The final preparations for the state funeral for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II are underway. World leaders have arrived in London and will join King Charles III and the British royal family to pay final respects to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
The service for the Queen’s funeral will be held at London’s Westminster Abbey,
The details of the order of service for the funeral will go as follows:
The state funeral will take place in Westminster Abbey in central London and will be led by the Dean of Westminster David Hoyle, with the sermon being given by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The cathedral’s Tenor Bell will toll once a minute for 96 minutes -one toll for each year of the queen’s life – before the service.
At the start of the service, as the Queen’s coffin is carried into the cathedral, the Sentences, which are lines of scripture set to music, will be sung by the choir of Westminster Abbey. The five Sentences have been used at every state funeral in the United Kingdom since the early 18th century.
The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, will read the first lesson taken from the book of First Corinthians after the Dean of Westminster has given the bidding before the first hymn. The hymn is “Like as the Hart” a specially commissioned choral piece composed by the Master of the King’s Music, Judith Weir, and set to the music of Psalm 42. It will be sung by the cathedral’s choir.
The second lesson will be taken from the Gospel of John and will be read by British Prime Minister Liz Truss. Thereafter the hymn “The Lord’s my Shepherd” which was also sung at the Queen’s wedding in 1947 will be performed.
Ahead of Her Majesty The Queen’s State Funeral, a new photograph has been released.
The photo was taken to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee – the first British Monarch to reach this milestone.
Tomorrow, millions will come together to commemorate her remarkable life. pic.twitter.com/UyVfjVvJgw
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 18, 2022
Following the sermon, the choir will sing the anthem “My Soul, There is a Country”, and prayers will be said from the High Altar before the choir sings a short anthem, called “O Taste and See How Gracious the Lord is”, which was composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams for the Queen’s coronation in 1953.
The Archbishop of Canterbury will give the commendation and the Dean of Westminster will pronounce the blessing.
Toward the end of the funeral, the last post will be sounded by the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry from the steps of the Lady Chapel. The last post is a musical call usually played at military funerals. Two minutes of silence will then be observed across the United Kingdom.
Thereafter a reveille will be sounded by the State Trumpeters before the congregation sings “God Save the King”. A reveille is a trumpet call traditionally used to wake soldiers up at sunrise.
At the end of the funeral, the Sovereign’s Piper of the Royal Regiment of Scotland will play the traditional lament “Sleep, Dearie, Sleep”, following which the bells of Westminster Abbey will be rung, fully muffled, as is the tradition following the funeral of the sovereign monarch.
