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
Parliamentary report published on relationship between local authorities and faith groups
Posted: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:18
The All Party Parliamentary Group, 'Christians in Parliament', has published a report, Faith in the Community, which looks at the relationship between local authorities and churches.
The group's chairman, Gary Streeter MP, has stated that the aim of the report is to address the "chasm between the perception of faith groups nationally and the reality of their work in local communities where they get their hands dirty on a daily basis". The research follows up the findings of Clearing the Ground, another report produced by Christians in Parliament last year, and comes as part of an overall aim to enhance the working relationship between local authorities and faith groups.
Its findings are based on the responses to a survey of 155 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.
The report describes religious literacy as one of the greatest hindrances to faith groups and authorities working together effectively. It argues that "local authorities often have a poor understanding of faith groups, their beliefs and how those beliefs work themselves out in the lives of the faithful". Likewise, it found, faith groups "often have an equally poor understanding of how local government works and the language that is required to engage with it".
Yesterday, Mr Streeter said that faith groups are more important than ever "because they are the people who are most visibly committed to working in their communities and serving those around them. They are the people who turn up before funding begins and stay after grants are cut"
However, Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, has commented: "The Christians in Parliament group is not objective in its approach. Its main purpose is to promote Christianity in parliament and to ensure that religion has special privileges.
"The idea that Christian groups are being turned away by local authorities when they offer to provide services has some basis in reality. The reason so many councils are suspicious of religious groups is because there is always an agenda attached to their work. They may promise not to proselytise, but the very idea of a Christian organisation providing an essential service is already off-putting to some people.
"Many Christian groups do good work, but some also abuse the power they are given when using public money. Some have had funding withdrawn when they demanded prayers for the services they provide or have used the money directly for religious purposes rather than the purpose it was provided for."
Mr Sanderson said much progress could be made if local authorities provided a legally binding contract that required all organisations working on their behalf - with taxpayers' money - not to use that money for anything other than what it was provided for, and that ensured services would be available to the whole community without discrimination and without the demand for participation in unrelated activities, such as worship.
"Religious groups are often unwilling to accept money on this basis and that is where the conflict arises," said Mr Sanderson. "Christian groups should be careful not to help local authorities to divest themselves of vital public services. Once the money dries up, the service will be lost if the religious groups cannot raise the necessary funds themselves – and quite often they cannot. Christians should be demanding that the Government and local councils continue to provide the services that the poor and disadvantaged depend upon."
Majority of Europeans favour separation of church and state, but Islam has an uphill battle for acceptance in Germany
Posted: Thu, 2 May 2013 11:11
A major new study of attitudes towards religion around the world has been conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation – and finds that the majority of people in all the 13 nations surveyed favour a clear separation between religion and the state.
The results of the survey, conducted among 14,000 people are being released over a period of time. The latest results relate to Germany and show that although Germans are generally open to other religions, many are still suspicious of Islam.
Indeed, half of Germans don't believe that Islam fits into the Western world.
85 percent of Germans agreed or tended to agree that one should be open towards all religions. They saw most religions as an enrichment, especially Christianity, also Judaism and Buddhism, but a majority of 51 percent saw Islam as a threat.
The opinion seeing Islam as a particular threat was shared in many western states, including 60 percent of Spaniards, 50 percent of the Swiss and 42 percent of US citizens. In contrast, in India, only 30 percent see Islam as a threat, and in South Korea, it's just 16 percent.
Detlef Pollack, the sociologist who co-authored the study, says that this negative perception could be due to the lack of personal contact between Christians and Muslims. More people in eastern Germany see Islam as threatening than in the West, even though the east is home to only two percent of all the country's Muslims.
But Pollack also notes that people have even less contact with Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, all of which are seen more positively than Islam, and he argues that the media have a lot to do with that: "The picture the media give of Buddhism or Hinduism is that of peace-loving religions," Pollack told Deutsche Welle. "Their picture of Islam is more about fanaticism and aggression."
The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, also blames the media for much misperception, although he also said: "The Muslims have to roll up their sleeves, get more involved in society and make it clear that they are committed to this country."
Germany has between 3.8 and 4.3 million Muslims, making up some 5 percent of the total 82 million population, according to government-commissioned studies.
An earlier study in 2010 by the University of Munster found that 66 percent of western Germans and 74 percent of eastern Germans had a negative attitude towards Muslims. A more recent study from the Allensbach Institute suggested that this had not changed over the past two years.
Asking Germans about Islam, only 22 percent said they agreed with Germany's former president Christian Wulff's statement that Islam, like Christianity, was part of Germany.
According to a 2010 nationwide poll by the research institute Infratest-dimap, more than one third of the respondents would prefer "a Germany without Islam."
The Bertelsmann survey also shows that a big majority of religious people that were questioned — and those without religion — agreed that democracy is a good way of governing the country. That's the view held by 80 percent of Muslims and those without religion, and by 90 percent of Christians.
