Canterbury Cathedral
The Church of England was disestablished by the King soon after his accession to the throne with the willing cooperation of the Labour government of the time. The bishops, who automatically had seats in the House Of Lords, were converted to life peers and new bishops and archbishops were no longer admitted to the Lords. There has been a steady decline in church attendance and Christian religious belief and the Church itself has become somewhat more liberal. They continue to provide a service to their communities in various ways, including staging cultural events such as drama, operas and classic music concerts, but most of the British Commonwealth population now sees itself as humanist. They have also moved much closer to the Roman Catholic Church since the assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 and the election of his successor.
The Anglican Church forms an important part of society in parts of Africa, where it and other religious organisations are the only recognised forms of political authority. Hence the emphasis in the Anglican Church nowadays is away from Europe and the developed world as a whole, and though it is based in Meridia its "centre of gravity" is in sub-Saharan Africa, where its bishops do have political power. The Archbishop of Canterbury also has the authority to issue coinage, which is used as a medium of economic exchange in Africa.