"It’s never going to get any better than today."

Speaker of the House John Boehner famously announced his plan to retire from the Speakership the day after Pope Francis' 2015 visit to Congress. That was not a coincidence. According to his own account, the day of the Pope's visit was the happiest in his 25 years in the U.S. Capitol. “Now later on in the afternoon, I thought, ‘You know what? It’s never going to get any better than today.’” This confirmed his decision to quit what had become an increasingly frustrating, practically unmanageable job.

I have no special insight into the thinking of Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby, but he too has had to manage an apparently unmanageable, frustrating job as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of the Church of England and Primate of the worldwide Anglican Communion, who since 2013 has been trying to hold the increasingly fractious Anglican Communion together against seemingly insurmountable odds. Tomorrow, however, he will get to do something that only an Archbishop of Canterbury can do, but which none of his five immediate predecessors has had an opportunity to do, namely to crown a king. When it is over, well might he echo John Boehner, "It’s never going to get any better than today”!

The Coronation liturgy originated in the complex interconnection between religion and society in the early Middle Ages. It represents history on a grand scale, a celebration of being a nation in time. But that historical time has been formed and animated by faith. The Coronation is the U.K.'s primary constitutional ritual and a showcase of pageantry and splendor, but at its heart it is - and remains - a religious rite, in which the central player, apart from the King and Queen themselves, is the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has been the principal Bishop of the English Church ever since Pope Gregory the Great sent Saint Augustine to evangelize Anglo-Saxon England, and Augustine established his See at Canterbury in Kent in 597. Since 1066, Westminster Abbey has been the site of every English (and later British) coronation, every one of which has been performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Thus, it will be the Archbishop who will greet the congregation and introduce the ceremony. He will then present the new King to the assembly for the first time for their recognition of him as their "undoubted King." Then he will invite the King to take the oaths prescribed by law to govern the peoples of his 15 kingdoms "according to their respective laws and customs," to "cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed" in his judgments, to maintain (in England) the settlement and special status of the Church of England, and to secure the Protestant succession "according to law." In keeping with the character of Anglican liturgy, the Archbishop will also preach a sermon, after which the Veni Creator will be sung and the Archbishop will anoint the King's hands, breast, and head, "as Solomon was anointed king by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet." Then, after presenting the King with the Spurs, the Sword, the "Bracelets of sincerity and wisdom," the Orb, the Ring, the Glove, and the Scepters, the Archbishop will finally place Saint Edward's Crown on the King's head, accompanied by the ringing of the Abbey bells and the firing of Gun Salutes in London, throughout the U.K., and around the Commonwealth. 

After the newly crowned King has been enthroned, the Archbishop will address him with words that have been used since King Edgar's coronation in 973: "Stand firm, and hold fast from henceforth this seat of royal dignity, which is yours by the authority of Almighty God. May that same God, whose throne endures for ever, establish your throne in righteousness, that it may stand fast for evermore." Following the acts of Homage and the Coronation of the Queen, the Communion service will continue as usual, setting the event squarely within the context of Christian worship, as almost all coronations have been set throughout history. Listening to him proclaim the Eucharistic Prayer, the congregation will have little doubt what the Archbishop represents. Seldom does any prelate get to enact the Christian story's this-world significance so vividly before so many people.

And, when it's all over, the Archbishop of Canterbury may indeed say, "It's never going to get better than today."