Would you opt out of your 'religion' if you had to pay extra 2.5% tax

May I correct something? I did not say to Cher - you could have gone to another church, I did say - is there no other church in your area ?

Much depends on the area one lives , if a city or large town so much easier than if living in a small community to find another church, I am Anglican brought up baptist who sometimes attends Quaker meetings - yes a confused church goer

If I left the Anglican church the Baptist church would be comfortable for me, I couldn't convert to R C , no offence to those of R C faith , it wouldn't be comfortable for me and I couldn't be that obedient anyway

The R C doesn't recognise divorce , if the marriage had been annulled a church wedding would have been allowed, always puzzled me that a marriage where there are children can be annulled

I would opt out. I would be totally disgusted by the idea. Thank goodness we here go on for collections and church member envelopes.

Can a marriage that has produced children, be annulled?

Yes Jingle, the marriage not recognised but the children legitimate

There are grounds other than non-consummation for the annulment of a marriage within the Roman Catholic Church, Anniebach.

x posts. That was in response to your post of 17.02 ab.

Father buggering off forever counts as not fulfilling his side of the marriage contract so, yes, the RC church will annul a marriage like that. I've a vague recollection of my father telling me about that happening in a family with seven children!

The woman who started the RC nuns' Order of the Holy Child Jesus had been married and had five kids before she became a nun. I think her husband was a dead loss as well, but I guess the church might have made allowances for someone who wanted to start a religious order anyway .

I beg your pardon. He wasn't a dead loss exactly. He decided to become a priest. They suffered some dreadful family tragedies. See Cornelia Connelly in Wiki.

I imagine if I had a religion instead of being an atheist I would be wholehearted about it so I would not let an extra £200 or so put me off.

There are nuns who were widows when they took holy orders

I suppose if I were a committed churchgoer I might pay it.

A committed Christian would clearly pay the tax but this seems quite a mess to me and is what happens when governments get mixed up in religion making it a good idea to keep them separate as in the UK.

Synonymous, Church and State is totally separate here where I live- the extra tax is just simply collected at the same time as 'normal' taxes, and passed on to the respective Churches- for ease fo collection.

In the UK, au contraire, since HenryVIII the Head of State is also the Head of the Anglican Church, and the representatives of the Church are highly represented, still today, in the House of Lords as per a right. Can't think of any country apart from the UK where a Church still has such a privileged position in the Government,

You make a good point of course, is that committed Christians, regular Church attenders, do pay- and find themselves not only doing all the hard work behind the scenes, so well described by Elegran earlier- but also subsidising those who do not pay (many of the former are not well-off at all, and many of the latter are quite rich and known to be so).

As said, would you be happy to pay your subs to keep the Golf Club well maintained and running- knowing that a significant number of club users who play golf there, choose not to pay- and can still... play - with YOU and your friends paying the subs (AND spending their time repainting the club house, and helping with maintaining the greens, etc)? Must say I can't think of anyone being happy with that situation- even the nicest and most dedicated players in the club.

So true granjura , many see the church as a building for their use when they want to use it , hatched , matched and dispatched, Christmas and Rememberance Sunday, admirers of architecture , not a thought that the building is there 365 days a year and the building is available 365 days a year because of the hard work of Christians , many work damn hard to raise fund for a new organ, or repairs in the bell tower so music loving atheists, must have the baby baptised atheists , must turn up with my poppy atheists, let the bells ring out on my wedding day atheists can use the building with no thought that a few work hard to keep the building open and available

Feeling rather un Christian this morning sorry

When did tithing drop quietly out of sight in the Church of England? I know it is very common in America's vast collection of commercial churches, and as I was idly looking things up, the way one does, I contrasted the meaning of 'Vicar' and 'Rector'. I learned a Vicar is an incumbent who can collect the tithes but must hind them on, and a Rector collects them and hangs on to them!

Christian Country? Not when more than 50% identify as 'No religion' in forms and surveys, which is, nowadays, the case.

PS: Re the 26 bishops who sit BY RIGHT in the house of Lords, this brings us in line with the only other country to allow such interference in a coutry's administrative processes - yes folks it's just us and Iran!

No idea about Church of England , I am a member of the Church of Wales but think Anglican churches in most countries and very much of the same

There are a lot of abandoned church buildings in the UK. I don't know itf they dropped out of circulation quietly or noisily, but dropped out, unused, they most certainly have.

Some have been converted for other uses. I'm all for that where possible.

Do other countries where there are Anglican communities have bishops in their government, ab? I think that's what feetle was talking about.

No thatbag, feetlebaum referred only to the Church of England not the worldwide Anglican Church

I remember one of my neighbours raving and ranting about some of the Churches being turned into Sikh Temples, a Chinese Church, even a wonderful Jain Temple- and my answer was- if the Christians have abandonned these bulidings because they don't go- would you prefer them to be demolished. And he said yes, at least the demise of the Christians Churches would nto be so obvious, and it would stop the other ***s from using them.

Our village here only has 700 people- we are struggling to keep the budget afloat, and our Council taxes are very high. The Council has to maintain and heat (the heating system is on its last legs) both our lovely 14C Protestant Church (taken over from the Catholics at the Reformation with out local Reformer, Farel, in 1530s) and also the Catholic Chapel, built by Polish refugees of war. The Protestant Church is used about 10 times a year max, a service from time to time, funerals and a few weddings. Almost all the Catholics in the area (like my dad) have now died- and the few that remain go to the services down in the big village in the Valley.

Our generation will continue to maintain them out of respect, even if very few go to Church- but I can well imagine that the next generation will say- we need money for schools, health and leisure/culture- we do not have enough money in the pot- something has to go- and the Church and Chapel will probably be top of the list as so few use them.

The closing of a church is so distressing , attending a deconsecration of a church makes me weep, - not being melodramatic - one is so aware of the hundreds of years people have sat in the building, sang, laughed , cried, prayed , they seem present , it's rather like walking away from an empty house where you know happy families have lived , I really cry .

feetle I think the vicar was originally there vicariously - doing the job on behalf of someone else, in this case the rector who was "ruling" the parish. I also suspect the rector used to pay the vicar a pittance to do the actual work while he (the rector) swanned around socially.

Tithes start to vanish with wealth production and demographic changes in the early/mid 19th century, when parishes one by one went over to a different method of getting funding - and assistance for the poor was differently organised giving rise to parishes uniting to build Union Workhouses Tithe commutation