President attends Queen’s Funeral

PA Media

Along with 2000 others, the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland attended the funeral service for the late Queen Elizabeth II on Monday 19th September, 2022.

With the other clergy, the President was seated near the High Altar in Westminster Abbey in company with the Archbishops of Armagh and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

Commenting on the ceremony, the President spoke of the beauty of the Liturgy, the singing of the Abbey Choir and the sermon preached by the Archbishop of Canterbury which was a simple and clear Gospel message.

(L-R: The Rt Rev Dr John Kirkpatrick (Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland), The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev John McDowell (Church of Ireland), The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, The Most Revd Eamon Martin (Roman Catholic), and the Rev David Nixon (President of MCI)).

The final hymn was Charles Wesley’s “Love divine, all loves excelling”, the President reflected on how the singing was reminiscent of a Methodist Conference, and felt the closing verse was most appropriate for the occasion: 

“Finish then they new creation,
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise”

---