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MUSIC: 鈥楴IEL GOW鈥橲 LAMENT FOR HIS SECOND WIFE鈥� BY PETE CLARK.
Album:听 Fiddle Case,听 Label:听 Smiddymade SMD608

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REV NEIL GARDNER:
Good morning.听 I am Neil Gardner, Minister of the ancient parish of Canongate in Edinburgh.听 It was founded on Holy Cross Day, the 14th September, in the year 1128, and includes not just Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyroodhouse but the 650 acres or so of Holyrood Park.

That鈥檚 where I鈥檓 standing at the moment, on a blustery hillside looking out across the jagged skyline of the Old Town with Arthur鈥檚 Seat and Salisbury Crags behind me. From here you can see the classical outline of the former High School of Edinburgh where James Hutton鈥檚 intellectual curiosity was first stirred, and from where he could see these very crags.听 His study of them went on to secure his place as one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, the so-called father of modern geology. To this day there are parts of Holyrood Park from which you cannot see any man-made structure at all, quite remarkable considering we鈥檙e in the heart of Scotland鈥檚 capital city.

Hutton could have been describing that timeless view when in 1788 he wrote 鈥淲e find no vestige of a beginning. No prospect of an end.鈥� In truth he was writing about the geological strata he found in the rocks here and elsewhere.听 His awe at what he called 鈥楧eep Time鈥� was shared by the mathematician John Playfair, who travelled with Hutton to see inspiring rock formations and declared, 鈥淭he mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time.鈥�

It鈥檚 only a week since the late Queen鈥檚 coffin arrived at the Palace of Holyroodhouse far below me, when I was privileged along with other members of the Chapel Royal in Scotland to take part in an overnight vigil in the Throne Room down there in the shadow of Arthur鈥檚 Seat and Salisbury Crags. But now, just a day before the State Funeral in Westminster Abbey, the perspective from this craggy hillside offers a wider context, a deeper context, of all time and eternity.

MUSIC:听 HYMN - I TO THE HILLS WILL LIFT MINE EYES (Psalm 121 鈥� Scottish Paraphrase)
SCOTTISH PHILHARMONIC SINGERS DIRECTED BY IAN McCRORIE, ORGANIST JOHN LANGDON
Album: 鈥楶salms of Scotland鈥�,听 Label:听 SCS Music SCSLP 2830

NEIL:
I鈥檒l be on duty in the Scottish Parliament across the road later this week to lead what they call a Time for Reflection.听 It鈥檚 a weekly pause before begins.听 But maybe time for reflection is what we鈥檙e all needing right now, and not least after tomorrow鈥檚 state funeral.

Those who have been involved one way or another at some stage in The Queen鈥檚 last journey from Balmoral to Holyroodhouse, from Edinburgh to London, from Westminster to Windsor 鈥� they will all need time for reflection. But so will those who watch from afar, and have felt more moved and disorientated than they ever expected.听 Time for reflection.听 Let鈥檚 make time for reflection now, in a time of prayer.

Almighty God, in mystery you created all things.
You made us in your own image;
you love us with an everlasting love.
In our weakness, you are our strength;
in our darkness, light;
in our sorrows, comfort and peace.

Grant us who are brought together in this act of worship and time of reflection a sense of your presence and your purpose and your peace.

Help us as we come now to hear your word to find truth and strength through him who is the word made flesh, even Jesus Christ our Lord.听 Amen.

NEIL:
I鈥檝e come down off the hillside to spend some time beside the grounds of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

And I鈥檓 joined this morning by the Rev Moira McDonald, who was appointed a Chaplain in Ordinary to The Queen earlier this year.听
She reads for us now from the Gospel of St Luke, a timely story about the call of duty and the need for spiritual nourishment.

MUSIC:听 UNTIL THE DAY BREATHES (COMPOSER: SIR JAMES MACMILLAN)
Album:听 Consecration,听 Label:听 Linn Records CKD 633

REV MOIRA McDONALD:听 Reading; St Luke 5:12-16

12听Once, when Jesus was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy.听When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, 鈥楲ord, if you choose, you can make me clean.鈥櫶�13Then Jesus听stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, 鈥業 do choose. Be made clean.鈥� Immediately the leprosy听left him.听14And he ordered him to tell no one. 鈥楪o鈥�, he said, 鈥榓nd show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, for a testimony to them.鈥櫶�15But now more than ever the word about Jesus听spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases.听16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.

NEIL:
After all the activity of last weekend, the Palace of Holyroodhouse is more of a deserted place for the moment, but it鈥檚 always a place associated with prayer because of the ruins of the old Augustinian Abbey of Holyrood which sprang up here in the first half of the twelfth century. The walls of the nave are still standing and there鈥檚 clear evidence of the foundations of the quire and monastic buildings set into the lawns beyond those ruined walls.

