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/or beliefs:
“Pray for the Liberty of the Conscience to revive among us.... Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize, every expanded prospect.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“If we cannot find a way to interpret the utterances and other behavior of a creature as revealing a set of beliefs largely consistent and true by our standards, we have no reason to count that creature as rational, as having beliefs, or as saying anything.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)