Nevertheless, it is conceivable that England could become sufficiently confident in some secular version of liberal humanism to opt for its establishment instead of that of Anglican Christianity. It could develop secularist public ceremonies to replace Christian ones — as has republican France. It could set about fostering liberal humanist virtues through secular equivalents of churches, liturgies and Bible-study groups. This could happen, but there is little sign of a collective will to make it happen. What Edward Norman wrote in 2003 still seems true now: "There is no widely accepted theoretical or symbolical alternative to the Christian religion as the justification of public moral consciousness." There is no obvious challenger to the sitting candidate. 

Another obvious question my argument raises is this: can the public privileging of a particular religion be compatible with the liberal right to religious freedom? Yes, it can; and in England it is. In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the penalties for religious nonconformity in England were gradually lifted, and non-Anglicans were permitted entry to universities, the armed services, and public office. There is now no public office in England that determines either law or public policy, which may not be filled with non-Anglicans, or non-Christians, or unbelievers. Indeed, given a recent finding that 63 per cent of Americans would be less likely to vote for a candidate who does not believe in God, an agnostic or atheist today has a greater chance of becoming prime minister of the UK than president of the USA. Except on the point of a formal, institutional separation of Church and State, contemporary England meets Nicholas Wolterstorff's criteria for a liberal democratic polity: namely, that "the State must not differentiate in its treatment of citizens on account of their religion or lack thereof, and there must be no differentiation among citizens in their right to voice in the conduct and personnel of the State on account of their religion or lack thereof."

Prima facie evidence that the Anglican establishment is compatible with religious freedom is furnished by the support that many members of minority faiths give it. Tariq Modood claimed in 1994 that it is "a brute fact" that not a single article or speech by any non-Christian faith in favour of disestablishment can be found;  and he wrote that "the minimal nature of the Anglican establishment, its proven openness to other denominations and faiths seeking public space, and the fact that its very existence is an ongoing acknowledgement of the public character of religion, are all reasons why it may be far less intimidating to the minority faiths than a triumphal secularism."

In his polemic, Against Establishment, Theo Hobson argues against this, claiming that "[t]he Wakeham Commission [into the reform of the House of Lords] canvassed the views of 30 faith communities on the question of religious representation in the Lords, and all who responded were opposed to the status quo—all except the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church."  I have searched the Wakeham report for this datum, but in vain. Still, let us grant that it is there, or that the Commission chose not to report it. What Hobson does not tell us is whether the faith communities canvassed were objecting to the presence of Church of England bishops in the House of Lords as such, or whether they merely wanted non-Anglicans to be added to them. Given what Modood and others  have written, there is good reason to assume the latter. And that, of course, does not amount to an objection to establishment per se at all.