Holy Smoke: Prince William resets faith – as Sarah Mullally enthroned
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The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
Dame Sarah Mullally has been enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first female head of the Church of England. Prince William attended as the representative of the Monarch and – as heir to the throne – the person who will one day become Supreme Governor of the Church. His attendance came a few days after an interview appeared in The Times where Prince William seemed to be pressing 'reset' on his relationship with faith.
Friend of Holy Smoke, The Daily Mail’s Robert Hardman – author of the forthcoming biography Elizabeth II. In Private. In Public. The Inside Story – and Anglican priest The Rev'd Fergus Butler-Gallie, join Damian Thompson to discuss the Prince's faith, what the enthronement ceremony tells us about the current state of the Church of England – and what we can expect from Mullally's era.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The British right is up for grabs. As May's local elections approach, the Conservatives face strong competition from Reform UK. |
| 0:07.9 | Join the Spectator's assistant editor, Isabel Hardman, for the spectator debate, the fight for the right, on Wednesday, the 29th of April in London. |
| 0:15.5 | We will pit the Conservatives represented by Matthew Saeed and Dominic Johnson against Reform UK, represented by Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger. |
| 0:23.6 | To see which party truly represents the future of the right, |
| 0:27.2 | book your tickets at spectator.com forward slash fight. |
| 0:37.2 | Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. |
| 0:41.1 | I'm Damian Thompson. |
| 0:45.9 | Yesterday saw the much publicised enthronement of Dame Sarah Mullalley as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. |
| 0:54.6 | I solemnly commit myself before you to the service of the Church of England, |
| 1:02.4 | the Anglican Communion and the whole Church of Christ throughout the world. |
| 1:09.0 | That together we may proclaim the gospel of Christ |
| 1:13.2 | who reconciles us to God |
| 1:15.9 | and breaks down the walls that divide us. |
| 1:21.1 | Let us greet our newly installed Archbishop. |
| 1:35.8 | One of the people in the congregation, by tradition, |
| 1:38.3 | was the heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales. |
| 1:42.7 | Not coincidentally, just a few days after Prince William had allowed a story to emerge in which he clarified that he |
| 1:49.9 | has a strong commitment to the Church of England and faith in the institution and also says |
| 1:56.9 | as he's mindful that Malawi is likely to officiate at his coronation. |
| 2:02.2 | So in this episode of Holy Smoke, first I'm going to talk to our old friend, the Daily Mail's |
| 2:07.7 | Robert Hardman, author of the forthcoming biography, Elizabeth II, in private, in public, |
| 2:14.5 | The Insight Story. And I'm going to ask Robert about that rather mystifying subject, the private religious |
... |
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