Tomorrow the Church of Ireland starts its celebration of 150 years since it was disestablished. There will be a service in the National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Patrick, Dublin.

What has surprised me is the choice of preacher at the service. For some inexplicable reason, we will hear from His Grace The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. I’m particularly annoyed at this as His Grace presides over a church that is still established. It may be that His Grace will take this opportunity to set out what step he will take to disestablish the Church of England and follow the Church of Ireland and the Church in Wales. However, I very much doubt it.

I do not understand how the Church of England can remain established in the modern world. It is equally horrendous that His Grace and eight other bishops voted to wreck the Equal Marriage bill in the House of Lords on 4th June 2013. For some reason His Grace believed that it was right to try to stop anyone from having a same-sex marriage – not just those who may wish to in by the rites of the Church of England. Not intent on stopping such marriages in the Church of England, they were stopped for the Church in Wales as well – which itself had been disestablished over a hundred years ago. Somehow, equal marriage would

“weaken” existing marriage, adding that ministers were confusing “equality” with “uniformity”

bbc.co.uk

Obviously, this is patent nonsense. Let us hope he has learnt that this is not the case.

I hope that His Grace will learn from the experience of the Anglican Church on this island. We are free to shape our future. It is time the Anglican Church in England was free to do without being caught up with the UK Parliament having a say.