AN ACT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP: STAYING THE COURSE

”St Paul’s celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year with a Service of Thanksgiving, and many others paid tribute to the monarch’s 70 years of service while Her Majesty watched the event at home on television…

A National Service of Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom is an act of Christian worship, generally attended by the British monarch, Great Officers of State and Ministers of the Crown, which celebrates an event of national importance, originally to give thanks for victory in battle but later for occasions such as a royal jubilee, a royal wedding anniversary, or the end of a conflict. These services are usually held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, as indeed was this year’s very special Platinum Jubilee service.

Sadly, as already reported, Her Majesty was not able to attend the event on the second day of the Jubilee weekend, and therefore Prince Charles officially represented the absent monarch at the service in London which began at 11.30am.

The service also saw Prince Harry and Meghan reunited with the rest of the Royal Family for their first joint engagement in two years - though they were kept apart from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Charles and Camilla, and left separately.

It seems that Buckingham Palace officials took great care in trying to avoid a repeat of the frosty scenes when the Sussexes and Cambridges sat near each other and left together at their last joint event in March 2020 at Westminster Abbey. And aides would have been delighted that the service in front of 2,000 special guests passed without any such incident or negative ‘optics’ given the attempts to ensure the day was about the Queen and her 70-year reign.

There was also no appearance at St. Paul’s by Prince Andrew after he tested positive for coronavirus earlier in the week. The Queen watched the service from her residence of Windsor Castle, and it was broadcast on BBC One.