Some thoughts upon the Coronation of King Charles III: Part 1

     "In this way the Imperial power, exerted with order and measure, thus represents the harmony and movement which the Creator has installed in all things."

De Ceremoniis Aulae Byzantinae

     It is a week since the Coronation and I have been pondering upon what we witnessed. On Thursday Allan Barton committed his thoughts to video on YouTube here and this has helped clarify my own thoughts. I should add here that those Anglican clergy I follow on Twitter (and they are few - I have found to my cost that there really is nothing worse for my faith than a trawl through Anglican Twitter. It's enough to make you want to throw in the towel.) have, in the aftermath of the Coronation remained conspicuously silent.

     Firstly, let me say that there were a number of places in the service that were incredibly moving, most importantly the Anointing, and the investiture that immediately followed.* It is telling that in both instances the music took precedence over the words of the liturgy, and the effect almost overwhelming, as the service, with its unity of music and ritual, edged towards a sort of spiritual gesamtkunstwerk.  A moment of total integration, of axial alignment.  However as Dr Barton points out that this was an innovation, not really that Anglican or even Protestant, but seemed to hark back to an earlier manner of doing things. The truth is that even without those fleeting moments of sublimity the coronation is a glimpse, no matter how through a glass darkly, of the Pre-Modern. No wonder the likes of the Guardian have been so snarky, so embittered by it. There has been a lot of elite 'coping' and the efforts of Polly Toynbee and Timothy Garton Ash have been conspicuously desperate. For the Coronation is almost an act of defiance. It represents both an alternative source of authority and a different way of viewing the world, and they, rightly or wrongly, perceive it as a threat. A conflict between the enchantment and dis-enchantment of the world. Be that as it may, those moments of integration I mentioned above were only possible thanks to some wonderful music and wonderful musicianship.

     That a full-blown coronation should have happened at all is in itself something to be extremely thankful for.  There were times a few years ago when it seemed highly unlikely - all the talk was of a 'multifaith installation service'. Prince Charles - as he was then - was rumoured to be in favour. In 2006, and based on an essay in The Spectator, the Daily Mail ran an article to that effect, suggesting that the Prince wanted a second service on Coronation Day in Westminster Hall in which the leaders of the various faith communities would play an active part. Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury was said to be supportive, but his successor, Rowan Williams, against. In some ways the article was merely repeated what the Dean of Westminster, Wesley Carr, had written in 2002. As late as 2014 Lord Harries of Pentregarth, the former Bishop of Oxford, was calling for the Quran to read at the Coronation. However little of this came to pass. In fact as James Walters, of the LSE, points out here there was very little multi-faith content to the coronation at all. Perhaps the King's age put a stop to that idea, or maybe, as Walters suggests, the culture has just simply moved on.

     At this point I should speak here, I suppose, of my own response to events in the build-up to the Coronation. To be honest they were decidedly ambiguous. The Coronation has held a particular place in my imagination for years. A rather exalted position. And so perhaps, I have to admit, the reality was never going to came close to the ideal of my imaginings.  The return of my depression also did much to dampen my enthusiasm. But those considerations aside, I had a deep unease over the nature of the forthcoming event, re-assured though I was that we would not be getting an 'installation service'. The time scale seemed inadequate. The incessant drip, drip, of information by the authorities involved did little to reassure. Information that was sometimes later to be completely countermanded. And what material was available through official channels such as websites seemed trivial - inadequate for the nature of the event, as though the authorities either didn't understand or were just simply embarrassed by such an anachronism. And then there were the repeated delays; the official, definitive order of service did not appear until late on the eve of the coronation. None of this was particularly re-assuring, or edifying. There was talk in the press (viz: Private Eye & the Daily Mail) of serious disagreements between the two palaces - Buckingham and Lambeth. It was said that the church dug its heels in, thereby ensuring a service along traditional lines. For that alone we can and should be thankful.

     So on the day I was, in a way, oddly unprepared for what I saw; there was a sort of unreality to it all that is difficult to define.

* Even watching these two rituals back now a fortnight later they move me profoundly. There is a moment in particular just after the anointing when the screens are removed to reveal the King kneeling and prayed over by the archbishops and assistant bishops that each time just catches my breath.