The Church of England should be stripped from Prince Charles’ coronation service and replaced with an ‘oath to the people’ to reflect Britain’s religious diversity, a new report suggests.
Charles will inherit the Queen’s title of supreme governor of the Church of England when he takes the Crown. However the substantial changes to Britain’s religious and cultural outlook since the Queen’s coronation in 1953 have raised questions over whether the new king should continue to hold the title of Defender of the Faith – one adopted by all British monarchs since it was conferred on Henry VIII by Pope Leo X in 1521, before the Tudor king split from the Catholic church.
The UCL Constitution Unit, a respected think tank, has produced a raft of recommendations for the planning the Prince of Wales’ accession to the throne after the Queen, aged 92, dies.