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Wall Street Journal

The Fall of a Party at Prayer

Given the demographic decline of the Church of England beyond any realistic point of recovery, its constitutional presence in corridors of the establishment is more like 'Barchester Towers' than the Council of Nicaea ('Church of England, Disestablish Thyself,' Houses of Worship, June 27). In 1990 King Baudouin of the Belgians briefly abdicated rather than sign an abortion bill. One can't imagine King Charles as supreme governor doing anything like that. Belgium and Spain have Catholic monarchs without an established church. Even Russia is officially secular while Vladimir Putin and his patriarch seem problematically hand in glove. Given the remarkable independent growth of Catholicism, especially among Generation Z, ecclesiastical establishment by law is more hindrance than help, with the Church of England like a desiccated appendix in the maturing body of believers.