Why Coronation Viewers Won’t See King Charles III Anointed With 700-Year-Old Gold Spoon
variety.comK.J. Yossman The most sacred moment of King Charles III’s coronation will take place just before the St Edward’s Crown is placed on his head, when the Archbishop of Canterbury anoints the monarch with holy oil from gold spoon dating back to the twelfth century.
But it’s a moment that won’t be witnessed by anyone, let alone the hundreds of millions of viewers watching from home. The Act of Consecration is the only moment of the ceremony that will be conducted out of sight, behind a three-sided canopy that has been constructed especially at the King’s request.
He will follow in the footsteps of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, whose anointment in 1953 was also held out of sight of the cameras, underneath a canopy, after the Coronation Committee declared it should not be shown on TV.
What viewers – and the gathered congregation at Westminster Abbey, which includes Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and First Lady Jill Biden – will not see happen behind the screen is the Archbishop pouring holy oil from Jerusalem from a gold eagle-shaped flask into the gold Coronation Spoon.
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