Nearly 30 years ago, the then-Prince Charles indicated that as king he wanted not just to inherit the monarch’s traditional title of “defender of the faith”, but also to be a “defender of faith”. The monarch swears oaths of commitment to Protestantism and as supreme governor of the Church of England, but Charles has repeatedly said he also wants to be a protector of all main religious faiths, non-Christian as well as Christian.
For decades, royal observers have speculated about the shape the coronation might take in an age of greater devolution, religious pluralism and increased secularisation. Contrary to some proposals for its reform or even its replacement by a civil ceremony, the new coronation liturgy remains a Church of England service. But seeking balance between old and new, it is now considerably expanded in its symbolic scope, with a larger and more diverse cast of religious participants.
The liturgy is as finely crafted as one would expect of a text which will have been prepared over several decades of negotiations between leaders of the church, their liturgical experts, palace officials, civil servants and representatives of the different churches and faiths. It attempts to adapt a very old rite, with medieval origins and largely unchanged since the Reformation of the 16th century, into a ritual with contemporary resonances.
