Cathedral Packed For Service Of Matins

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 3

Cathedral Packed For Service Of Matins

Light rain was falling as the Queen Mother, dressed in pink and lemon, stepped out of her car to attend matins at Christchurch Cathedral on Sunday. She was welcomed by a crowd of about 700 persons, and the Cathedral was packed.

The Minister of Transport (Mr McAlpine) and Mrs McAlpine met her as she stepped from the car and led her to the steps of the Cathedral where the Bishop of Christchurch (the Right Rev. A. K. Warren) and the Dean (the Very Rev. W. A. Pyatt) were waiting to welcome her to the morning service.

The Queen Mother waved to the crowd and some of them cheered as she walked into the Cathedral to take her place at the front of the congregation. Already there were the Minister of Finance (Mr Lake), the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) and the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr Manning). The congregation sang “God Save the Queen” when the Queen Mother arrived, and after a hymn the Dean said the morning prayer. Lessons were read by Mr N. A. H. Creese, a lay member of the Cathedral Chapter, and Canon J. O. Rymer, principal of Christchurch College. Prayers for the Queen, the Royal Family, commerce in the world, the unity of the church, peace and the, sick and suffering were read by

the Archdeacon of Christchurch (the Ven. Archdeacon H. M. Cocks). The Bishop took as the text for his sermon a passage beginning “In journeyings often . . ?’ from St. Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians. “Today we are privileged to have with us one who by

marriage became of the House of Windsor,” said the Bishop. “We look back to the dark days of the last war when the King and Queen set such a shining example of service to their people. “ ‘London town is burning down’ was the cry, but we do not forget that the King and Queen were still there

visiting those who were bombed out of their homes. “It is, I think, good for us to recall that at the Coronation the monarch is anointed and invested with symbols of service. The Orb, the Sceptre and the Crown may be only outward symbols but immediately after the bestowal of these symbols, the monarch kneels in subservience to the King of Kings. . . . “We can indeed be thankful for the members of the Royal Family who, never having sought the positions to which God has called them, have served their peoples so generously. It is only those who spend their lives in travelling most of the time who have any conception of the cost in personal effort of the members of the Royal Family who do so much for the people who make up our British family of nations. “We are indeed grateful to the one who is with us today for the Queen whom she has given us. Last Thursday was the birthday of the Queen of New Zealand.

“In my own family we have a tradition that on a child’s birthday we not only give a present to the child but we give also a present to the child’s mother. To her today we say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ for what you have given us. “Both Her Majesty the Queen and Her Majesty the Queen Mother are indeed ‘in joumeyings often’,” said the Bishop.