Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has raised the prospect of disestablishment of the Church of England in an interview with the Christmas edition of the New Statesman (not yet online), saying that it would be "by no means the end of the world".
Cited in the Guardian, Dr Williams drew on his experience as a bishop in the disestablished church in Wales:
"The strength of it is that the last vestiges of state sanction disappeared, so when you took a vote at the Welsh synod, it didn't have to be nodded through by parliament afterwards. There is a certain integrity to that."
However, whilst there is that intellectual argument from within the Church in favour of disestablishment, he expresses his fear that any such move would most likely be expoited by secularists:
"I think the motives that would now drive disestablishment from the state side would be mostly to do with... trying to push religion into the private sphere, and that's the point where I think I'd be bloody-minded and say, 'Well, not on that basis'."
Speaking on the Today programme, he asserted that he did not believe that now was the time to disestablish, but did say that "The Church exists because of God, not because of the state".
My instinct is that Parliament should not have to involve itself in what are effectively the internal affairs of the Church of England and that similarly the Prime Minister should not be the individual responsible for appointing archbishops and bishops.
But perhaps you disagree. I'd be interested to hear your opinions.
