The Church of England
When Charles was proclaimed King, he was required to vow to uphold the Church of Scotland. He was not asked to uphold the Church of England, because in England there is no separation of Church and State. This is not in and of itself a huge problem for the British State. Reform would be very difficult here, as the settlement that created the split between the Church of Rome and England was a very deep fissure. It is the reason the Monarch holds the title of ‘Defender of the Faith’ and why they must swear to uphold it at their Coronation. While I am not opposed to a lot of this in theory (it doesn’t hold much weight for me as a determined agnostic) there are two major problems with the Church that suggest reform may be necessary.
For one, the Church of England is a very grand institution that is struggling to afford its various responsibilities. The Church has a great deal of commitments, the most notable being 16,000 church buildings in England alone. 12,500 of these are in some way historically listed. [1] While some are very small parish churches, many are grand, expensive buildings made of intricate materials and requiring specialist care. There are 42 mainland Cathedrals. To pay for this historical inheritance it is reliant upon an ever-smaller flock. Active membership in 1930 was about 10.6 million people, or 30% of the population. In 2010 it was 5.5 million, or about 11% of the population. By 2015 it was hovering around 3 million. The 2021 Covid damaged figures are even worse. “The Church of England’s all age average weekly attendance, which includes Sunday and midweek attendance, was 854,000 people in 2019; 345,000 people in 2020; and 605,000 people in 2021.” [2]
I do not believe that the Church will die, but clearly it is no longer the spiritual voice of the nation. This much reduced congregation is not going to be capable of maintaining the Church if it continues to have to pay for all these little used buildings, especially as they are also committed to charitable fundraising as well. In 2015, Church of England parishes gave £47 million to charity. 76% of churches run activities in local schools, 66% help with food banks, 60% offer parent and toddler groups and 53% organise lunch clubs or drop-ins. This is all commendable work, but I doubt they can maintain this indefinitely.
Personally, I feel it would be better for the Church to be ‘disestablished’, thereafter becoming its own legal trust. The Monarch could still be the titular head, but splitting the church off would allow it to go after novel funding for its churches and to partner them with private organisations. This would allow for some of these grand old buildings to become community spaces and to be used in ways that benefit local communities. Many villages that do not go ‘to’ church would hate to see their church close. It would also allow the clergy to criticise the government with abandon. Many of these very Christian gentlemen are longing to do so, so this would be a way to let them and to allow clerical appointments to be solely a matter of Faith. It would also kick State religion out of Parliament, which as mentioned I am all for. It would also allow for something else I would like to see.
In 2016, 1 in 4 primary schools and 1 in 16 secondary schools in England were C of E schools. Modern figures are difficult to find but the Church obviously controls a massive portion of education provision. This should be reformed into voluntary association by state-controlled schools, as the current C of E system gives cover for other religions to also open their own faith-based schools. While many C of E schools have been forced into a ‘cucumber sandwich’, basically secularist curriculum, newer institutions have not been and there are schools up and down the land that are effectively preaching to children. Basic educational touchpoints such as evolution are effectively absent from their curriculum, or worse, explained but in an atmosphere of how comically ‘wrong’ they are, or taught with reference to scripture. The most basic right of a child in this country, after sustenance and shelter, should be a good education. These places are demonstrably failing and local councils, already stretched, are reluctant to attack places that are not sources of trouble. They are also desperately frightened of being seen to be racist.
This has to stop. One solution is to remove education from religion completely, which I would be in favour of. The result would have to be the removal of the C of E system altogether. A solid, country wide educational sameness would also help to keep the country on much the same page, as well as help to fight the ‘Banlieue-isation’ creeping into some British cities. Resource sharing would also be easier. I suspect it would also have to be accompanied with an effective ban on home schooling.
Whatever the Church does, the longer it goes on without reform the worse and more intractable its problems will become. It simply does not have the pull to keep itself on this trajectory without eventually collapsing.
[1] ‘Church of England at a glance’, The Church of England, Available at: https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/media-centre/church-england-glance, Accessed on 7th of June, 2023.
[2] ‘Statistics for Mission 2021’, The Church of England, Available at: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/2021-statistics-for-mission.pdf, Accessed 7th of June, 2023.
