[Metrobeans]

B466 - Disestablishment Bill, TSR Liberal Democrat

Disestablishment of the Church of England

Preamble: A Bill intended to disestablish the Church of England from the State, following the precedent in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in not having an established Church.

BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Part I: The Sovereign

(1) The Sovereign renounces all claims to the title and office of Supreme Governor of the Church of England.


Part II: The House of Lords

(1) The Lords Spiritual ceases to exist, and references to them are removed from the formal titles of the House of Lords and Parliament as a whole.
(2) No further Act of Parliament shall be passed with the “advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual”. This is not applied retroactively.
(3) Former Lords Spiritual may be appointed to the House of Lords by the same procedure as Lords Temporal.


Part III: The Church of England

(1) Disestablishment and prohibition of future appointments:
On the date of disestablishment, the Church of England, so far as it extends to and exists in England, shall cease to be established by law, and no person shall, after the passing of this Act, be appointed or nominated by Her Majesty or any person, by virtue of any existing right of patronage, to any ecclesiastical office in the Church in England.

(2) Ecclesiastical corporations and bishops:

On and after the date of disestablishment no bishop of the Church in England shall as such be summoned to or be qualified to sit or vote as a Lord of Parliament; but save as aforesaid every person who is at the passing of this Act a bishop, dean, canon, or archdeacon of or the holder of any ecclesiastical office in the Church in England, shall during his life enjoy the same title and precedence as if this Act had not passed. .

(3) Abolition of ecclesiastical courts and ecclesiastical law:

On and after the day of disestablishment, all jurisdiction, whether contentious or otherwise, of all the ecclesiastical, peculiar, exempt, and other courts and persons in England at the time of the passing of this Act having any jurisdiction whatsoever exercisable in any case, suit, or matter, matrimonial, spiritual, or ecclesiastical, or in any way connected with or arising out of the ecclesiastical law of England, shall cease ; and on and after the said day, the ecclesiastical law of England, except in so far as relates to matrimonial causes and matters, shall cease to exist as law.


Part IV: Repeal of the Clergy Disqualification Act 1801

(1) A person is not disqualified from being or being elected as a member of the House of Commons merely because he has been ordained or is a minister of any religious denomination.


Part V: Commencement, short title and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Disestablishment Act 2012.
(2) This Act extends to the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, its Territories Beyond the Seas, and its Crown Dependencies.
(3) This Act comes into force on Royal Assent, only in the event of unanimous agreement between and acceptance by all Commonwealth Realms[1], the Cook Islands, and Fiji, as submitted to, and accepted by both Houses of Parliament.

[1] "Commonwealth Realms" is defined as all of the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

[internetguru]

I might as well support it.

[cl_steele]

nope, simply because i see no reason for it unless by a popular refferendum.

[toronto353]

I'm guessing we've found item one on the agenda of the Commonwealth summit then. I'll comment in depth later.

[SciFiRory]

aye

[Norton1]

I really hope this leads to antidisestablishmentarianism making an amazing comeback.

[barnetlad]

Referendum time I think. Cats should also have a vote given the number there are in vicarages.

[Moleman1996]

I see no reason why the sovereign should have to give up their title, but apart from that I mostly agree.

[JPKC]

This is a pleasant surprise! The Liberal Democrats putting forward a liberal democratic bill; after the monarchy debate I thought you all preferred "pomp and ceremony" over principles like the separation of church and state. It's an easy aye from me. We live in a society with many religions, the state should not be seen to promote one over the others, especially when they're all equally b*llocks. This is a nicely written bill as well.

[StatusRed]

Aye!

(Original post by cl_steele)
nope, simply because i see no reason for it unless by a popular refferendum.

We cannot keep holding referendums. There is a cap on how many we can do each term..

[Keckers]

No. I simply don't see reason for it.

[JPKC]

(Original post by Keckers)
No. I simply don't see reason for it.

What do you mean? The reason is quite simple: the state shouldn't promote one religion over others. I'm pretty certain the Libers submitted a bill to do the exact same thing at some point. I can sort of understand not agreeing with the reason, conservatives believe we should promote Christianity because we're a Christian country yadda yadda, but not seeing the reason is beyond me.

[mevidek]

No, this has already been done by the Socialists.

[hines]

It should be the monarch's decision as to whether they sit as head of the church. Seeing as there is no complaint from the church about it, it can continue so long as the monarch wishes to hold such a role.

Britain well accepts faiths of other cultures, as clearly seen by the building of places of worship and acceptance of other religions in to British culture. However with the national religion being CofE, there is no need to remove it from parliament whatsoever.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Mechie]

Aye. I'd like to see the return of the picture at the start of Lib Dem bills though

[MacDaddi]

Aye! Nice bill!

[Ysolt]

Aye!!

[Clare~Bear]

aye

Would we then count as a secular state?

[AnythingButChardonnay]

But there are only 3 countries where she is 'Defender of the Faith'. Ours, Canada, and New Zealand.

So why do all 16, plus Fiji and the Cook Islands, need to agree?

I do love how that bit was copied from my Act of Succession bill, though.

[jsb123]

(Original post by AnythingButChardonnay)
But there are only 3 countries where she is 'Defender of the Faith'. Ours, Canada, and New Zealand.

So why do all 16, plus Fiji and the Cook Islands, need to agree?

I do love how that bit was copied from my Act of Succession bill, though.

Yes, that's my mistake. I put it in a while ago. Sorry about that.