The following is written by Revd Canon Brett Murphy.
It is with a heavy and burdened heart that I must address the latest pronouncement from Buckingham Palace. In the recently published Sovereign Grant report, the role of our Sovereign is now described not as Defender of the Faith, but as one who protects the space for faith within the multi-faith nation.
This is no minor rephrasing. It is a deliberate theological and constitutional retreat.
At his Coronation, His Majesty King Charles III swore a solemn oath before Almighty God and the people of this realm: to maintain and preserve the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law, and to be Defender of the [Christian] Faith. That vow was not ceremonial poetry. It was a binding covenant made in the sight of the living God, in continuity with every anointed monarch since the Reformation. Our late beloved Queen Elizabeth II, of blessed memory, never treated that sacred trust as optional or negotiable. She lived it with quiet, steadfast fidelity to Christ and His Church until her final breath.
To now recast the Sovereign’s ancient duty as a vague protector of faith in a pluralistic marketplace of religions is to abandon that inheritance. It flattens the exclusive claims of the Gospel into one religious option among many. It treats the one true faith, the faith once for all delivered to the saints, as interchangeable with systems that deny the deity of Christ, the authority of Scripture, and the necessity of repentance and faith in Him alone. Its denies the core exclusive truth of Christianity that Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life and the only way to salvation (John 14:6).
This is not tolerance. It is a form of national apostasy.
Recall that earlier this year my Bishop, Cei Dewar wrote a powerful open letter to His Majesty, faithfully reminding him of these very coronation vows and calling upon the Crown to defend the Christian inheritance of this realm. The Palace dismissed it with flippant bureaucracy. That response only deepens the concern.
The risks are grave. The British Monarchy does not derive its ultimate legitimacy from polls, media approval, or even the will of Parliament alone. Its authority has always rested upon its Christian foundation, the anointing, the oath, and the solemn charge to defend the Faith that shaped our laws, our liberties, and our national conscience for more than a thousand years. To erode that foundation is to weaken the very thing that has preserved the Crown through centuries of trial. A throne that no longer unequivocally defends Christ may discover, too late, that it has severed itself from the source of its moral and spiritual authority.
Worse still, we must reckon with the spiritual consequences. Scripture is unambiguous: when kings and nations turn from the living God and accommodate false gods or religious indifferentism, they do not escape judgment. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34). The Lord who raised up this Christian realm can also humble it. To lead the nation, even symbolically, away from exclusive loyalty to Christ is to invite the righteous displeasure of Almighty God upon us all.
I say this with all due respect for the office of the Crown and for His Majesty personally. I pray for him daily. But I cannot remain silent while the faith of our fathers, the oath of the Coronation, and the spiritual identity of this kingdom are further diluted. Silence in such an hour would itself be a betrayal of God, King and Country.
May God grant His Majesty repentance and a renewed resolve to honour the vows he made before the throne of grace. May He raise up faithful voices across this land. And may Christ, the true King of kings and Lord of lords, have mercy upon us all.
Christ is King!
In His service,
Revd Canon Brett Murphy