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
Church review into abusive Bishop refuses to explicitly consider bullying of victims in its Terms of Reference
Posted: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 14:23
A victim of clerical abuse has refused to give evidence to a Church review of the Bishop Peter Ball case, after it declined to explicitly mention intimidation of victims in its Terms of Reference.
The Revd Graham Sawyer was seriously abused as a young man by former Anglican bishop Peter Ball and gave evidence at the trial at which the bishop was jailed last year, aged 83.
It took decades to bring Ball to justice and Reverend Sawyer asked that, given the role played by bullying in delaying justice in the Ball case, the Review into the matter set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury specifically address "bullying, intimidation and threats" made to victims. He asked for this request to be considered by Archbishop Welby personally.
Sharing Reverend Sawyer's concerns about the limits of the Review's Terms of Reference, the National Secular Society had also asked for the Review's Terms of Reference to be expanded to include "specific reference" to the "extent of historic and current bullying by senior figures in the Church of alleged victims and whistle-blowers."
However the Review has declined to do so, and the Review's chair, Dame Moira Gibb, told the National Secular Society that they will not make any changes to the Terms of Reference. She told the NSS that the Terms of Reference will not be amended "as we think they are sufficient to allow us to cover these issues."
In light of the Church's refusal to amend the Review's terms of reference to encompass bullying of victims by senior figures within the Church, Reverend Sawyer has said he will not speak to the Review or give evidence.
He told BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme that "It is clear that the [Review] is not going to cover [bullying and vilification], it should be explicit and it is not. … Why not say it? … No one from the Church has telephoned me to assure me they will cover those areas." The Church and the chair of the Review declined the BBC's request for an interview.
The National Secular Society had also asked that the Church explicitly consider "the extent to which Church officials sought – and/or encouraged others - to intervene with the CPS, the police and dissuading complainants from reporting to the police".
Ball had evaded justice for decades by falsely claiming his innocence and the Church went to inordinate lengths to protect him. This included intervening inappropriately with the police and Crown Prosecution Service in the 1990s. Evidence is mounting that victims and whistleblowers have been continually bullied in an attempt to silence them and that multiple complaints were ignored by the Church hierarchy.
Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS said: "For decades complainants were portrayed as fabricating their claims, something that had a devastating effect on victims, leading one to commit suicide. The catalogue of bullying by the Church against Graham Sawyer is horrific and continues even now.
"The institutional bullying and silencing almost succeeded in preventing Bishop Ball ever being brought to justice. The Church's obdurate refusal at the highest levels to specify them in the Terms of Reference should ring alarm bells about the seriousness of its intentions to look at them with the requisite priority. Maintaining the refusal means the principal witness Graham Sawyer, and perhaps others, will not give evidence and this further undermines the validity of the Review. At least he will be able to give his evidence to the Independent (Goddard) Inquiry set up by the Government.
"Given the fundamental importance of all this in delaying justice and compounding the abuse of victims, bullying should have been explicitly considered in the Review and named in the Terms of Reference."
Danes leaving state religion in droves to avoid church tax
Posted: Tue, 12 Apr 2016 13:20
The Danish Atheist Society has launched a bus advert campaign and website to show Danish citizens how to withdraw from the Church of Denmark and avoid the Church tax levied on members.
Danish citizens have to pay the 'Church tax' if they are affiliated with the church, and it can take up to 1.5% of their income. All baptised Danes are automatically made members of the church, making them liable for the tax, though Christian Today reports that just 2.4% of these members actually attend regularly.
To help people avoid this unfair taxation, the Danish Atheist Society has launched a bus advert campaign, and a website which helps people disaffiliate from the church and which sends the required documentation to the Church directly.
Around 3000 people have now used the website to withdraw from Denmark's established church, which will save them each around 133,000 kroner in tax (£14,200) over the course of their lifetime.
Anders Stjernholm, a spokesperson for the Danish Atheist Society, said that the group was "satisfied with [the] results so far. The bus campaign invites a discussion about faith, while the withdrawal campaign is aimed at the many Danes who have long thought about leaving the church but have not done so because it is too much trouble."
In addition to the specific church tax, all citizens fund the church indirectly, regardless of their religious affiliation, as the government gives direct financial assistance to the organisation.
However, the Church has criticised the Danish Atheist Society's campaign. Thomas Frank, Dean of the Diocese of Viborg, said: "I have nothing against campaigns that encourage discussions about faith, but providing tools for withdrawal such as Atheist Society's website is, for me, wrong and ill-mannered."
The loss of tax funds from 3,000 members is about 9 million kroner per year, equivalent to nearly £1 million in lost revenue.
NSS Campaigns Director Stephen Evans said: "It's not at all surprising that Danish citizens are cancelling their church membership. Nobody should be auto-enrolled into a religion, particularly when it comes with the imposition of a church tax to fund an institution that you may not support.
"In secular democracies churches have to learn to stand on their own feet and not rely on unwilling citizens or the state for financial support. That goes as much for the Church of England here as it does the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark."
In December 2015 thousands of Icelanders registered as members of an ancient religion based on the Sumerian gods in order to avoid a religious tax. All Icelanders must register a religious affiliation and pay a tax that funds the religious denomination to which they belong. To escape this over 1% of Iceland's population registered as Zuists, after leaders of the 'faith' pledged to redistribute the state funding they received back to the church's members.
Earlier in 2015, 200,000 Germans filed declarations renouncing their membership of the Protestant church after a change in tax laws. As in Denmark, Germans baptised in childhood automatically become members of the church and have to pay a tax to fund religious activities. Anybody who opts out of this has to pay a fee to the German government.
