Coronation Eve

A day of clouds and rain, sometimes just a drizzle and others a fierce downpour. After breakfast I worked on my sermon for Coronation Sunday and responded to an email about the Q3 service rota from Mother Frances after entering dates I can do into my diary. I shared lunch cooking with Clare as I had chicken which I curried, and she had a fish to fry. Afterwards I chatted on the phone with my sister for over an hour, then went to Tesco Metro to get re-stock our supply of plant based milks ready for the weekend. Then I went for a walk around the park accompanied by occasional showers, and called in the Coop on my way home to get some things I'd been unable to carry earlier.

After supper there was a programme on BBC1 about the formation of a special 300 strong Coronation Choir to sing at the Coronation concert on Sunday evening. Select singing groups drawn from a variety of community voluntary service groups have been rehearsed separately from all over Britain and brought to Windsor Castle for a single rehearsal prior to the big event. One group taking part is Cardiff's Oasis choir made of refugees from 25 countries. They were filmed being interviewed when rehearsing in St German's during Lent. It's an inspired project with some great amateur singers, and an event that really celebrates unity in diversity through singing together. 

Tonight, even the punishing outcome of English local elections for the Tories is being overshadowed on news media by reports about the build-up to tomorrow's Coronation. Interviews with people camping out on the processional route or with some sort of role contributing to the event.

There was one detail which particularly touched me, a report that arrangements have been made for the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Murvis, to stay close to Westminster Abbey and walk to the service, as it's being held on the Sabbath. An Orthodox Jew wouldn't use transport but can walk up to three quarters of a mile for pleasure on the Sabbath. It's a measure of respect for his religious tradition and high public office that security provisions have been made to enable him to do this. Other guests have to arrive by car or bus with their security escort! It's an expression of what it means to the King to be 'defender of faiths'.  As head of the Church of England he's defender of Christian faith dutifully protecting the freedom of everyone to follow their own faith in pursuit of the common good. To act exclusively about our beliefs is a sign of insecurity and weakness, ultimately a manifestation of a lack of faith.

Tonight's episode of  'Astrid - Murders in Paris' was about the assassination of a hi-tech entrepreneur, an innovator in developing artificial intelligence making use of a human avatar modelled on the attributes of a particular woman whose death had been unexplained and untimely. The complexity of the plot isn't as important as the notion that sophistication in the humanoid interface to a computer was so realistic it was hard to tell it wasn't a real person conversing with an enquirer through a video screen. This was used for deception and incitement to murder. The rapid acceleration of AI capability in recent months is now provoking concern about its controllability, and what happens if it fall into the hands of 'bad actors', the latest piece of jargon for criminals, villains, baddies etc. 

This storyline was written about the time the pandemic started, filmed and broadcasted early after lock-down. It wasn't quite science fiction at the time. Meanwhile we've seen the rise of fake news and 'false flag' operations in the Russian war over Ukraine, so fiction and reality are already meeting each other in unfolding events. AI computing is very energy intensive and has a big carbon footprint, but will this new wonder tool be an asset or a liability in the battle to save humankind from the catastrophic effects of global warming? I can't say I'm optimistic.