SERVICES IN CHURCHES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 7

SERVICES IN CHURCHES

Royal Family At Queen’s Chapel (N.Z. Press Association—Conyright) LONDON, May 31. The Queen today joined in prayer with her people as the day of her Coronation approached. Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she drove through wildly cheering thousands outside Buckingham Palace to the Queen’s Chapel, in the grounds of Marlborough House, to attend morning service. She was joined by the Queen Mother at the chapel. At services throughout Britain today, in great cathedrals and small parish churches, special prayers were offered for the Queen’s welfare. In Canterbury Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. G. F. Fisher) preached a special sermon. The Archbishop of York (Dr. C. Garbett), in a sermon at York Minster, expressed the hope that the Queen’s burdens should not be made so heavy that she could not enjoy her own family life. At the Queen’s Chapel the Queen heard the Rev. Maurice Foxall, SubDean, of the Chapels Royal, emphasise the religious importance of her Coronation service. He said that the stateliness and dignity of the Coronation service, its beauty and magnificence, constituted the Church’s and the nation’s recognition of the occasion’s great solemnity. “Yet It must be more than that,” said the preacher. "It should be the people's acknowledgement of their duties to God and to their fellow men. There in Westminster Abbey will be the highest expression than can be devised of the sanctity of human duty.” Prayers for Queen’s Welfare

Anglican, Roman Catholic, and other Church leaders today asked the Queen’s subjects to share her heavy burdens.

Cardinal Griffin, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, expressed anxiety about the heavy burdens laid on the Queen’s shoulders.

The Archbishop of Canterbury pointed out that the executive power had been steadily taken from British monarchs. “But this diminution of tern-j-oral power has given to the Sovereign the possibility of a spiritual power far more searching in its demands—the power to lead and to inspire,” he said. “The splendid thing is that the Queen knows the secret of this kind of power, taught by her parents’ example and by the sincerity of her own nature and the reality of her own faith,” said Dr. Fisher. Dr. Garbett emphasised the extensive sphere of influence of the Queen as head of a widespread Commonwealth.

“Our Queen has graciousness, charm, ready sympathy and unfailing kindliness; but she will need also wisdom in dealing with great problems, swift and accurate judgment of the men and women with whom she comes into contact. courage and cheerfulness to enable her to overcome difficulties and face disappointments and, not the least, the physical health required for the performance of strenuous and exacting duties,” he said. Cardinal Griffin said that prayers for Her Majesty’s well-being would help her more than anything else. Cardinal Griffin said that Roman Catholics were trying to answer Her Majesty’s call by three days of prayer. Tribute to Monarchy

Preaching in St. Paul’s tonight, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: “By the grace of God we have much more than a hereditary Monarchy. Three times over in the memory of the middle-aged, God has given us a Sovereign and Consort who, by their character and ability, by their devotion to duty, and by their vivid and vigorous personal qualities have made out of their office a personal capture of the loving respect and loyalty of all their peoples. “Surely the best of all God’s feifts to us in these anxious and challenging days has been in this grand succession of the Queen’s grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, the Queen’s parents. King George VI and the Queen Mother, and now the Queen herself,” said the Archbishop.