As the thanksgiving service coincided with the new King’s first public address, it was his words about his “dear mum” that took center stage before anything else in a formal event that included a lament from a lone Scottish piper and ended with first song of God Save the King. “Most of us have not known life without the Queen,” the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE, told the congregation of more than 2,000 people – including hundreds of members of the public. “When he came to the throne, the world and the country were both very different places. For seven decades, His Majesty has remained a remarkable constant in the lives of millions: a symbol of unity, strength, tolerance and resilience.” The Queen, the bishop reflected, was the “unfailing heartbeat of a nation in times of progress, joy and celebration, as well as in much darker and more difficult times”. He said: “We are all mourning the loss of our head of state, head of the Commonwealth and supreme ruler of the Church of England. But the royal family mourns the loss of a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother. How we learn to live with the death of a loved one is different for each of us, but we all have to find a way to grieve.” King Charles III: the first 24 hours of a new monarch – video timeline Those in the pews listened, and sometimes wept openly, to the music sung by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, conducted by Andrew Carwood. It included Behold, O God, Our Advocate by Herbert Howells, Bring Us, O Lord God, to Our Last Awakening by William Harris and Nunc dimittis from the Evening Service in G by Charles Villiers Stanford. The hymns were All My Hope on God is Founded, O You Who Came from Above, and The Lord’s My Shepherd, said to have been a favorite of the Queen. As at her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947, she was to Crimond’s song by Jessie Irvine. Earlier, the Prime Minister, Liz Truss, delivered a Bible reading, Romans 14:7-12. “We do not live for ourselves and we do not die for ourselves. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s,” he read. Other political figures in attendance included London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. They listened intently to the reading of the Truss before standing for the hymn O Thou Who art from above. The 2,000 available public positions in the service were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Among those in attendance was student barrister Danielle Carrington, who praised the Queen for her “dignity and grace” as she queued with her mother outside St Paul’s. The 20-year-old, who was awarded a Princess Royal scholarship, said: “For all generations really, the Queen has embodied these ideals of our country, integrity, dignity and grace, and it’s very important from my perspective that respect that.” Carrington’s mother Lindsey said the loss was “like a family grief, a personal grief” rather than a monarch, adding: “We knew we could always count on her. [the Queen] in any diplomatic context”. Elsewhere, among thousands of well-wishers who had formed a line stretching from the cathedral to the streets of the tube station, waiting to take their seats, some in the crowd spoke of a “personal sadness” at having felt they knew the Queen without ever having met her. Karen Wilson, a translator from Surrey, recalled the “real sense of dignity” she encountered when she saw the Queen at an engagement in the 1990s. She said the monarch smiled and waved her young children as she walked them out of the Palace Buckingham as he went to greet the Emperor of Japan, a moment they will “always remember”. “I was moved by the sense of history and occasion. I don’t think I realized until yesterday how much I loved her,” he recalls. As darkness fell outside at the end of the service, it was Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who gave the benediction. “God give to the living, grace, to the departed, rest, to the church, to the King, to the Commonwealth, and to all the people, peace and concord, and to all his servants, life eternal, and the blessing of Almighty God.” , the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and always be with you”.
