Is Justin Welby running for president of the NUS?

With every passing day, the Church of England seems to become more and more preoccupied with preaching the woke gospel. Just take Justin Welby’s latest initiative. Last June, amid the Black Lives Matter protests, the Archbishop of Canterbury announced a review of statues in places of worship. Now new Church of England guidance has been issued, suggesting that artefacts linked to slavery and colonialism could be removed from churches.

The guidance says that some people don’t feel welcome in churches and that this may be because of ‘the presence of objects that they find troubling because of their depiction or commemoration of, or association with, the oppression or marginalisation of people on the basis of their race, gender, religion or sexual orientation’. It suggests that even gravestones may have to be removed to protect the feelings of would-be parishioners.

The Church of England’s apparent embrace of the trendy ‘decolonise’ movement – which patronisingly suggests any public trace of our murky past must be expunged to protect the feelings of minorities – reflects how deeply identitarian ideas now run in our institutions. The Church of England was once known as the Tory Party at Prayer. Now it is as woke as your average students’ union.

Picture by: Getty.