On occasion of the 60th Jubilee of the Accession of Queen Elizabeth II, Archbishop Rowan Williams has issued a very good description of the role of the Queen in the Church of England.
(...) Since the 16th century, every English monarch has been Supreme
Governor of the Church of England, which doesn't mean that the
Queen or the King is the head of the Church of England. It simply
means they're the final court of appeal. They're the person who
makes the final decision about what the Church can do and can't do
in law. One of The Queen's other titles is Defender of the
Faith. We still see it on our coins in Latin: Fidei Defensor. It's
tied up with The Queen's role as the senior layperson of the Church
of England. But I think that The Queen has made something quite
fresh of it. She has, in effect, said that by being the guardian of
the Christian faith as held by the Church of England, she
establishes a real place for faith in public life...
It is important to note that whatever the role the Queen fills in the Church of England, her role is for and in the Church of England, and not relates to Anglican Communion, other than in its historic character of founding church.
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