The Coronation of King Charles III is just what we all needed to celebrate together. As Anna Chaplains we knew this was the perfect time for rejoicing with our old folk living in residential care and those who attend our Forget Me Not cafes. Here is just a taste of how Anna Chaplains led celebrations of this happy event:
At Oulton Broad in our care homes, we celebrated Coronation Day with crowns and talked about the anointing. We had a story about King Midas and thought about what we would do if we were King for a day – one lady said she would love all the poor to have enough money, and a chap said he’d like everyone to have chocolate!
In Brundall, we took a “Coronation” service into our five residential care homes. We spoke about the excitement in heaven at the crowning of Jesus in Hebrews 1 – and how our King in heaven rules over and guides our sovereign here on earth. We took crowns in for the residents to wear and keep. We sang hymns praising Jesus as King of King and Lord of Lords and ended by singing the national anthem and praying for our new King and Queen. A resident, a tenor in Durham Cathedral choir years ago, was very proud to lead us all as we sang.
At our Forget Me Not Café, we made coronation paper chains, wore crowns, decorated fairy cakes with red, white, and blue icing and coronation toppers.
In Norwich, we led a special Coronation Service. We sang hymns about kingship and listened to the story of Samuel anointing David. The residents enjoyed joining in the story by being the different brothers in the story before we thought about why God chose David as the next king. We thought about the way that God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, he looks at the heart. Neither does he look at our wrinkles or grey hair, he looks for hearts that love him. We prayed for King Charles and ended with the hymn “Crown Him With Many Crowns”.
The network of Anna Chaplains in the Diocese will continue to help older people reflect on their spiritual journey, offering spiritual support so that they may live more peacefully in their final years and help them to prepare to face the end of their earthly lives.
