A Letter To My Church

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

Thus goes my favourite bible reading, making it clear that as children we think and act very differently to the way we do when we are adults; we see the world differently. It is as children however that so many are indoctrinated welcomed into the church. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I was christened like a child.

In the years since however I have turned away from the church, specifically protestantism the particular church I was christened into. I do not resent my mum for having me christened, quite the opposite in fact, and I am grateful that she has empowered me to make my own decisions regarding faith.

I have turned away from the church because I don’t think the Church of England is a progressive organisation, I don’t think it is an organisation that reflects the wants and needs of modern society, and I don’t think the church – in its current form – has a positive effect on the country.
(These statements reflect my opinion on the church as a national body. I believe that at a local level churches of all faiths and denominations do an excellent job at engaging with and supporting their communities.)

I believe the church must undergo a massive rebrand and change of direction if it is to survive through the 21st century.

Firstly, it must prove that it is capable of playing fair in a country of many faiths by giving up its right to have seats in the House of Lords simply because they are the church. The UK is the only democracy in the world in which seats in the legislature are given to religious representatives as a right – despite only 1.4% of people actually spending their Sunday in a church (and that’s their own research which says that).

Then we need a national conversation on whether or not religious organisations (and not just the Church of England) should start paying taxes. The Church of England claims that being forced to pay tax would bankrupt it; would we accept that argument from a business though? Because in my mind, any organisation with an investment portfolio of many billion pounds (the largest investment fund the church is the £7 billion Church Commissioners investment fund, seeing an average return of 9.7% – and there are others) should be seen as a business. If they can’t find the money to continue working in their current form then they must downsize or change.

The church must then accept they are not more important than any other religion, by publicly supporting the inclusion of other religions in civic events like coronations and the daily openings of both Houses of Parliament. Both houses start each day with a prayer – maybe it’s time (read: it’s definitely time) for the church to let some other faith groups get in on that one as well.

I think after such a rebrand (keep the logo, but get a new website) I might be able to regain a bit of respect for the church.

For those of you who want to know my views on god – that’s a topic for another blog post.