Queen's Role as Head of Church of England 'May No Longer Be Appropriate'

The Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12/6/11 | Rowena Mason

[marshmallow]

The Queen’s role as head of the Church of England may no longer be “appropriate” following changes to the law of succession, a group of MPs has suggested.

Reforms agreed earlier this year by Commonwealth countries would create a potential conflict of interest because they allow a monarch to marry a Roman Catholic, said a parliamentary committee.

It said that if a future heir to the throne were raised as a Catholic, there would be an “obvious difficulty” in that person becoming head of the Anglican Church on their succession.

Under current laws, the Queen is required to “join in communion” with the Church of England and take on the role of Supreme Governor, promoting Anglicanism in Britain.

The report, by the political and constitutional reform committee, said: “The scenario does beg the question of whether it remains appropriate for the monarch to be required to be in communion with the Church of England.

“The most obvious difficulty in having a Catholic monarch – beyond the purely statutory obstacles – is the Crown’s role as supreme governor of the Church of England.” The MPs said that Parliament “may wish to consider” the current relationship between the monarch and the Church of England.

[moose07]

A hole string of interesting possibilities come out of this, History related.
Thanks Ben, As interesting as always.

Regards

[BenKenobi]

Exciting times we live in. :)

Blessings to you and yours.

[Liz]

There’s several Catholic royals.

Princess Diana’s mother was a practicing Catholic.

Her brother made a very Catholic-looking sign of the cross at the procession carrying her bier to the funeral.

Rumor has it that Diana was planning to marry Dodi Fayed in a Catholic church.

[DManA]

Are you saying Dodi Fayed was converting from Muslim to Catholic? There are some people around who would be willing to kill a guy for doing that. I’m just saying.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Henry VIII made up the position so he could divorce, marry and behead as many wives as he wished.

If it's good enough for the King of England, it's good enough for me. Lol.

[rzman21]

The republic is hardly any worse than a monarchy. It’s just as corrupt and moribund.

Having a monarch wouldn’t be much worse than the system we already have.

[rzman21]

Now the Catholic Church can demand its churches back.

[moose07]

The only problem with that is that a large proportion of the remaining small churches where build after QE1 and so are not theirs. Those that would qualify would need extensive restoration.
The large Cathedrals have been totally “redecorated” during the Civil war and would cost a fortune to restore to there former glory.
The monasteries would be an even greater problem as most are now part of the construction materials of the surrounding villages.
To be honest there are sufficient new Catholic Churches around the country, because of the break-up, built over the last two hundred years not to worry about the old crumbling expensive to maintain buildings.
However that could be an interesting situation to watch.

[Liz]

According to the rumor, Dodi was a non-practicing Muslim.

[Cronos]

good. Let the queen become Catholic. Of course, Princess Anne would be Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Prince Charles would become Moslem.

[Cronos]

if they abolish the crown, that will eliminate a lot of tourist dollars

also, it will cause a lot of political tension as technically the Queen is not only Queen of England-Scotland-Wales-northern Ireland but also of Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc.

And the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are only joined by the Crown -- what happens to them?

[Cronos]

not really. The Modern age began in the mid 1700s with the Industrial Revolution in the triangle that is formed between London, Paris and Amsterdam --> Anglican, Catholic and Calvinist

Catholic France, Bavaria (Remember Rudolf Diesel was Catholic.

The Modern Age was more due to Gutenberg's press (and incidently Gutenberg was Catholic ) in the 1400s than to the Protesters in the late 1500s.

the Protestant revolution in Germany led to the creation of Calvinist Prussia -- and its militaristic motto.

This Prussian motto is what conquered the Germans and gave ALL Germans the false stereotype we know them by and which caused WWI and WWII.

so if you mean those profound changes, ok. Also in Scandanavia, there were no profound changes, the monarchy remained and inthe UK despite Cromwell trying to found his own dynasty, the English brought back Charles II and it was only during the George years and accelerated during the Victorian years when the kings did not speak English or spend much time in England (George I and II) or the queen was in mourning for Prince Albert, THOSE were the times when England created the parliamentary system we know today

[Cronos]

note that (from wikipedia) -- The Tearfund Survey in 2007 found that only 7% of the population considered themselves as practising Christians

Ten per cent attend church weekly and two-thirds had not gone to church in the past year

A December 2007 report by Christian Research showed that Roman Catholicism had become the best-attended services of Christian denominations in England, with average attendance at Sunday Mass of 861,000, compared to 852,000 attending Anglican services

[Cronos]

This article is hardly bad mouthing Anglicans leave alone the various other non-Catholic groups. It makes sense that the Queen who is right now the head of the CoE in England, the CoI in Northern Ireland and the Church of Scotland in Scotland, cannot be a practising Catholic and be at the same time a Presbyterian in Scotland, an Anglican in England etc. Some solution needs to be made -- disestablishmentarianism is the solution.

But that will not stop the CoE's decline which is already, sadly, terminal.

[Cronos]

there is no real Jacobite successor left — none has claimed the throne since the early 1800s — some supporters of Victor Emmanuel III did, but I don’t think he himself claimed it. There is no heir/point today.

[Cronos]

to my knowledge Princess Di’s mother became Catholic after her divorce from Princess Di’s father. Don’t know about the brother or about Dodi

[Cronos]

the sad thing is that some of the greatest places of English history are gone — the Abbey where St. Augustine came to Kent is now in ruins. I used to be a member of the British Historical society and it was a tragedy to me that so few visited it — even in the historical sense it is important to England.

[Liz]

Yes, Di’s mom was a convert.

I think her brother’s sign of the cross was a slap at the royal in-laws who he hated with a passion b/c of their treatment of Diana.

BTW, last I heard, the Anglican Church was attempting to reach rapproachement with the Varican-—and had, in fact, reached some sort of agreement.

[Romulus]

The current heir, Franz, prince of Bavaria is a holocaust survivor.

He was imprisoned for political reasons. Dachau was a brutal,murderous place, but it was not part of the "holocaust". Jews slated for extermination were usually shipped to death camps in Poland.

[Romulus]

The established church in England isn't much, but it does provide some worthwhile social glue, and a cultural connection with the ancient, apostolic Church.

At this point they should abolish the royalty

Monarchy is an entirely natural and human form of government. The rationalist hostility to it has almost always been driven by demogogues wishing to control nations by stripping them of their historical and cultural identity.

No Christian can be opposed to monarchy as a principle.