The Anglican Conundrum

A video in my YouTube feed caught my eye, from a UK channel that's usually pretty highbrow in its tone. As you can see, its title is "Church sings for the first time God save the King". This actually didn't strike me as an earth-shattering event, since it mainly involved some gender pronouns, but I decided to watch it, just because we ex-Anglicans like that sort of church music. What struck me was that the actual singing wasn't going to take place until well into the service, and it was preceded by extended reflections from the celebrant meant to prepare those attending for this change.

The celebrant was wearing a purple chasuble. I looked this up, and in the US Roman Catholic Church, white, purple, or black vestments may be worn at masses for the dead, so this is OK -- but it was hard for me to shake the idea that the Queen's death had a special quasi-sacramental character, especially as related to the pronouns in the national anthem. The Queen is the supreme governor of the Church, and they seem to take this very seriously. Indeed, the Church of England has published a special liturgy for the event.

The biggest thing that struck me was that the celebrant adopted the same patient, explanatory tone toward the changed pronouns that a US Roman Catholic priest would adopt in a homily on, say, the Immaculate Conception, except that the Immaculate Conception isn't something people easily understand, while it's key to understanding the faith. New pronouns in the anthem, not so much. With clear regret and almost a tear in his voice, the celebrant said at one point, "We may never sing God save the Queen again."

Now, I'm no longer an Anglican, and I wouldn't normally attend that parish anyhow, I've got to wonder what other parts of the Anglican faith this celebrant normally explains with such diligence. I think of our own Roman Catholic parish clergy who normally explain to us that going to confession is important, and that sort of thing is helpful so we can avoid living double lives. Do any Anglican clergy explain things other than new pronouns in the national anthem with such diligence?

I tried fast forwarding so I could finally hear God save the King with the new pronouns, but even that seemed like it was going to take a lot of work, and eventually I gave up.