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The Ceremony Is a Religious One

At the coronation Britain’s queen received the Church’s full blessing, and even more. The Sunday Chronicle of March 8 put it this way: “And now comes the most exalted moment. The Queen is to be raised to the mystic company of the Lord’s Anointed, thus becoming Queen, not only by the will of Man, but in the sight of God. . . . That which is to come is a mystery, not to be seen by man; and few will hear the voice of the Archbishop as, dipping his fingers into the Spoon, he says: ‘Be thy Hands anointed with Holy Oil, be thy breast anointed with Holy Oil, be thy Head anointed with Holy Oil as Kings, Priests and Prophets were anointed.’ As the Dean returns the Sacred Oil to the Altar, the congregation again see their Queen, now to the eye of faith mystically transfigured. She is ready to receive in the investiture the emblems which may be held or worn only by the Lord’s Anointed, the vestments resembling those of a Priest which are put upon her by the Dean.” The further religious significance of this ceremony is shown in the “Sword of State”, with which she is to, among other things, “protect the Holy Church of God,” and “the crown of glory and righteousness” which she is to receive, “which to her many peoples bears a significance beyond all earthly authority and power.” Participation in the pageantry is, therefore, a religious act as well as a political one.