![]() The King’s Coronation is another way in which the Bible can speak into the life of the nation.”ĭr Francis Young has published a comparison of the Coronation services in 20, which shows a mixture of old and new, but much of the new is drawn from ancient sources. But Bible Society found in our research after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth that many people found the use of the Bible helpful, and that very few found them alienating or out of place. “Not everyone who watches or listens to the Coronation will pick up all these references. A useful summary of the various biblical sources for the Coronation service has been compiled by the Bible Society, one of whose founders was William Wilberforce. Here, one notes, is a deeply traditional innovation: an ideal of sacrificial leadership taken from the Bible. The King will reply: “In His name, and after His example, I come not to be served but to serve.” A young chorister from the Chapel Royal will say: “Your Majesty, as children of the Kingdom of God we welcome you in the name of the King of Kings.” Tomorrow’s service begins with an innovation. Hughes was a poet, and the Coronation is better understood as poetry than in the severely rational terms of democratic theorists who accept no need for religion and ritual, acknowledge no source of legitimacy beyond their own ideas, and feel insulted by the continued bond between monarch and people. Michael Oakeshott, a philosopher who mocked the absurdities of rationalism, observed in one of his notebooks: “We are still looking for an emotional substitute for feudalism.” Here is a pre-modern feeling which is at times overpowering, while defying definition in the terms nowadays used by political commentators. It is real, but as any thoughtful royalist realises it should never be taken for granted.Įditors know how widely it is found, and demand ever more pieces about the wonderful spectacle of the Coronation, but the depths of the connection between King and people remain mysterious. This popular element in monarchy is what matters most, and is understood least. As Ted Hughes once remarked, “Kings didn’t impose themselves they came out of the dreams of ordinary people.” It has offered a delightful holiday from the usual tyranny of party political news. Yesterday she lamented that the rolling news coverage, which she has been watching because alas she is unwell, might mean everyone was bored by the Coronation before it actually happened.īut although I have not subjected myself to the rolling news coverage, I confess I have not found the press coverage leading up to the Coronation in the slightest bit boring. More recently, she was concerned that tiaras and court dress were to be done away with, and replaced, as at some pop festival, by flowers in ladies’ hair, though then came the joyful tidings that this ruling has been reversed. She has been ringing me at frequent intervals, each time with some fresh worry about the Coronation.įirst it was the failure to invite the dukes. “It’s not Glastonbury!” a friend of mine expostulated.
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