The Prince of Wales apparently was looking forward to coronation as King with the help of a multi—faith clergy. The Evening Standard reports (via Ummah News Links)

Charles has long made clear his yearning for a ceremony in which Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Sikh beliefs take a place alongside the doctrines of the Church of England.

But these hopes have been dashed. It is not that his mother the Queen has become immortal, or that she has officially bypassed him in the succession (as some have speculated and/or prayed for), but rather the result of a declaration from the Church of England.

In a rebuke to the Prince's hopes of inviting Muslims, Hindus and others to take an equal role in Westminster Abbey, the Church declared that Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams will design the coronation service.

The highly unusual statement was the Church's first official pronouncement on how the coronation will be handled and it comes amid intensifying controversy over the role of non—Christian faiths and non—Anglican Christian denominations. [...]

Dr Williams, however, has insisted that the Prince must restrain his interest in other faiths and stay within the 'constitutional framework' that makes him Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

The intervention from the Church made plain that Charles will be on his own if he tries to introduce other faiths into the religious coronation service at the Abbey.

While multi—faith ritual may appeal to the squishy platitudes about inclusiveness favored by so many members of the Western elite (and who is more elite than the British Royals?), multi—faith means no particular faith.

A principal reason that America separated from the Mother Country was its state religion. That state religion sanctified the monarchy. Without that particular faith, there is no reason at all to waste taxpayer money on supporting the Prince in his well—upholstered lifestyle.

Once again, Charles has been rescued from his own stupidity by older and wiser heads. May his subjects fare as well when the time for succession comes, as it inevitably will.

Thomas Lifson   11 15 06