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The Practice and Politics of Establishment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2022

William Fittall
William Fittall*
Affiliation:
Secretary General of the General Synod 2002–2015
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Extract

The following words were spoken in the House of Commons 23 years ago:

Many people in this country think that it is wrong to have an established Church and that it would be helpful if England followed the example of Scotland and Wales and disestablished its Church, recognising that we are a multicultural, multi-faith society and that no religion or Church should be given pre-eminence over others. Would it not be prudent for the Church Commissioners to do their sums now so that when that democratic day dawns, it will not be such a shock for them?

Well, what can one say about that other than, ‘O, Jeremy Corbyn!’? For it was indeed the then maverick Labour backbencher who made those remarks during Church Commissioners’ questions in the House of Commons.

Keywords

establishmentEcclesiastical CommitteeCrown appointments
Type
Comment
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , September 2022 , pp. 332 - 345
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Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2022

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Footnotes

†

This is the lightly edited text of a lecture given at the Ecclesiastical Law Society's conference held in Cumberland Lodge, Windsor in 2019 on the theme, ‘Church and State in the Twenty-first Century: Re-imagining establishment for the Post-Elizabethan Age’. Sir William died before the publication of this manuscript after a short illness in March 2022, and this piece is dedicated to his memory.

References

1 HC Deb 25 January 1999, vol 324, col 17.

2 Henson, H, ‘Disestablishment by consent’, (1929) 105 Nineteenth Century and After 44–58 at 58Google Scholar.

3 Risdale v Clifton and others (1877) 2 PD 276.

4 ‘Charles vows to keep “Defender of the Faith” title as king’, National Secular Society, 9 February 2015, <https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2015/02/charles-vows-to-keep-defender-of-the-faith-title-as-king>, accessed 29 May 2022.

5 ‘Queen says the Church of England is misunderstood’, The Guardian, 15 February 2012, <https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/feb/15/queen-says-church-misunderstood>, accessed 29 May 2022.

6 Quoted in Roy Jenkins, Mr Balfour's Poodle (London, 1968), p 267.

7 Cabinet notebooks, 6 January 1948, as reported by the Daily Telegraph, 28 July 2006.

8 In fact Synod initially voted to go to 8 but was prevailed on in July 2003 to agree to 6, giving parity with the centrally elected members and increasing the number of voting members from 12 to 14 rather than 16.

9 CM 7170.

10 Webb, B, Our Partnership, ed Drake, B and Cole, M (London, 1948), pp 208–210 (emphasis in original)Google Scholar.