The Dean of Windsor remembered the “calm and dignified presence” of Queen Elizabeth at her committal service on Monday (19.09.22) afternoon.
Dean of Windsor spoke at Queen Elizabeth's funeral
The monarch’s funeral took place at Westminster Abbey earlier in the day, before her coffin was transported to her Windsor Estate, her final resting place, and at the second service at St. George’s Chapel, the dean reflected on how the 96-year-old queen’s “long life” had been a “blessing” to so many.
He said: “We have come together to commit into the hands of God the soul of his servant Queen Elizabeth.
“Here, in St George’s Chapel, where she so often worshipped, we are bound to call to mind someone whose uncomplicated yet profound Christian Faith bore so much fruit. Fruit, in a life of unstinting service to the Nation, the Commonwealth and the wider world, but also - and especially to be remembered in this place - in kindness, concern and reassuring care for her family and friends and neighbours.
“In the midst of our rapidly changing and frequently troubled world, her calm and dignified presence has given us confidence to face the future, as she did, with courage and with hope.
“As, with grateful hearts, we reflect on these and all the many other ways in which her long life has been a blessing to us, we pray that God will give us grace to honour her memory by following her example, and that, with our sister Elizabeth, at the last, we shall know the joys of life eternal.”
Ahead of his address, the choir sang as the queen’s coffin came through the West Door and was moved to the Quire.
They sang Psalm 121, which read: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills: from whence cometh my help.
“My help cometh even from the Lord: who hath made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.
“Behold, he that keepeth Israel: shall neither slumber nor sleep.
“The Lord himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand; So that the sun shall not burn thee by day: neither the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul.
“The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in: from this time forth for evermore. Glory be to the Father: and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beg inning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.”
The congregation then sat down while the choir sang ‘The Russian Contakion of the Departed’.
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