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
Promotion of 'British values' undermines Christian teaching, says Church of England: NSS responds
Posted: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 08:05
The Church of England has complained that the promotion of fundamental values such as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance in schools could undermine Christian teaching.
The Church has said the "Christian commandment" to "love your neighbour" should be included in the "British values" taught to schoolchildren.
It also described the government's approach to tackling religious extremism in schools as "potentially dangerous, divisive and undemocratic".
Responding to the Church's comments, Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "It's rather divisive in itself for the Church of England to insist that the secular ethic of reciprocity should be promoted in schools as the 'Christian commandment' to love your neighbour.
"It's not as if Christians have a monopoly on morality and the truth is that the 'Golden Rule' is a universal value shared by people of all faiths and none – and is already firmly embodied in the ethos of schools up and down the country."
In its own response to the DfE's consultation, the NSS questioned whether the values explicitly expressed by the Department were exclusively "British" values and suggested a more outward looking approach to teaching about values might be beneficial as part of a broader-based intercultural education so as not reinforce a "them and us" culture.
A DfE spokesperson said: "The fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance were set out by the Government four years ago and have been commonly used since. Clearly Christian principles such as 'loving your neighbour' are integral to these. We believe that all young people should develop an appreciation for these values as this will help them to contribute to and succeed in modern Britain."
Meanwhile, writing on the Church of England blog this week, the Church's chief education officer, the Rev Nigel Genders, has also warned against "rejecting all forms of religion from our schools". He insisted "Church schools are not, and never have been, about indoctrination or recruitment."
However the National Secular Society pointed out that his claim was fundamentally undermined by comments made by John Pritchard, the former Chair of the Church of England's former Board of Education, who said "We don't need to attract [children] to church... they're already there, if we embrace our church schools fully."
Mr Evans, said: "With the long and continuing decline in church attendance, our state schools are clearly regarded by the church as the primary method of recruiting the next generation of Anglicans – and it should at least be upfront about this."
Earlier this week, in a blog published by the Guardian, a church school governor revealed how the Church's promotion of Christianity in her school had started to resemble a form of evangelism.
Catholic Church in Norway secretly registered thousands as Catholics to illegally secure government funds
Posted: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 14:27
For four years the Catholic Church in Norway has been illegally registering immigrants as Catholics in order to secure increased government funding.
The Church, whose official membership has almost doubled since 2010, had been registering immigrants from Catholic majority countries as practising Catholics, without asking for their consent, and without any indication that the people in questions were actually practising Catholics.
By increasing their membership from 66,000 in 2010, to 120,000 in 2014, the Norwegian Catholic Church has significantly increased the amount of state subsidy it receives.
In Norway, religions receive a state subsidy based on their membership. Religious groups can choose to register with the state in order to receive this financial support, which is distributed proportionally to the official registered membership figures.
In a written report on the illegal sign-up practise, Bernt Eidsvig, the Bishop of Oslo, said that "during our meeting I described how a practice, revealed to have lasted for a few years, has resulted in foreigners moving to Norway from Catholic countries, and thereby assumed to be Catholics. They were then registered as OKB (Roman Catholic Dicocese of Oslo) members without agreeing to it themselves".
Bishop Eidsvig also told the Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet that the number of illegal registrations could be "at least a thousand, maybe many times that".
The Norwegian English-language news website The Local reported the scandal earlier this week, and explained that the rapidly inflated membership figures mean the "Catholic Church in Norway will next year receive around 130 million kroner from the Norwegian government". That is worth almost £14 million.
It is unclear if that grant will still be received by the Church, and Norwegian newspapers reported yesterday that the authorities had not yet responded to the disclosures.
The Catholic Church has now described the practise as "not satisfactory".
Norway has been steadily moving towards complete disestablishment over the years. Despite this Citizens born in Norway to one or two Norwegian parents are automatically added to the list of Protestant Christians in Norway, unless they chose to opt out or officially join another religious organisation.
UK figures show that Catholicism in Britain has seen an "alleviation in the rate of decline", due partly to immigration.
Researchers believe that at this is largely due to Catholic immigration from Eastern European countries like Romania and Poland, whilst some other Christian groups are propped up by large numbers of African believers.
The Vatican has long supported the EU, and after the Pope's planned address to the European Parliament was announced last month, the Vatican press office noted that "European integration has enjoyed the benevolent support of the Catholic Church right from its inception".
Across Europe, immigration by Catholics is bolstering congregations which are otherwise in freefall. Though it is now unclear how much of the extraordinary increase in Norway is due to the immigration of genuine, practising Catholics, and how much of it is due to illegal 'recruitment' practises on behalf of the Norwegian Catholic Church.
