Who do they think they are, the theocrats? Who do they think made them boss?
At least 200 Anglican primaries and secondaries could be established within the next five years as part of a major expansion plan outlined by the Church.
A report – to be published later this week – will also recommend rebranding existing Anglican schools to “reinvigorate” them in the face of competition from new academies and free schools.
So these will all be state schools, taxpayer-funded schools, run for the benefit of churches and their priests. Why?
The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, chairman of the Church’s board of education, said major reform was needed to tackle “the level of religious illiteracy in our society”.
He also said the changes – to be formally outlined in a report released on Friday – would allow faith leaders to confront the growing influence of secularism.
But why should they be confronting the influence of secularism at all? Especially at taxpayer expense? Secularism doesn’t mean the bulldozing of churches, it means No Theocracy Thank You.
Bishop Pritchard said: “The whole national context is one in which secularist debates, whether it be on equality, gay marriage, employment in schools, a whole range of things, are bringing up the issues of secularist versus [religious] approaches to society’s life.”
Yes it does, and why should the Anglican church be helped to push its approach to society’s life by indoctrinating children at taxpayer expense?
Currently, the CofE runs 4,800 out of 23,000 state schools in England.
But the Church is keen to expand its influence on the back of the academies and free schools programme, which takes schools out of direct local authority control and places them in the hands of charities, entrepreneurs and faith groups.
Grab grab grab.