Elizabeth II and the long decline of the Church of England

When the United Kingdom’s new King Charles III addressed the nation for the first time on Friday after his accession to the throne, he paid tribute to his late mother, Elizabeth II, and spoke of his sorrow and that of others.

But amid the emotion and the acknowledgement of loss after her record-breaking 70 years reign, there were references to the complexities of the constitutional set-up of Britain and the way the monarchy, the state and religion – one particular religion – are intertwined. 

He said: "The role and the duties of Monarchy also remain, as does the Sovereign's particular relationship and responsibility towards the Church of England – the Church in which my own faith is so deeply rooted".

That particular relationship is an historic one, dating from the 16^th century when Henry VIII, broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in a dispute over wishing to divorce his queen, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne Boleyn and try and sire a male heir.

Henry’s solution was to found his own church, the Church of England, and make himself its head.

Later, his third child to succeed him, Elizabeth I, decided that only Jesus Christ could be the head, and so called herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England – a title that all monarchs have held ever since.

The Church of England remains the State church, or Established Church as it is known, with many privileges. It has 20 bishops sitting in the House of Lords, the second parliamentary chamber, it crowns the monarch, and is responsible for other major official national church services.

A supervisory but important role

The role of Supreme Governor is supervisory – the monarch leaves the running of the Church of England and the organisation of its pastoral care to its bishops.

But it is nevertheless an important role, with the monarch attending major meetings of the Church and having regular conversations with its leading cleric, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

King Charles’ speech, given just the day after Queen Elizabeth died, would have been years in the making and his staff would have consulted many people about it, not least the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

He and other bishops as well as the laity of the Church of England would have been reassured to hear that endorsement of the Church of England, for there have sometimes been question marks as to Charles’ own devotion to the Church of England, after tensions over his separation and divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales, and his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

He was particularly annoyed that when he married Camilla in 2005, they were only allowed a church blessing, not a full church wedding.

There were no such doubts about the Queen’s relationship with the Church of England.

Throughout her life she was a devout churchgoer. In the last 20 years of her life, her annual Christmas Day broadcasts to the nation became much more personal about her own faith. She told viewers and listeners that the teachings of Jesus Christ “provide a framework in which I tried to lead my life”.

In her Christmas broadcast of 2021 – which turned out to be the last of her reign – she spoke about Jesus as “a man whose teachings have been handed down from generation to generation, and have been the bedrock of my faith”.

Queen Elizabeth continued from 2000 onwards with these explicit remarks after she received a substantial postbag of support for her comments, which were deeply appreciated by not only Anglicans (members of the Church of England) but other Christians too.

But the irony is that, at the same time as the Queen spoke more openly about her own beliefs, the Church of England was in decline.

This is not new. Attendance at Church of England services has been in slow and steady decline for decades, caused mostly by parishioners dying and not being replaced by younger worshippers.

The increase of other religions

Figures for 2019 – the last ‘normal’ year before the Covid pandemic shut so many churches in 2020 and 2021 – showed that there were 1.1 million people who were regular worshippers, of whom 20% were aged under 18, and 33% were aged 70 or over.

Not all attended on Sundays, the conventional day for church attendance –  that number was 690,000.

In the 1950s, when Elizabeth II came to the throne, Britain was much more strongly Christian, although even then, membership of the Church of England was more nominal than active. But 80% of Britons said then that they were Christian.

The historian Peter Hennessy, who has charted the cultural changes of Britain since the Second World War, said "Britain was still a Christian country only in a vague attitudinal sense, belief generally being more a residual husk than the kernel of conviction."

In the 2001 census, 72% of the British population still identified as Christians, but in 2011 only 59% did so.

While the number of people in the United Kingdom saying that they do not belong to a faith has grown considerably, there has also been an increase in the number of people belonging to other faiths, such as Islam and religions from the Indian sub-continent such as Sikhism and Hinduism.

The role of the Church of England rewritten

This was a trend that Elizabeth II acknowledged and she was careful to honour those religions in the broadcasts where she spoke of her own beliefs. She was also careful not to offend people without a faith, knowing she was their Queen too.

She also encouraged the involvement of other faiths in the annual Commonwealth Day services, held in Westminster Abbey, the same church where she was crowned and where her funeral will take place on Monday, and where her son, Charles III, will eventually be crowned.

In 2012 she made an historic speech – although little noticed at the time, in which she rewrote the role of the Church of England, saying, “Its role is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. Instead, the Church as a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country”.

In the past few days, since the Queen’s death, the role of the Church of England in public life has been reasserted.

At a memorial service for Elizabeth II in St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullaly, used her sermon to say: “All of us are grieving the loss of our Head of State, Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England”.

Coronation ceremony

Then, at the Accession Council on Saturday, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York attended to witness the new King’s formal accession ceremony.

But it is at the Coronation that the Church of England’s role will be most evident.

In 1952, that was unquestioned. It still remains the official church, but today, there are the other nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have asserted themselves and there is a need to involve their national Protestant churches too, when the English church crowns the monarch.

There are likely to be discussions too, in the coming months about how involved representatives of other Christian denominations might be and other faiths too.

The Queen, throughout her reign, managed a fine balancing act between being an Anglican but also Queen for those of other religions and those of none.

Now the Church of England and the new King have that same task – to remain true to themselves but find a way of making others feel part of what is to come. 

Catherine Pepinster was editor of The Tablet from 2004-2016.