Religious and Philosophical Beliefs
The Prince of Wales was confirmed at age 16 by Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey at Easter 1965 in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He attends services at various Anglican churches close to Highgrove, and attends the Church of Scotland's Crathie Kirk with the rest of the royal family when staying at Balmoral Castle. In 2000, he was appointed as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The Prince of Wales has visited (amid some secrecy) Orthodox monasteries several times on Mount Athos, as well as in Romania, demonstrating his interest in Orthodox Christianity.
Charles is also patron of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford.
Sir Laurens van der Post became a friend of Charles in 1977; he was dubbed his "spiritual guru" and was godfather to Charles's son, Prince William. From him, the Prince of Wales developed a focus on philosophy, especially that of Asian and Middle Eastern nations. He has praised Kabbalistic artworks, and penned a memorial for Kathleen Raine, the Neoplatonist poet who died in 2003.
Read more about this topic: Charles, Prince Of Wales, Social Interests
Famous quotes containing the words religious and, religious and/or beliefs:
“When we say “science” we can either mean any manipulation of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion of science the vulgarized derivative from this pure activity manipulated by a sort of priestcraft into a great religious and political weapon.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)
“In the dominant Western religious system, the love of God is essentially the same as the belief in God, in God’s existence, God’s justice, God’s love. The love of God is essentially a thought experience. In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
“A man must not swallow more beliefs than he can digest.”
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939)