There is a time and a place for protest

and yesterday was not one of them.

Whatever we may or may not feel about monarchical systems of government, the expense of a coronation and pomp and ceremony yesterday was not the time or the place to demand the overturn of a system of government. Like it or not the system works. 

It works because the monarch has no power to govern. 

I was not going to bother watching the Coronation. Television is something which, apart from a part of the international news service, I bother to watch. But yesterday several people asked me if I was going to watch, said they would be interested in what I thought of the service itself and more. I had already turned down an invitation to go to a "Coronation Dinner" as the necessary arrangements would have been awkward for all concerned. Would I watch it then? Yes, I could do other things at the same time. Yes, I would tell them what I thought of it.

The BBC does a brilliant job of such occasions. Past experience has told them where to put the cameras and how to use them. Their commentators are well informed and generally as unobtrusive as it is possible to be when they are required to also explain what is going on. It was a different story here. Not only did the news service use the occasion to push for a "republic" again but one of the young reporters referred to the Emperor of Japan as "the King of Japan". 

But the service itself? Perhaps it really was what the monarchy is or should be about. It was inclusive and inclusive in ways that mattered. I don't in the least care whether there is a wood chip from the "true cross" embedded in another cross but the gesture from the Pope was extraordinary and intended to bring in Catholics from all over the world...and there are still a lot of them. It brought in Jews and Muslims and Hindus and others. 

And it was designed to acknowledge not power because there is none. It was designed to acknowledge service, not just the responsibilities of the person at the centre of it but the responsibility we all have to "serve", to care for each other. I imagine there will be many priests, pastors and ministers who have something to say about that today. 

It would be good if the Prime Minister of Downunder and others in similar positions took heed of what the Archbishop Welby had to say about "service".  The expense of the Coronation would be justified if that alone occurred.

The "Republicans" attempting to protest yesterday did their cause no good. Their movement is about power not service.