Worship at the Abbey

Civic Service attended by The Lord Mayor of Westminster

04 July 2010 at 11:00 am

Westminster Abbey welcomed the new Lord Mayor of Westminster and Deputy High Steward of the Abbey, Councillor Judith Warner and City of Westminster councillors to the annual Civic Service on Sunday 4 July at 11.00 am. The Civic Service is held annually to mark the historic links between Westminster Abbey and Westminster City Council.

Westminster first achieved the status of a city in 1540 when it became for only ten years a bishopric.  Its first recorded civic administration dates from 1585 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I when an Act authorised the establishment of a Court of Burgesses ‘for the good government of the City of Westminster’.

While Queen Elizabeth I was creating mayors elsewhere in England, she was concerned that a mayor in Westminster might challenge the authority of the monarch in her own capital city, and therefore she appointed instead, as chairman of her newly created Court of Burgesses, the High Steward of Westminster Abbey.  The first High Steward to chair the new Court of Burgesses was the Queen’s First Minister, William Cecil, Lord Burleigh.

The Court of Burgesses was an administrative body, comprising twelve Burgesses appointed by the Dean, one for each ward, which dealt with public health and morality, planning permissions, the prevention and punishment of crime, and the regulation of weights and measures.

However, when the London Government Act of 1899 created twenty-eight Metropolitan Borough Councils, each having an elected Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, the authority of the Dean and the High Steward in secular affairs ceased.

The last High Steward who was also effectively Mayor was Lord Salisbury, who was then also Prime Minister.  The Duke of Norfolk was the first Mayor of Westminster.  On 29 October 1900 a Royal Charter confirmed the status of Westminster as a city.

Since 1935, in order to preserve this historic link between Westminster Abbey and the City Council, the High Steward (the Abbey’s senior Lay Officer) has each year appointed the current Mayor of Westminster as Deputy High Steward of Westminster.

The new City of Westminster incorporating the Boroughs of Paddington and St Marylebone was constituted by Royal Charter on 1 April 1965.  The following year, the Queen granted the First Citizen the style and dignity of Lord Mayor.

To recognise these links between Westminster Abbey and the City Council, the Dean and Chapter welcomes annually the new Lord Mayor of Westminster, the Deputy High Steward, in State to the Civic Service.

A retiring collection was made for the fabric of the Abbey and the Lord Mayor’s Charities; the Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth in St John’s Wood, the Butterfly Reading School run by Real Action; and Victoria County History.