She was true to that vow. Her devotion to “Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace” was a fundamental and defining, if sometimes overlooked, pillar of her life. Now, as her son Charles III takes over, he has presumably accepted the responsibilities of his religious titles without reservation. But he will bring to the role a markedly different personal vision of religion and spirituality. What kind of monarch will King Charles III be? Different from his mom. “The Queen has been very clear about her Christian faith, but Charles’s is of a different nature,” said Ian Bradley, emeritus professor of cultural and intellectual history at the University of St Andrews, who has written extensively on faith and the monarchy. “His is more spiritual and intellectual. Charles is more of a “spiritual seeker”. “ While the monarch’s authority within the church is largely ceremonial, it still matters. The king would formally approve all new bishops, for example. And crown pronouncements, especially about something as personal as belief in God, carry special weight. Particularly in her later years, Queen Elizabeth II was clear in expressing her beliefs, often invoking the “guiding light” of Jesus, especially in her annual televised Christmas message watched by millions. Many trace the change in tone to her Christmas speech in 2000, when she said, “For me, the teachings of Christ and my personal responsibility before God provide a framework within which I try to lead my life.” The queen was sometimes referred to as the “last true believer,” said Stephen Bates, the Guardian’s long-time, now retired, religion and royal correspondent. “She is the most religious ruler ever [Protestant] Reformation’ of the 16th century, he said. While public declarations of faith are second nature — if not required — to US leaders, they are unusual in Britain, a deeply secular nation where an aide to former prime minister Tony Blair once said, “We don’t do God.” “We have a kind of discomfort with our politicians and leaders expressing their faith, and to some extent that extends to the monarchy,” Bradley said. “Regarded as un-British.” Despite declining church membership and influence in everyday British life, the monarch remains a powerful ecclesiastical symbol. British coins have the queen’s likeness and letters in Latin that mean “By the Grace of God, Queen and Defender of the Faith.” Like his mother, Karolos is a regular churchgoer and is clear that his faith is Christian. In his first address to the nation, the day after the Queen’s death, Charles mentioned his “responsibility” to the Church of England, “in which my faith is so deeply rooted”. “In this faith and the values ​​it inspires, I was raised to cherish a sense of duty to others and to hold with the utmost respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and system of parliamentary government,” he he said. It was remarkable how quickly he placed faith in the context of more mundane “values” and “duty.” In a life of 73 years as king-in-waiting, when he was able to speak more freely than he can now as monarch, Charles seemed to seek a less dogmatic religious and spiritual attitude — even giving it its own title. Charles said in a 1994 documentary that he was more of a “defender of the faith” than a “The faith.” He questioned the impulse to prioritize a particular interpretation. “People have fought to the death over these things,” he said, “which seems to me a strange waste of people’s energy when we are all really aiming for the same end goal Instead, he said, he preferred to embrace all religious traditions and “the standard of the divine, which I think exists in all of us.” When asked again more than two decades later, he clarified his remarks, saying: “It has always seemed to me that while you are a Defender of the Faith, you can also be a protector of religions.” The title “Defender of the Faith” dates back to the 16th century, when it was granted by Pope Leo I to King Henry VIII for the defense of Catholicism. When Henry broke with the Catholic Church, he kept the title, but now championed the Anglicanism of the Church of England. Charles has long been a supporter of environmental causes, with a passion that Bradley described as “ecologically spiritual.” In his 2010 book Harmony, Charles called for a “sustainability revolution” to reverse environmental threats to the planet, which he blamed in part on the “spiritual dimension of our existence” that has been “dangerously neglected in modern times . “ Prince Charles, once dismissed as a weirdo for talking about plants, brings his environmental philanthropy to COP26 In the book, Charles challenged “empiricism,” the view that since science cannot prove the existence of God, God must not exist. This kind of thinking, he wrote, “takes the soul out of the picture.” In an increasingly multicultural nation with a full rainbow of religions, Charles has long expressed interest in and support for all forms of faith, particularly Islam and Judaism. His mother also broke new ground in this regard. She was the first British monarch to enter a mosque. Unlike her predecessors, she encountered a succession of popes. In her 60th year on the throne, in 2012, she said the church “has a duty to protect the free practice of all religions in this country”. Pope Francis, as well as British Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh leaders, have all paid tribute to Elizabeth after her death. As the Queen spoke more about her faith, British society became more secular. According to the National Center for Social Research, church attendance has fallen sharply over time, with only 12.5 percent of Britons in 2020 considering themselves members of the Church of England, down from almost 36 percent in 1985. Of those who considered themselves Anglicans in 2020, more than 40 percent said they “never” attend services. Similar to the United States, British society in recent years has become less dependent on and structured around institutions that once formed the foundations of everyday life. The center’s research showed that people who claimed “no religion” rose from 34.3 percent in 1985 to nearly 49 percent in 2020. As congregation numbers dwindle, hundreds of historic churches have been decommissioned and turned into apartments, offices, pubs, spas, shops and even sports centers with climbing walls. The church has changed in significant ways, including a decision in 2002 to allow divorcees to remarry in the church. Three years later, Prince Charles and his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles – both divorced – married in a civil ceremony which was blessed soon after in a chapel at Windsor Castle by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Now king, Charles is the first divorced monarch since Henry VIII — although two of Henry’s lavish marriages technically ended in annulment, not divorce. It wasn’t until 2018, when Charles’ son Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle in the same chapel where his father’s wedding was blessed, that the royal wedding of a divorced partner took place with the full blessing of the church. How the Church of England has moved on divorce, from Henry VIII to Meghan Markle However, Charles’ admission of adultery (with Camilla) during his marriage to Princess Diana before their divorce in 1996 did not sit well with some Brits. “Hard to celebrate a man who was an adulterer and has well-known if occult religious views,” said Bates, the former Guardian correspondent. “If the monarchy stumbles, where does the established church go?” In some ways, Charles’ faith – with a greater focus on spirituality than dogma – brings him more in line with the British public. Bradley said a small movement within the church already wants to see it formally disaffiliated from the monarchy and government. In a country with so many religions and so many people who do not identify with any faith, Bradley said the church’s critics wonder “whether it can really claim to be the nation’s church.” “It has given us a lot of confidence,” said Zara Mohammed, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, the largest group representing the UK’s roughly 3 million Muslims. “We regard him as a fan of Islam and a friend of British Muslims. It’s great to see how he realizes how the UK has changed. He sees a more holistic picture and the power of all religions and different communities working together.” While any change in the monarch is unlikely to bring people back to the Church of England, Charles could be a more relatable “Defender of the Faith” for some church members. “He represents those people who maybe don’t have a strong faith, but have a sense that there is love for God,” said Andy Britt, 58. Britt is an IBM human resources executive in London who came with his wife, Jane. , on Sunday morning to lay flowers in honor of the Queen at Buckingham Palace. “It represents a faith and a God that welcomes people, no matter how close they feel,” said Britt, who described himself as a “committed Christian” and a member of the Church of England. “I think it represents a lot of people who just aren’t so sure or who don’t have such strong convictions — people of faith, different faiths or no faith.” Boorstein reported from Washington.