I greeted with joy the announcement from Clarence House this morning that Prince William of Wales will marry Catherine Middleton. Why? I am an American citizen with some English roots. But that's not it. It's also fairly probable that the future man and wife never will be crowned and instead will take up a quiet life in the country after a bloodless constitutional reform, so the couple's impact on the world stage is likely to be limited to philanthropy.
No, I was overjoyed at the thought of a grand televised Anglican royal wedding. Certainly, new music will be commissioned. We will see the spectacle of +Rowan and perhaps +John and +Richard and other much controverted English bishops processing about to officiate at the joining of a rescue helicopter pilot and his artistic wife. It will be unspeakably grand, beautiful, and silly, and unlike a certain wedding roughly twenty nine years ago, it will feel more like a fait accompli of a love match than a virgin sacrifice.
5 comments:
Hello.
Just came across your blog. Really enjoyed the read. I look forward to future posts.
Hope you don't mind, but I wanted to tell you about my own blog. I'm an aspiring clergy-writer who's new to the Anglican tradition, and am trying to find Anglican readers. The title of my blog is "Musings of a Hard-Lining Moderate: The assorted thoughts of an evangelical Anglican."
I write about theology, culture, politics, movie/book reviews, pet theories... anything that's on my mind. Right now I'm doing a series on the doctrine of Scripture, which was prompted by the crisis in the global communion. I also recently wrote a post on the value of the christian calendar.
Anyway, Don't know if you'd be interested, but here's the link: http://bit.ly/dXh2qd. Have a great day.
Grace & Peace,
Carson
I like this post, Caelius - hope you're right about the music!
Merry Christmas to you -
Oh, I don't know. Given how they're willing to take out their own trash, make their beds, and do the shopping, these two may just adapt the monarchy to the more democratic sort of The Netherlands or the Scandinavian lands.
It's Rutter, for the commissioned piece, Caelius.
"This is the day," it's called, based on various Psalms. Here's the text:
THIS is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it.
O praise the Lord of heaven: praise him in the height.
Praise him, all ye angels of his: praise him, all his host.
Praise him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars and light.
Let them praise the name of the Lord.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways.
The Lord himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand;
so that the sun shall not burn thee by day: neither the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in: from this time forth for evermore.
He shall defend thee under his wings.
Be strong, and he shall comfort thine heart, and put thou thy trust in the Lord.
John Rutter (b 1945)
commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster for this service
Psalms 118: 24; 148: 1-3, 5a; 91: 4a, 11; 121: 5-8; 27: 16b
In other words, completely and absolutely irrelevant to everyone on earth except for the happy couple.
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