King Charles is now not Defender of faith

[Smokeywater]

King Charles is now not Defender of the Faith for Church of England Christian -
in the Sovereign Grant Report 2025-26
Where last year’s report described the King as “Head of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith,” this year’s version reads: “His Majesty is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and protects the space for Faith within the multi-faith nation.”

Doesnt seem a great move to me - he has a historical role as King and messing about with that role diminishes it imv - if you can just change things overnight why not change other things like being crowned in a big carry on by the Archbishop of Canterbury - William can just give that a miss and have a chinwag with a few other religious leaders.

It does mean they are obsolete rules as they are no longer part of a practicing faith ( except maybe parts of a teeny tiny fringe) and therefore they are utterly irrelevant to bring up in discussion of religion in society.

Yes but it's true !

Regardless of anyone's preferences for Camilla / Diana the fact is that it's hard to accept that someone who appears unfamiliar with the Ten Commandments (or at least the seventh one) can be "deeply Christian".

Charles has been saying for many years he wanted to be defender of the faiths. In our multicultural society I think this is a good move.

Who decides this? It seems to be an arbitrary decision. Can he write anything?

Rather arrogant to set yourself up with the title defender of faiths. Who does he think he is to think he has the right to call himself this? Silly man.

What's wrong with this? He's moving on from the 16th Century.

@EasternStandard it isn't a constitutional change, as far as I am aware. His proper constitutional title remains "Supreme Governor of the Church of England".

He has changed the religious wording in the recently published Sovereign Grant AR&A 25-26. The previous report described one of the King's constitutional roles as: "Head of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith."

The new report says: "His Majesty is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and protects the space for Faith within the multi-faith nation." It also includes that the King has "a special role in bringing communities and faiths together."

It is hardly wild stuff or in contradiction to any of his previously stated preferences to be inclusive of all faiths. Maybe it was a shot across the bows to see what reaction it would get.

This, absolutely. I'm sure that the spiritual concerns of CofE members will have been at least as material to the change as any thoughts about Islam. Most observant UK Christians, like most UK Muslims, feel affinity rather than antagonism, to observant people of other faiths. They practise their faiths in a fraternal way and want to remove barriers to mutual nourishment.

In any case, the questions around the monarchy's role in relation to faith, in a country where relatively few people are observant Christians, have been around all of my life, since way before all the angsty hostility to Islam.
It is simply an act of modernisation. So what if observant Muslims are .one part of the demographic that makes this a reasonable change.

Slippery slope towards a blasphemy law.

Catholics, the largest Christian denomination in the world, does not allow women priests because of what the Bible says. I would say that makes it relevant.

Still have then in NI apparently. Scotland got rid of them just on 2024. Eng and Wales 2008.

Um, wasn't that whole crucifixion thing something to do with the fact that we are all sinners and seek redemption?
"Let he who is without sin make the first moralistic tweet demanding cancellation", as Jesus famously said

Ok thanks. So he has the same constitutional title but has modified the title elsewhere.

It’s making me appreciate democracy more, if people don’t want something they get a vote.

@MyThreeWords - you're totally correct. But the people I know who have done wrong, myself included, don't set ourselves up on some pedestal and pretend to be defending something we never followed in the first place.

I like to see institutions regularly assessing whether their historic agendas, descriptors and policies are meeting current standards and contexts. So I wholeheartedly disagree with you.

'This is the sort of well meaning, naive, 'all religions are the same really' attitude I was referring to above. The modern CoE, or even Christian more broadly attitude, to homosexuality is nothing like that of mainstream Islam either in scale or depth.'

Have you seen the attitudes of so called 'Christian' nationalists in the US, a cult which appears to be trying to make inroads in the UK? You know, the ones supported by Yaxley Lennon and his ilk, with frequent references to crusades?

I think the Christian Good Islam Bad rhetoric is the naive view.

All these religions are medieval just like monarchy itself.

Now you are pretending that those quotes were not about a whole lot of other stuff which no-one pays attention to.

This is preparing the way for William: I’d put money on it. He’s not remotely interested in this stuff. It looks better if Charles waters it down first.

Personally I think once William is utterly pointless in this space and I find him very disappointing.

My local Methodists have a café attached. It's a great place to people watch. I noticed that they celebrate pride now.

It’s been an inappropriate title since about 1534

He should have gone for "Defender of the Earth - Defender!"

Does this mean that the King's government must now defend faiths against legitimate criticism that the adherents of those faiths object to? How about Defender of Freedom of Thought and the right to express thought?

@dustabsorber it means fuck all constitutionally!