by Bijan Omrani, The Critic
The Church may be badly led, but it is still worth saving
It has been a torrid season for the Church of England. There seems to be no end to the increase of its litany of errors and misjudgements.
We have seen Lambeth Palace carelessly award an interfaith prize on the anniversary of 9/11 to a Muslim cleric who praised Osama bin Laden, and the Archbishop of Canterbury herself (who just a few months ago promised to challenge misogyny) photographed talking apparently unconcerned to the cleric’s wife, who was arrayed in the oppressive niqab face covering. Her first months in office also saw her uncritically repeating destructive lines about Palestinian victimhood and allowing herself to be photographed with alleged supporters of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, and in front of a portrait of Gamal Nasser, a senior PLO leader who was reputedly one of the organisers of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes.
Things are not much better on the bishops’ bench more widely. The Bishop of Lincoln has just resigned following allegations of sexual assault. The Bishop of Liverpool did likewise in the same circumstances last year, and the Bishop of Salisbury has “stepped back from ministry” following an investigation into financial misconduct and safeguarding concerns. Around a quarter of diocesan bishoprics are now vacant or overseen by acting bishops, as the creaking Church machinery takes months or even years to find possible candidates for enthronement. Given that the Church is at the same time cutting back on the funds given to training new clergy, this task is hardly going to get easier.
Indeed, the number of new ordinations has plummeted, and the number of priests in stipendiary ministry (6,682 in May 2026, compared with 14,603 in 1960) is at a historic low. Parishes are under greater pressure than ever before to share clergy and to amalgamate, so that vicars now have to tend ever larger flocks. Lay people are being asked to take on the work usually done by ordained clergy, as the vicars evolve into being distant managers, or “oversight ministers”. This distortion of their mission, with attendant pressures of overwork, increased bureaucracy and underpayment, is having a terrible effect on their morale. Recent survey evidence shows that nearly a third are reporting signs of possible mild to clinical depression, forty percent feel isolated, and only 3.9 percent see current church leadership as a “source of hope”.