Articles - From the Vicar

"In Birmingham we have none of the trappings of a Barchester. No medieval cathedral, no Close full of canonical houses. There are no rags of anci ent privileges for us to presume on, or for others to resent. We can claim attention only on the basis of what we deliver."

Mark Santer - whose words I quote above - has served as Bishop of Birmingham for fifteen years and is soon to retire. He chose his f inal diocesan synod as the moment to raise important (and topical) questions about the link between the Church of England and the monarchy and to voice his concern about the extent of political involvement in the appointment of archbishops and bishops. Wh i lst some of us might wish that Mark Santer had not waited until now to venture his opinions, it is nevertheless encouraging that someone who is so close to the heart of the Establishment is willing stimulate debate about the nature of the Church of Englan d's relationship with the State.

In 1688 the Catholic James II was overthrown in the (so-called) Glorious Revolution and the Protestant William of Orange secured the English throne. Subsequently the 1701 Act of Settlement cemented the alliance between the Established Church and the State, an alliance that has remained strangely impervious to the effects of three hundred years' worth of wider political developments. The notion that we still need a defensive alliance against Popery or Presbyterianism is as l udicrous as it is offensive, and yet in essence such an alliance is what the 1701 Act was designed to perpetuate. Thus it is, for instance, that 26 unelected Church of England Bishops continue to sit in the House of Lords, all of them owing their places t o Crown patronage now exercised through the Prime Minister.

Birmingham may not be Barchester, but a seat in the House of Lords is one 'ancient privilege' that even Mark Santer has been able to enjoy. It is surely now time for the Church of England to cut its comfortable yet potentially corrupting link with the State, for Bishops to forego the red leather and ermine of Westminster and for all of us, clergy and people, to embrace full independence with maturity, confidence and faith.

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