In the previous post I mentioned the Commonwealth Day reception in Marlborough House that follows the Commonwealth Day Observance each year.

It’s always a bit of a scrum, people from the 53 Commonwealth nations standing in small groups with drinks and canapes and talking loudly. It can get pretty hot, too.

At some point in the proceedings there’s a kind of frisson and everyone knows that one or more Royal Personage(s) is/are in the room. This year it was HRH Prince Charles Prince of Wales, accompanied by HH The Duchess of Cornwall (more widely known as Camilla). Now, there’s an art to placing oneself so as to speak to to the Royalty at these receptions. And I haven’t got it! One has to be focused and fairly ruthless, whilst keeping a smile on ones face. Everyone is manoeuvering and one has to make a judgment about where the Royal Personages are going to move next. The entourage of Royal Protection Officers (trying to remain discreet), Private Secretaries and other functionaries are expert at clearing a space around the Royal Personage, so one has to avoid being moved out of the way by them.

Most years I place myself firmly in the wrong place and miss the Royal handshake. It has to be said there’s a distinct disadvantage to wearing the standard lounge suit. Much better to be dressed in some traditional religious, national or tribal garb. The Royal attention is more likely to be grabbed by such clothing.

Well, this year, I determined I would put myself (and Erica) in the right place. The first to reach us was the Duchess of Cornwall, accompanied by one of the two Deputy Secretaries-General of the Commonwealth. The DSG discretely ascertained who Erica and I were and then presented us to the Duchess as the Secretary for External Affairs of the Baha’i community and his wife. The Duchess looked momentarily perplexed. Baha’i? What was that? The DSG said something and the Duchess pretended she now knew who we were. So I took the opportunity to do the old proclamation thing and very briefly tell her about the oneness of humanity and of religion. She listened, smiled, said something non-committal (’How nice’, I expect) and moved on to more interesting people.

One Royal is usually all any individual gets. But the encounter with Camilla hadn’t been terribly satisfactory, so I thought I would now try to position myself to shake hands with Prince Charles. As Erica and I did the manoeuvering dance, I bumped into my old chum Sir Tom Shebbeare, whom I’d last met in Waitrose car park in Abingdon in July 2005 (see my post of that date). ‘I’m in your blog!’ Tom said. It seems that relatives from different parts of the world had surprised by emailing him to say that they’d read about him in my blog. ‘I’m trying to avoid the man you’re trying to meet,’ he continued. We talked for a bit and then Erica and I went back to our manoeuvering.

I saw where the Prince was and went and placed myself firmly just behind the line of people who were being presented to him. As he finished a conversation he caught my eye. The other Commonwealth DSG, who was accompanying him, couldn’t present me, since he hadn’t had time to find out who I was. So I acted against protocol (the Queen is very firm about the not-speaking-until-you-are-spoken-to rule - and I’d managed to upset her by doing this one Commonwealth Day some years ago) and said, ‘I’m from the Baha’i community, sir.’

He smiled and said, ‘Were you at the service?’

‘I was the Baha’i reader,’ I told him.

‘I couldn’t see you.’

‘I was in the middle of the Nave, sir.’

‘You were disembodied,’ the Prince said, preparing to move on. And as he prepared to shake hands with the next person, he half turned his head, smiled, and said, ‘Just as a good Baha’i should be.’

Technorati Tags: Commonwealth, London, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales

Technorati Tags: Commonwealth Day, Marlborough House, Prince Charles, The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla

OK, it’s only a week late. But life has been very busy in the past week.

Every year for the past few years, on the second Monday in March, I have the pleasure and honour of representing the UK Baha’i community in the Commonwealth Day Observance in Westminster Abbey.
The Abbey’s own website proclaims the Abbey as: ‘Place of Worship, House of Kings’. The Abbey stands in the heart of one of the oldest and most significant parts of London and has done so since its consecration in the year 1065 CE. The present building is the result of Henry III’s decision in the middle of the 13th century to completed rebuild the Abbey in the then new French Gothic style. The result was a glorious, soaring building that cannot fail to impress even the most jaded of eyes.

In one of those oddities of English history and constitution, the Abbey is not a cathedral, nor is it a parish church. It is what is known as a ‘Royal Peculiar‘, governed by a Dean and Chapter, who are subject only to the Sovereign.

And why Westminster? It is the West Minster, the Abbey church of St Peter in the West, distinguished thus from the Cathedral church of St Paul in the East - the East Minster.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson already. You can tell that I used to be a history teacher.

