Of all the sweeping ceremonial moments that marked officialdom’s farewell to the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, the essential interval arrived mere moments before Queen Elizabeth’s coffin s.
Of all the sweeping ceremonial moments that marked officialdom’s farewell to the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, the essential interval arrived mere moments before Queen Elizabeth’s coffin slipped beneath the floor at St. George’s Chapel.
Then, before the assembled extended family at Windsor Castle and in rarefied silence, the continuity of the Almighty in the nation’s life was reaffirmed.
Here it was in disarming simplicity, a grand, inspiring, breathtaking scene that embraced an all-important truth: the moment when the symbols of the sovereign’s office — scepter, orb, and crown — were lifted from the queen’s casket and surrendered back into the Church’s safekeeping, awaiting the next coronation.
