Anglican Church criticises government

It is a very long time since the Church of England was nicknamed "The Tory party at prayer" and for the whole of my adult life the fact that it had once had that nickname seemed ludicrously inappropriate.

Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, whatever else one may say about them, appear to be more serious about their religious faith than the majority of British politicians. (Indeed, how two men who seem to be fairly devout christians could reconcile that faith with some of their actions has often struck me as quite remarkable, but that is another story.)

So it is deeply ironic that, assuming reports in today's Times are accurate, the Anglican church is about to publish a report which criticises the government in the strongest terms since "Faith in the City" in 1985. But this reflects the reality that, despite the personal faith of Messrs Blair, Brown and one or two other ministers, this government has broadly supported strongly secular policies.

Obviously I have not yet seen the full report. However, it appears to make some very good recommendations. These include the need to treat different faiths on an even-handed basis, and particularly to create a "level playing field" for faith-based charities; an international UK and Commonwealth conference on public service reform: a review of the commissioning of public services designed to strengthen the contribution which charities can make. On first reading it seems that there is a strong case for many of the church's proposals.

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