Welby’s bid to placate statue topplers could backfire

I’m a Church of England vicar and I’m worried about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s planned review of statues and monuments. The church, we have been told, hopes to ‘play a leading role’ in facilitating ‘meaningful dialogue’ and apply ‘justice’ with ‘real outcomes’ in assessing statues. But what does this mean for churches like mine?

Anglicanism prides itself on being a highbrow form of Christianity. It operates in subtleties and niceties. In Anglican-speak, the expectation is that a ‘review’ is a modest bureaucratic exercise where a few monuments are quietly mothballed into vestries and some ethnically diverse depictions of Christ commissioned. If so, there is little to worry about. But will that be enough for the statue topplers?

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Ross Clark

Britain is living beyond its means

I’m not convinced. Instead, I fear that unguarded comments from the church’s senior figures could give those who don’t care about Anglican congeniality and ecclesiastical procedures the green light to take matters into their own hands.