Prince Charles attends church in Perth

#1155 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 22 November 2015

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall joined around 450 people for worship at St George’s Anglican Church in Perth last Sunday on the final day of their Australian tour. The Most Reverend Roger Herft AM, Archbishop of Perth, conducted the service.

The British monarch has held the title “Defender of the Faith” continuously since 1544, after the Church of England split from the Catholic Church under King Henry VIII.

In 1994, Prince Charles said he envisaged his future role as “Defender of faith, not the Faith,” an attempt to embrace religion generally.

As Eternity newspaper’s Tess Colgate reports, more recently the Prince has stated he will retain the traditional title as “Defender of the Faith,” meaning the Church of England.

But he said the purpose of his church was “not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions,” but “to protect the free practise of all faiths.”

Amen to that. I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.