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Disestablish the Church of England?
Disestablish the Church of England?
The Church of England has warned that plans by the government to allow gay marriage “divisive”, “legally flawed” and “essentially ideological” and that “If the proposal to redefine marriage were to be implemented, it must be very doubtful whether limiting same-sex couples to non-religious forms and ceremonies could withstand a challenge under the European Convention on Human Rights.” This Church leaders believe would be putting the church on the path towards disestablishment as it would mean “If the civil law of the state redefines [marriage] you have got a situation in which civil law and canon law are at odds.”
However would this really be a bad thing for Britain?
Debatabase debate http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/anglicanism/house-believes-church-england-should-be-separated-british-state
49 weeks 7 hours ago
All I can think of is the removal of the Bishops from the Lords, but that is a reform of the Lords question really.
It might cause lords reform to actually happen rather than being continual talk for decades! It is worth noting that under the current tory plans if any lords were to remain unelected then some of the lords spiritual would remain in the House.
The Government proposes that in a fully reformed second chamber which had an appointed element there should continue to be a role for the established Church. However, in line with proposals for a reduction in the size of the second chamber, the Government proposes that the number of reserved places for Church of England Archbishops and Bishops should also be reduced, from 26 to a maximum of 12.
48 weeks 4 days ago
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Would anything happen to all the Anglican state schools? If their status changed that could be a big change that would affect hundreds of thousands of people.
48 weeks 3 days ago
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I dont think it would make any difference as being a State school has nothing to do with the state religion anymore. There are state funded schools of different denominations already, mostly catholic but also a few dozen jewish.
48 weeks 2 days ago
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This is good opportunity to deploy the (probably) longest word in the language: Antidisestablishmentarianism. That is not to say im necessarily ideologically opposed to disestablishment. What would disestablishment actually do? All I can think of is the removal of the Bishops from the Lords, but that is a reform of the Lords question really.
Places where Church and State are constitutionally seperate are no more liberal for it. In the US for example Religion has far more impact on politics than it does in the UK. Generally speaking when the Church and State have conflicted the Anglican Church has been forced to shift. The connection with the state therefore makes the Anglican church (in Britain at least) one of the least ideologically fixated.