When King Charles enters Westminster Abbey for his coronation on May 6 he will be preceded by the Cross of Wales, a silver processional cross made for the Church in Wales containing two relics of the True Cross. These were given to him by Pope Francis. It is a mute witness not only to the friendly relationship between the King and the Pope but to the reality that the monarchy is grounded in Christianity and to the fundamentally Christian nature of the coronation itself.
The monarch is the head of state of the United Kingdom, but he is something more; he will be a consecrated king, sealed with the oil of chrism. And sacral kingship is very old indeed. In the Old Testament we find that, as the anthem at the service reminds us, “Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king.” It is asking a great deal of any human being to follow the kingship of Solomon, but the character of this part of the ceremony quite consciously follows the precedent in scripture. The oil itself is richly symbolic. And, following the late Queen’s example, King Charles’s anointing will not be televised. Some things are sacred yet.
