‘The Church of England is dying’, warns former Queen’s Chaplain
by Rev Jules Gomes, The Conservative Woman:
Rev Dr Jules Gomes interviews Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden, Former Chaplain to the Queen, who was forced to resign after he protested against the reading of the Koran at St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow. The reading on the Feast of the Epiphany explicitly denied the divinity of Christ.
Jules: Most people view the Queen, as a “Defender of the Faith.” Don’t you find it ironic that as one of her Chaplains you should be forced to resign precisely for upholding that role on behalf of Her Majesty?
Gavin: Yes, it is ironic. But the irony can partly be explained by the fact that while the DNA of the monarchy is Christian, the country is not. The monarchy faces difficulties as it prepares for the coronation of Prince Charles at the sad moment when our present Queen dies. Secularism will try to rubbish the highly potent Christian content of the coronation; and Islam is likely to claim that it wants to be recognised within it in some way.
In fact, a previous bishop of Oxford has foolishly suggested that Muslims be accommodated by having the Koran read in the coronation. Since the Koran is predicated on rebutting the claim of Jesus to be the Word made flesh, that seems wholly contradictory and undesirable. So we face a struggle for the integrity of Christianity provoked by the issues that a Christian coronation ceremony brings up in a so-called multicultural Britain. I can see why the monarchy’s advisers are anxious about how to play the future. In my view you gain nothing by watering down Christianity. It’s wrong in principle and foolish in practice. It’s like paying Danegeld—and look what that achieved.
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