{"id":478260,"date":"2026-03-16T07:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478260\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T07:46:09","slug":"green-party-plans-to-break-with-church-of-england-in-assault-on-centuries-of-british-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478260\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Party plans to break with Church of England in assault on centuries of British heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Green Party has announced plans to separate the Church of England from the state should it win the next General Election.<\/p>\n

Under proposals outlined in party policy documents, Zack Polanski’s party would end the Prime Minister’s involvement in appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury.<\/p>\n

The Church would also become a self-governing institution, while bishops currently sitting in the House of Lords would lose their seats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the role of the Church’s representative in the House of Commons, held by Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, would also be scrapped.<\/p>\n

“No person shall hold office in the state, or be excluded from any such office, by virtue of their or their spouse’s membership or non-membership of any religion or denomination of religion,” party policy documents say.<\/p>\n

Disestablishing the Church would undo nearly five centuries of British history.<\/p>\n

Henry VIII created the Church of England as the nation’s official church through the 1534 Act of Supremacy as he broke with Rome.<\/p>\n

The King is still the head of the church to this day.<\/p>\n

\"Zack<\/p>\n

Zack Polanski’s Green Party has announced plans to separate the Church of England from the state<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Church law, as a result, forms part of the law of the land in England and Wales.<\/p>\n

Countries including Iceland, Denmark and Malta still retain an established church – though the Church in Wales and the Church of Scotland were both cleaved away from the state in the 1920s.<\/p>\n

The former Bishop of London, Lord Chartres, has in the past said the Church of England is “already the most disestablished church in Europe”.<\/p>\n

“Although the Church is responsible for 45 per cent of all Grade I listed buildings in England, worshippers largely pay for their upkeep<\/a>, and the clergy are paid without the substantial public finance available to churches in Germany and France,” he pointed out, writing in the Church Times.<\/p>\n

CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN – READ MORE:<\/p>\n

\"\\u200bLord<\/p>\n

Lord Chartres, has in the past said the Church of England is ‘already the most disestablished church in Europe’<\/p>\n

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PA<\/p>\n

And Dr Jonathan Chaplin, a specialist in Christian political theology, has argued that growing secularisation and declining congregations have left the Church of England’s place as the “church of the nation” in peril.<\/p>\n

That was echoed by former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who said last night: “You have to be an Islamo-Commie nutjob to conclude Britain’s problem is too much Christianity.”<\/p>\n

Polling this week showed that just 39 per cent of Britons thought the UK was Christian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Half of those surveyed said Britain was no longer Christian – while 13 per cent believe it never was to begin with.<\/p>\n

\"Canterbury<\/p>\n

Dr Jonathan Chaplin has warned that the Church of England’s place as the ‘church of the nation’ may be in peril<\/p>\n

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PA<\/p>\n

But pollsters did find some signs of hope for Britain’s Christian future.<\/p>\n

Some 52 per cent of the 2,000 adults surveyed believe that moving away from the country’s Christian roots would be to the detriment of future generations.<\/p>\n

A clear majority, 58 per cent, said Christianity still had something positive to offer the way Britain is governed.<\/p>\n

While data firm NielsenIQ BookData revealed the numbers of Britons buying Bibles jumped by 19 per cent last year<\/a>, taking the total to its highest since 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green Party has announced plans to separate the Church of England from the state should it win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,229,2331,56,44208,54,55,46278],"class_list":["post-478260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-sgg","tag-uk","tag-uk-politics","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-woke-madness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}