by A N Wilson, Daily Mail+
Is it any wonder that a majority of churchgoers are keeping their hands in their pockets as the collection plate is passed around, when the causes they cherish are increasingly diverging from the progressive political agenda of the Church?
In a survey earlier this month, the majority said they feared their money would not help repair crumbling spires or fund the food banks many clergy now host, but towards a fund ‘for communities adversely impacted by historic slavery’.
This is since the disgraced former Archbishop Welby had decreed £100million should be given in ‘reparation’ for the Church of England’s historic links with the transatlantic slave trade.
With the appointment of a successor to Welby, we might have hoped this ludicrous waste would be halted and the money given to the many parishes in need.
Unfortunately, Dame Sarah Mullally has already indicated she intends to press ahead with her predecessor’s grotesque exercise in virtue signalling. Indeed, she shows every sign she wants to be Welby Mark Two rather than the new broom we need, sweeping clean.
I doubt whether there is a single churchgoer in favour of slavery. Most would abhor that a fund established by Queen Anne in 1704 to support poor Anglican clergy had been invested in the repugnant trade in humans, which is the basis for Welby’s ‘Project Spire’ fund.
But 81 per cent of Anglicans polled said Church money should be used to support local parishes rather than atone for 300-year-old sins.
Some 61 per cent felt so strongly that they’d rather donate to other charities if the Church Commissioners – the institution’s financial arm – are going to hand it over as reparations.