This is the time of year when Church of England (CofE) parishes elect churchwardens. Each parish should have two churchwardens. The process of nomination and election is, in typical CoE fashion, set out in labyrinthine regulations.
A prospective candidate has to be a baptised member of the CofE, on the church electoral roll of the parish, be aged 21 or over, a regular communicant and not disqualified on a number of grounds related to charity law and safeguarding. A candidate has to be nominated by two persons either on the church electoral roll or on the electoral register of the local authority in the geographical area covered by the church parish. Thus candidates for churchwarden may be nominated by non church members.
The election is held at the Annual Meeting of Parishioners (AMP). It is possible that attendees who are on the civil register may outnumber individuals on the church electoral roll. So in theory the parish could end up with two churchwardens nominated and elected by non church members! A huge potential for mischief.
However a procedure exists whereby the church minister may select one of the candidates to be a churchwarden and announce his decision to the AMP. This person is withdrawn from the election process and the AMP then proceeds to elect the second churchwarden from the remaining candidates. More scope for mischief.
Churchwardens are ex-officio members of the Parochial Church Council (PCC). Other PCC lay members are elected by the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) limited to church members.
Should the CoE be disestablished then the rules governing the election of churchwardens may well change so that it becomes purely an internal matter for the church and the decisions on election taken solely by the APCM. Disestablishment is very low on the political agenda. Whilst bishops would lose their seats in the House of Lords should there be a move to a second chamber elected in its entirety, of itself it would not be disestablishment.
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