Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
Requiem for The Queen Mother: Friday 5th April, 2002
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's Eastern Hill
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord.
This is the proclamation of the Easter hope that is hope and promise for
all Christian people when they die. In time it will be said for us. Today we
say it and hear it for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. She too shared this
faith. We share the faith she lived and in which she died. We gather in a
church that shares the religious tradition that was also that of Queen
Elizabeth the Queen Mother herself
We gather to honour, to mourn and to give thanks – but above all to
give thanks, for a life of 101 years: a life of privilege certainly, but one
of unequalled public service across the best part of a whole century. We give
particular thanks for her personal courage and determination in hard times.
In this she has been an example to many. It is hard to imagine that we will
see anyone quite like her again.
We pray for those for whom this is a personal loss and especially for the
Queen, having lost both sister and mother in a few weeks. We pray for those
who mourn.
This is for many a sad time – not because this death was unexpected
or untimely – but because it is also seen as representing an end of an
era. Perhaps for some it is a reaching back with some nostalgia to earlier
and valued times. Certainly the Queen Mother in herself was a connection
between and across the generations.
Someone dear to very many has died: someone who has been around for so
long that it is hard to imagine that this death has finally come. This was a
person of very considerable influence, whose actions and encouragements were
found to matter and were found to make a difference.
People are remembering and sharing experiences and many of the things being
said are the same: a gracious smile, a great love for people, a sense of
contagious enjoyment and few public words – that was the way she worked.
And her comment about work has been repeated several times this week –
"Work is the rent you pay for life". Her work was unusual it is true, but no
one could deny that she did it admirably. The fact that we are here doing this
at all is testimony to that.
So we gather within this first week of the celebration of this Easter
festival to hear again these familiar words of comfort at the time of
death – words of resurrection and life, and we do this in thanksgiving.
This requiem mass is offered to the glory of God and for the repose of her
soul. We pray that she may even now have found a place of refreshment light
and peace.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed
Rest in peace
And rise in glory.
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