I watched a couple of hours of this soap opera the other night [good husband points, right?] and it really struck me how religiously vacant the Abbey world was. That's completely wrong, historically.
Downton Abbey has given us glimpses of the church before, most prominently in the debate over where Sybil and Tom’s baby should be baptized. But in general it is kept resolutely off-stage, against all historical evidence. No dramas play out through glances and whispers during Sunday services. The Dowager Countess spends her energies on influencing the hospital administration, not whether the new vicar will be high or low church in his style. Lady Mary and Lady Edith are haunted by lower-class women—blackmailers and distraught kidnappers—for their indiscretions, but never by a church-imposed morality or even just the gimlet eye of a clergyman. Sunday night’s episode saw both Mary and Cora realize they were acting selfishly and seek to make amends, but this, too, happened in strictly secular, almost therapized language rather than with reference to any religious ethic or spiritual advisor.There would be few dinners at the Abbey to which the local vicar would not be invited, not to mention called in to aid with the mortal realities and moral curiosities of the family. In the 1920's, this would be considered normal. Also, as he's the prime landowner, Lord Whatever would, by default, be the equivalent of the "senior warden for life" of the local parish. He never seems to have to go to monthly meetings, does he?