The Green Party has responded to claims it wants to disestablish the Church of England by saying that this will "not be a priority" at the next General Election.
The Daily Mail reported that it had seen the plans in a Green Party policy document stating that the Church would be disestablished and instead become "self-governing" so that future appointments of offices like the Archbishop of Canterbury would be done without involvement from secular government officials. Bishops would also be removed from the House of Lords under the alleged plans.
Responding to the claims, a Green Party spokesperson said: “As a democratic party our members have determined policy over many years and, like all political parties, revising, updating and determining new policy is an ongoing process. We will set out our detailed plans for government at the time of the next General Election just as we did at the last election.
“Disestablishing the Church of England will not be a priority. We will instead focus on addressing the real and immediate needs of people and the planet, such as addressing climate breakdown, tackling the cost of living and rebuilding our public services, including the NHS."
The Church of England became established during the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century, when the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534. It was this law that declared Henry VIII the Supreme Head of the Church of England, officially breaking away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Under his daughter Elizabeth I, the title changed to “Supreme Governor” and it has remained to this day.
Commenting on the prospect of the Church of England being disestablished, Rev Pat Allerton, vicar of St Peter's Notting Hill, said that "a lot" would change due to the way in which Church and State are intertwined in the UK.
"I think it would change a lot. Constitutionally, obviously the bishops sit in the Lords, and there are church schools all over the nation ... " he told GB News.
"Every prison has to have an Anglican chaplain. I've met a number of prisoners who came to faith in prison, lives transformed, and that would that would all go. It definitely wouldn't have the right to stay, so it would have an impact."
He added, "So many of our laws, so much of our heritage is based on the Christian story. The Houses of Parliament, in the lobby, inscribed on the floor is a scripture from Psalm 127 verse one, which says 'unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it', so there's so much heritage."
Rev Allerton said though that as a minister in the Church of England, his "primary job" was not to defend establishment but point people to Jesus.
"We've got to do a better job of making the case of preaching the gospel, of winning people back to Christ, because there's a lot of talk of us being a Christian nation, and historically, we have been, we are one, but the only chance of being a Christian nation again is if people come to Christ or come back to Christ and start going to church again," he said.
The Titular Archbishop of Selsey, an independent Catholic, said, "The Green Party’s proposal to disestablish the Church of England would reshape far more than Parliament.
"It would affect church property, marriage law, burial rights, and a constitutional relationship between Christianity and the English state that stretches back over a millennium - at the very moment when sectarian Islamist mobilisation is increasingly visible in British electoral politics and new policies on 'anti-Muslim hatred' are emerging."
The Green Party faced strong criticism over its pro-Palestine campaign that courted the local Muslim vote and led to its recent victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
