Prince William was confirmed into the Anglican Church at 14. Princess Catherine followed before her marriage.
I see nothing wrong with the Prince expressing a quiet faith and attending Church mainly on the great civic and religious occasions.
One of the best features of the Anglican settlement was the decision not to make windows into men’s souls. The Church allows worshippers to develop their own faith and understanding aided by the radical ability to read the scriptures in English for one’s self, first granted in the 1530s. This was in contrast to the latin texts and priest led interpretations of Catholicism.
All this matters because when Prince William becomes King he becomes Head of the Church. He should not be cross examined about his faith and doctrine, as the Archbishop is the spiritual leader. She does need to explain her beliefs and offer a faith that others may choose to follow.
I do not think this would be a wise or good time to dis establish the Church given the cultural wars around us. The Prince by saying he is a Christian but not a zealot or weekly attender of Church will in those respects be very representative of modern Anglicans and many Christians in the UK.
Some of the leading clerics could help by talking more of faith and God and less of social and benefits policy. The Church of England has lost a lot of conservative support by appearing to be the Green and Lib Dem parties in the pulpit, equating morality with higher public spending. Their lobbying nearly always assumes economic and moral problems in society can be resolved by government intervention and by more taxes and public spending.
When an MP who started out sympathetic to the Anglican Church I had to deal with many emails from clerics complaining about social and welfare policy and siding with the Lib Dems and organised email campaigns. They never wrote to me about the Anglican settlement and never mentioned God or Christ in their correspondence. They were often badly informed about economic policy, wealth distribution, progressive taxation and welfare where they often wished to condemn before understanding the data and the basis for the policy.They usually recommended policies that would have increased unemployment and slowed growth, as Labour has proved by increasing spending, taxes and borrowing on taking office,
March 23, 2026
The Anglican Church has really lost its way. It started in the 60s when, as a consequence, I left it and became non-Conformist. One of the best Christian cleric speaking about today’s issues is Dr Gavin Ashenden. He is Roman Catholic. I have fundamental disagreements with (and some dreadful experiences with) the RC Church but I respect it for not bending to wokery and fashionable trends as has the Anglican church.
You haven’t mention King Charles but he is part of the problem. I was appalled when he changed the coronation oath to be defender of faith, meaning all faiths, and the Church allowed him to do so. Only a man with a ouija board could believe two contradictory faiths at the same time (pace F. Scott Fitzgerald). Elizabeth II was, sad to say, England’s last Christian monarch
March 23, 2026
Anglicanism has morphed from Christianity into yet another “woke” left-wing, Globalist branch of the Establishment. I was brought up in the Methodist Church since my late mother and her siblings had been evacuated to live with a Methodist Lay Preacher during the war and he became her surrogate father for most of her childhood. Even the generally left-leaning Methodist Church of my childhood in the ’60s and ’70s wasn’t as extreme as the current C of E.
We are going to need a far more muscular strand of Christianity to defend this nation from an attempted Islamist takeover, as demonstrated by the (disgraceful) recent examples of Muslim intimidation in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere.
Bishop Ceirion Dewer appears to have both the necessary faith and cojones.
https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/open-letter-to-his-majesty-king-charles-iii/
March 23, 2026
O’Sullivan’s Law:-
“Any organization or enterprise that is not expressly right-leaning in politics will, over time, drift to be left-leaning.”
Even many they were initailly right leaning. It is easy and perhaps gives you a warm feeling to be “kind” using other people money that you have stolen off them or will do shortly.
Indeed organisation in general tend to attract trustees and members of a lefty disposition and often suffer from totally deluded group think. Look at the now dire Royal Society first page on their webside is all about “A Women in Stem Map”, they also pushed the Net Zero/Climate alarmist lunacy for years and have said little about the net harm covid vaccines and lockdowns. How the mighty have fallen.
I have no objection to Women etc. in Stem, engineering or chess or computer science… when they are there on merit – but when only about 20% of some science A levels are female it seems a lot of women are simply not very interested. The idea of pushing for 50/50 by gender is therefor as evil and discriminatory as the RAF banning white pilots. Surely any decent scientist of whichever gender can see this?
March 23, 2026
The Royal Society seem rather keen on LGBTQIA+ too like nearly all other such UK organisations.
https://royalsociety.org/blog/2022/11/lgbtq-stem-day/
Why do they not just discuss the real science they are doing rather than it all being about them?
March 23, 2026
I am happy for the heir and his wife to be ‘quiet’ Christians.
It will be an improvement on the current situation.
I hope they will desist from stunts: dressing up and attending the religious events of other faiths.
I hope they will desist from attending on the Pope with the Queen dressed from head to toe in black!
I am very unhappy with the religious leaders of the Church of England.
Our great churches and cathedrals are for our Protestant church exclusively.
If a Roman Catholic enters a Protestant church, it always was that they were thereby automatically excommunicated.
It is claimed that anywhere the Adhān is performed is a declaration of spiritual authority over the space where it is proclaimed for all time, whether that be St George’s Hall, Trafalgar Square or Bristol Cathedral.
Our Protestant religious leaders should know that. Something must be done!
March 23, 2026
I do wish King Charles and P. William would, for the sake of the Monarchy. keep quiet about their other religions of Climate Alarmism and Net Zero they should:-
A. Keep out of politics wether right or wrong.
B. On this he is totally wrong on this anyway (as his daft past pronouncements have proved)
C. It makes him a grade on hypocrite which is not a good look for him.
Still I do not suppose he is very likely to grow up and get real now at his age. He seems to have dropped his Homeopathy enthusiasm for his cancer treatment though.
