Preaching to the choir
by Marcus Walker, The Critic:
The Church will soon hit a Hartlepool moment, when people who feel politically unwelcome go elsewhere.
An institution led by a self-selecting elite obsessed with the hot topics of today’s culture war alienating increasing numbers of its supporters until they eventually vote with their feet, leaving the very survival of that institution in doubt.
The Labour Party or the Church of England?
Watching the slow motion self-destruction of the party that purports to speak for the ordinary people of this country is an uncomfortable exercise even for a Tory clergyman who should be reaching for the popcorn and turning up the volume.
It’s uncomfortable because it’s too close to home. Like the defeated Labour councillor who told the Daily Telegraph “the voters have let us down”, the leadership of the Established Church have spent the last year or so (in fact, the last half century or so) giving the strong impression that they dearly wish that their congregations were made up of different people with different interests and more appropriate views.
This can be seen across all the elements of the church’s leadership. The House of Laity of the Church of England is supposed, as its name would suggest, to represent all of the good honest folk who call themselves C of E and come to church often enough to be on the Church’s electoral roll. Yet, while 58 per cent of Anglicans voted Tory at the 2017 election (according to YouGov) — with only 28 per cent voting for Labour — the House of Laity merrily passes motions lamenting Brexit or supporting nuclear disarmament. That they are not directly elected probably plays quite a part in creating this disconnect.
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