The UK is one of the last western democracies with a state religion: the Church of England.
The Church's entanglement with the state is bad for both.
Join our campaign to disestablish the Church.
CAMPAIGN ALERT: Support the disestablishment bill
In November 2023, a private member's bill to disestablish the Church of England was selected in the ballot.
Please write to your MP and urge them to support this bill, to make the UK are more equitable and democratic country for people of all religions and beliefs.
Since our founding in 1866, one of our primary objectives has been disestablishment of the Church of England: its formal separation from the state.
More than 150 years later, census figures show most people in England and Wales are not Christian. Surveys consistently reveal a similar picture in Scotland. The case for disestablishment has never been stronger.
Disestablishment means the Church would no longer have privileged input into government - but also that government could not involve itself in the running of the Church. Both sides would gain autonomy. This is why support for Church-state separation can be found within the CofE itself.
There have been many proponents, religious and non-religious, for church-state separation, and there are a wide variety of motivations for supporting this reform.
The existence of a legally-enshrined national religion privileges one part of the population, one institution and one set of beliefs. Removing all symbolic and institutional ties between government and religion is the only way to ensure equal treatment to citizens of all religions and none.
The Church of England has enjoyed significant privileges relating its established status for many centuries. These privileges have remained largely unchanged despite the massive and continuing reduction in support for the Church in the UK. It is highly likely that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future, making the Church of England's continuation as the established church unsustainable.
- Christians are a minority in Britain. In Wales and Scotland the majority have no religion.
- Just 1% of 18-24 year olds say they belong to the Church of England.
- Less than 1% of the population regularly attend Church of England church services.
The Church of England is also out of step with the UK public on several key issues: it remains opposed to same-sex relationships and allows parishes to reject women as bishops and priests. These discriminatory positions cannot be reconciled with the Church's status as part of the UK state.
And no institution with the shameful historical record of the Church of England safeguarding and abuse should retain its privileged role in the British establishment.
The existence of a legally enshrined national religion privileges one part of the population, one institution and one set of beliefs. Removing all symbolic and institutional ties between government and religion is the only way to ensure equal treatment of citizens of all religions and none.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Ask your MP to support the separation of church and state
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
NSS criticise Church plan to open 125 new free schools
Posted: Mon, 11 Jul 2016 12:49
The Church of England is planning to bid for control of more than one quarter of the new free schools announced by the Government.
A paper distributed at the Church's General Synod said the chance of controlling more than a quarter of all new schools in England was a "unique opportunity".
500 free schools are due to open by 2020.
The Church already controls the education of approximately 1 million children.
Stephen Evans, the campaigns director of the National Secular Society, called the plans "alarming".
"The significant changes we're seeing in the country's religion and belief landscape means the Church's role in state education needs to be diminished not expanded," he said.
"In an increasingly secularised society in which church attendances continue to fall, the Church of England knows that running schools is the most effective way, if not the only way, for it to reach children and their families with its message. One has to wonder to what extent the Church's keen interest in running schools is motivated by their need for self-preservation.
"Handing over vast swathes of publicly funded education to religious organisations may serve the Church, but it's hard to see how it serves families who aren't interested in religion yet are finding it increasingly difficult to secure a secular education for their children.
"The Government also needs to question just how sustainable it is to hand over large sections of our education system to a Church seemingly in terminal decline.
"In a religiously diverse and secularised society it makes little sense to organise education along religious lines. The additional school places needed should be created in secular and inclusive schools equally welcoming to all pupils, irrespective of their faith backgrounds."
In the past senior Anglicans had voiced criticism of the free schools programme but Church officials now view free schools as "the only show in town", the Telegraph reported.
In a paper for the Synod, the Church of England Education Office wrote that the "God of all creation is concerned with everything related to education."
They promised an "explicitly" "Christian foundation" "across the curriculum" for all Church of England faith schools and said they were "committed" to offering pupils "an encounter with Jesus Christ".
But in addition to their plans for their own schools, the Church said that a Christian "vision for education can still be expressed and promoted" in non-faith schools as well.
The National Secular Society is frequently contacted by parents who are concerned about the imposition of religion in schools, including non-religious schools, and the Church is making extensive use of academisation to take control of non-religious schools by incorporating them into explicitly religious multi-academy trusts.
It is also using academisation to foist a more religious ethos on voluntary controlled schools, which are generally less explicitly religious than voluntary aided ones – in many cases against the wishes of teachers and the schools' own church-appointed governors.
In the Synod paper, the Church's Education Office said their "vision for education reaches beyond Church of England schools".
They said it would be "unbiblical" to separate "the Church from involvement in education" and that their goal of "Christian participation" in non-faith schools was "already being achieved".
There can be no neutrality in education, the Church claimed.
Church ‘using academisation to increase religious influence in schools’
Posted: Fri, 17 Jun 2016 11:20
The National Secular Society has written to the Department for Education over concerns that the Church of England is using academisation to strengthen its influence in schools – over the objections of school governors.
Fresh concerns were prompted after the Diocese of Winchester announced that all its voluntary controlled (VC) schools had to join the Diocese's academy chain when the schools become academies, dramatically increasing the power of the Church over the schools.
The VC schools are to be prevented from joining any other academy chain and must sign up to the Diocese's "King Alfred Trust" even though the governors of one affected school are "unanimously" opposed "as they feel it will erase the distinction between VC and Voluntary Aided schools."
Voluntary controlled schools are generally considered to be less explicitly religious than voluntary aided (VA) schools. In VA schools, a majority of the governing body is appointed by the church to maintain "the Church of England character of the school."
In contrast, the church-appointed governors of a VC school are in a minority.
The loss of this distinction as VC schools convert to become academies has prompted "utter outrage" among headteachers of affected schools.
One headteacher told the National Secular Society that other headteachers of church schools are "furious that their schools are to be handed over en masse to the Diocese" and that no other conversion options will be considered.
The NSS wrote to the Department for Education, "In Hampshire approximately 60% of schools with a religious ethos are VC. If these plans go through, 73 schools who currently have a minority of church appointed governors will suddenly find themselves under the direct control of the Diocese."
A similar situation has occurred in Norwich, where the Diocese has stated VC schools will be required to "adopt a VA model of governance before being admitted to the Trust".
The National Secular Society told schools minister Lord Nash: "The NSS regularly receives contact from governors and staff at church schools who feel under pressure to replace the 'light touch' faith ethos they may feel is more appropriate to their school community with a more explicit ethos.
"We are also hearing from parents and staff at church schools concerned that academisation will lead to their diocese imposing a more rigorous religious ethos."
Given the volume of recent examples, the Society said it expected dicoeses to "routinely misuse" powers in an agreement between churches and the Government to block VC schools from choosing what multi-academy trust to join, in order to advance the church's "control and other policy aims."
It is a long-established principle "that the boards of VC schools are not wholly dominated by the Church," the Society wrote.
The NSS has now called on the DfE to require VC schools converting to academy status to maintain the balance of governors appointed by the Church and by other sources.
Stephen Evans, the campaigns director of the National Secular Society said of the plans: "The influence of the church in VC schools has traditionally been limited, but it's becoming increasingly clear that academisation is paving the way for the Church to strengthen its control over state education.
"With around a million pupils attending church schools, it will be a concern to many parents that the education they receive is increasingly being controlled by clerics.
"As the population drifts away from the church, the church is unabashedly looking to taxpayer funded schools to act as its pulpit, and many church schools converting to academy status and joining diocesan trusts may soon be asserting a much stronger 'Christian ethos' than they have done previously. This stands to benefit the Church, but not the local communities, parents and pupils that publicly-funded schools are supposed to serve."
