‘Your Majesty, as children of the kingdom of God we welcome you in the name of the King of kings’. In reply to these opening words at his Coronation, King Charles III responded ‘In his name and after his example I come not to be served but to serve.’ This short exchange summed up what the service was about and what it intended to convey.
The King’s commitment to service is not in any doubt. To give just a few examples, he has engaged with our most challenged communities far more than any politician, he called on us to care for the environment years before it became popular to do so and, of course, founded The Prince’s Trust, which supports our most challenged younger people in so many ways.
He becomes king of a new era, the Carolean era. Our times see us face some big challenges. Our question is how to address them. I was immensely struck by all the agencies and charities present in the Abbey for the King’s Coronation. Their participation spoke of the ways in which we’re going to need to act differently in the years ahead to address the issues that confront us.
Because it’s all too evident that the power of government, be that local or national, to respond to the problems we see is less now than it was when the late Queen began her reign. Our challenge in this era is of how we’re going to come together, in service, to address the different challenges that lie before us, be that the climate, how we tackle poverty, how we respond to a troubled international situation. All of us will have a part to play.
Where to find the resource to act in the way that’s going to be needed? As I stood beside the King at the Coronation what inspired me was to see the way he drew so much strength, purpose and resolve and assurance from his Christian faith for the service he’s called to give. And in that we can follow him too.
Bishop Michael
This letter was first featured in the June edition of the Manna mailing.