A Royal security expert says Prince Harry's attempt to serve with British forces in Afghanistan has handed a propaganda coup to radical anti-Western groups who will portray him as going from shooting grouse to shooting Muslims.

The natural presumption of Establishment insulates the Church of England, says Simon Barrow. Even worse, it takes the opposite direction to Jesus, who rejected worldly power in the Temptation that Christians recall during Lent.

Pressures from several directions may put disestablishment of the Church of England back on the agenda, say reports following the General Synod and concerns about the long term impact of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Sharia speech.