Blogging the Archbishops 3 - Church and State
This is the third in a series of posts: links to part 1 and part 2
One of the things that several blog-readers wanted to ask the Archbishops about was the relationship between Church and State. For people within the Church, I think there is a feeling that we need the freedom to get on with being Church, without being beholden to the State. For those outside, they wonder why we still get to meddle in what seems an anachronistic way with the affairs of a largely secular state.
A few days before I met the Archbishops The Economist ran an article that called for a cutting of the cord between Church and State. So I asked the Archbishops whether they think the time is approaching, for the good of the Church and the State, for the Church of England to begin divesting itselef of its historic position as a national church.
Archbishop Sentamu smiled. “The church I grew up in – the Church of Uganda – is not established! So this idea of an established Church was something new for me when I came here. In England, though, this is a serious constitutional question, more complex than people usually realise. It’s easy to say it’s just an anachronism that gives privileges that don’t fit in the modern world. But in fact disestablishment would not principally address those issues – they are side issues. Disestablishment would call for a complete rearrangement of the English constitution. You can’t disestablish without rethinking the political and social structure of the nation at the same time.”
“I agree,” added Archbishop Rowan, “that we need a deeper understanding of what this proposition IS – it would be a dissolving of a huge range of relationships between the church and the body politic. I’m completely confident the church would survive that, but if that is part of a process of privatising the legitimacy of religion I’d be wary of seeking after it.”
“So you think there would be more to lose than gain, then?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t know about that!” said Archbishop Rowan. “You see I too grew up in a disestablished church – the Church in Wales! But here in England I think that if disestablishment came as part of programme that privatised religion then state and society would lose something that is underestimated in its value for both.”
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