London, England - The leader of the world's Anglicans said on Friday that the Church of England will not resist the British government's attempt to repeal the country's blasphemy laws.
"The Church of England... is not going to resist the repeal of the blasphemy laws given their awkward and not very workable legacy at present," Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said in a speech in Durham, north-east England.
Williams' predecessor, George Carey, also supports the move.
The government has proposed scrapping the centuries-old common law offence, which dates from when religious belief was seen as central to life and to threaten or challenge it was deemed dangerous to the very fabric of society.
Blasphemy laws are currently based on decisions made by courts in the 19th century but are restricted to protect the "tenets and beliefs of the Church of England" only.
At a parliamentary debate Wednesday, lawmaker Evan Harris of the opposition Liberal Democrats lead the abolition call, calling the offence "ancient, discriminatory, unnecessary, illiberal and non-human rights compliant".
Williams accepted the repeal -- and the Church's position -- would be contentious, particularly among hardline Christian groups, but said other laws covering the same ground now existed.
A three-month consultation process involving the Church of England and other bodies is now under way.
Supporters of abolition say blasphemy laws are an infringement to free speech and inconsistent as they do not cover other faiths, or even all Christian denominations.
But opponents say scrapping the legislation will effectively mean society has no regard for religion.
Last year a British teacher was jailed in Sudan for insulting Islam for allowing schoolchildren to name a teddy bear Mohammed, the name of the Muslim Prophet.
Some observers here pointed to inconsistencies in the outrage at Sudan's actions while blasphemy was still on the British statute books.