The King Refuses Calls to Give His Christian Nation an Easter Message
At a time of cultural and spiritual crisis, the silence of the Defender of the Faith raises urgent questions.
The mainstream news are silent about it, but one of our platforms has picked up the fact that King Charles has refused call to give an Easter message this year to the Christian community in his realm in a way that matches his encouragement to the Islamic community during Ramadan.
Should he refuse?
It is true that there is no general tradition of making an Easter message in the same way there’s a tradition of making a Christmas message. The Palace have made that clear and are implying that’s all there is to be said. BUT - people, sensing his favour towards Islam, have asked for one; at the very leasty for the sake of parity.
So there are three issues, I think, here.
One is the sense of public perception.
The second is his role constitutionally as Defender of the Faith.
And the third is the meaning of Easter itself, and whether or not it’s consistent with his multicultural position.
So let’s look at the first, - the sense of public expectation.
The Exclusivity of Islam
King Charles issued a warm message to the Islamic community at the beginning of Ramadan this year, 2026. He didn’t issue a greeting to the Christians whose Lent parallels it. In fact, he was notably silent.
However, we are constantly told that he wants to be inclusive. One of the ways of being inclusive would have been to say a greeting for Ramadan and a greeting for Lent. Then there would have been a sense of even-handedness.
But his exclusivity of Christianity raised some eyebrows and some questions.
Last year he gave another message at the end of Ramadan to mark Eid, the end of fasting.
So last year, - a message to the Islamic community in the spring as they finished Ramadan.
This year, a message to the Islamic community as they began Ramadan.
In neither this year nor last year did he mention Christianity and Lent. It seems odd to his country.
The inevitable perception is, therefore, that he favours Islam, because when it comes to the Christian festivals like Christmas, what he does then is to offer an inclusive view. So he includes all faiths. He uses Christmas as a platform for celebrating Islamic faith and Jewish faith and Hindu and Sikh.
In other words, there isn’t anything specifically Christian about his commitment or his public pronouncements. When it’s Christian, it’s a platform for inclusivity.
But - when it’s Islamic, it’s exclusively Islamic.
What kind of impression does that create amongst his Christian subjects, who are in fact the majority?
It gives a sense that actually he is more sympathetic to Islam. This, rightly or wrongly, is the sense that people have. People even wonder if he’s converted to Islam.
What does it mean to be ‘Fidelis Defensor’?
But let’s move beyond the subjective sense of the way the message plays and the damage it does to his relationship with his subjects, and look at what’s required of him.
Many people think that the title “Defender of the Faith” is the one he inherited from the one the Pope gave to Henry VIII when Henry attacked Luther over the seven sacraments. It isn’t. The Pope—you won’t be surprised to know—withdrew it quite quickly.
The Houses of Parliament were miffed that their monarch no longer had this estimable title. So they decided to issue it themselves.
Of course, this is a different faith now. This is the Anglican Protestant faith. But Parliament bestowed upon the monarch the title “Defender of the Faith”, and the monarch has worn it to this day.
The monarch has to make an oath. It’s not just a title he carries. He has to make an oath to defend the faith, to be Supreme Governor of the Church. This is the inheritance of King Henry VIII’s anti-Pope stance. Henry made himself anti-Pope in this country, which translated into ‘Supreme Governor of the Church’.
If Charles is Supreme Governor of the Church—and he is, it’s part of his coronation covenant—then where is his sense of celebration?
Where is his sense of value, of encouragement?
The fact is, Christianity throughout the West—but particularly in this country, and Anglicanism above all—is beginning to sink into decay. It’s demoralised. It’s lost its way. It’s feeling very much unloved.
All the institutions that have been taken over by the hard left, by wokery, dislike Christianity.
It only has one defender left effectively in the public sphere, since politicians are usually too shy to offer their allegiance—with one or two notable exceptions like Jacob Rees-Mogg as a Catholic.
The King is almost the last public institution left.
You might think that, just as an expression of his Christian identity, of the need of the Christian civilisation, that he would do something to give some extra confidence or boost.
So it’s true—the Palace are right—there is no tradition of an annual Easter message.
But wouldn’t this be the moment for the King to start a tradition?
Wouldn’t this be the moment to say the source of Christian faith is a profound hope produced by the resurrection of Jesus?
This is the hope that good triumphs over evil, that forgiveness triumphs over hate, that love triumphs over rejection, that the reconciliation of God triumphs over our sense of detachment and alienation.
Easter provides a moment of profound hope.
Does the King not think that perhaps his people are in need of hope?
There’s another kind of hope Easter provides.
It’s the hope that the life of the soul, the life of integrity, the life of the metaphysical survives beyond death—that we are more than what we appear to be on the surface.
We’re more than biological creatures.
This spirit within us, this gist, this hunger for eternity, for meaning—we are told—outlasts our body.
And the only reason we know it is because Jesus rose from the dead.
Given the angst in the country, given the public health issues, the mental health issues—would this not be a moment for the King to use his platform to say:
“Be of good cheer, my subjects.
Jesus rose from the dead.
There is hope.
There is life after death.
And because there’s life after death, there’s also life before death.
Let’s take some encouragement.
Go to church. Say your prayers. And Here are some achievements in our civilisation where lives have been turned around by notable conversions:”
There could be a role of enormous encouragement and profound influence available to the King if, without making himself over-intensely spiritual, he simply relayed the Christian message.
But there’s a third aspect.
