The former chaplain to the late Queen Elizabeth II is speaking out about King Charles III’s multi-faith and multiculturalism, warning that those ideas could spell the end of the British monarchy.
Gavin Ashenden, who served as Elizabeth’s chaplain for nine years, told GB News after the king’s first Christmas speech, “I think that if this slow movement into multiculturalism and multi-faith goes on, we’ll lose the monarchy because, in the end, I don’t think it will be true to itself.”
Charles succeeded to the throne following the queen’s death on Sept. 8.
“The problem is that it’s a bit like watching a wonderful ship that’s hulled beneath the waterline slowly sink, and at some point what you want to do is to stop it sinking and make sure that it floats,” Ashenden told the British outlet. “And I don’t think the monarchy can float if it becomes a multicultural, multi-faith monarchy.”
“What we have been seeing is a very slow gradual shift from being a Christian monarchy to a multi-faith one,” the former chaplain said.
“The problem is that you’re either defender of the faith or you’re not,” he noted, referencing the oath each British monarch must publicly give, promising to maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion.
Among the questions the king will be asked by the archbishop of the Church of England while giving the oath at his coronation in May:
“Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline and government thereof, as by law established in England? And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights, and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?”
At her coronation in 1953, Elizabeth answered, “All this I promise to do.”
The king is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The King appoints archbishops, bishops and deans of cathedrals on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Ashenden acknowledged how Christianity is increasingly being squeezed out of the public square.
“Christianity has very distinctive and very opposite beliefs to many other world views, particularly on sexuality and the value of the individual,” he told GB News.
“So, the problem that we’re having at the moment is that Christianity is under assault,” Ashenden said. “Now the question is, what does a Christian king do about that? Does a Christian king save Christianity? Does he become defender of the faith, which is what his title really is? Or, as Charles has done with a sleight-of-hand, say, ‘No, I’m … defender of all faiths, which means I don’t have to defend Christianity.'”
“If you don’t defend Christianity today, we’ll lose it from this country,” Ashenden added. He also mentioned the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce who was arrested while praying on a public street near an abortion facility in the UK. {eoa}
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Editor’s Note: This story originally ran on Charismanews.com in January 2023.
Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.“
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