The Archbishop of Canterbury has once again taken aim at MPs, claiming that parliamentarians have directed “hate speech” towards the Church of England and said that it is “colluding with evil”.
Justin Welby told The Spectator that he had “heard [hate speech] in the last few weeks”. Pressed on what he meant by the comment, he said that he meant “both between members and towards the Church, by members of parliament, saying the Church is colluding with evil”.
He added that the abuse is worse depending on the gender of the target: “And we certainly – particularly bishops who are women – have had an enormous increase over the last year or two in abusive language.”
The Archbishop, a former oil executive and Old Etonian, has been highly critical of Government policy before. He branded the Rwanda plan to get control of illegal migration “immoral and cruel” and has also hit out at Britain’s “broken” economic model, tax system and benefit reforms.
The 68-year-old has locked horns with Tory MPs too, in particular Jonathan Gullis. The Stoke-on-Trent North MP accused 25 unelected bishops, including Welby, of overstepping their authority by “preaching” about political issues of the day.
The 34-year-old said: “I don’t think un-elected bishops in the House of Lords should be preaching about politics. I sadly think that there are too many people using the pulpit to preach from.”
By way of a retort, Welby took to X, and said: “Always grateful for feedback – look forward to advice on what we should be doing in the pulpit.”
A former Archbishop of the Church, Lord Williams, has also called on the UK to “have the courage to face the legacies of slavery” and “work at” the question of reparations.
Last year, the Church pledged to set up a £100million fund to “address past wrongs of slavery”, but now the “oversight group” claims that it will not be able to meet its objectives without the fund swelling to £1billion.
Welby’s latest political foray comes amid concerns about the growing politicisation of the Church of England (CofE).
Last month, Express.co.uk revealed that the Church’s former home affairs adviser wrote a piece in 2018 entitled: “Don’t you love illegal immigrants?”
Martin Kettle, who served from 2012 to 2019, added that Christians “want to love illegal immigrants. We DO love illegal immigrants”. When approached for comment the Church said Mr Kettle’s views were not the views of the organisation.
Meanwhile, this website also revealed that CofE vicars were being advised on how to start campaigning on behalf of asylum seekers whose applications had been refused.
A leaked document called ‘Supporting Asylum Seekers – Guidance for Church of England Clergy’ attacked the “political narrative about British identity, rights and values” as well as the “anti-immigration rhetoric… particularly evident in the run-up to the EU referendum”.
The document was roundly condemned by Nigel Farage and other leading conservative voices.
Amid concern that asylum seekers were exploiting the system and falsely converting to Christianity in order to stay in Britain, Tory MP Tim Loughton responded to the leaked CofE document. He told the Commons chamber: “Christianity in the UK seems to be on the wane, unless apparently, you are from a Muslim country in the middle of an asylum claim!
“We are now told that one in seven occupants of the Bibby Stockholm have suddenly become practising Christians.
“Can I ask the Prime Minister, given the Church of England has now issued secret guidance for clergy supporting asylum applications for these Damascene conversions, who is the Church accountable to?”
Refusing to pull his punches, he asked: “Are taxpayers being scammed by the Archbishop?”
A spokesman for the Church of England said: “Churches have no power to circumvent the Government’s duty to vet and approve applications – the responsibility for this rests with the Home Office”.
