King Charles faces criticism for declining to issue Easter message

King Charles’ decision to not release an Easter message this 12 months has been criticised by some Christians. 

Critics have contrasted the absence of an Easter message for Christians this 12 months together with his warm greetings for Muslims in the beginning of Ramadan. 

They accuse the King of failing in his formal role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and “Defender of the Faith”, and failing to read the mood of the nation. 

His defenders have noted that he attended a Maundy Thursday church service and that Easter messages should not an annual royal tradition, with the late Queen Elizabeth rarely issuing any. 

However, his critics query why the King has chosen to not accomplish that this 12 months despite greeting other faiths and releasing Easter messages in previous years of his reign.

Bishop Ceirion H Dewar, who recently penned an open letter to the King calling on him to defend Britain’s Christian heritage, said the shortage of an Easter message from the King this 12 months was “a grave disappointment”. 

“At such a pivotal moment in our nation, when many across this United Kingdom feel that our Christian identity is being rapidly stripped away, this silence from the Crown will not be neutrality, it’s absence,” he said on X. 

“Let us not forget that Easter will not be merely a footnote in our national story. It is its very foundation! A nation that’s untethered from the Resurrection of Christ risks forgetting not only who it’s, but why it stands in any respect!” 

In further comments to GB News, Bishop Dewar said the absence of an Easter message “missed the mood of the general public”. 

“Having just issued a Ramadan and Eid Mubarak message for the Islamic community, selecting not to offer an Easter message is bitterly disappointing.

“It doesn’t meet the expectations you’ll expect from the monarch,” he said. 

Gavin Ashenden, a former chaplain to the late Queen, was equally dissatisfied and said it gives the look that he favours Islam. 

“So last 12 months, – a message to the Islamic community within the spring as they finished Ramadan. This 12 months, a message to the Islamic community as they began Ramadan,” Ashenden wrote on his Substack.

“In neither this 12 months nor last 12 months did he mention Christianity and Lent. It seems odd to his country.

“The inevitable perception is, due to this fact, that he favours Islam, because relating to the Christian festivals like Christmas, what he does then is to supply 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 type of impression does that create amongst his Christian subjects, who’re in truth the bulk? It gives a way that truly he’s more sympathetic to Islam. This, rightly or wrongly, is the sense that folks have. People even wonder if he’s converted to Islam.”

Susan Hall, leader of the Conservative group within the London Assembly, said, “King Charles is the pinnacle of the Church of England. An Easter message when us Christian’s are feeling very sidelined would have been welcome and I’d have thought for the sake of the Monarchy, essential!”