LETTERS Saving grace
Sir: It does seem to me to be extraordinary, not to say deeply significant, that one can read two major articles (Hugh Massingberd and Paul Johnson, 12 December) on the current tribulations of the monarchy with virtually no reference being made to the religious and sacramental character of that institution. No doubt in a secularised cul- ture this aspect of the matter is easily for- gotten or not understood at all. But the fact is that monarchy is not simply a pragmatic constitutional arrangement, however well it may work as such; but it is deeply rooted in a fundamentally religious understanding of the nature and purpose of human society. It is precisely for this reason that the monarch is crowned — and anointed to a quasi-sac- erdotal ministry — within the context of the Eucharist solemnly celebrated by the Established Church, of which he or she is the constitutional head.
And that, in turn, raises the question of the role of the Church of England in the recent sad problems of the royal family. Who, if anyone, exercises an ongoing car- ing, teaching and pastoral ministry to its members, who serves as their spiritual director — through good times and bad — as does a parish priest among his people? In the absence of such a ministry (which would surely be concerned, inter alia, to defend the sacramental and indissoluble nature of Christian marriage) it is not to be wondered at that some members of the royal family conform to the mores and stan- dards of a contemporary society which has only the most vestigial awareness of the role of divine grace in healing the predica- ment of human fallenness.
The Revd Allan R. G. Hawkins
2212 Crooked Oak Court, Arlington, Texas 76012, USA
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