King Charles III and Queen Camilla on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, May 6. (Credit: Alex Juarez/AA)
Mia Jin Haagensli
On May 6, King Charles III and his wife, Camilla, the Queen Consort, were crowned in Westminster Abbey. Unlike the late Queen Elizabeth’s previous coronation in 1953, this one was a multifaith occasion. King Charles had expressed his desire to not only be the defender of “The” faith, i.e., the Church of England, but of all faiths. The newly crowned King aims to “bridge the differences between the faith groups making up Britain’s diverse society”.
Since the announcement of the coronation date, speculation has swirled about whether the ceremony will be multifaith. At the time of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, the vast majority of Britain was Christian. Seventy years later, that is no longer a reality.
The UK is no longer exclusively Christian; it is now a multifaith nation, with the main religions, apart from Christianity, being Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism. Christianity is still the official religion of the UK, but much less exclusively than it was seventy years ago.
The coronation service of King Charles had many traditional Anglican rituals, but there were some noteworthy differences from those of his late mother.
The service included representatives from the Sunni and Shi’a Muslim communities as well as from the Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Bahai and Zoroastrian communities, who were among the first in the procession to enter Westminster Abbey, which was reserved for Anglican clerics in the past.
During the coronation ceremony, four selected peers from the House of Lords – Lord Syed Kamall, a Muslim, presented the King with the Armills, Lord Patel, a Hindu presented the Ring, and Lord Singh, a Sikh presented the Coronation Glove and Baroness Merron of Lincoln, a Jew, helped clothe the King in the Robe.
Another addition in the name of multifaith was the inclusion of religious leaders and figures of faiths beyond the Church of England to deliver so-called “spoken greetings in unison” at the end of the service. Beyond this, various gestures, such as making sure that the rabbi would not be on the mic in honour of the Jewish Sabbath, contrast strongly with the coronations that have come before.
In what Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called “a moment of extraordinary national pride,” female bishops were invited to participate in the coronation for the first time in history.
Faith leaders said they were united with all faiths and beliefs “in service with you [the King] for the common good.”
However, Charles III said that “I am a faithful Protestant, and that I will… secure the Protestant succession to the throne,” yet he offered more.
Westminster Abbey has, for centuries, hosted coronations accompanied by distinct traditions, rituals, oaths, and symbols. The crowning of a king or queen in Britain is embedded in ancient canonical law and tied to “invented traditions”.
With King Charles III, while being the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, using his coronation to break with some of these longstanding traditions, some hope it is a sign of Britain moving towards a “thriving multifaith democracy”. Though it may be long overdue, the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla is the first coronation to feature all faiths, which may be an indicator of what is to come.
