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 cut contact with child abuse victim on order of insurers
Posted: Wed, 16 Mar 2016 13:12
A report by Ian Elliott, an expert in child safeguarding, has found "repeated failures" by clergy and bishops in the Church of England to deal with reports by survivors of child abuse.
A single survivor of child sex abuse told "over 40 members of the clergy during the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s" of sexual abuse he had suffered at the hands of a senior member of the Church of England, but failed to receive an adequate response – including from people in "very senior positions within the Church" and the office of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
As late as 2014 the survivor made another report of the historic sex abuse and found "the response less than adequate." The Church offered no "real investigation into his disclosures" and "every question arising from the issue of senior disclosures was entirely ignored from the outset by the bishop he reported to, the Head of Safeguarding."
The report has been made public after the Church initially released its conclusions alone. David Greenwood, a lawyer specialising in helping child abuse victims claim compensation, said in a press release that the church had "indicated that it does not wish to publish the whole report so the survivor is taking the step of providing the report to the press."
The report offers a damning verdict on the Church's response to allegations by the survivor, referred to as "B".
According to the report, it was "deeply disturbing" that despite B reporting the case to a "large number of people", some of them claim to have "no memory of the conversations."
"What is surprising about this is that he would be speaking about a serious and sadistic sexual assault allegedly perpetrated by a senior member of the hierarchy. The fact that these conversations could be forgotten about is hard to accept," Elliott wrote.
To avoid legal liability, the report found, the Church "issued instructions that all contact with a survivor was to be ended, causing considerable distress and also placing the survivor at risk." Elliott said the decision was "reckless" and contrary to the Church of England's own policy.
Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, which has been researching clerical abuse for many years and given evidence on the topic at the United Nations, commented:
"The problem wasn't that bishops weren't trained in such matters, it is the institutional culture of denial and the bullying of the abused and whistleblowers into silence. One report suggests that 13 bishops ignored letters written in the 1990s warning of abuse by Ball on behalf of a victim who later committed suicide. I have seen evidence that such bullying persists to this day.
"I hope that the Archbishop's review into the case of Peter Ball will deal with such bullying and what appears to be the undue influence exerted on the police and CPS by the Church in dealing with this case.
"The total failure of procedures, outlined by Ian Elliott, echoes that revealed in the totally damning Cahill Report about the conduct of the Archbishop Hope of York in respect of Robert Waddington. The current Archbishop of York has decided that this report should remain in printed form rather than be more widely available on the web."
The report was released ahead of the preliminary hearing of the Goddard inquiry into child sex abuse, which will scrutinise the Church's record and policies on abuse.
Four Newcastle schools facing Church of England takeover
Posted: Wed, 9 Mar 2016 12:16
Four non-religious schools are to be merged with a CofE primary under a single academy trust controlled by the Church of England, in a move described as a "takeover".
The local press report that the proposals have attracted criticism from the local MP, parents and councillors, and prompted concern from Newcastle City Council.
Nick Brown MP said he had "concerns" about the plans which would see "Church of England appointees as a majority of the academy trust's members, despite only one of the five schools being a Church of England school." The Newcastle East MP has said he will campaign against the proposals.
One local councillor said the change was undemocratic and against the wishes of parents who have their children at the non-religious schools.
"The Church are saying this is not a takeover by them but then if it isn't that, what is it?"
Councillor Dave Wood also raised concerns about the consultation process and said that "Councillors opposed to the move were not consulted at all directly and parents have said they do not want the schools to be taken over."
Under the plans Central Walker Church of England School would join West Walker Primary School, Walkergate Primary School, Tyneview Primary and Benfield School in one trust dominated by representatives of the Church of England.
The Newcastle Diocesan Education Board has claimed that the community schools involved will have their individual ethos protected under the multi-academy trust – a guarantee sought by the National Secular Society from the Department for Education when the NSS first raised the alarm about religious groups using academisation to takeover non-religious schools.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager of the National Secular Society, said, "This is exactly what we warned would happen. The Department for Education reassured us that individual schools would be protected if taken over by a religious multi-academy trust, but this board will have three of five seats filled by representatives of the Church of England. How can non-religious schools realistically be protected from an encroaching religious ethos if the most senior people in the trust are all advancing the interests of the Church?
"It is hard enough for parents to secure a neutral, non-religious education for their children without the Church taking over whole academy trusts. It's intolerable that the Church should be allowed to further its own interests by gaining greater influence over children's education and at the public's expense."
Mr Evans said the safeguards in place to protect non-faith schools joining faith-based Multi Academy Chains were "wholly inadequate" and warned that there was nothing to stop non-religious schools entering into such chains from applying for a religious designation provided they gained the approval of the Secretary of State.
Newcastle City Council said that it had "concerns about the impact that these changes could have across the family of schools within the city and on the ability of the local authority to carry out its statutory duties, such as responding to and meeting future and changing needs of the local population."
A spokesperson for the council said that it wanted "assurance" that if the trust were established it would "follow local arrangements regarding a fair approach to school admissions."
The takeover is coming shortly after the Archbishop of Canterbury boasted of the Church's continued influence over the education of more one million children through state-funded schools.
A 2015 report released by the Church of England and discussed at the recent General Synod said that the Church had an "urgent need" to focus evangelism on children, young people and their parents in light of a catastrophic collapse in adult church attendance.
The National Secular Society is regularly contacted by parents, teachers and governors concerned about a push by religious groups to assert a much more aggressive religious ethos in faith schools. One parent governor told the NSS recently that he felt very "uncomfortable" about an "aggressive new push to convert children".
