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.
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Finland: Citizens’ initiative launched calling for separation of church and state
Posted: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 16:14
The collection of statements of support for a citizens' initiative for the separation of church and state in Finland began on Monday 20 January 2014. The initiative calls for legislative revisions to abolish the state church and to establish a state that is unbiased toward all religious convictions.
"I'm not expecting the Parliament to rush into revising the laws, but we must be able to have an objective debate about this," says Petri Karisma, the chair of the Union of Freethinkers of Finland.
"With the number of irreligious citizens already breaching the one-million mark, is the position of the state church still justified?" he asks.
Under the Finnish legislation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Orthodox Church of Finland are in a privileged position. Both churches are defined as public corporations and thus part of the public administration.
The freethinkers' union argues that the privileges enjoyed by the state churches violate the rights of members of other religions and, in particular, people with no religious affiliations.
"The constitution stipulates that people should not be discriminated based on their religious convictions. People also have the right to religion and conscience. Other legislation fails to comply with these principles," argues Karisma.
Advocates of the initiative believe religious conviction should be defined as a private matter. All religious convictions, they also emphasise, should be treated equally.
The initiative questions, for example, the state churches' right to levy taxes, which are collected at source by the state. Similarly, it points out that with public holidays set forth in the Church Act, the Parliament is unable to change them without the consent of the synod.
In addition, the advocates argue that pupils at Finnish schools should be allowed to choose between religious and ethics teaching regardless of their possible religious convictions.
"If asked, you don't have to reveal what party you voted for. But at schools, everyone must reveal their religious convictions, and religious teaching is determined on that basis," Karisma highlights.
The advocates similarly deem it peculiar that churches and religious communities are granted the right to officiate at weddings under the Marriage Act, but that no such right has been extended to non-religious groups or unregistered religious communities.
Religious activities should also be eradicated at schools and kindergartens, as well as at events of the Parliament, the Defence Forces and universities, they demand.
As justification, the initiative refers to the European Court of Human Rights' interpretation of the freedom of religion, according to which people have the right not to disclose their religious conviction or lack thereof.
By 2pm on Monday, the initiative had received roughly 350 statements of support. A minimum of 50,000 statements are needed for the proposal to be presented to the Parliament for consideration.
This article was originally published by the Helsinki Times and is reproduced here with permission.
CofE General Synod member Andrea Minichiello Williams urges Jamaica to keep law that criminalises homosexuality
Posted: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 10:19
One of the Sussex Diocese of Chichester representatives on the Church of England General Synod, Andrea Minichiello Williams, recently attended a conference of evangelical Christians in Jamaica to urge the Government to keep the law that criminalises homosexuality – and carries a potential penalty of ten years hard labour.
She said Jamaica had the opportunity to become a world leader by fending off foreign pressure to decriminalise homosexual sex.
"Might it be that Jamaica says to the United States of America, says to Europe, 'Enough! You cannot come in and attack our families. We will not accept aid or promotion tied to an agenda that is against God and destroys our families'" she said, adding to applause, "If you win here, you will have an impact in the Caribbean and an impact across the globe".
She made the case that it is a "big lie" that homosexuality is inborn, arguing instead that it is caused by environmental factors like "the lack of the father" and "sometimes a level of abuse". She illustrated her point with the case of 19-year-old British diver Tom Daley and his reported relationship with American screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.
Daley, she said, who is "loved by all the girls and had girlfriends" had "lost his father to cancer just a few years ago and he's just come out on YouTube that he's in a relationship with a man, that man is 39, a leading gay activist in the States".
Williams warned that removal of Britain's sodomy law was the start of a process that has led to more and more permissive laws, including equalising the age of consent laws for homosexual and heterosexual intercourse.
"Once you strip away all this stuff, what you get is no age of consent […] nobody ever enforces that law anymore," she said. "We already have a strong man-boy movement that's moving in Europe." (Paedophilia is, of course, illegal throughout Europe and anyone advocating it would be breaking the law).
She also described several cases in which she said people had been fired from their jobs for their opposition to LGBT rights and said people with views like hers are being silenced in the media and intimidated with the threats of hate-speech lawsuits. This was especially true, she suggested, when organisations like hers try to claim a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia.
"They hate the line of homosexuality being linked to paedophilia. They try to cut that off, so you can't speak about it", she said. "So I say to you in Jamaica: Speak about it. Speak about it".
She took issue with the notion that advancing such arguments in opposition to expanding legal rights for LGBT people was hate speech. On the contrary, she said, "We say these things because we're loving, we're compassionate, we're kind, because we care for our children […] It is not compassion and kind to have laws that lead people [to engage] in their sins [that] lead to the obliteration of life, the obliteration of culture, and the obliteration of family".
Dr Keith Sharpe, Chair of the progressive Anglican group Changing Attitude Sussex, commented: "Williams' bigoted outburst amounts to dangerous hatemongering. It is reprehensible and highly irresponsible.
"Jamaica is one of the most dangerous places in the world for LGB&T people who suffer homophobic intimidation and violence on a daily basis, including from the police. The brutal murder of gay men is commonplace. The community lives in constant fear and is unable to access the legal and justice systems.
"Either Minichiello Williams did not know this, which is culpable ignorance, or she did know it and endorses it, which is sheer wickedness.
"The Archbishop of Canterbury and the House of Bishops' report on Human Sexuality have recently called on the Church to repent of its homophobia. And yet here is a Sussex member of the General Synod advocating the vilest form of homophobia in a most terrible cultural situation. What she has said and done is contrary both to the Church's Christian teaching and to common human decency. She has brought disgrace upon the Church of England and its General Synod as well as the Diocese of Chichester".
The Bishop of Chichester, Martin Warner, sought to distance himself from her remarks: "The comments by Andrea Minichiello Williams about the decriminalisation of same sex intercourse in Jamaica have no sanction in the Church of England or the diocese of Chichester. Insofar as such comments incite homophobia, they should be rejected as offensive and unacceptable.
"The Christian Church is widely perceived as homophobic and intolerant of those for whom same sex attraction is the foundation of their emotional lives. It is urgent, therefore, that Christians find legitimate ways to affirm and demonstrate the conviction that the glory of God is innate in every human being, and the mercy of God embraces each of us indiscriminately."
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: "It is surprising that Andrea Minichiello Williams is a member of the Church of England's parliament. On the basis of this hatemongering she risks bringing the whole body into disrepute. I'm not sure what the procedure is for getting rid of representatives, but I would suggest to the Diocese of Chichester that they take urgent steps to make her step down. That would be a clear indication that they mean what they say about opposing homophobia".
