Meghan Markle has been baptised into the Church of England with water from the Jordan. I cannot see that it much matters where the water came from but rather what on earth this ceremony was about. Ms Markle was also confirmed at the same time.
Baptism is a sacrament recognised by all the major branches of Christianity so clearly Ms Markle had not been previously baptised, nor have I read or seen a shred of evidence that suggests she would have sought the sacrament had she not been about to marry royalty.
Maybe Harry converted her but it has all the aura of ritual rather than an active search for salvation and, yes, that does matter because it plays into a view that is rapidly becoming widespread, which is that Church ceremonies are mere pageants.
Indignant brides fume when priests or vicars deny them secular songs and insist on hymns. Others get into a flurry when told they cannot wear off-the-shoulder, plunging necklines when marrying in Church. “He has no right,” cried one outraged groom when his bride was told she must present herself modestly before the Lord.
That just about sums it up. The Church, it seems, has no right to impose its own rules when people want to use it for a giant fancy dress parade rather than a solemn though joyful service. My brother, himself a vicar, used to talk about “four-wheel Christians”, which is to say those who come to church in a pram, a wedding car and a hearse with precious little attendance in between.
He took the same robust attitude towards the choice of music at funerals. I Did it My Way is a favourite of many deceased but he used to observe that it was rather more important to do it God’s way. As for Jerusalem, he used to say simply that the answer to the questions posed in the first verse was “no”.
Ms Markle has previously made clear that she has chosen this course out of respect for the Queen, who is supreme governor of the Church of England. That is very dutiful of her and shows an earnest desire to conduct herself as a member of the Royal Family, but it is not a reason to seek a church’s sacraments, not even in the Cof E where pretty much anything goes.
She was baptised and confirmed by the Archbishop of Canterbury himself so one must hope that he was driven by discernment rather than tradition. Indeed Ms Markle is no stranger to the notion of faith, her parents being Protestants, her former husband Jewish and her schooling Catholic. Yet she didn’t seek baptism until she was about to marry a prince.
I have a fear that when Prince Charles eventually succeeds his mother, the coronation service will be widely viewed as just another state occasion rather than the dedication of a king to the service of Christ. It does not help that the heir to the throne has already proclaimed that he wants to be seen as the defender of faith generally rather than the faith.
It was not always thus. The present Queen is a devout Anglican and once royalty took the teachings of that Church very seriously. “You may put away your books, Archbishop. I have decided not to marry Group Captain Townsend” was Princess Margaret’s weary acceptance of her fate when the Cof E objected to her intention to marry a divorced man.
Matters are different now and it is difficult to object to the wife of the sixth in line to the throne being divorced when the heir himself was divorced and then married a divorced woman. Yet, despite this evolution of royal protocol, the Church’s sacraments should not be treated lightly.
Last year just under 10 per cent of the 111,500 Anglican baptisms were performed on people over the age of 13. That is encouraging for it suggests that, contrary to the gloomy statistics of church attendance, a small but significant number of people are choosing for themselves to become actively engaged with Christianity and its sacraments.
Meanwhile the ritualistic use of those sacraments continues. Infant baptisms are often sought for children by those who have no active faith themselves. Sometimes they do it for social reasons, sometimes to please granny, sometimes from a superstitious fear that ill might befall the child if they don’t. Christian funerals are accorded to those who haven’t been in a church since their youngest offspring got married.
There is nothing new about any of this. What is new is the belief that such ceremonies are a matter of right rather than an expression of commitment. Royalty should not countenance such an attitude.
Ann Widdecombe is a novelist, broadcaster and former prisons minister
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