This Inquiry investigates the relationship between Faith and Nation in the 21st century. Whilst it seeks to be broadly based and wide ranging it is however necessarily limited in scope. A presumption is made throughout the whole of the study of the pre-eminence of the Christian faith within a UK context, though this is not thereby intended to imply marginalisation of the roles of other religious groups. A focus on England in the Inquiry as the main arena for constitutional issues of Church and State is not meant in any way to minimise the importance of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to the debate. Indeed, each of those nations has played an important role, both in supplying submissions to the Inquiry and through representation on the Commission itself. It is acknowledged, however, that in some circumstances the comparative relevance of certain conclusions and recommendations may vary between nations. Also, Scottish and Northern Irish law is not infrequently quite different from English equivalents. The importance of the European Union, especially in constitutional matters and the experience of other nations is readily acknowledged.
However, the Inquiry has necessarily been limited by constraints of space and time in order to keep the project to manageable proportions. It will be readily apparent that the Inquiry has not sought to be exhaustive in scope, although within the overall constraints of the core agenda an attempt has been made to balance breadth with realism and proportion. It is also recognised that political events unfold rapidly. Therefore a cut-off point of September 2005 has been adopted for the sake of this Report.
It should be noted that references in brackets throughout the text of the Report which do not have accompanying footnotes refer to submissions received by the Inquiry. These are detailed in the Index.
