He will swear to uphold “the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel, maintain the Protestant Reformed religion established by law and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline and government thereof, as by law established.”Īlmost 30 years ago, Charles triggered a furore when he suggested he would be defender of faith in general, rather than defender of the faith, stemming from a desire to reflect Britain’s religious diversity.Įver since, there has been speculation that the coronation oath might be altered. In common with his predecessors for almost 500 years, Charles will take the titles of defender of the faith and supreme governor of the Church of England. Behind a screen, the new sovereign will be anointed on his head, hands and heart with holy oil consecrated in Jerusalem, as a symbol of his divine right to rule. Nevertheless, the coronation will be a deeply religious ceremony – “first and foremost an act of Christian worship”, according to Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury. Attendance at Sunday services at Anglican churches in England hit an all-time low (bar the pandemic year of 2020) in 2021, at 509,000 people, or less than 1% of the population. The 2021 census found that for the first time, a minority of people in England and Wales described themselves as Christian, with those saying they had no religion gaining ground. Seventy years on, as King Charles III prepares for his coronation on 6 May, the picture is rather different.
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