Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland and Prime Minister Liz Truss will deliver the readings. The music will include a specially commissioned piece, as well as the national anthem composed for Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.
Ian Markham, dean and dean of Virginia Theological Seminary, said the Queen will be closely involved in the planning of the service.
“She was very interested in the service,” said Markham, the Anglican pastor. “She is a very devout Christian. She sees her service as her calling, and she does so as someone who truly believes in God and wants to be faithful to God.”
Markham, who studied religion in the UK, called the Queen’s service “resurrection-focused”.
“There’s a lot of talk about the future of life, and that’s who she is: she’s a person of deep faith and conviction, so believing it’s just a season, it’s part of a season. The journey into God’s life is longer. That’s what I take away from the service.”
Retired Anglican bishop Johansson Tam, who was involved in the planning of the royal funeral during his tenure as Archbishop of York, told the BBC the Queen did not want her funeral to be “boring”. He calls it “the best English”.
“The Queen neither wants nor wants what you call tedious service.”
Before the funeral, the tenor bell in Westminster Abbey struck once every minute for 96 minutes, with each strike representing a year of Elizabeth’s life. Representatives from Jewish, Baha’i, Jain, Buddhist, Muslim and other faith communities will join the march with representatives from the Churches of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. Also in attendance: Vice-President of the Chapel Royal and Dean of Windsor.
Markham called the inclusion of other faiths significant, noting that King Charles III stressed that the monarchy cannot be just the Church of England. Other religions, including other religions, were “recognising that Britain was changing”, Markham said.
Prince George, 9, and Princess Charlotte, 7, will join their parents, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, in their great-grandmother parade, the palace said. Their brother, 4-year-old Louis, was not included in funeral plans.
Despite stepping down as senior members of the royal family in 2020, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will also join the parade behind Charles.
As the Queen’s coffin is carried into the abbey, the Westminster Abbey choir will sing Sentences, biblical lines from the music used at every state funeral in Britain since the 18th century. Royal Chapel Choir, St. James Palace, will join to sing the last two lines.
Hoyle will recall Elizabeth’s “strong commitment to a noble mission over the years as Queen and Head of the Commonwealth” under the plan, which has been dubbed the “Order of Service”.
“It is with admiration that we recall her lifelong sense of responsibility and dedication to the people,” he would say. “In times of thanksgiving, we praise God for her continued Christian faith and dedication. We recall with fondness her love for her family and her commitment to a cause she holds dear.”
The choir will sing “Like as the Hart”, a specially commissioned piece by King’s Maestro Judith Weir. According to the funeral plans, the piece was inspired by the Queen’s “unwavering Christian faith” and was the musical backdrop for Psalm 42.
After reading from Truss, the hymn “God is my Shepherd” will appear, which was sung at the wedding of then Princess Elizabeth and the Lieutenant in 1947. Philip Mountbatten. Other musical choices included the national anthem “My Soul, There is a Nation”, which the palace described as “an anthem of hope”. Markham said the Queen would choose it.
In the late afternoon, during a delivery service in St. Petersburg. According to Buckingham Palace, some of the music that will be played at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, near London, was composed by Sir William Henry Harris, who worked as an organist at the church during her childhood and is believed to have taught the young princess to play the piano officials.
state funeral The choir will also sing “O Taste and See How Grace the Lord Is” by Ralph Vaughan Williams for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.
“You hear the angelic voice of the choir,” Sentamu told the BBC.
Towards the end of the funeral, the last post will be played. A cornet is similar to a tap played in the United States. A two-minute silence will follow in the UK. Afterwards, the congregation sang the national anthem “God Save the King”.
Markham said it symbolized the death of one monarch and the arrival of the next.
“It’s the mantra that the monarchy never dies,” he said. “A monarch dies. The monarchy never dies.”
During the 4pm delivery ceremony, the crown jeweller will silently remove the monarchy’s symbol from the Queen’s coffin. The sphere, scepter and crown, made and modified for the Queen’s father, King George VI, along with more than 3,000 gems, will be placed on the altar.
The head of the Queen’s family will break his “office wand” and place it on the coffin before it falls into the royal coffers.