Those parts of the gardens that are in full view of the Palace windows are planted out with shrubs and flowers that have traditionally been timed to be at their brightest and best when Royal Week took place in late June or early July and The Queen would host the garden party and other annual fixtures in the calendar. There are some magnificent trees here too, offering shade or shelter, and paths wending their way past banks of rhododendrons with a statue tucked away here and a sun dial there, nooks and crannies where you could withdraw at least for some time out of sight, away from the public eye, for even just a moment of rest and reflection.

From Holyroodhouse to Windsor and Sandringham, from Balmoral to Buckingham Palace, all the royal gardens have corners like that, and how welcome a sanctuary they must have provided over the years. The Queen once talked in a film about how fortunate she was to be a fast reader, not only because it enabled her to get through the official papers that demanded so much of her attention but because where she really wanted to be was outdoors.

That love of nature deepened The Queen鈥檚 enduring love of Scotland.听
And it has been reflected in a poem by Kathleen Jamie, the Scots Makar, or poet laureate.
It鈥檚 read for us by Sally Magnusson.

MUSIC: 鈥楴IEL GOW鈥橲 LAMENT FOR HIS SECOND WIFE鈥� BY PETE CLARK.
Album:听 Even Now,听 Label:听 Smiddymade SMD 615

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Lochnagar by Kathleen Jamie, Read by Sally Magnusson

The alder boughs hang heavy,

Red weighs the rowan-trees

That line the well-loved path which climbs

To Lochnagar from Dee

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And knows at last the open hill,

Those ancient wind-honed heights

Where deer stand shy and sky-lined,

Then vanish from living sight,

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Where grief is ice, and history

Is distant roiling skies,

Where weather chases weather

Across the lands she strived

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To serve, and served supremely well,

Till the call came from afar:

Back to the country kept in her heart,

The Dee, and Lochnagar.

NEIL
It鈥檚 been remarked that The Queen loved to spend time in the rose garden at Hillsborough. There鈥檚 no formal rose garden here at Holyroodhouse but there鈥檚 cleverly designed landscaping that gives the impression that the lawns go on uninterrupted into the expanse of Holyrood Park beyond, with Hutton鈥檚 鈥渘o vestige of a beginning鈥� no prospect of an end鈥� and a powerful sense of connection with nature which the human imagination strives to set in some comprehension of eternity.

听

MUSIC:听 HYMN - O GOD OUR HELP IN AGES PAST, CHOIR OF KING鈥橲 COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE DIRECTED BY STEPHEN CLEOBURY, ORGAN 鈥� RICHARD FARNES
Album: 50 Classic Hymns by Classic FM, Label: Decca (UMO)

NEIL:
A thousand ages in thy sight

Are like an evening gone;

Short as the watch that ends the night

Before the rising sun.

听

Moira and I were both privileged to be part of a small team from the Chapel Royal in Scotland who kept vigil day and night over The Queen鈥檚 coffin as it lay at rest both here at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and then further up the Royal Mile at St Giles鈥� Cathedral. From time to time we would offer a short prayer and a reading, or engage in gentle conversation with those who passed by, but most of the time we kept silence. There is a time to keep silence, as the writer of Ecclesiastes put it, and this was surely it, one of those times when words fail us in our efforts adequately to express what we鈥檙e thinking and feeling.听 And here at Holyrood, where the surrounding streets were closed to traffic, there was silence outside as well as inside, a deep all-pervading silence that encompassed the grounds and the park and the hill and the crags all in one.

Moira, you took part in both vigils here at the Palace and up the road at the Cathedral.听 What would you say was the difference between the two?

听

Moira:听 One was very definitely a private vigil.听 In Holyrood we were sitting with The Queen鈥檚 coffin in a family home but also a Palace.听 And members of the staff were coming through at all hours of the night, depending when their shift finished, depending when they got an opportunity to come.听 And it was very private because here were people who knew The Queen personally, who鈥檇 worked for The Queen and the Royal Family, and so who were mourning somebody that they knew and loved, not just from a distance but in person.听 And they came with their own style of mourning and their own style of respect.听 And we had to respond to that in the right place and the right way, which wasn鈥檛 always easy to know what to do.听 But I think after a wee while we got into a rhythm and an understanding.听 And what struck me at Holyrood was the number of people who came in and showed respect, but also the people who came in, and it tended to be the bigger men who came in and just found themselves overwhelmed, and were embarrassed that they were overwhelmed.听 And then in conversation we discovered that perhaps they鈥檇 had a parent or a relative who鈥檇 died, and this was just an opening up of wounds.

