BY RUTH GLEDHILL, RELIGION CORRESPONDENT
THE Prince of Wales, who will succeed the Queen as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has traditional views on most religious issues, such as liturgy. But he has been influenced by other Christian denominations and other religions in his thinking on spirituality and, in particular, the environment. His lecture indicates a close study of texts such as the Philokalia, an 18th-century anthology of Christian Orthodox spirituality, compiled from texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries.
It is ironic that the Prince, often regarded as being at odds with his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, is increasingly being influenced by Greek Orthodoxy. The Duke's father was Prince Andrew of Greece. Earlier this month, a 24-hour retreat in the monastic community of Mount Athos turned into three days after the Prince was stranded by gales and heavy seas. While there, the Prince attended the Divine Liturgy.
The Prince meets regularly with local and national leaders of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and other faiths. He has said that when he becomes King he wants to be Defender of Faith rather than "the Faith".
But this does not indicate any lessening of interest in the established Church. The Prince will often make unscheduled, private visits to parish churches.
On church architecture, as with other architecture, his tastes are conservative and he recently became Patron of the Prayer Book Society, which promotes the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
His references in his lecture to stewardship and the "sacred trust" between mankind and the creator are framed in a fashion common to clergy in the Church of England.
Last December, on BBC Radio 4, the Prince described God as "the source of our souls" and called for a redisovery of a "sense of the sacred" in the way crops are grown and livestock raised.
The Times 18.05.00 Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList