Berkley Center

London can definitely be seen as one of the most progressive cities in terms of its religious pluralism. However, this is sometimes contradicted by the fact that the process of secularization in the United Kingdom has been very slow, and often very difficult. It is definitely a very welcome process, but it is definitely not over by any means. Therefore, there is still not a complete separation between the church and the state. Many of the traditional political institutions are still dependent on the Church of England. Most religious inequalities have been righted, but there are still some that pervade the system and privilege Anglicans over people of other religions.

The process of secularization has been good in terms of increased equality. This is especially true because Anglicanism was the dominant religion in the United Kingdom, and those who practiced other religions were prosecuted. As a result, many people were executed, and many were forced to convert. If they were not executed and they maintained their religion, they suffered many deprivations that were established by law. These have slowly been rectified.

However, there are still many influences of Anglicanism as the main religion which are definitely unfair towards non-Anglicans. For example, the line of succession is not only determined by rules of primogeniture but by religion. Anyone in the British line of succession cannot be presently or have been, at any point of his or her life, a Catholic, or marry a Roman Catholic. This means that the English monarch is determined through a process of religious exclusion. The development of this rule was due to the fact that the sovereign is also the head of the Church of England. Therefore, in the institution of the succession of the monarch one has the biggest example of the union between the state and the church. This is just one of the examples of how deeply entrenched Anglicanism is in the institutions of England. There has been a process of removing discriminatory laws. This end of discriminatory rules will make the separation of church and state much more prevalent.

Even though the university I am attending has never had a requirement that one had to belong to a specific religion, specifically Anglicanism, decades ago such rules still existed at such prestigious institutions as King’s College, Oxford, and Cambridge. I did consider studying my year abroad at some of these universities, and it would be inconceivable to me that in the past I might not have been allowed to study here because of the religion I profess. Non-Anglicans were barred from the same education as Anglicans; this effectively increased the inequalities for non-Anglicans because they did not have access to the best universities of England, simply because they did not profess the state religion.

Now that Catholics and other non-Anglicans have had the same civil rights as Anglicans for more than a century, except for a few exceptions, the process of reconciliation between religions can start. This process will not be short and it will be wrought with much disagreement for some time, but it is currently underway. One of the heartening things is that the debate continues. One of the most recent controversies is about the membership of Anglican bishops in the House of Lords. The main consensus is that the positions for bishops either need to be eliminated, or representatives of other religions need to be given seats within the House of Lords. This debate is constructive because it now challenges the undue influence of the Anglican bishops in the political process.

The debate of disestablishing the Church of England, especially the monarch as its head, will still probably be the most important question and the hardest to resolve for some time. While the sovereign is still the head of the Church of England and there are still bishops in the House of Lords, there are positive signs that the United Kingdom is moving towards a complete separation between Church and State.