Almost fifty four years ago, I sat with the rest of Mr Slater’s class at Calverley Parkside school and we watched the live broadcast of the investiture of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in North Wales, it was one of the most memorable occasions in my childhood, we didn’t have a television at home back in those days and I remember sitting and watching our future king taking on this role of great significance.
I guess as ten-year-old, I could never have imagined how old I would be on the day that the Prince of Wales would be crowned as King. I felt hugely privileged to stand shoulder to shoulder with civic leaders, Faith leaders, and representatives of the armed forces and emergency services on the town hall steps on the morning of Sunday 11th September 2022 to hear the proclamation being read, announcing the rule of King Charles III.
There has been much said in the media in recent times about the royal family, not all complimentary, but as a new era begins, under the rule of King Charles, we couldn’t want a more experienced king, he has spent almost his entire adult life preparing for the role he now fills at a point in life when most people have accepted retirement.
This Sunday, May 7th is known as vocations Sunday, there was a time that I believed that a vocation was a different word for a job, a career, or occupation. I can’t imagine us referring the role King Charles now occupies as being a new job. Being the monarch of the British Commonwealth is far more than simply a job, and the term “vocation” is possibly a more appropriate word. Charles Philip Arthur George was born on Sunday 14th November 1948 and from the moment he was born he was the child destined to be king and then spent seventy-four years in preparation.
Prince William and Prince George are the next to begin their lives of initiation into one of the most powerful roles in the world. We might assume that on Vocations Sunday we are thinking about people who fulfil paid roles within the life of the Church and to some degree that is correct, but I believe that Christian vocation goes far beyond something some of us are paid to do.
There is a term we use in our Christian life that is seeping now into secular life. I have heard it said recently about teachers and nurses in relation to pay disputes “this isn’t just a job, it is a calling” the same term that Christians and people of other faiths have used. As Christians, our faith isn’t a leisure activity, it is a way of life, a calling, a vocation and day by day we develop our vocation, that is partly why it is important to read the bible, to share with others, to learn what it means to disciples of Christ, that is why some of us take time week by week and sit down to write thought for the days, to lead people in varied styles of worship, in preparing sermons and in attempting to live what we proclaim, not so that we can spout our wisdom to others, but because we learn as we share.
As king Charles III takes up his supreme role, he is ready and in the same way, our lives are being lived to make a difference so the world may be ready at coming of the day of God.