Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke last week about the need for a moral state that is not theocratic or confessional.
Portions of the talk appear as a column in the Sunday Times.
Here are excerpts of the column:
I believe that it is possible for a state to have a moral basis without thereby becoming confessional or theocratic. It involves a state being ready to recognise its own history; to say that its horizons and assumptions are indeed grounded in a set of particular beliefs, and to embody in its political practice ways of allowing those foundational commitments to be heard in public debate.
and
What is needed in Britain is a set of conventions that will allow government to hear voices unconstrained by electoral anxiety and narrow considerations of practical profitability.