THE King attended a pan-European ecumenical service in London on Wednesday evening, to mark the 400th anniversary of the Queen’s Chapel, Marlborough Road — which was built for the intended bride of King Charles I.
The Queen’s Chapel was designed by Inigo Jones for the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, before her planned marriage to Charles I. The proposed union, known as the “Spanish match”, was abandoned under political pressure, but, on completion, the chapel was used by the king’s eventual wife, Henrietta Maria of France.
The French queen brought Roman Catholic priests and a bishop to England to serve in the chapel, and it remained a Roman Catholic place of worship until the reign of William and Mary, when it was used by Dutch Reformed and French Huguenot congregations.
Under George I, the chapel was used by his German courtiers, and in the early 20th century it was home to a Danish Lutheran congregation, before being absorbed into the Chapels Royal in 1938.
In his welcome, the Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, Canon Paul Wright, said that, although the Queen’s Chapel had been “born in an age of religious division, we now celebrate an ecumenical spirit of worship and togetherness”.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, was in attendance as the Dean of the Chapels Royal, and led the prayers.
At the end of the service, the blessing was said, first in English, by Bishop Mullally, and then in Latin and German by representatives of the RC and Lutheran Churches.
The parish priest of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, the Jesuit church in Mayfair, Fr Dominic Robinson, read the blessing in Latin, before the pastoral adviser of the Deutsche Evangelische Christuskirche, Knightsbridge, Udo Bauer, did so in German.
Greeting the two clerics after the service, the King asked Mr Bauer about congregation numbers at his church. “So-so,” Mr Bauer replied, and the King asked him to pass on his best wishes.
Music was provided by the sub-organist, Lucy Morrell, and the Duchess of Edinburgh’s String Orchestra, along with the Gentleman and Children of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal.
After the service, the King met some of the young choristers, known as Children of the Chapel, in a courtyard in St James’s Palace.
The King was also shown a new ciborium, bearing the image of the Green Man — one of the symbols that was prominent at the Coronation. The ciborium was created by a Cornwall-based silversmith, Tim Lukes, and is the first new piece of plate for the Chapel Royal in almost 350 years.