June 4, 2013 (TSR) – The Queen has joined 2,000 guests for a service at Westminster Abbey to mark 60 years since her Coronation.
Some who took part in the 1953 service were among the congregation.
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby said the event honoured “60 years of commitment”.
The Queen was accompanied by more than 20 members of her family, including the Duke of Edinburgh, who pulled out of an engagement on Monday night because he was feeling unwell.
The heavy, solid gold St Edward’s Crown is on display on the High Altar – the first time it has left the Tower of London since the coronation.
Beside it is the Ampulla, the gold, eagle shaped bottle from which the holy oil was poured for the Queen’s anointing.
The Coronation Chair, one of the oldest pieces of English furniture still in use, is also on show.
‘Duty done’
The Queen and Prince Philip entered Westminster Abbey to the same music that greeted her in 1953.
Back then, aged 27, she was the 38th sovereign to be crowned in an abbey that has been conducting such ceremonies since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066.
The Dean of Westminster the Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster, told the congregation: “Sixty years ago, in this holy place, Queen Elizabeth II was anointed with holy oil, clothed with sacred garments, and, after receiving symbols of authority, crowned with the Crown of St Edward, King and Confessor, just as Her Majesty’s royal predecessors from 1066.
“Here today we gather to give thanks to almighty God for the faithful ministry and dutiful service the Queen continues to offer God and the people of this nation, the overseas territories and the realms, and as head of the Commonwealth.”
Ahead of the service, the dean said the service would mark “60 years of duty done with a glad heart”.
The Archbishop of Canterbury told those gathered in the abbey the Coronation had been “an ordination, a setting aside of a person for service”.
Royal baby
The weather 60 years ago was dull and wet, but warm sunshine greeted those gathering in London for the anniversary.
Her Majesty wore an Angela Kelly dress, hat and coat, made from oyster coloured silk-satin brocade.
She was joined at the abbey by the Prince of Wales – who was just four in 1953 – and Duchess of Cornwall, as well as the Duke of Cambridge and the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge.
It is the first time the couple, whose first baby is due next month, have attended a public event at the abbey since they married there two years ago.
Other royals present include Prince Harry, the Duke of York, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Lady Louise Windsor, the Princess Royal and Zara Phillips with her husband Mike Tindall.
The congregation sang the National Anthem before UK Prime Minister David Cameron gave a reading from the Book of Kings.
Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, will also give a reading.
Actress Claire Skinner, from the BBC sitcom Outnumbered, will read a poem written for the anniversary by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.
Lady Glenconner was one of the Queen’s six maids of honour in 1953.
She told the BBC: “I remember standing by the door… I remember a roar coming round, we could hear everybody shouting. Then suddenly around the corner came this amazing golden coach, it was like a fairy tale.
“She was so beautiful. When she got out of the coach, the tiny waist she had, the wonderful complexion, she just looked the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”
TV spectacle
The Queen, whose reign began in 1952, practised wearing the crown around Buckingham Palace in the weeks before her Coronation, including at her children’s bath time.
The Coronation was a strictly Anglican Christian event, but 60 years later Sikhism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and other faiths will be represented.
At the time the Coronation was a major television spectacle, with an estimated 27 million Britons tuning in.
Last year’s Diamond Jubilee marked the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.
Prince Philip had been due to accompany the Queen to a gala reception for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) at St James’s Palace in London on Monday but was unwell.
Source: BBC
