ and ‘demonstrated a fundamental lack of understanding of the depth of this crisis’.

The Church of England’s safeguarding lead, Bishop of Birkenhead, Julie Conalty, said the scandal ‘exemplified the arrogance’ of the Church’s approach and refusal to ‘listen to criticism from experts [and] survivors.’

Call for disestablishment, end of bishops in Lords

Conalty said: ‘Part of our inherent arrogance comes with our status as the established Church… I personally would favour the Church of England being disestablished.’

Journalist Cathy Newman summarised Hartley as saying the Church had ‘forfeited its right to its special status as the established church in England, the official religion of the nation with the monarch as its supreme governor.’

The Rev Robert Thompson agreed, saying ‘a liberal secular democracy shouldn’t have bishops automatically sitting in the House of Lords and deciding our laws’.

Rev Thompson said:

‘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.’

Meanwhile Oxford Emeritus Professor of History of the Church Diarmaid MacCulloch told the Sunday Times:

‘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.’

Humanists UK position

Humanists UK wants to see the UK become a secular state where no religion or belief has special treatment in law or policy. This would mean an end to the Church of England’s established status, including the practice of appointing 26 bishops to the House of Lords – an archaic holdover seen in no other democratic sovereign states anywhere in the world.

It recently worked with Baroness Harman, Lord Birt, Lord Scriven, and Baroness Meacher on  a proposed amendment to Labour’s Lords reform legislation that sought to remove these undemocratic voting privileges. It has also worked with the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group in recent weeks to highlight the discriminatory impact of Parliament using Anglican prayers as a system for booking seats for busy debates – which indirectly disadvantages non-religious MPs.

Humanists UK has also urged the UK Government to implement the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.