Some brief thoughts about the Coronation

I watched a wonderful concert today with ancient and more modern pageantry and pantomime that acted as both coronation and ordination. Actually I got bored with all the music. No-one could move without a five minute anthem. But that is another rant.

The service had wonderful words of justice and mercy. It all sounded grand. But I was aware those words have been used before when Britain had an empire and saw itself as great. These actions and words reinforced the notion of British and more particularly English supremacy and their divine right to rule. These words undergirded slavery and the impoverishment of foreign lands under British rule to amass the wealth at the centre. Look at those crowns and ask yourself where those diamonds and jewels came from and what they cost those lands to loose them. And maybe ask what those crowns would look like if those diamonds and jewels were all returned.

It was a grand spectacle. But I hope to see nothing like it again. Britain is no longer great. It is barely a United Kingdom. It is time to let go of its imperial past. Maybe even repent that past. It is time to create some new ways of crowning their monarch with language that represents today, not something from several hundreds of years ago.