#disestablishment

COPS DON'T BELONG AT PRIDE

COPS DON'T BELONG AT PRIDE

By: Humanists UK

Published: Dec 6, 2023

The Disestablishment of the Church of England Bill had its first reading in the UK Parliament today. The Bill, if enacted, would disestablish the Church of England and remove the automatic right of bishops to sit in the House of Lords. Humanists UK, which campaigns for a secular state and the separation of church and state, welcomed the Bill.

The Bill, introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Scriven, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, would remove the Church of England from its position as the official state church. The Bill faced significant opposition, but eventually passed.

The recent British Social Attitudes survey demonstrated how unrepresentative our current system is. Only 12% of people consider themselves Anglican. What’s more, 68% of 18-24 year-olds say they belong to no religion versus 18% saying they are Christian – including only 0.7% saying they are Anglican.

The Church of England was disestablished in Wales in 1920 and there has never been an established church in Northern Ireland, as the Church was disestablished in 1869, before Irish independence. This is one of many archaic policies that still exist in the UK. Arguably, most egregious is the fact that 26 seats in the House of Lords are reserved for bishops of the Church of England. The only other state which has reserved seats for religious officials from a state religion is Iran.

As well as seeking to remove the automatic right for bishops to sit in the House of Lords, the Bill would remove the monarch’s role as Head of the Church of England.

This change will not interfere with the right to freedom of religion or belief. In 2018 Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said that disestablishment of the Church of England would not be ‘a disaster’ for the Church, and is ‘a decision for parliament and the people’. He also said that ‘I don’t think [disestablishment] would make it easier [for the Church], and I don’t think it would make it more difficult’.

The Bill will now move onto its second reading, though no formal date has yet been set.

Humanists UK Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Kathy Riddick said:

Paint me with your royalty

Let my tongue saturate in you

It may spell the end of me

But what a lovely view

The streets running red

Between the cobbles

And the carpets staining

Themselves blue

When it collides

the whole world

Will be tinted

In shades of something new

And wouldn’t that be grand

To drink of a tonic fresh

All that needs to break is the barrier

Of old and privileged flesh.

I’ve written a bit recently about Christian Nationalism and I distinguished a contemporary form of Christian Nationalism which in effect simply christens/baptises ethno-cultural nationalism from what I referred as Christian nation-alism, the idea of the nation having a Christian identity. One form of the latter involves having a national/established church as is the case with the Church of…

Simon Jenkins wrote here in the Guardian recently about the sorry state of the Church of England.  This has prompted some discussion about whether true reformation, renewal and revival of the Church of England (as opposed to within the Church) is possible.  I may come back to talk about that specific subject but I want to talk about one specific thing he suggests. Jenkins writes about the Church…

A angstily angrily powerfully rap with a chiptuney background. By all means, I've got plenty more anarchy in store on the drawing board. This winter has been a mighty productive one, but it's far from made a dent in my lyric sheets. But you don't care about that. Enjoy my tasty jams \m/

Lyrics:

Wasting time just to spend money Have a laugh at the crack like it’s really that funny There’s a sly guise citing white lies at my dry eyes Blithely unsurprised

Monotonic repetition so sedating our sedition All the same old iterations, overwritten mass volition Expectations met, lowered covert, then they’re met again Losing sight of right in a vicious cycle without end

Defocus your eyes on the buzzwords and bright lights And tune out the autotuned, monotone trite lines Spend pennies for pablum with Pavlov and his dogs And call yourselves proud to be free (Oh me...)

Spending money just to waste time Numb my mind, feed my eyes With these material materials They want you to want it You want it, they got it, They sell it knowing well it's just a fleeting treat for boredom And soon you'll come back with some more sum

Dishonest presentations Cheap plastic imitations Oft-forgotten past promised (Talk is cheap so we sell lots of it)

Food-flavored slow poison, Fake-colored chem creation, Pill-shaped ruination Clogging your bodies at the core, And you'll still come back for more. Yeah, where's their loyalty at, anyways, huh?

two smiles meet towards the child-wheel of my zeal the bloody baggage of creatures made flesh in physical legends-lives

the nimble stags storms cloud over rain falls under the scissors of the dark hairdresser-furiously swimming under the clashing arpeggios

in the machine's sap grass grows around with sharp eyes here the share of our caresses dead and departed with the waves