The Public Legitimacy of the Church of England

This project, originally funded as Knowledge Exchange Fellowship by TORCH, establishes a relationship between the McDonald Centre and the Centre for Cultural Witness (CCW), directed by Bishop Graham Tomlin and based at Lambeth Palace. The focus is on exploring the public legitimacy of the Church of England: understanding and evaluating the rationale for the standing it has in English and UK public life.

Through research and collaboration, this partnership aims to impact and enhance the Church of England’s thought, policy and public communication, with a focus on the contested legitimacy of its role in government, policy, and public life. Specific constitutional privileges are one proper focus and the project will engage with supporters and critics of the current establishment. Such questions of constitutional legitimacy intersect with questions of moral and societal legitimacy, not least in the relationship between the Church of England, other Christian denominations and other faiths.

The partnership is expected to enhance research by bringing a focused set of contemporary questions into contact with the theology, political thought and history which lies behind the Church of England’s public role. The project will evaluate the present state of public perceptions of the Church of England’s role in public life and assess the possible futures which lie ahead. A practical, forward-looking focus will be to collaborate with the Centre for Cultural Witness to produce material to support Church of England bishops to employ their voice and presence in the public sphere. With the complex background to the Church of England’s legitimacy in mind, the project aims to enable critical attention to the paid to deficits in the Church of England legitimacy in the eyes of many. At the same time, it will also produce resources to support bishops in making responsible, effective contributions to public debate.