NEIL:听 To reassure them too.
MOIRA:听 Yeah it was a real insight into a different world and yet a world that we still recognised.

Whereas up at St Giles, where I sat for 4 hours on the Tuesday morning with my colleague Marjory.听 Again we had a different viewpoint.听 We were trying to keep things together but we were also keeping an eye on the people who were passing by, trying to reassure them, just by a smile.听 Sometimes people came in and they crossed themselves or they stopped to pray, sometimes people blew a very sort of respectful kiss towards the coffin, sometimes folk just stood in silence, other people just kept walking slowly.听 Once or twice a mum would come in with a wee baby who鈥檇 obviously got fed up waiting, and she was so anxious that she didn鈥檛 want to not come in because they鈥檇 spent time queueing up outside, and I hope part of what we were able to do was to smile and encourage and say, it鈥檚 ok, from a distance we were able to say, it鈥檚 ok.听 So interacting with people at all sorts of levels and all sorts of distances, but I think, as you say, trying to reassure, trying to encourage, just trying to say, it鈥檚 all right 鈥�

NEIL:听 It鈥檚 ok.
MOIRA:听 We鈥檙e none of us really are very sure what we鈥檙e doing but it鈥檚 ok.

One of the strange moments in the Cathedral was suddenly turning round and seeing one of the young mums from our church with her daughter who had queued up, her daughter was on her way to school, and we had that recognition of suddenly going, Oh hello!听 Which wasn鈥檛 quite what you鈥檙e supposed to do but then it would have been rude not to do that.听 And Val emailed me later on and said how lovely it was to see me, which was very kind of her, and how lovely it was to be in the Cathedral, but she spoke about the silence, and the quiet, the kind of shuffling of people.听 But she also spoke about the light, and how peaceful the light was.听 Can light be peaceful? But that added to the peace of the Cathedral.听 And that really 鈥� she didn鈥檛 talk much about passing the coffin but she spoke a lot about how it made her feel.听 What鈥檚 the phrase, what鈥檚 the quote about, you might not remember what people said but you鈥檒l remember how they made you feel.听 And that鈥檚 what she remembers I think.听 I remember actually the smell of the flowers in the Throne Room, and when I smell those flowers again I鈥檒l go back to that place in my memory, and for Val, I think when she sees the particular colour of light, or the particular smell of the Cathedral, she鈥檒l remember that moment.听 So it鈥檚 a whole mixture of emotions going round and a whole mixture of senses that come together to make memories.

MUSIC:听 UNTIL THE DAY BREATHES (COMPOSER: SIR JAMES MACMILLAN)
Text from Song of Solomon 4: 6-7
Album:听 Consecration,听 Label:听 Linn Records CKD 633

Text:
Until the day breathes and the shadows flee,
I will hie me to the mountain of myrrh and frankincense.
You are all fair, my love; there is no flaw in you.
The Song of Solomon 4: 6-7

听

NEIL:

A participant in the Service of Thanksgiving for Her Late Majesty鈥檚 life at St Giles鈥� Cathedral on Monday, was Roman Catholic Archbishop Leo Cushley, and he shared some of his memories of Queen Elizabeth with us.

听

INSERT:听 ARCHBISHOP LEO CUSHLEY

听

The idea that she drew from her experience and from time away, that does resonate I have to say.听听 And she didn鈥檛 wear her faith on her sleeve, but she was a regular church-goer.听 When she prayed she appeared to me, to me for one, to be very sincere in her prayer.听 I remember the image of her at the funeral of her husband, of Prince Philip, and there she was alone, due to Covid.听 But also, for me the body language was about someone who was bowing their head in prayer in the presence of Almighty God with humility and sincerity. And I found that very touching, very moving. I think it was very real.

She had a way of reaching out to people that was very, I think we could say egalitarian almost, I think she respected everyone that she met.听 My own memory of meeting her was of someone that was a little bit shy, a little bit introverted perhaps.听 But smiling, and gracious, and for me one of the important insights into her is from that Christmas speech where she talked about doing small things with great love.听 I thought that was a deeply Christian thing to say and it was during a message where she was talking about her faith so she gave us the context, and I think that鈥檚 a wonderful window into the life of a monarch.听 Here is someone who only has a few seconds with many, many people and to understand that and to do it nicely, to do it well, I think says a great deal about that person.听 And The Queen knew that - she knew it very well and so she did it with care and with courtesy and with Christian kindness.听

听

MUSIC:听 I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY (TUNE: ROWAN TREE)

CHOIR OF ST MARY鈥橲 EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL, GLASGOW 鈥� 91热爆 ARCHIVES

MOIRA:听 PRAYER
Let us pray.

