The Benefits of Formality and Pageantry

Funeral procession for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II

In the middle of September in 2022, much of the world focused on the funeral rites of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, rites that brought formality and pageantry to center stage for many days.  As a Christian and an educator, I could not help considering formality and pageantry with regard to the life of faith and the life of learning and have begun discussing this with friends.  What follows are some early thoughts.

Both/And

Except in the areas of sport and entertainment, we in the 21st century United States seem generally opposed to any kind of formality and pageantry.  Perhaps it smacks too much of hierarchy, which in turn recalls images of oppression.  Yet the bland landscape of the lowest common denominator, while, perhaps, providing some corrective to the abuses of hierarchy, has led to its own, sad effects.  At this point in history, misuse and abuse of formality and pageantry hardly need to be described, nor do the benefits of level, egalitarian approaches to just about everything.  The former are simply accepted de facto as bad and the latter as good.  And yet, a garden hoe is a wonderful tool when it is used in planting vegetables.  It is horrible weapon when it is used in committing murder.  So it is with most things, most events, most systems, and most people.  Almost everything has its good and bad aspects.  In the course of this piece I want to examine the benefits of formality and pageantry and the less desirable consequences of the bland and the level.

The Text That Started It All

What follows is part of a text thread among some close friends and me.

Friend:  For what it’s worth, I wanted to share with you guys some thoughts I had while watching the Royals funeral yesterday. Typically, I’m totally not into any of that stuff. For the longest time, I ridiculed the monarchy, and questioned its relevance. Nevertheless, the pageantry and reverential respect I saw yesterday really moved me. My main impression was that God had somehow written royalty on our hearts. All throughout Scripture, from beginning to end, we see images of royalty. There are thrones, a Royal Court, crowns, scepters, etc. There are subjects who bow and lie prostrate before the King. God refers to us as “a royal priesthood.” In the Lord’s Prayer, there’s the line, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.“ It seems to me that there are components in heaven that are duplicated here on earth. I believe the monarchy is one of those elements. I believe God has allowed it to continue even in our time as a reminder of our eventual home and eternal reality. It really moved me unexpectedly yesterday. The longing God has placed in our hearts is real and palpable in every way. May we be found worthy to be in the King’s Court!

Me: My brother, I heartily concur. In fact, those very thoughts had been going through my mind. I’m so glad you gave voice to them. And when I saw them returning her crown, scepter, and orb to the altar at St. George’s Chapel, I was struck by how that symbolized that all authority comes from God, just as Jesus said said to Pilate in John 19. That authority may exercised in accordance with or in opposition to His will, but it originates with Him. Thank you so much for saying this.

And, I would add, that the loss of such pageantry and majesty in our social and religious life has contributed to the results of that survey about evangelicals not believing Jesus is God. Yes, such pageantry can become empty of meaning and constricting of life, just as it did with the Israelites and has in many high church expressions through the ages. But swinging the pendulum to the far extreme of pole barn churches with everything sung and taught in the lowest common denominator has brought forth its own sad effects along with any restorative work it may have done to counteract the former.

Friend: Amen, brother. The days are dark and the time is short. This is the church’s last shot at impacting the world. Orthodoxy is dying. We need to stay connected and stand firm. Blessed to be doing it with you guys!

Pole Barns and Cathedrals

I wrote above that I would not rehash the negative consequences of formality and pageantry and the positive effects of the bland and the level, but so ingrained are they in the public mind and so quick are we to defend our positions, that I am led to acknowledge, once again, that I know all this.  I know the arguments, for example, against elaborate church architecture and in favor of multi-purpose worship spaces, and I would remind those who already are arming themselves for rebuttal by rehearsing those arguments that it is not necessary.  I know them.

What my friends and I were observing in our text thread is that there is something good, something salutary, something edifying in the architectural and artistic glories of a grand church.  Coupled with eloquent and poetic liturgies and rites, these glories in and of themselves teach something that is impossible, or at least quite difficult, to do in a bland, multi-purpose space, namely, the majesty of God and our relationship to it and Him.  A recent survey has revealed that in 2022, 43% of evangelical Christians do not believe in the divinity of Jesus.  It is not immediately clear what definition of "evangelical" the survey used, but any percentage of any group claiming to be Christian yet not acknowledging that Jesus is God is startling.  Neither my texting friends nor I would say that the sole reason for this is either the bland architecture, doctrinally shallow worship music, or less than robust biblical teaching and preaching of many churches, but combined, these have undoubtedly shaped how Christians understand and relate to their Lord.  Consider what is being said in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and hymns such as "Holy, Holy, Holy," "The Church's One Foundation," and "O Worship the King."  Imagine those ideas being expressed in space designed to lift the heart and mind above the mortal coil and into the realms of the sublime.  Those steeped in such regular worship could certainly choose to reject Christ Jesus as God, but it would take a bit of effort.

Temple of Saint Sava, Belgrade, Serbia (photo credit:  Brad Mitchell)*

The Pink Floyd Effect

We don't need no education

We don't need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teacher, leave them kids alone

Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

All in all it's just another brick in the wall

All in all you're just another brick in the wall

"Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" from the 1979 album The Wall by prog rock band Pink Floyd captures the driving force behind the lack of formality and pageantry in most schools today.  These are linked in the minds of many with rote, drill-and-kill methods that sucked the life from education more powerfully and completely than a black hole.  And yet, in an attempt to unleash the inspiration of Parnassus in our schools by doing away with such things and making student choice the order of the day, it is more often the case that Bedlam has been let out.  Bill Day, an award-winning teacher from Washington, D.C., discussed this in a podcast several years ago.  Routines and rituals are vitally important in a child's development and, if implemented well, need not be stifling and restrictive.

One of the first things visitors to our Latin classroom notice is the wall of bookshelves.  There are more than twelve hundred books in our room, and while all are available for anyone's use, they serve a function beyond research.  They, along with the various busts and works of art, send the quiet signal that this is a place of serious learning.  Certain rituals that start and end each class convey this as well, even as ebullient laughter is the sound most often heard within our walls.

In his 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities titled "The Vindication of Tradition," Yale theologian Jaroslav Pelikan famously observed, "Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.  And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name."  Rich traditions with formality and pageantry can, when employed rightly, lead us beyond ourselves, which should be the goal of any act of worship or education.  Their absence too often leaves us in a bland, desolate landscape with little company other than the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I.

*My friend Brad Mitchell, credited above with the photograph of the Temple of Saint Sava in Belgrade, shared these pictures of from the Sinaia Monastery in Prahova County, Romania, as well.  Since they so beautifully complement the theme of this post, I wanted to included them.