The theme of this year’s Commonwealth Day Observance was Health and Vitality: The Commonwealth Challenge. As previously, the representatives of the various non-Christian faiths were asked to write and read some words for the Observance (they don’t call it a Service, since it does not follow any of the forms or rites of the Church of England). This year, we were asked to reflect on personal testimonies from people who had something to say about health and vitality.

There were five testimonies and two reflections from different faiths on each testimony. I had been asked to reflect on the testimony by Dr Alice Welbourne, Chair of Trustees of the International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS. The other person giving his reflection on this was Rabbi Alan Plancey (from the office of the Chief Rabbi). Alan and I are great chums and we compared notes on what each of us was going to say, although our reflections were quite different. After each of the testimonies had been given and the reflections read, the whole congregation then said one of the six Commonwealth Affirmations:

1. We affirm that every person - of whatever colour, class or creed - possesses unique worth and dignity.
2. We affirm our respect for the world and pledge that we will be its stewards by caring for every part of it.
3. We affirm our belief in justice for everyone and peace between peoples and nations.
4. We celebrate faith and love as the foundation of all human relationships.
5. We affirm that we each belong to our own nation and to the whole human family: to the service of both we pledge ourselves.
6. We affirm the importance of health for all, and the need for each of us to pursue life with vitality and fulfillment.

Towards the end of the service the congregations says the ancient Sanskrit prayer for peace:

Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.

Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.

Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.

Let peace fill our heart,
our world, our universe.

Peace, Peace, Peace.

The Observance is always a magnificent occasion. People from the 53 nations of the Commonwealth, many dressed in the colourful clothing of their countries, pour in through the Great West Door. The representatives of the various faiths and churches are invited to come early and to go into St George’s Chapel (just inside the Great West Door) to put on their robes. From there they process through the Nave of the Abbey, which is usually filled with school children and some of the other guests, through the organ screen and into the Quire, where the Queen or her representative sits, along with Ambassadors and distinguished representatives of the UK and other Commonwealth countries. And, of course, the representatives of the faiths.

The Observance itself is an interesting mixture of Anglican ceremoniousness, processions, vergers bowing and conducting people here and there, and very non-churchy music, dance, and this year even a display by a wonderful team of young gymnasts, who stood on each other’s shoulders and hurled each other high in the air before catching the flying bodies and depositing them safely on the floor again. And no safety nets in sight! It was quite alarming for those of sitting close to the gymnasts, but a truly wonderful display of mental and physical discipline.

Young people from the Commonwealth nations bear their countries’ flags in procession. HRH The Prince of Wales, representing the Queen this year, read Her Majesty’s message for Commonwealth Day. (The Queen herself was in Australia for the opening of the Commonwealth Games.) We sang various hymns, chosen for language that was inclusive and in praise of God. The wonderful gospel choir made up of Sixth Formers from two schools performed ‘Here I am to worship’. Patricia Rosario, soprano, sang.

When the time came for Rabbi Plancey and me to offer our reflections, a verger appeared in front of us, bowed and conducted us in a small procession to the middle of the Nave (opposite the Nave pulpit). Dr Welbourne read her testimony and I stood on a small platform to read my reflection. Rabbi Plancey then took the platform for his reflection. After which the verger conducted us back to our seats in the Quire, only just in time for the gymnasts to do their display.

After the sixth affirmation, the Hon Dr Lawrence Gonzi, Prime Minister of Malta and Chairperson-in-Office of the Commonwealth gave a response to the Observance.

After the blessing, all the participants processed along the length of the Nave, around the Grave of the Unknown Warrior and out into biting wind. Most were lightly dressed - the gospel choir, the flag bearers (many of whom were dressed in clothes more suited to tropical climates), the Brownies, the choir boys - and many were shivering as we waited for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall to emerge and shake our hands.

You can find pictures of the Commonwealth Day Observance here.

I love this occasion: its international scope; the multi-faith programme of the Observance; the combination of the historic location and the utterly modern uniting of peoples from all over the world; the alignment of the aims and affirmations of the Commonwealth with Baha’u'llah’s principles. The only trouble is that it is always in the middle of the Fast and the day is always bitingly cold. What’s more, Erica and I are usually invited by the Commonwealth Secretary General to a reception in Marlborough House, headquarters of the Commonwealth, at 6.15pm. So there’s no time to eat until 7.30 or 8.00pm.

Boy, do we feel hungry by then!

Technorati Tags: Anglican, Baha’i, Bahai, Commonwealth, health, Judaism, London, Prince Charles, HIV/AIDS, Royal Family, UK, Westminster Abbey

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Technorati Tags: Chief Rabbi, Prince Charles, Duchess of Cornwall