March 23, 2026
“They usually recommended policies that would have increased unemployment and slowed growth, as Labour has proved by increasing spending, taxes and borrowing on taking office” Indeed well logic as we know is no a stand point of religious leaders and believers nor of the Labour Party. The tend to work mainly with envy and irrational emotions and assume they can access load of other people’s money to waste usually doing net harms. Look at the drivel our unelected Bishops in the Lords endlessly come out with.
I certainly was an atheist well before I left primary school. I was in a CofE Choir in a reasonable northern church choir (which I very much enjoyed and gave me a love of music and improved my football skills before and after -but listening to all the sermons and lessons certainly confirmed my atheism.
I was particularly amused by the “thanks to the Lord for saving” say 2 children buried for days under a building following an earthquake & yet never blaming him for the earthquake itself that killed another 5000+ or not rescuing these people. Still as the vicars do like to say “God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform” – this when they cannot find anything more sensible to say.
March 23, 2026
“Not a strong point” rather!
March 23, 2026
LL,
I could imagine you as Witchfinder General, hunting down clergy with PPE degrees and other schooling to which you object.
March 23, 2026
I do not object to such schooling but it might be good if they stopped lecturing us on things like Climate when so often they do not even know the difference between power and energy and their units or what Entropy is. I even remember Lady Thornberry (a shadow energy Sec. at the time I think) telling the nations we could rely on wave energy when the wind did not blow – what did she think causes waves I wonder? Giants dropping large stones perhaps?
I do not lecure them on Beowulf or Greek translations – though PPE grads often need a bit of help with logic & economics! Look at the dire Ed Miliband who might even replace Starmer or Reeves shortly!
March 23, 2026
Anglicanism originated as a means for Henry VIII to get divorced. It was more a practicality than a great difference of belief, as in other ruptures on the continent.
The more fervent types split over time. Wesleey and his followers became Methodists. They split too with Primitive Methodism.Then they reunited.
Some Anglicans returned to Catholicism after the Oxford Movement. Meanwhile all manner of Protestant sects were set up, usually without clergy.
.
As faith dwindled.there have been pressures for the Church of England to reflect the zeitgeist – or even worse the political principles of the main parties. Anglicans in other parts of the world, notably Africa, are unhappy with this and may break away and become independent.
Neither the present king nor his son are particularly religious. This is awkward as the king is supposed to be the head of the church. The prince’s words are probably fence building before he comes to the throne.
March 23, 2026
Two big changes occurred.
They did not Raise the Host during the service. Henry VIII went a bit wobbly on this as he lost his faculties in age, but Elizabeth I was adamant and called out instructions to the Clergy mid service if they disobeyed the Protestant Ruling.
Loyalty was not divided between country and a foreign, very earthly power sited in The Vatican to this day.
March 23, 2026
RIP Sir Tony Hoare, one of the foundational greats in Computing and software engineering.
March 23, 2026
St. Matthew 6: 5 – 6.
March 23, 2026
With regard to the second paragraph, most people in England were illiterate during the 16th century. Few owned books.
Reply The bible and prayer book in English were widely available. People who could not read could hear the bible readings in Church.
March 23, 2026
You have raised an interesting conflation of Church and modern socialist ideology John. Your experience of Anglian officials always siding with the socialist/left side of the political spectrum, may explain why the traditional church is dying. The followers of Christianity in Britain have for centuries been a quiet body of supporters. People not given to showing their beliefs every Sunday, and in many cases never outside of Christenings, Marriages and Funerals.
That casual allegiance to their background faith is considered a weakness by the rise of Islam whose members make a point of public shows of their dedication to their religion and more importantly its strict rules and instructions.
We must hope and pray the next King of these islands meets his obligation of that ancient office. Let us hope and pray he states at his Coronation his obligation to his people, is to be the defender of ‘the’ faith.
March 23, 2026
Agreed Lord John ( I am a ‘quiet’ Catholic )
“Give unto Ceasar what is Ceasars..” and don’t try telling Ceasar how to do his job either…
March 23, 2026
Your concluding comments about the twisted priorities of corresponding clerics brings to mind the reaction of Bishop Trevor Huddleston to Enoch Powell’s frequently misdescribed 1968 speech. Enoch had to explain carefully that the clergy ought not to press for their flock to be burdened with challenges so as to test their resilience, because the clergy were unaccountable for such burdens: clerics should draw the line at preaching about virtue, politicians having the task of passing laws to enforce virtue.
March 23, 2026
Indeed. Prince William should be supported in this approach and certainly not interrogated as to his faith. Modern technology and in particular applications like X and YouTube are having a similar effect to the radical reformation policy of publishing the Bible in English. The priesthood no longer had a monopoly on the dissemination of truth, and could be questioned and challenged. No wonder the catholic establishment hated it so much. Today our modern priesthood is the blob. During Covid we were constantly exhorted to follow ‘The Science’ (a meaningless term). But we could now access dissenting scientists and see the data for ourselves. It turned out that much of ‘the Science’ was nonsense and the prescriptions of the blob have been hugely damaging. We see the same with the challenges to net zero, a policy which until a few years ago was also protected from challenge by the equivalent of the heresy laws of the Middle Ages. It is a very positive development.