Members of The Royal Family attend Commonwealth Day service
Monday, 14th March 2022
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall led the congregation at the annual Commonwealth Day service in Westminster Abbey on Monday 14th March 2022.
They were accompanied by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Princess Alexandra.
The congregation returned to the Abbey for the service after last year’s celebrations were held during the coronavirus lockdown.
Among those attending were the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who gave a reading; and the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Scotland, who led the Act of Affirmation to the Commonwealth. They were joined by High Commissioners and Ambassadors; senior politicians from across the UK and the Commonwealth; faith leaders; and more than 600 school children and young people.
About the service
The service, which was conducted by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, included musical performances by Mica Paris, members of the Whānau London Voices, Emeli Sandé and the London African Gospel Choir, and south London-based steel orchestra, Melodians. There was also a collaboration between poet Imtiaz Dharker and sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun.
In his Address, the Right Reverend and Right Honourable the Lord Sentamu, the former Archbishop of York, reflected on HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and her seventy years of dedicated service to the Commonwealth:
‘Conforming her life to the example of Jesus Christ; her insight into God, the World, Self and Others; her Wisdom to know that her continual servanthood to the people of the Commonwealth depends on God alone; her companionship and friendship of Christ, in joy and desolation, is at the heart in the growth of her life in Christlikeness. The Holy Spirit working in her has made Service and Duty her everyday way of life’
