How the coronation will celebrate multifaith Britain

What the world will see when Charles III is crowned is not just the rare spectacle of a monarchy that still practises lavish coronations, but the equally rare spectacle of a thriving multifaith democracy. When Prince Charles declared in 1994 that he wished to be seen as the ‘defender of faith’ rather than just the Defender of the Faith, he caused controversy. But his coronation will bear out the wisdom of his earlier comment.

There will be a reading from Rishi Sunak, a Hindu. Also in attendance will be the Home Secretary, a Buddhist; the mayor of London, a Muslim; and Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland and the first Muslim to lead any western European country. The Chief Rabbi and his wife will walk to Westminster Abbey from Buckingham Palace where they are staying as guests of the King, who was mindful that if they travelled by car they’d be breaking the Sabbath.

It’s a measure of Britain’s instinctive tolerance that almost no one thinks this strange. No one cares that the Prime Minister has a Hindu shrine in 10 Downing Street and a Ganesh idol on his desk. It was not controversial when Yousaf released pictures of himself praying in Bute House on his first day in office. Both men have their detractors, but their faith is never under attack. Kate Forbes, who opposes gay marriage as a member of the Free Church of Scotland, came within an ace of being elected first minister with 48 per cent of the SNP vote, though her faith challenges the modern definition of equality.

The historian John Robert Seeley said of the British Empire that we seemed to ‘have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind’.