Loving God, who created heaven and earth,

The beauty of your creation makes us catch our breath

Cleansing rain followed by a rainbow,

Crisp autumn leaves and a refreshing of the world,

Sunrise and sunset, regular and welcome and beautiful,

Even the darkness of winter speaking to us of rest and moments of peace

With the promise of new life to follow.

We see you in the vastness of the world and yet in the tinyness too,

We know you as God and creator, and yet as friend and companion,

As a storyteller and healer, as a sharer of bread and wine,

A man who reached out over barriers of class and race,

Who spotted the lost and welcomed the stranger

and brought new life to the proud and frightened

as well as to the unseen and unheard and hurting.

We give thanks for your love and immediacy,

For the beauty of the world but also for the nearness of your presence, understanding us and walking with us,

Offering hope and light and peace.

MUSIC:听 LORD OF LIFE, WE COME TO YOU (Tune: Eriskay Love Lilt)
CHOIR OF ST MARY鈥橲 EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL, GLASGOW 鈥� 91热爆 ARCHIVES

Bring us peace we pray, at this time in our lives,

Peace of heart and mind and soul,

Time of reflection that brings healing and rebuilding,

Moments of calm that allow us to grieve but also to give thanks for lives well lived.

We pray for all who grieve and hurt, but think at this time especially of our King and his family, continuing their public duties while living with private loss.

Let this time of sorrow for all of us encourage us to remain open to the needs of others,

To share our thoughts and feelings and to support one another in our needs.

Bless our leaders with wisdom and strength, compassion and care,

Let us recognize our shared humanity, offering understanding and support.

We remember the many countries and people around the world no longer in our news yet very much in need,

91热爆s and homelands at risk from flood or famine, war or poverty,

And we pray especially for the people of Pakistan and Ukraine,

Closest to our hearts and minds just now, but we give thanks that the many more in need are close to your heart at all times.

You lead us by still waters, offering time of rest and recuperation.

Refreshed and renewed, lead us into the world again, loving God, to be people of peace and healing, people of joy and welcome, people of forgiveness and wonder, people of love.

In Jesus鈥� name we ask this. Amen.

MUSIC:听 LORD OF LIFE, WE COME TO YOU (Tune: Eriskay Love Lilt)
CHOIR OF ST MARY鈥橲 EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL, GLASGOW 鈥� 91热爆 ARCHIVES

听

NEIL:
The Crown of Scotland that was so carefully placed on The Queen鈥檚 coffin in St Giles鈥� Cathedral on Monday afternoon was re-fashioned for King James V around 1540.

听

When Queen Elizabeth came to Edinburgh to receive the Honours of Scotland soon after her coronation in Westminster Abbey in June 1953, this was the Crown with which she was presented by the Duke of Hamilton in the east end of St Giles.听

听

There seems to be a renewed sense of both continuity and rediscovery today. Continuity through all these centuries, that abyss of time once again, and rediscovery of all that it means and represents today and in all the days to come.

听

As our new King prepares to lay his beloved mother our late Queen to rest tomorrow, may he know that same sense of continuity and rediscovery in the extraordinary responsibility that is now his and his alone, and may God not only guide and guard His Majesty, but grant him time for reflection in the manner of Jesus, who from time to time would withdraw to deserted places and pray before returning to the tasks that awaited him with renewed faith and strength.

MUSIC:听 LUX AETERNA 鈥� INTROITUS (COMPOSER: MORTEN LAURIDSEN)
POLYPHONY AND BRITTEN SINFONIA DIRECTED BY STEPHEN LAYTON
Album: Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna, Label: Hyperion

NEIL:

Fixed to the gates of the George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle, where The Queen will finally be laid to rest, are the famous words of poet Minnie Louise Haskins, which as a young princess The Queen herself brought to her father鈥檚 attention before his famous wartime broadcast:

鈥淎nd I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown".
And he replied:
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way".
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.鈥�

MUSIC:听 MAY THE GOD OF PEACE GO WITH US (Tune: Ae Fond Kiss)
CHOIR OF FETTES COLLEGE RECORDED IN CANONGATE KIRK 鈥� 91热爆 ARCHIVES

NEIL:听 SPOKEN BLESSING

Now may the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

And now may the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
descend upon you and remain with you this day,
in all the days to come,
and even forever more.听 Amen.

MUSIC:听 HOW SHALL I SING THAT MAJESTY (Tune: Coe Fen)
CHOIR OF FETTES COLLEGE RECORDED IN CANONGATE KIRK 鈥� 91热爆 ARCHIVES