Antidisestablishmentarianism (, ) is a position that advocates that a
state Church
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...
(the "established church") should continue to receive government patronage, rather than be disestablished.
In 19th century Britain, it developed as a political movement in opposition to
disestablishmentarianism
Disestablishmentarianism is a movement to end the Church of England's status as an official church of the United Kingdom.
Anglican disestablishment Irish church
The campaign to disestablish the Anglican Church of Ireland began in the 18th cent ...
, the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
's efforts to
disestablish
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...
or remove the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
as the
official state church of England,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. The Church's status has been maintained in England, but in Ireland,
the Anglican Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871. In Wales, four Church of England
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...
s were disestablished in 1920 and became the
Church in Wales
The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses.
The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The pos ...
. In colonial America, the Church of England was disestablished in six colonies despite its mild popularity in Anglicanism in the 1780s and many former Anglicans deemed themselves Episcopalians instead.
''Antidisestablishmentarianism'' is also frequently noted as one of the
longest non-scientific words in the English language.
History
The matter of disestablishment of the Church of England is an ongoing issue, often tied with the position of the
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Baili ...
as
"Supreme Governor" of the Church (see
Act of Settlement 1701
The Act of Settlement is an Act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, be ...
).
British philosopher
Phillip Blond
Phillip Blond (born 1 March 1966) is an English political philosopher, Anglican theologian, and director of the ResPublica think tank.
Early life
Born in Liverpool and educated at Pensby High School for Boys, Blond went on to study philosophy ...
, an advocate of the antidisestablishmentarian position, argues that England having a state church has prevented the country from embracing any sort of ethnic or racial nationalism.
Blond has stated that official patronage of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
has allowed the country to withstand and speak against totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century that were plaguing other parts of the world.
He further opined that "Just as we need the church to protect the political, so we need it to protect the idea of civil society."
Blond concludes that the "church establishment in England creates a more diverse political and social life, prevents religious extremism and helps to minimise partisan conflict and secular violence."
Giles Coren, a British writer, supports antidisestablishmentarianism because it allows all English people to receive meaningful
rites
Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited, abbreviated as RITES Ltd, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Government of India. It is an engineering consultancy corporation, specializing in the field ...
such as marriage.
In April 2014,
Nick Clegg
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicep ...
, then
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom is a minister of the Crown and a member of the British Cabinet. The office is not always in use, and prime ministers may use other offices, such as First Secretary of State, to indicate the se ...
and
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a political party in the United Kingdom. Party members elect the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the head and highest-ranking member of the party. Liberal Democrat members of Parliament also elect a deputy leader o ...
, said that he thought the Church of England and the British state should be separated "in the long run".
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
at the time, responded to Clegg's comments by stating that the position was "a long-term Liberal idea, but it is not a
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
one", adding that he believed the existence of an established church is beneficial.
Word length
The word ''antidisestablishmentarianism'', with 28 letters and 12 syllables (an-ti-dis-es-tab-lish-ment-ar-i-an-is-m), is one of the longest words in the English language. It is estimated to be the 6th largest word in the English dictionary.
[What is the longest English word?]
Oxford Dictionaries Online
Lexico was a dictionary website that provided a collection of English and Spanish dictionaries produced by Oxford University Press (OUP), the publishing house of the University of Oxford. While the dictionary content on Lexico came from OUP, ...
However, the word is not recorded in Merriam Webster's dictionary of American English.
See also
*
Accommodationism In law and philosophy, accommodationism is the co-existence of religion with rationalism or irreligion. It may be applied to government practice or to society more broadly. Accommodationist policies are common in liberal democracies as a method of g ...
*
Christian amendment
Christian amendment describes any of several attempts to amend a country's constitution in order to officially make it a Christian state.
In the United States, the most significant attempt to amend the United States Constitution by inserting ex ...
*
Christian nationalism
Christian nationalism is Christianity-affiliated religious nationalism. Christian nationalists primarily focus on internal politics, such as passing laws that reflect their view of Christianity and its role in political and social life. In coun ...
*
Christian state
A Christian state is a country that recognizes a form of Christianity as its official religion and often has a state church (also called an established church), which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by ...
*
Constitutional references to God
Constitutional references to God exist in the constitutions of a number of nations, most often in the preamble. A reference to God in a legal text is called ''invocatio dei'' ('invocation of God') if the text itself is proclaimed in the name of th ...
*
Floccinaucinihilipilification
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History of Christian flags
The history of Christian flags encompasses the establishment of Christian states, the Crusader era, and the 20th century ecumenical movement.
National flags of predominantly Christian countries
Christian empires, such as the Kingdom of Georgia, ...
*
Honorificabilitudinitatibus
Honorificabilitudinitatibus (''honōrificābilitūdinitātibus'', ) is the dative and ablative plural of the medieval Latin word ''honōrificābilitūdinitās'', which can be translated as "the state of being able to achieve honours". It is ment ...
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Longest word in English
The identity of the longest word in the English language depends upon the definition of what constitutes a word in the English language, as well as how length should be compared.
Words may be derived naturally from the language's roots or form ...
*
Longest words
The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration.
Agglutinative languages allow for the creation of long words via compounding. Words con ...
*
National church
A national church is a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a draft discussing ...
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Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
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Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism
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Separation of church and state
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular s ...
*
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" ( ) is a song and single from the 1964 Disney musical film ''Mary Poppins''. It was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It also appears in the 2004 stage show ver ...
*
Theonomy
Theonomy, from ''theos'' (God) and ''nomos'' (law), is a hypothetical Christian form of government in which society is ruled by divine law. Theonomists hold that divine law, particularly the judicial laws of the Old Testament, should be observed ...
Citations
General and cited references
* Adrian Hastings, ''Church and State: the English Experience'' (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1991.)
External links
{{Spoken Wikipedia, Anti spoken article2.ogg, date=2008-04-28
English words
Long words
Political theories
Religion in the United Kingdom