Dear Editor,

On Saturday, May 6 at Westminster Abbey, King Charles III will be coronated and the Stone of Destiny will be used in the ceremony.

There are many stories associated with this stone, but the purpose for which I am writing has to do with whether there is divine destiny or simply people determined to ensure a certain outcome in life.

Very often we hear people say this or that was God’s will. But one can conclude that perhaps it is man who determines what is the result in many circumstances and not a divine being.

Take Jacob, for example. Here is a person who is seen by many as the father of the nation of Israel, having his name changed to Israel after a night of wrestling with a supreme being. But his elevation to be given the birthright that was handed down from Abraham was got through subterfuge. He tricked his father into giving him this right that was supposed to be given to his older brother. Yet there was no divine intervention to say trickery was immoral.

As the world watches the coronation of a new king, it shouldn’t be lost on many that this great kingdom was built on a history of inhumane colonisation, plundering of other nation’s wealth, slavery, and indentureship. None of these are examples of nobility, justice, honesty, fairness, and certainly not within the accepted norms of holiness and good Christian living. The question, therefore, remains, destiny or determination?

When one considers that great nations like the United States of America developed economically through a cruel history of slavery and racial segregation and many other European nations that today boasts of integrity and human rights also grew from an ugly history of human exploitation and war, one can be led to question the role of divinity in the affairs of man.

As we see in today’s war in Ukraine and Sudan, both sides are seeking some divine intervention and both are claiming the higher ground of morality, one can be led to conclude that it is the determined, stronger person who succeeds, and that destiny is what one is prepared to work for and not what one is given through divine intervention.

It will be interesting to note the spiritual practices as the coronation ceremony gets going to determine whether it is man blessing and empowering a monarch or destiny bestowed upon one by a divine being.

Steve Alvarez

bilcoa@hotmail.com