大象传媒

INTROIT - Choir

Byrd 鈥� O Lord Make thy servant Elizabeth

WELCOME AND BIDDING 鈥� The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle MBE

Welcome to Westminster Abbey for this Accession Day Service, as we mark the seventieth anniversary of the accession of Her Majesty the Queen. In 1947, the then Princess Elizabeth made a promise. She said, 鈥淚 declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service... But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do鈥�. We give thanks for a promise fulfilled, for her life of service and commit ourselves once more to pray for Her Majesty. May God defend her, God sustain her and God bless her.

PRECES 鈥� Prec and Choir

O. Gibbons

PSALM 20 鈥� Choir

Psalm 20 鈥� H. Howells

READING 1 鈥� The Venerable Tricia Hillas

Prov 8:1-17

HYMN 鈥� Rejoice the Lord is King GOPSAL, NEH 443 - Choir

ARCHIVE 鈥撀� John Snagge 大象传媒 Radio

THE ADDRESS -

On Accession Day, we must pay attention to the fact that Her Majesty鈥檚 reign began as bereavement.聽 The death of the King was deeply felt.聽 It was shock and loss.聽 A nation and Commonwealth mourned.聽 The 大象传媒 ceased broadcasting, save for news bulletins and the shipping forecast.聽 Parliament adjourned. And our new Queen navigated a profound and personal grief.

On the afternoon of the sixth, the Accession Council met and the necessary Proclamation was drafted,

WE鈥� do now hereby with one voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart publish and proclaim that the High and Mighty Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary is now, by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory, become Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of all Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith

The language of sovereignty is formal and it is continuous.聽 That continuity is at the heart of the idea of monarchy.聽 At Sagana Lodge, in Kenya, the new Queen made hurried plans to return home, she did not though, cancel the Commonwealth tour which she had begun, she postponed it.聽 Responsibility for Realm and Territories passed on in an聽 instant.聽 Sovereignty is formal and it is continuous and on Accession Day we are left in no doubt of that.聽 Yet, for one person, for the monarch, sovereignty, is felt.

Sovereignty is writ large here in Westminster Abbey; this is the place of coronation.聽 As you come in through our west doors you pass the coronation chair.聽 Beside it, is a large, striking portrait of Richard II; the first royal portrait of its kind.聽 He gazes back at us, crowned, imperious and on a golden ground.聽 The Abbey, where we also have the shrine of the king and saint, Edward the Confessor, we sustain and celebrate the idea of monarchy.聽 Yet, we know that sovereignty is so much more than an idea.聽 It is made a reality in a life.聽 It is experienced, felt as life is felt, and it is lifelong.聽聽聽

For seventy years our Queen has lived our monarchy.聽 News reports, which have now passed into history, have recorded national and international politics, the Korean War, Suez, the Kenya Emergency; De Gaulle, Adenauer, Kennedy, Nyerere, Indira Ghandi.聽 We note and record the facts, the rise and fall of fame, the manifestoes and policies.聽 At the heart of our nation however, there has been one for whom this has been relationship and lived experience.聽聽 Amidst the push and pull of conflicting opinion, the divided, tribal loyalties of our age, we have, in Her Majesty the Queen, a constant reminder that we are never ruled by mere ideas.聽 We share a humanity that can reach across division, share joy, overcome grief.

That picture of Richard II, is a glimpse of a chilly vision of sovereignty understood as something other.聽 It was an experiment soon over, ending in failure.聽 In truth, the important - the crucial - thing about our monarchy is that it must work at its own humanity and set that humanity at the heart of nation and Commonwealth.聽 There are so many attempts in working life, in daily life, to offer us only a vision, to burden us with strategy and agenda, to give us straplines, soundbites, and policies.聽 These are the half-truths that beg us to look to tomorrow in the hope that it might be better than today.聽 The reading, heard in this service, offered us something else.聽 It looked for wisdom.聽 Wisdom that is the knowledge of God and lifelong.聽 Wisdom that sustains virtue and binds us together.聽 Wisdom as a study, woven joy and sorrow.聽 Neither policy, nor a pledge.聽 Wisdom as the thing that you work at and live.聽聽聽 Wisdom we can share.聽 On the heights, at the crossroads, by the door.聽 No fanfare marked Accession Day for the Queen who was, that morning, in the foothills of Mount Kenya.聽 There was no job description and no strategy to deliver.聽 Shaped and informed by the father she succeeded, she began what she has continued ever since.聽 A life of duty and service.聽 A life, her life, at the heart of nation and Commonwealth, relationship, constancy and principle in the churn of world affairs.聽 It is a very particular calling and only possible because this life is the wisdom of God.聽 It is the gift of God.聽 It is why we say 鈥楪od save the Queen鈥�.

SUFFRAGES 鈥� Prec and Choir

COLLECTS 鈥� Prec (Sung)

COLLECTS 鈥� Prec (Said)

TE DEUM 鈥� Choir

Vaughan Williams in G

PRAYERS - The Venerable Tricia Hillas

HYMN 鈥� Thy hand, O God, has guided THORNBURY, NEH 485 - Choir

BLESSING - The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle MBE

NATIONAL ANTHEM 鈥� Choir