Law and religion roundup – 11th February

Asylum seekers

At Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con) said this:

“In the 10 years to COVID, the number of baptisms in the Church of England has fallen from 140,000 a year to 87,000, so Christianity in the UK seems to be on the wane, unless, apparently, you are from a Muslim country in the middle of an asylum claim. We are now told that one in seven occupants of the Bibby Stockholm has suddenly become a practising Christian. Given that the Church of England has now issued secret guidance to clergy supporting asylum applications for these Damascene conversions, to whom is the Church accountable? Are taxpayers being scammed by the Archbishop?” (901400)

In response, the Archbishop of Canterbury took the unusual step of issuing this statement on the following day: Continue reading