I have translated the text from the English Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar to the head of the English royal house, King Charles III.
I have no idea what it means to be a bishop, as titles, robes, hats and staffs are not something I particularly care about. It may be a small church he represents. I don't know.
I share it because - even though hardly anything will come of it - and regardless of formalities - his GPT-assisted text is highly relevant, as it aligns with the voice one senses rising in the millions over there. Anyone who follows along on X - the world's apparently only remaining free medium - knows this well.
It is worth reading.
Especially if you are culturally Christian.
Do we have a corresponding person with the title 'Defender of the Faith' here at home?
.....
As a bishop I cannot remain silent. Today I have drafted and sent an open letter to His Majesty King Charles III, the wording of which is as follows:
To:
His Majesty, Charles III,
King of the United Kingdom and its realms,
Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
Bearer of the ancient title Defender of the Faith.
Your Majesty,
I write to You neither as politician nor commentator, but as one of Your loyal subjects who - as a bishop in the Church of Christ - cannot remain silent while this realm's Christian foundations are gradually dismantled.
Your Majesty, there exist moments in a nation's life when silence becomes a form of treason. If I failed to speak to You now, this would be such a moment.
For more than a thousand years the Crown in this realm has stood in solemn covenant with the Christian faith.
This land's laws are shaped by it.
Our people's liberties are nourished by it.
Our civilisation's conscience is formed by it.
From the monasteries of the Middle Ages to the parish churches of villages, from the sermons of the reformers to the missionary zeal that carried the gospel to the uttermost ends of the earth - the Christian faith has not merely influenced Britain; it has defined it.
And yet we see today how this inheritance is quietly but deliberately being hollowed out. Across the nation's institutions grows a hostility toward the very faith that created them.
Christian faith is mocked in the public square.
Christian morality is dismissed as intolerance.
Christian institutions are pressed to abandon their teaching to conform to the ideologies of the age.
Within the very church that bears England's name, there are voices that seem more eager to mirror the spirit of the times than to proclaim the eternal truth of the gospel.
Meanwhile - outside the churches' walls - powerful political movements now speak openly of removing Christianity from its historical place in the nation's life.
What was once whispered is now proclaimed openly: that Britain must become a post-Christian state.
It is in this context that I write to You, Your Majesty. For the British Crown does not stand outside this crisis.
The sovereign of the realm bears a title that is not merely historical, but sacred in its origin and meaning: Defender of the Faith. These words are not decorative. They are an obligation.
They testify to a monarch whose duty is not merely to attend the church's ceremonies, but to stand as guardian of the nation's Christian inheritance.
And yet many among Your subjects now ask - with growing unease:
"Who will defend this inheritance today?"
They see a nation sliding away from its foundations. And they ask whether the Crown will remain silent while the inheritance is dismantled.
Your Majesty, permit me to observe that Your coronation oath was not a poetic formality. It was a solemn promise given before Almighty God to uphold and preserve the Protestant Reformed religion as established by law.
These words bind the monarch's conscience. They remind the Crown that its authority is not merely constitutional, but moral. The monarch is not merely a symbol of national continuity, but a steward of the spiritual inheritance that has shaped this realm.
History holds moments when kings and emperors were confronted by the Church and reminded that their authority stands accountable before God. In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan stood before Emperor Theodosius I and reminded him that even a ruler of an empire must bow before the moral law of Christ.
This prophetic tradition has never disappeared - and it should not disappear. For when rulers forget the foundations upon which their authority rests, the Church must speak - not with hostility, but with sacred clarity.
And therefore I write this, Your Majesty: The Christian character of this nation is under profound and accelerating pressure.
If the Crown does not visibly and courageously step forward in defence of this inheritance, history will note that the guardians of Britain's institutions were silent while the foundation was removed.
What is at stake is not nostalgia. It is civilisation.
Remove Christianity from the narrative of Britain, and you do not create a neutral society - you create a moral vacuum. And history teaches us that such vacuums never remain empty for long.
Your Majesty now stands at a crossroads that few modern monarchs have faced.
For the dismantling of Britain's Christian inheritance will not ultimately be judged by speeches in parliament or debates in the press, but by whether those entrusted with guarding our ancient institutions chose to defend them - or merely to witness their quiet surrender.
You may choose to witness the quiet dissolution of Britain's Christian identity. Or You may step into the responsibility that history has placed upon the Crown, and speak with clarity about the faith that built this realm.
The first path requires little courage.
The second will require much.
But it is the path that history honours.
Your subjects are not asking for religious coercion. They are asking for leadership. They are asking that the monarch who bears the title Defender of the Faith remember what that title means.
They are asking that the Crown hear the growing cry of anguish from Christians in this land who experience their nation's spiritual inheritance being abandoned without resistance. And they ask whether the Crown will stand with them.
For the faith that shaped Britain is not merely a cultural ornament. It is the source from which our laws, our liberties and our moral imagination have sprung. Reject it, and the nation will - too late - discover that it has severed itself from the roots that bore it.
Your Majesty, for many the Crown is a symbol of authority. But before God it is also a symbol of stewardship. And stewardship entails the duty to protect what has been entrusted.
May Almighty God grant Your Majesty wisdom to understand this time - and courage to fulfil the sacred obligation that rests upon the Crown.
With respectful regards,
Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar FSHC
Missionary Bishop
Diocese of Providence
Confessing Anglican Church
