As always, yesterday’s Commonwealth Day Observance in Westminster Abbey was a glorious occasion - a fusion of Christian worship with personal testimonies, reflections by representatives of the world faiths, and wonderful music from different parts of the Commonwealth. All of this, and Her Majesty The Queen (with, of course, Prince Philip). It beats working. No, wait, I was working. Attending these events is part of my service to the Baha’i community.

This year’s theme (approved by the Queen as the Head of the Commonwealth) was “Respecting difference, promoting understanding”.

The Observance manages to combine the stately processions and ceremonial that are so much part of worship in Anglican cathedrals with the informality of African and Asian musicians and dancers. However, the combination of formality and informality is not always a comfortable one. Yesterday, for example, a group from the Busoga region of Uganda, called Embaire International, which includes African and European musicians, played right between two facing rows of religious representatives and church people. The group’s main instrument is the giant 21-key xylophone, known as the embaire, which requires six people to play it. When I say “giant”, I mean it is about 15ft long and the height of a table. The players stand around it, each playing his or her own rhythm on his or her set of keys, all the rhythms interlocking in the most complex way, but with an underlying two-pulse that gives the whole piece its foundation. The group’s leader, Mugwisa Kalifani, is a leading traditional singer from the Busoga region and plays a mean drum, producing further complex rhythms that interlocked with the rhythms of the embaire.

The rhythms and Kalifani’s powerful singing made me want to get up and dance and shout. I could see several dignified heads nodding in time to the music. At the end, I wanted to applaud and cheer. But such behaviour is not wanted in the grave setting of Westminster Abbey, when the Queen is looking on. As I say, the relationship between formality and informality on these occasions is not always a comfortable one.

Actually, this particular performance was in itself an illustration of the nature of the Commonwealth. Embaire International, led by a traditional African singer and playing traditional African music, include male and female performers, Africans and Europeans, young and old. Yesterday, it accompanied a group of an Indian dance group, who danced in the classical Kathak style from North India. There were also some African dancers in the mix. The whole creative fusion was entitled A New Life.

There were some other excellent performers as well, and, of course, Christian hymns.

The faith representatives are invited to take part in a procession from the west end of the Abbey, through the nave and into the quire (Abbey speak for chancel). The processions are led by the Abbey’s honorary stewards and they proceed at a special, rather stately, processional pace that is quite difficult to keep to unless you are used to it. We then sit in the Lantern under the quire pulpit on one side and the lectern on the other, in facing rows. After us, the Lord Mayor of Westminster arrives with his mace-bearer in front of his. Everyone stands for the Lord Mayor in his mayoral robe. Then there’s some moments of expectant waiting before the organ bursts into a fanfare for the arrival of Her Majesty at the Great West Door. We stand and wait, while introductions are made at the other end of the Abbey (we can’t see this, it’s all too far away and screened for us). Then the organ swells and leads us into the National Anthem, followed by a hymn, during which the procession of clergy and the Queen move through the Abbey and take their seats.

I mentioned the testimonies given by various individuals, to which faith representatives are asked to respond. My friend Indarjit Singh and I were asked to respond to testimony by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, probably best known for having been verbally abuse in Channel 4 TV’s Celebrity Big Brother house. (This abuse became a cause celebre in Britain while it was happening and projected Ms Shetty into the celebrity stratosphere.) Shilpa’s testimony went something like this:

As a child growing up in Bombay, I was aware of the vastness of India, in population and size. The differences are multiple