England’s established church has now been leaderless for going on 10 months, following Justin Welby’s resignation as archbishop of Canterbury. The Crown Nominations Commission is finally expected to vote on a successor in the coming weeks. Whoever that turns out to be will face familiar and thorny problems, from disagreement over safeguarding structures to the Anglican church’s seemingly unending arguments over sexuality.
After last weekend’s “unite the kingdom” march in London, a new challenge should be added to the list. Christian nationalism is already a force in the United States, and has played a defining role in European culture wars in countries such as Poland and Hungary. At last Saturday’s rally the striking proliferation of wooden crosses and flags bearing Christian slogans suggest an ominous and rising influence on the British far right. From the speakers’ platform in Whitehall, crowds were led in chants of “Christ is King” and participated in public prayer recitals, while being urged to defend “God, faith, family, homeland”.
