A bishop from the Confessing Anglican Church (CAC) has called upon His Majesty King Charles III to end the “erosion of Britain’s Christian inheritance” and to live up to his title as “Defender of the Faith”.
Ceirion H Dewar is a missionary bishop in the CAC. The CAC was founded in 2019 and, although not a part of the Anglican Communion, sees its spiritual roots as going back to the earliest days of Christianity in the British Isles.
In an open letter to the King, Bishop Dewar wrote, “For more than a thousand years the Crown of this realm has stood in solemn covenant with the Christian faith.”
Citing over a millennium of Christian history on these islands, Dewar said that that heritage “is being quietly but deliberately eroded” by increasingly hostile institutions.
“Christian belief is mocked in the public square. Christian morality is dismissed as intolerance. Christian institutions are pressured to surrender doctrine in order to conform to the ideology of the age," he wrote.
Bishop Dewar also appeared to reference plans by the Green Party, which recently won the Gorton and Denton by-election, to disestablish the Church of England.
“Powerful political movements openly speak of removing Christianity from its historic place within the life of this nation. What would once have been whispered is now proclaimed openly: that Britain must become a post-Christian state," he said.
The King should, Dewar argued, take his role as “Defender of the Faith” as a responsibility and a charge from God, and not as an empty title.
Prior to his ascension to the throne, King Charles had in the past suggested he wished to be a “defender of faith”, which upset those who felt that such a view ran counter to the monarch’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. In the end, he did indeed inherit the title of "Defender of the Faith" without any resistance when he did eventually assume the throne. Since then, he has continued to be a keen champion of inter-faith relations, something he was very committed to prior to becoming King.
In his letter, Dewar argued that the King now “stands at a crossroads” and that the choices he makes will have a profound impact on the country.
“You may preside over the quiet dissolution of Britain’s Christian identity. Or you may rise to the ancient responsibility entrusted to the Crown and speak with clarity about the faith that built this kingdom. The first path requires little courage. The second will require a great deal. But it is the path that history honours," he said.
The bishop ended with a prayer that God would grant King Charles wisdom and courage.
