Some years ago, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor caused a bit of a furore when he declared that Britain “was no longer a Christian society”. He was touching on a raw nerve, particularly among Anglicans, as his remarks seemed to call in question the Church of England’s claim to be the religion that the English people still defaulted to.
If that was his intention, I think he was wrong, as the controversy sparked by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent address to the Trades Union Congress has demonstrated. Justin Welby was accused of adopting as his own many of the policies put forward by the Labour Party in its 2017 election manifesto.