The former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has warned his next successor to steer clear of commenting on policies like immigration.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he was also critical of the most recent Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, for diverting funds away from parish churches towards reparations for slavery.
Carey was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, before being succeeded by Rowan Williams and then Welby.
Welby, who took office in 2013, stood down at the beginning of this year following a report that was critical of his handling of historic sex abuse cases.
Church leaders have recently been heavily critical of Nigel Farage and Reform UK, specifically over the issue of immigration. The acting head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, spoke out against Farage, telling The Mirror that Reform’s plans to deport illegal migrants were “beneath us as a nation”.
The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Steven Croft, published an open letter to Farage saying, “I disagree profoundly with your attempts to politicise the questions of migration and asylum by deliberately increasing fear of the stranger in our communities."
Farage, who recent polls suggest may be the next Prime Minister, hit back at church critics by saying they were out of touch with large swathes of their congregations.
Welby himself came under fire during his time as head of the Church of England when he criticised the previous government's Illegal Migration Bill, which he described as "morally unacceptable" and "politically impractical".
Speaking to The Telegraph, Lord Carey advised against such interventions in future.
“I hesitate to comment on the balance struck on commenting on politics because I’m sure that I did not always get it right. But there needs to be a judicious silence from the Church on specific policies," he said.
“The Church has no more expertise than anyone when it comes to the ins and outs of how we handle migration, for example. We squander our influence when we offer easy platitudes. Yet interventions can have considerable authority when Church leaders comment from clear Christian moral principles in more general terms.”
Carey also advised the next archbishop against shouldering the burdens of leadership alone.
“You are not alone and are not expected to be the saviour of the Church of England," he said.
"Only the good Lord can do that. You are here to lead a team of bishops, clergy and laity – to encourage them, empower them and back them to the hilt.”
Carey was critical of the decision by Welby to pay reparations related to alleged profiteering by the Church of England from transatlantic slavery, suggesting it had diverted much-needed funds away from "neglected" and "woefully and disgracefully underpaid" clergy.
"The last Archbishop of Canterbury gave millions towards historic reparations, money that should have gone to support parish ministry," he said.
