Worship at the Abbey

Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of The Very Reverend Michael Mayne KVCO

01 February 2009 at 12:00 pm

Michael Mayne was Dean of Westminster for 10 years between 1986 and 1996. Before becoming Dean, he was Vicar of St Mary's, Cambridge the university church; and a former head of religious broadcasting at the BBC.

The Address was given by Canon Nicholas Sagovsky who said: 'Prayer was central to all that he did - as a priest, as a Christian, as a fragile human being. Not the sort of prayer that reaches for finely crafted words but the sort that waits and listens and then in the silence lets the melody form itself in the heart.'

The Bidding was delivered by the Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend John Hall, who spoke of his predecessor's love of his family, of the stage, of good broadcasting, of beautiful words and music, of those with HIV and AIDS and all innocent victims.

Michael Mayne's widow Alison read from Philippians 2: 1-11 while Patricia Routledge read Mary Oliver's poem When Death Comes. Timothy West read Edwin Muir's A Birthday and his wife Prunella Scales read another Muir poem, The Confirmation.

The London Haydn Quartet played during the service.