The Church of England is waning – and the Prince of Wales seems to be in no mood to help

Jan 19, 2024 by Jill

by Eliot Wilson, inews:

William should understand that the sacral aspect of the monarchy is much bigger than him.

There are some obvious differences, but the Prince of Wales is in many ways typical of well-to-do, public-school-and-university 40-somethings. He is not especially religious – a minority of his age cohort professes a faith – and does not find that the Church of England’s teachings resonate with him.

A “senior Palace figure”, quoted in Robert Hardman’s new biography of Charles III, summed up Prince William’s attitude. “He very much respects the institutions but he is not instinctively comfortable in a faith environment.”

This marks a sharp divide between the Prince of Wales and both his father, who is intensely curious about faith and maintains a deep sense of his own spirituality, and his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, whose adherence to the Church of England was central to her world view.

[…] However, if he is tempted to begin picking away at the constitution and the place of the Church of England within it, he should exercise caution.

The church was established in 1534 under the First Act of Supremacy, and it was about sovereignty and control (sound familiar?) rather than theology. Since the Thirty-Nine Articles were promulgated in 1571, it has professed a moderate Protestant faith, and there is an 85 million-strong international Anglican Communion. But the Church of England exists, essentially, because it is the established church, tightly interwoven into the fabric of Britain.

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Watch: William to ditch the Church of England? with Gavin Ashenden