The coronation service was impressive, and a showcase for Britain’s contemporary multi-culturalism and our improved gender balance in public life.
The ceremony displayed to the world our high musical standards at a time when classical music in particular is under threat from a government squeeze on arts funding. Filling the abbey mainly with people of achievement in all walks of life, rather than dozens of unrepresentative aristocrats in costumes and coronets, was an essential change.
But however elegantly and inclusively the Anglican Church now does these things, it is going to have to grasp the nettle of disestablishment before the next coronation. Even many Anglicans are embarrassed by the absurdity of the monarch rather than the Archbishop of Canterbury being the head of a church that no longer represents even most British Christians, never mind all the other faiths.
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