"Every Man a King...Every Woman a Queen"
Amidst much public mockery of this weekend's royal spectacle, there are many sacred elements people of faith can appreciate about the coronation.
An adapted version of this appeared in the Deseret News May 10, 2023, as “The Beauty of England’s Coronation.” Image accessed under the Unsplash+ License
Between NBA playoff highlights and youth soccer games this weekend, I caught a glimpse of the coronation of the new king and queen of England – and found it a little mesmerizing.
For much of the western world, the whole spectacle was easy to deride as anachronistic, absurd and ancient – precisely the biting take of British journalist Helen Lewis in the Atlantic, who opined, “Where does Britain keep all these horses and bishops the rest of the time?”
But when I gathered my boys to show them the moment when Charles III received the crown on his head, they stopped everything they were doing and sat more still than if a Pixar classic was up on the screen.
Robes. Anointings. Prayers. Commitments. And crowns.
I suppose you can’t blame the peanut gallery for throwing peanuts when they have little to compare it to. Not so for people of faith who relish sacred ritual, including Latter-day Saints.
The modern relevance of ancient symbolism. One twenty-something college student recently explored the intricacies of the coronation ceremony as part of a class. Not long after, she experienced a sacred ceremony called the endowment for the first time in a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
With that educational backdrop, her response to her own private ceremony was enthusiastic - remarking that she was “astounded” and “overcome by the symbols and patterns that have perpetuated since the beginning of time in the temple.”
It was scholar Hugh Nibley who made the case that modern-day rituals such as coronations and graduations (with cap and gown), descend from more ancient rituals in temples of old.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ definitely have an appreciation of sacred ceremony and ritual much like other faiths. I once attended a service with my Greek Orthodox mentor in college, who spoke of the ritualistic elements of her faith as something she loved about it and one reason she continues to participate.
These more external elements of ritual, of course, are always symbolic of something else. In the case of now-King Charles III, he received a ring symbolic of “kingly dignity” and a “sign of the covenant sworn this day between God and king, king and people.” And historian Romita Ray notes that his wearing the same robes as past kings is “almost like channeling their heritage, their legacy, their bodies” to his experience today. She also highlights the way a crown “extends your head” so that the wearer becomes powerful “in a way in which ordinary human beings don’t.”
In all religious ceremonies, there are likewise layers of meaning and messages they reflect. Not all of these elements are appropriate to speak about or witness – including at the coronation itself. The anointing of the King this weekend – with holy oil placed on his head, chest and hand - was likewise private and screened from public viewing by lovely tree-embossed panels prepared for the moment.
About that moment, the Archbishop later said, “May the Spirit of the Lord who anointed Jesus at his baptism so anoint you this day, that you might exercise authority with wisdom and direct your councils with grace.”
Of course, the crowning moment of the ceremony was the crowning itself – of both the king and queen, who were dressed in royal robes fitting the occasion. Watching the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby gently lay the weighty crown on Charles and Camilla’s heads was touching, even for those of us destined to never feel the weight of such an earthly crown on our foreheads.
This vast discrepancy between the plebeian and royal certainly contributes to the scorn piled upon the whole event. That which is strange and foreign to us becomes easy to mock.
But what if it wasn’t so strange to us all?
Royalty in all of us. In the pinnacle of what many of us consider the greatest musical of all time, the commoners of Les Mis close the first act of the play singing “Every man will be a king” in a song aspiring for a better future.
In this, the Victor Hugo-adapted play hearkens to the Biblical tradition in the Book of Revelations where God's people can become, in John’s words, "kings and priests unto God" (with Peter likewise writing about a “royal priesthood” and Paul testifying of humanity’s potential to become “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”)
Back in 1934, United States Senator Huey Long from Louisiana likewise gave the “Every Man a King” address over the NBC radio network, as part of his life-long effort to improve a more equitable distribution of the nation's wealth. In that speech, he imagined a time with “every man a king, so there would be no such thing as a man or woman who did not have the necessities of life, who would not be dependent upon the whims and caprices…of the [powerful] for a living.”
That kind of dependance, it’s safe to say, is what most of the human family has known throughout history – be that upon a King or Queen, or some other ruler. And it was precisely this kind of an impulse towards independence from all that which fueled early revolutionaries in America to a bloody break from the British monarch.
As my friend Farley Anderson, an expert in early colonial history, told me, "the whole idea of the revolution was to transfer the authority of kings to the people" - referring me to the common unofficial battle cry of the war, "no king, but King Jesus."
The idea of paying obeisance to an all-powerful earthly king had lost its hold over these American minds – with their hearts yearning for something more.
Modern societies are experiencing another kind of populist revolt these days – although not always guided by the higher principles motivating America’s founders. Instead, today’s rebellions often feel opposed to any human authority outside of oneself – be that King or Queen, President or Magistrate, Courts or Cops, Teachers or Priests.
And parents too. One of the saddest parts of Saturday’s ceremony was seeing King Charles’ own son Harry a few rows back – without his wife by his side and without any seeming personal interaction with his brother and father.
By contrast, his elder brother Prince William pledged allegiance to his new father-king – kissing him on the cheek and exchanging some tender words.
Whatever righteous indignation had fueled Harry’s throw-everyone-under-the-bus Oprah and Netflix tell-all, it’s clear he has given up much.
As do all who turn away so decisively and personally from tradition, family and faith.
By so many measures, this is exactly what so many are choosing today. Given that, it was refreshing to hear a modern instantiation of tradition still acknowledging the divine. As the Archbishop told the new king after giving him encouragement to help his people in different ways, “that doing these things, you may be glorious in all virtue and so faithfully serve our Lord Jesus Christ in this, that you may reign forever with him in the life which is to come.”
However Christians might agree or disagree with specific elements of the service, they are united in the conviction in Christ as the true and future king to come.